The Turtles retreat from New York with an injured Leonardo, and afraid of the fact he may not get better. Meanwhile, Raphael is captured by a Creep in the woods.
- All Animals Are Dogs: After Raphael becomes a swamp plant mutant, he behaves like a dog. At first, he attacks Donnie and Mikey like a blood thirsty beast, but when The Creep has them captured in his lair he acts like a stupid friendly mutt with his tongue hanging out, etc., and when The Creep shows up, he backs away and whimpers in fear like a dog who has been abused.
- Big "YES!": Donnie when Raph recovers.
- Blood Knight: Mikey's new favorite show, Crognard The Barbarian, shows the hero and his cohorts beating the tar out of peaceful Slug People.
- Continuity Nod: While Donnie and Mikey are looking for Raph, Mikey theorizes he was eaten by squirrels, it's obvious, he was thinking about The Squirrelanoids who happen to be his worst fear. They then come across some squirrels with really bad acne, which freak them out.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: When April says he's barely gotten any sleep in all the time Leo was comatose, Raph insists it was nothing.
- Hollywood Healing: Averted. Leo is in bad shape after the last episode. While he rises to the occasion, he's still pretty weak and struggles. His vocal chords also took a beating.
- Internal Homage: Several times over. The Turtles talking shelter at a farmhouse with April monologuing, Casey fixing an old truck, and Leo recuperating in a bathtub with Raph watching over him take cues from "True Stories" from issue #11 of the original Mirage comic. This material was also seen in the 1990 movie (though it swapped Leo and Raph's roles note ). The episode also invokes "Cousin Sid," an episode of the 2003 series, where the Turtles retreated to a farmhouse after being injured in a battle with Shredder.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Casey notes how Leo's voice now sounds different—acknowledging that Seth Green has taken over the role.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Leo hadn't vomited the mutagen medicine, the Creep wouldn't have come into existence. Matter of fact, if Donnie hadn't made the medicine unpalatable (or tinkered with mutagen for medicine in the first place), Leo might not have thrown up. note
- Nominal Hero: The episode of Crognard the Barbarian that the group watches sees him and his allies viciously attack peaceful slug people that politely welcomed them to the region. Mikey enjoyed this episode; everyone else looked disturbed.
- Not Quite Dead: Discussed. Leo and April suggest that Splinter may've survived being thrown down the drainpipe.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Befitting the slasher movie aspect of the character, at one point The Creep goes from following April to being right in front of her while chasing her in the woods.
- Pulling Themselves Together: The Creep can reattach his arm.
- Shout-Out:
- The Creep is an homage to Jason Voorhees, even wearing "Voorhees" brand overalls and eventually getting a hockey mask (previously wearing a bag on his head, just like Jason did in Friday the 13th Part 2), plus utilizing the Offscreen Teleportation trick that Jason made famous.
- The episode's title is shared with the short film "Within the Woods", the Ash Can Copy of The Evil Dead (1981). Unsurprisingly, some of the action takes place in a cabin deep in the woods.
- Crognard the Barbarian is an Affectionate Parody of Thundarr the Barbarian. The Ookla expy resembles the Spooky Space Kook
from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.
- Symbolism: Throughout the better part of the episode, even after regaining consciousness, Leonardo isn't wearing his mask. Later, when facing the Creep despite his injuries, Leonardo has donned his mask once more, as though signifying he's regained a good portion of his courage.
- Time Skip: It's been three months since the group retreated from New York.
- Vampiric Draining: While it does not use fangs, The Creep appears to drain the mutagen out while simultaneously turning the victim into a plant.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Probably because Leo vomiting the medicine was crucial to the plot.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Leo lures The Creep out of the cabin by pretending to be screaming for help.
