After Shredder's mutation is complete, he challenges Splinter to a duel.
This episode includes examples of:
- Agony of the Feet: A non-comedic example, towards the end of the episode The Super Shredder steps on and crushes one of Splinter's feet. You can actually hear bone crunching.
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: Towards the end of the episode, Shredder tells Splinter outright that once he kills him, he'll kill all of his loved ones. This leads Splinter to detonate a pre-prepared bomb in a Taking You with Me attempt.
- Being Watched: Mikey says, “I get the feeling we’re being watched” while walking through the subway as Stockman climbs on the ceiling above them.
- Believing Their Own Lies: An incredibly dark example with Shredder, who rants at Splinter for supposedly turning Karai against him and brainwashing her, which is exactly what Shredder has done her entire life, and in a more literal sense with the brain worms last season. He also insists that he saw Splinter killing Tang Shen with his own eyes.
- Body Horror: Super Shredder is a hulking monstrosity of Shredder, with a skull-mask like face with visible teeth, spikes and blades protruding out of his body, and a visible beating heart.
- Car Fu: The minute the Turtles see Super-Shredder leading a captive Karai, Leo tries to ram him with the Shellraiser... only for Shredder to stop it and toss it aside with his bare hands.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with the group not knowing whether Splinter and Shredder are alive or dead as they are descended upon by Shredder’s army of mutants.
- Continuity Nod:
- Splinter and Shredder's final clash takes place in the underground area where Splinter defeated the Rat King in "Of Rats and Men", as Donnie notes.
- The clan revisits the train station where Karai held them hostage during "The Deadly Venom."
- Shredder burns giant pictures of him and Yoshi as humans, Tang Shen, and the family portrait of Yoshi, Shen, and Miwa.
- Cruel Mercy: Super Shredder lets Shinigami live after beating her unconscious, but only so that he can force Karai to come with him. He explicitly tells her that if she struggles he will hunt Shinigami down and tear her apart.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Shredder's increased durability makes it impossible for even Splinter to fight him, and he gives Splinter one of these before Splinter blows up a bomb in a last-ditch attempt to kill both of them.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Shredder gives Stockman such a threat when he initially refuses to inject him with the rest of the mutagen.Shredder: [grabs Stockman by the throat] Do it! Or I will pluck off your limbs until you are nothing left but a buzzing head.
- Disney Death: Splinter blows up a bomb to send himself and Shredder into a pit in the area where Splinter defeated the Rat King.
- Dirty Communists: The villain Bradford is fighting in his cartoon show this episode is called both a socialist and a communist by him.
- Dope Slap: Raphael gives Mikey one when he falls asleep during their meditation exercise.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: At the beginning of the episode, Splinter tells his clan that he had a dream about fighting the Shredder, which ended with them both falling to their doom. This is exactly what happens by the episode's end.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Shredder was already an almost unbeatable opponent in prior episodes, with Splinter being the only one capable of defeating him. Now he's Super Shredder, and can lift a van with his bare hands.
- Evil Makes You Monstrous: Shredder becomes a Monstrous Humanoid after he forces Stockman to inject him with all the Mutagen he has, and his sanity effectively reaches Ch'Rell levels by this point. Splinter lampshades it:Splinter: "You must be proud. You are finally a monster both inside and out."
- Furry Reminder: Tiger Claw meows like a housecat when Raphael kicks him off the speeding subway.
- Hypocrite: During their fight, Shredder calls Splinter a coward. This is despite the fact that he has resorted to underhanded tactics himself, such as attacking Splinter when he was poisoned in "The Manhattan Project" and tried stabbing him in the back in "Annhilation Earth"/"Earth's Last Stand".
- Made of Iron: Splinter can't harm The Mutant Super Shredder in the slightest, but he takes one hell of a beating and never stops fighting.
- Mythology Gag:
- The concept of the Super Shredder originates from Secret of the Ooze.
- Shredder's threat to Stockman is exactly what the 2003 Shredder did to his Stockman.
- Never Say "Die": Subverted twice. The first time by Shredder, and the second time by Splinter.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The injuries that Splinter gave Shredder in "Earth's Last Stand" and the rise of Karai ultimately led to the mutation of Shredder into Super Shredder.
- No-Sell: None of Splinter's direct attacks really phase Shredder. In the opening moments of their fight, Shredder has the audacity to simply stand there, bored, while Splinter smacks him.
- One-Winged Angel: Shredder's "Chemomutagentherapy" is completed by this episode, and the results are a giant hulk with blades over his body. The flaw with this was the Mutagen is unstable, which is an Achilles' Heel, but not enough to make him stoppable.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Mikey gives them to Splinter when he interrupts his “cartoon-athon”.
- Ramming Always Works: When the Turtles see Super Shredder, they try to ram him with the Shellraiser. It doesn't work.
- Redemption Rejection: Splinter tries to convince Shredder to give up on his twisted vendetta. But, Shredder being Shredder, his pleas fall on deaf ears.
- Revenge Before Reason: Stockman tries to warn Shredder that the mutagen is untested and potentially dangerous, but Shredder refuses to listen. He insists on having the rest injected into him, so he can finally have the power to crush Splinter.
- Sanity Slippage: What little reason Shredder had before vanishes completely after he completes his mutation.
- Shout-Out: The mentor and a monster fall into a pit in front of the heroes, who are then chased off by Mooks with arrows. Second episode in a row to borrow from Lordofthe Rings.
- Taking You with Me: Splinter is eventually forced to do this to stop Super Shredder. Shredder even attempts to escape, but Splinter drags him down with him.Splinter: Saki! We die together!
- Transformation Discretion Shot: Shredder’s mutagen-fueled Painful Transformation is seen mostly via a shadow cast over a cowering Baxter Stockman.
- Villains Out Shopping: In his first scene, Rahzar is shown watching Chris Bradford's 2 Ruff Crew and eating a bowl of popcorn. When Stockman informs him of Shredder's summons, he's not happy.Rahzar: Aww, right at the good part!
- Was Once a Man: Shredder's the final inner-circle Foot Clan member to undergo a mutation after Karai became the last other human in the Clan to mutate in "Vengeance is Mine", and it's the first time since 1991 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze that a Shredder has mutated.
- You Are What You Hate: In a last resort to rid himself of his enemies once and for all, Shredder resorts into turning into the one thing he hates most of all: a mutant. Karai lampshades this:Karai: "You... you've become... everything you've loathed. Everything you hate! A mutant!"
- You Monster!: Super Shredder is called this by both Splinter and Karai. Even Shinigami calls him so during her battle against the crazed super mutant.Shinigami: I'll destroy you, monster! For everything you have done to Karai!
