Leonardo leaves the turtles thanks to a dream making him feel like he's losing his ability to lead. And to make matters worse, Shredder and Krang launch a scheme to drain all the energy from the sun, plunging the world into a new ice age. One of the remaining turtles will have to step and prove they can lead in Leo’s place before the Shredder puts all of New York City on ice.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: All four turtles learn a lesson from the events of this episode.
- Leonardo learns that he shouldn’t let doubts get in the way of doing his duty as leader.
- Donatello learns he should trust his instincts as much as his inventions.
- Raphael learns its easier to make wisecracks than to make decisions.
- Michelangelo learns that everyone should do what they do best. Which, in his case, is scarfing down pizzas.
- Career Not Taken: When Shredder monologues his Evil Plan to Krang, Krang admits that he has a way with words. Shredder then confesses that he had always wanted to be a writer.The Shredder: Being a ruthless conqueror was my second choice.
- Crazy-Prepared: Shredder and Krang manage to be one step ahead of the turtles by putting a transmitter in the bell tower of a schoolhouse to trick Donatello's energy tracker into thinking that it's shrinking the sun. To make matters worse, the transmitter is also an explosive device.
- Dream Intro: The episode begins at the technodrome with Shredder attempting to steal all the cheese danishes from every bakery in the world, then the turtles arrive to stop them. Things get bizarre with all the turtles defeated and then the dream ends with Leonardo falling into a cooking pot with Shredder about to make him into soup.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Leonardo thinks that his dream was warning him that his position as leader was about to fail.
