On the evening of their 15th mutation day, the turtles finally convince Master Splinter to let them explore the surface. Amongst the other shenanigans they get themselves into, they discover pizza and notice a man and his teenage daughter being hassled by a group of Inexplicably Identical Individuals. Going against the guidelines that Splinter had laid out for them, they get involved in the skirmish and try— and fail— to save the two. Midway through their search for these humans, they discover that the kidnappers are connected to the ooze that mutated them in the first place.
This episode provides examples of:
- All There in the Script: The names of April and her dad are not said in this episode and appear only in the credits.
- Art Shift:
- Flashbacks to the origin of Master Splinter are done in a monochrome, green-tint, with 2D animation resembling a comic book panel.
- Leo's favorite show, Space Heroes, is done in the style of old Filmation cartoons, particularly Star Trek: The Animated Series.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Splinter goes on an overly long speech to the turtles about how to handle themselves above ground. This goes from avoiding strangers (which is to say, everybody) to, eventually, warning them away from public restrooms.
- As You Know: The turtle's origin. Justified, however. It's Mikey being an idiot.
- Bilingual Bonus: During the training sequence, Leonardo says "It's a pleasure to face you" to Raphael in Japanese (onegai shimasu). In the same scene, Splinter says "Stop" in the same language.
- Birthday Beginning: The episode is set on the turtles' mutation day.
- Bound and Gagged: April, briefly
- Brick Joke: Leo is seen watching 'Space Heroes', where the protagonist slaps his suboordinate to calm him down. Later, Leo tries this on Mikey with mixed results.
- Cassandra Truth: The truth about the Kraang-droids.
- Cliffhanger: "Mom?"
- Come with Me If You Want to Live: Attempted by Donnie on April, before he gets unintentionally interrupted by Mikey and clobbered by a Kraang.
- Comically Missing the Point: "And then we've got ourselves a van!"
- Companion Cube: Mikey affectionately hugs the ooze canister while sighing "Mom!"
- Declarative Finger: Pulled off at least twice. Once while Leo's reciting a monologue from 'Space Heroes', and later while Don's pointing out that "Not all of us [have brains]".
- The Dulcinea Effect: The Turtles are quick to try and save April... and her dad, too.
- Dumbass Has a Point: "No, Michelangelo, you are correct."Mikey: I am?Raph, Don and Leo: He is?
- Establishing Character Moment: The sparring sequence.
- Flashback: To show the viewers the origin story.
- Funny Background Event: Played with. While Leo's on lookout for the Kraang, the camera cuts to a shot of the others behind him where they would normally be in the background, but are now in the foreground. This affords us a good look at the shenanigans they (mainly Mike and Don) get into while waiting around.
- More traditionally, during the aforementioned scene, we get Mikey falling asleep in the foreground and Don playing jump-rope (and tripping over it) in the background.
- Gaussian Girl: April's first appearance.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Leo tries to calm Mikey down by slapping his hysterical brother. It doesn't work.
- Gilligan Cut: Leo claims that the Kraang will show up at their location at any second. Cue Time-Passes Montage.
- Hypocritical Humor: Raph makes fun of Leo for watching Space Heroes, while he himself is reading a comic book.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Invoked by the Kraang-droids, before we're shown what they are.
- Lampshade Hanging: After Raph complains about the amount of time they've spent waiting for the Kraang to show up. Cue Kraang.Raph: He just showed up, didn't he? I should have complained two hours ago.
- Last-Second Word Swap: The "Thumbs up our noses" comment.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Surprisingly, Don takes up this role when the Kraang-droids start after Kirby and April. It seems to be an isolated incident, though.
- Lock-and-Load Montage: The turtles get one before going to the surface.
- Love at First Sight: Don's reaction to seeing April for the first time. Immediately lampshaded.
- (Literally) Mindblowingly Delicious: Mikey gets into this when he gets his first taste of pizza.
- Mythology Gag: The intro is clearly meant to invoke the first episode of the 2003 series, down to the music playing in the background.
- Mikey's reaction to seeing the surface for the first time might be a nod to the 2003 episode "The Lesson". He says exactly the same thing that 2k3 Leo and Don did, upon seeing a less-than-glorious alleyway.
Mikey: It's beautiful! - Overly Long Gag: Splinter's rules for topside activity.
- Papa Wolf: Splinter demonstrates how much of one he actually is, driving his sons up the wall in the process.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: What eventually convinces Splinter to let the turtles go topside.
- Recurring Riff: The title theme.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: Demonstrated twice in one exchange.Don: Is that the next-generation Cadmium processor with quantum encryption?Raph: I don't know, Donatello, is it?Don: It is!
- Robotic Reveal: When Mikey discovers the true nature of the bad guys.
- Show Within a Show: Space Heroes.
- Sick and Wrong: Mikey's reaction to seeing a damaged Kraang-droid for the first time.Mikey: That is all kinds of wrong!
- Something That Begins with "Boring": While they're waiting for the Kraang to show up, Mike and Don play a (one-sided) game of "I Spy". Though there's plenty to pick from in the cityscape, it's implied that Mikey's chosen Raphael as the subject several times.
- The Stake Out
- Stealth Pun: Mikey declares that he'll try the pizza when nobody else is quite willing. Well, you know what they say about Mikey: he'll eat anything.
- Toilet Humor: Heavily implied to be what the cake's frosting is made of.
- Then again, when you live in a sewer, your variety of ingredients when cooking things, say, like, cake, is very limited.
- Tempting Fate: Don points out that Snake is outnumbered, and that they have the advantage in the fight. Snake immediately pulls out his Family Friendly Firearm.
- Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: Since all of the turtles' fighting experience comes from training in a controlled environment one-on-one, they both crumple under the pressure of a real street-brawl against an unknown foe and get in each other's way while doing so.
- You Do Not Want To Know: Concerning what the cake's frosting is made out of.
