Under the disguise of helping to rebuild the city after the Triceraton invasion, Oroku Saki is salvaging alien tech for his own diabolical plans. His newest employee, Dr. Chaplin, has created a trio of Karai robots for The Foot, and they're put into action when the Turtles try to stop the Shredder's salvage plans.
First appearance of Dr. Chaplin and The Amazonian Blade Bots, a.k.a. the Karai Bots
This episode provides examples of
- The Bad Guy Wins: The Turtles may have destroyed most of the fallen Triceraton base but Shredder successfully claims one piece of tech that is vital to his plans.
- Corrupt Politician: The Foot have the mayor of New York on their payroll. A little extra money into his account is what grants his compliance.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: In the park, Mikey misses getting hit by a hook and snarks that the Foot Ninja missed. The Ninja was aiming for the tree and pulls on the chain, causing a large branch to come loose and hit Mikey.
- Fiction 500: Saki tells the mayor that he's happily wired him a $147 million transfer for the city's operations. That said, even Karai is actually concerned about skyrocketing costs even if Saki's not worried about money where he's going.
- Foreshadowing:
- Donatello gets another supposed wrong number and thinks someone is trying to fax him something. He'll learn what it's all about soon.
- Saki is making it clear that neither Hun nor Stockman have permanent places in the operation, giving way to their more desperate actions in their next appearance.
- The end of the episode has Karai voice financial concerns to Saki, but Saki isn't worried since "money will be meaningless where [he] is going." We'll learn where he's going in the season finale.
- He Knows Too Much: Karai knocks out a nosy reporter before he could spill about Saki's real goals.
- Jerkass Ball: Usually Saki is always a Jerkass but in this episode, he's even more of an asshole here, especially how he treats his subordinates.
- Naginatas Are Feminine: Played with. One of the Karai Bots wields a naginata, but Don takes it near the end of the episode.
- Night-Vision Goggles: Donatello uses these to cheat during a round of hide-and-seek. The other Turtles are displeased, to say the least.
- Properly Paranoid:
- Leo suspects something is not quite right in the park. The Foot Ninja soon reveal themselves.
- Raphael immediately knows that Shredder wants all the available alien technology and is going to use it for something bad.
- Robot Me: Chaplin deliberately designs the Amazonian Blade Bots to resemble Karai.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The Turtles and the Foot flee the park battle, when NYPD choppers start poking around.
- Ship Tease: When asked about the robots designs, Chaplin explains that he did it because Karai is "just so perfect." Whether Karai's turn away was due to annoyance, disinterest, bashfulness, or even a bit of Tsundere behavior is up to the audience.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Karai explains to Saki that all the operations in obtaining alien technology has had a VERY significant drain of their financial resources. Saki however doesn't mind at all since where he's going, money will be irrelevant.
- Took a Level in Badass: The Turtles learn to their dismay that the typical Foot mook is a lot tougher than they had usually faced thanks to Karai training them. Even the non-combatants do put up a decent fight.
- Villain Episode: A downplayed example. While the Turtles still are the protagonists of the back half of the episode, the driving plot is the inner politics of the Foot as Hun and Stockman learn they are on the chopping block especially with the arrival of Chaplin to replace the latter.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Saki has been hailed as "the savior of the city" for all the cash and resources he has devoted to rebuilding areas devastated during the Triceraton invasion. Only one reporter brings up his rumored ties to the Foot and Purple Dragons, as well as Stockman still being on the payroll.
- We Need a Distraction: Saki reveals the Tribase operation was just a decoy to keep the Turtles busy so that Karai could retrieve the piece of technology he was actually after.
- Wrecked Weapon: Donatello's bo staff gets chopped in half by a chainsaw-wielding Foot technician. He replaces it with one of the Karai Bots' naginata.
- Xanatos Gambit: The end of the episode reveals that killing the Turtles isn't what Saki really wants; But if they did, then it'll be a good bonus. Saki actually has Karai go and retrieve alien tech for him while Chaplin's robots deals with the Turtles.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Saki doesn't attempt to hide his thoughts about retiring Stockman and Hun. Knowing Saki, said retirement will be fatal.
- This backfires on him as Stockman sabotages Chaplin's robot and save the Turtles.
