Our heroes arrive on a planet that holds the first piece of the black hole generator, but the planet's atmosphere brings out their darkest emotions.
Tropes:
- Admiring the Abomination: Once again, Casey takes the time to point out how awesome the killer aliens are.Casey: Those guys are like the pinnacle of extreme metal!
- An Arm and a Leg: Fugitoid gets his arm cut off by a saw blade trap in the Aeon temple.
- Bad Boss: Mozar treats his soldiers very poorly, though it might have just been the planet's atmosphere affecting his emotions.
- Bait-and-Switch: During another episode of hateful fits, Raphael gives himself over to hurtfully mentioning how Splinter favored Leonardo. Leo glares at him and charges towards Raph! ...to give him a hug, subverting the audience expectations that he was going to fall for the trappings of the planet's corruption, as well as their old song and dance.
- Big Red Button: Well, big stone button, anyway. Casey decides to press it.Casey: Yo! Check it out. What do you think this does?
- The Bad Guy Wins: The Triceratons get away with the first black hole generator fragment.
- Character Development: During an emotional climax, a hateful Raphael accuses that Leonardo is leader because Splinter has always favored him. Instead of giving in to the planet's mysterious influence, Leo gives his brother a meaningful hug to let him know his love is unconditional. In the past, Leo would fall for the trappings of arguing pointlessly with Raph. This is a powerful demonstration that Leo has grown into his own as an emotionally mature leader.
- Cloaking Device: The Fugitoid's shuttlecraft has one.
- Cooldown Hug: Leo gives one to Raph and tells him how much cares about him rather than fighting him.Leo: Raph, I love you, bro.
- Dark Is Evil/Light Is Good: The Aeons were originally pure good until the Utroms entrusted them with a piece of the black hole generator causing them to become obsessed with technology and power and hid away their own soul star, turning them into demon bat-like creatures. Once the soul star is put back in its rightful place, the Aeons turn back into their original pure selves.
- Foreshadowing: The way the episode ends with the guys discussing power can corrupt anyone and the way April looks at the Aeon crystal fragment suggests at some point April will be corrupted by it. "City At War" definitely hints this, and sure enough, one more corrupted Aeon, Za-Naron, is inside that crystal and possesses April in "The Power Inside Her" at the end of the year.
- Hate Plague: The planet has this effect on the Turtles and Casey. April and Honeycutt seem to be immune, however.
- Not Himself: Raph acting irritable is nothing unusual, and Casey and Donnie being at each others' throats has happened before, but when Mikey gets angry and starts picking fights, you know something's not right.
- Only Sane Man: With everyone else being affected by the corruptive nature of the planet, it falls to April and Honeycutt to keep everything together.
- Shout-Out:
- Mikey getting his EV suit's helmet broken and subsequently writhing on the ground with his eyes bugging out looks a lot like the Explosive Decompression scene from Total Recall (1990).
- At the end of the episode the lead Aeon does a Vulcan Salute.
- The circular saw-like blades popping out of the floor and walls of an ancient temple was also in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
- Winged Humanoid: The Aeons.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Aeons were corrupted by their pursuit of power. The ending implies April may suffer the same fate.
- World-Healing Wave: Once April and Honeycutt puts the soul star back where it belongs, the Aeons' planet is turned back to normal and according to Leo, a burden is lifted off everyone's emotions.
- Unfriendly Fire: Due to their sudden hostility towards each other, the gang probably do as much damage to each other as they do to the alien bats that attack them.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: As Raph points out, the Utroms made a big mistake by leaving the generator fragment with the Aeons.
