Hoggish Greedly Jr.'s birthday sets off another scheme when many people ask Greedly where they can buy one of the cars he gave his son. Kidnapping Dr. Jane Goodair and taking over her auto factory, Greedly starts cranking out majorly smog-producing cars. After the Planeteers arrive to stop him, Junior starts crushing on Linka and kidnaps her for a date, even replacing her ring. When smog overruns the city, how can the hampered team save the day?
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Brick Joke: At the beginning of the episode, Junior says that the car is much cooler than the bicycle his father gave him on his last birthday. After Captain Planet saves his life, he decides to stop using his Road Hog in favor of a Goodair sedan... or even better, a bicycle (much to Greedly Sr.'s consternation).
- Captive Date: Junior grabs Linka from the prisoner's room after gassing her and the others with smog as a distraction. He straps her into his car using the seatbelt and takes her for a drive, giving her flowers and a plastic "engagement ring". Linka doesn't cooperate and demands that he return her to the factory. However, she becomes concerned when Junior suffers a coughing fit from the smog and ultimately passes out.
- Danger Takes a Backseat: After sabotaging Dr. Goodair's first sedan, Rigger hides in the backseat to kidnap her.
- Disastrous Demonstration: Early in the episode, Jane Goodair is showing off the first of her new environmentally-friendly sedans to the press. Rigger, on Greedly's orders, sabotages it.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite Greedly Sr. having kidnapped and held her captive while using her factory to create "smog hogs" (and Junior having done nothing about it), Jane Goodair is completely friendly towards Junior when he asks to trade in his old car and promises him the first one off the assembly line.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Hoggish Greedly mass-produces a smog-generating car, and the added pollution eventually becomes harmful to his son, making him desperate enough to beg the Planeteers to summon Captain Planet. He even (begrudgingly) thanks the Captain afterwards.
- Grudging "Thank You": After Captain Planet saves his son (and the rest of the city), Greedly reluctantly thanks him. The Captain teases him by pretending not to catch it, causing Greedly to demand if he has a hearing problem.
- Heel–Face Turn: Junior decides to adopt more environmentally-conscious habits after Captain Planet saves his life, trading in his current car for one of Jane Goodair's. The team even makes him an honorary Planeteer.
- I Am Not My Father: Junior changes his smog-producing ways at the end of the episode, even becoming an honorary member of the Planeteers, much to his father's dismay.
- No Ontological Inertia: When Captain Planet uses magnetism to clean the air, wilted flowers perk back up.
- Please, I Will Do Anything!: A rare villain-towards-hero example. Greedly begs the Planeteers to call Captain Planet to save his son, even stating that he doesn't care how much it costs. Being the heroes, the group doesn't demand anything other than Greedly giving back the factory he stole (thus starting this whole mess) and helping them retrieve Linka's ring so that they actually can call Captain Planet full-strength.
- Smoke Out: While they're covertly watching Greedly sell Road Hogs, Gi says that they need a way to get into the factory unobserved. Wheeler then comes up with the idea of using the smog produced when one of the Road Hogs drives away as a smokescreen, and it works.
- Subverted Catchphrase: The Planeteers say "Go, Junior!" in the same way they usually say "Go, Planet!" after deciding to adopt the repentant teenager as an honorary group member.
- Villainous Parental Instinct: Believe it or not, Hoggish Greedly has parental instincts, actually calling off his plan and begging the Planeteers for help when his teenaged son got poisoned due to said plan. Note, however, that this does not inspire a Heel–Face Turn on Greedly's part.
- Went to the Great X in the Sky: Wheeler threatens to send Hoggish Greedly's son Junior to "the great pigsty in the sky" after seeing him flirt with Linka, but Gi talks him into using the distraction to find Dr. Goodair.
