Vision Quest

Vision Quest is the 8th episode of season 3 and 60th overall. It aired on January 18th 2015.

Official Description
Leo takes the Turtles to train in the woods in an advanced ninja ritual; the Turtles must overcome their weaknesses and face their enemies to become a true ninja.

Characters

 * Leonardo
 * Donatello
 * Raphael
 * Michelangelo
 * April O' Neil
 * Casey Jones
 * Ice Cream Kitty
 * Splinter
 * The Deer Spirit
 * Shredder
 * Tiger Claw
 * Rahzar
 * Fish Face
 * The Foot Bots

Trivia

 * First and only appearance of the Deer Spirit.
 * This is the first time Mikey cries.
 * Splinter appears as a spirit in this episode.
 * Shredder, Tiger Claw, Rahzar, Fishface and The Foot Bots are visions for the Turtles quests.
 * When Raphael enters the cave, he says there's no pirate ship, this is a reference to the movie The Goonies whichSean Astin starred in.
 * The scene where the turtles are in the forest at night, surrounding the camp fire with the spirit of Master Splinter coming from the fire is reminiscent to a familiar scene from the 1990 movie.
 * Michelangelo also appears to be the one crying the hardest, similiar to the first movie too.
 * Leonardo's hunter outfit and the deer he struggles to hunt with a bow and arrow are both references to Mirage V1 #11: True Stories.
 * Leo's costume is a reference to the Ghost of the Jungle outfit from the 2007 TMNT movie.
 * Mikey's mask is a reference to the same mask worn by the future Mikey in the 2003 series episode "Same As It Never Was".
 * As Donatello said in the episode, deer are considered messengers to the gods in the Shinto religion. In various parts of Japan's Tōhoku region, a deer dance called Shishi-odori has been traditionally performed as an annual Shinto ritual.
 * Each of the turtles is endowed with a Sashimono, or feudal banner, throughout his quest. The banners correspond to the environment where the quest takes place. The Kanji (Chinese characters) on their banners are taken from 風林火山 (read as ふうりんかざん Fūrinkazan), which comes from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" battle tactics. These battle tactics were also used by the Daimyō Takeda Shingen during the Sengoku period of Feudal Japan. "The Art of War" was originally written in Old Chinese, and its terms are spoken in Japanese using Sino-Japanese vocabulary.
 * Leonardo's kanji 風 is read as ふう fū, meaning "wind". (The native Japanese reading is かぜ kaze.) The full phrase is 「疾如風」, or "Be swift as the wind."
 * Michelangelo's kanji 林 is read as りん rin, meaning "Forest". (The native Japanese reading is はやし hayashi.) The full phrase is 「徐如林」, or "Be as silent as the forest."
 * Raphael's kanji 火 is read as か ka, meaning "Fire". (The native Japanese reading is ひ hi.) The full phrase is「侵掠如火」, or "Be as fierce as fire."
 * Donatello's kanji 山 is read as さん san, meaning "Mountain". With a Japanese sound rule called ｒendaku, in some words it becomes ざん zan. (The native Japanese reading is やま yama.) The full phrase is 「不動如山」, or "Be as immovable as a mountain.