The evil spirit Zarm offers the Planeteers upgrades that render them vulnerable to his influence, corrupting all of them except for Ma-Ti, which renders Gaia mortal. Ma-Ti and Gaia must stop them before they trigger a nuclear war.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Aliens Speaking English: Subverted. After Zarm introduces himself as an alien, Linka wonders how he could possibly know the human language. He claims, a bit hesitantly, that it's "a simple language". Later, however, it turns out that he can speak it because he used to be a Spirit of Earth – either before Gaia or alongside her.
- Big "NO!": After Captain Planet tosses Zarm's ship into an inactive volcano, Zarm tries to press a button, muttering that Cap hasn't yet gotten rid of him. Moments later, Gaia makes the volcano erupt, causing Zarm to yell a long, horrified "NO!" as his ship gets launched into the air like a ball.
- Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us: Naturally, Zarm throws out this argument after Kwame discards his gauntlet, telling him that if he doesn't take the conqueror's position, someone else will.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The corrupted Planeteers go more along the lines of Smug Super Well Intentioned Extremists than outright evil. While they're still debating, Linka points out that they had trouble with the original problem they arrived to solve and might be more competent at their jobs with more power to wield. Furthermore, their first "mission" is an effort to get rid of nuclear missiles, even if it's clear from their attitudes that they're becoming corrupted. However, they're still very fond of Gaia, their Team Mom. When Linka sees her standing in front of the missile base, looking mortal, she stops Wheeler from using his gauntlet to destroy the place. Wheeler, in turn, reacts in horror that he could have killed Gaia. Despite their belief that Zarm is a good guy, they're willing to listen to her, and quickly move to help when Zarm upsets part of the silo on her.
- Evil Is Easy: Zarm offers the Planeteers magical gauntlets that are far more powerful than Gaia's rings. Unfortunately, using them also make them Drunk on the Dark Side. They become braggier and start using their powers more destructively. The only Planeteer to refuse the offer is Ma-Ti, whose power is both the most good and the least combat-oriented. The gauntlets are also fashioned so that the Planeteers have to remove their rings to wear them, symbolically casting aside their allegiance to Gaia.
- Hate at First Sight: Downplayed; Ma-Ti doesn't hate Zarm, but he distrusts him from their first conversation. Unlike the others, he can tell that the stranger's heart is empty, and doesn't feel comfortable with him.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Zarm offers the Planeteers Iron Fists of their powers. Ma-Ti turns his down, even though Zarm tells him he can control the hearts of the world. It sure helped that Ma-Ti's ring warned him that Zarm was heartless and canceled out Zarm's attempts at brainwashing him via Compelling Voice and Hypnotic Eyes – which is possible without the ring as well, but the other Planeteers didn't manage it until they found out what a monster Zarm was. That's right: the Heart Ring makes you Immune to Mind Control. This spirals into the defeat of Zarm's plan.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Zarm almost wins, corrupting most of the team and turning Gaia mortal... but he leaves her and Ma-Ti alone afterwards, only sending an earthquake to kill his nemesis after she goes to talk to the rogue Planeteers, who are still convinced he's a good guy. Cue his "conquerors" abandoning him.
- Implied Death Threat: Zarm, seeing Gaia talking to her rogue Planeteers, calls her a meddler and mutters that he'll show her what mortality means, right before attempting to kill her with an earthquake.
- Karma Houdini: The Planeteers themselves, minus Ma-Ti, destroy a military base and almost set off several nuclear missiles while under Zarm's influence – and never get prosecuted for it.
- Light Is Not Good: When introducing himself to the Planeteers, Zarm pretends to be a benevolent alien who just wants to share his planet's advanced technology. His true colors come out about halfway through the episode, when Gaia first confronts him, although the corrupted Planeteers believe him much longer – up to the moment when he attacks Gaia directly.
- Might Makes Right: Zarm says this word for word when Gi questions destroying things for the sake of destruction itself.
- Morality Chain: While the corrupted Planeteers become more power-mad, they still have soft spots for Gaia and Ma-Ti. Upon seeing the two standing in front of the missile base they're trying to destroy, they're horrified that they could have killed their "mother" and "younger brother" before realizing it. Thus, they go to talk to them.
- Oh, Crap!: Near the end, Captain Planet tosses Zarm's ship into a volcano, which Gaia promptly makes erupt, causing Zarm to let out a Big "NO!" as he finally realizes his scheme failed big time.
- Platonic Kissing: When Gi shakes off Zarm's influence, Gaia gives her a little, motherly kiss on the forehead. It's one of the earliest signs that Gaia sees the Planeteers as her children.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Zarm's eyes glow red a lot while he's trying to corrupt the Planeteers, seemingly as a sign of him using Psychic Powers on them. It's possible to No-Sell it, however; Wheeler does so when Zarm makes a last-ditch effort to retain control over him after losing the others.
- Revenge Through Corruption: Although getting the older team members on his side helps Zarm's general goal of spreading destruction, the fact that he taunts Gaia with the fact that "her Planeteers" are following him implies that another purpose for this (if not the main one) is to strike at Gaia for whatever unspecified thing made him angry at her.
- Take Back Your Gift: When they throw off the corruption, Kwame, Linka, Gi and Wheeler signify it by taking off and throwing away the gauntlets of conquest Zarm gave them.
- Virtue Is Weakness: Being the embodiment of destruction and hatred, Zarm takes a dim view of anything more positive. When the four Planeteers he corrupted break loose and reunite with Gaia and Ma-Ti, he calls it "sentimental slop" and asks what happened to their strong selves.
- We Can Rule Together: After the other three corrupted Planeteers have torn off their gauntlets, Zarm makes a last-ditch effort to keep control of Wheeler, promising to make him ruler of the world and following it up with a burst of Hypnotic Eyes just to make sure. It fails miserably; he's barely finished before Wheeler says he doesn't want the kind of world Zarm is offering, and throws his own gauntlet far away.
