The Turtles have entered the Battle Nexus Tournament, but behind the scenes all is not well...
This episode provides examples of:
- Big Damn Heroes: Leonardo is about to be killed by Drako's mooks, but he's saved by Usagi.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The Ultimate Ninja is pretending to be friendly to the Turtles, but in reality he hasn't changed at all.
- Evil Is Petty: The episode ends with the Ultimate Ninja shooting Leo with a poison dart. Doing so has nothing to do with his plan to usurp his father as leader of the Battle Nexus; he does it purely out of spite and wounded pride for Leo defeating them in their previous duel. Even Drako thought it was a rash idea and warned him not to.
- I Let You Win: Splinter lets Mikey win in their battle in the tournament. Unusual in that Mikey is well aware that his sensei is forfeiting in his favour.
- Magical Land: The Battle Nexus.
- My Greatest Failure: Donatello has the dishonor of getting eliminated in the first tier, much to his shame and embarrassment.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Don knows his brothers will never let him forget that he was the first Turtle eliminated in the tournament.
- Tournament Arc
