The Tengu Shredder is attempting to literally alter the world to fit his own ideals. When Karai and Chaplain reveal that they've discovered the existence of 3 keystones around New York, the heroes realize these keystones lie directly on top of powerful Ley Lines in the city. And if the Shredder's dark energy were to reach these keystones he'd be able to change the whole world. It's up to the Turtles and their allies to reach the keystones first.
This episode provides examples of
- Asshole Victim: The Mayor Pain gets his comeuppance for accepting the Foot's bribes by being flung around like a rag doll by the one true Shredder.
- Bad Boss: The Shredder gives his Mystics a maiming for not telling him about the Turtles going after the Keystones.
- Dreaming of Things to Come/ Foreshadowing: Master Splinter's nightmare.
- Dystopia Justifies the Means: The Tengu Shredder's goal is to reshape the world in his image
- Enemy Mine: The Turtles team up with Karai and Dr. Chaplin
- Hellish Horse: The Tengu Shredder's mount
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: As of this episode, Karai no longer wears the Helmet of her Shredder Armor, symbolizing her alliance with the Turtles.
- Of course, it's also averted with Raph and Mikey dutifully wearing their motorcycle helmets while on the Shell Cycle. Justified, as they are Badass Normal beings, who are not Made of Iron.
- Hollywood Healing: Averted. Karai is shown to still be injured and in pain in this episode.
- Hope Spot: The Turtles come this close to foiling the Shredder's plan, but once he knows what's going on, he uses his full power.
- Mama Bear: April warns Karai not to try anything against the Turtles so long as she's in her house.
- Mission Control: April's job in the mission.
- Morton's Fork: The Mystics feared they would anger the Tengu Shredder if they disturbed him while he was spreading his power, and so chose to deal with the Turtles going after the keystones personally. Unfortunately, the Tengu Shredder ends up enraged anyway that they didn't tell him, as the Turtles were using the keystones to undo his transformation of the city.
- "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: When Master Splinter tells the Turtles and the Ancient One about his recurring nightmares, Mike thinks it is this sort of dream.Master Splinter: My sons, terrible nightmares have plagued me for some time now.
Mike: Ooh, is it the one where you have a killer math test and you show up late, and you're not wearing your shell?note - Outrun the Fireball: Don and Master Splinter
- Place of Power/ Ley Line: The Statue of Liberty, The U.N. Building, and Manny's Meats were all located near Ley Line nodes. Of course, New York just happen to have an unusual concentration of them.
- Prophecy Twist: Splinter tells the Turtles of his nightmare. Mikey suggests they'll be fine because the dream was in Japan, not New York. The end of the episode shows the city being remade into a demonic version of Japan.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Chaplin tries to convince Karai to escape the planet with him.
- The Bad Guy Wins / Downer Ending: Despite the heroes best efforts, the Tengu Shredder succeeds in reshaping the city into a demonic wasteland."Fools! To think that they could actually stand against me. Do they not realize who I am? This city is mine! And soon, the world!"
- The End of the World as We Know It: If the Tengu Shredder succeeds
- "You!" Exclamation: Karai to April.
