History Recap / SWATKatsS1E3TheWrathOfDarkKat

* {{Unishment}}: Feral decided to stick Jake and Chance in a salvage yard to pay off the damages to Enforcer HQ. It's cruel to pay debt from a menial job, which is likely to take forever to do. Even more so with two workers they can't stand. However, when they find working machine and vehicle parts from the military to eventually build what would be their CoolJet, the future SWAT Kats treat their punishment as this. They have a HomeBase to build and maintain their gear, they can protect the city without Enforcer authority, and Feral doesn't bother to check on them.

** When Chance/T-Bone faces Dark Kat by himself, Feral intervenes like last time, but he's prepared.
-->'''T-Bone''': Deja Vu City! But he’s not crowdin’ me out this time!

* {{Unishment}}: Feral decided to stick Jake and Chance in a salvage yard to pay off the damages to Enforcer HQ. It's cruel to pay debt from a menial job, which is likely to take forever to do. Even more so with two workers they can't stand. However, when they find working vehicle parts to eventually build what would be their CoolJet, the future SWAT Kats treat their punishment as this. They have a SecretLair to build and maintain their gear, they can protect the city without Enforcer authority, and Feral doesn't bother to check on them.

* Unishment: Feral decided to stick Jake and Chance in a salvage yard to pay off the damages to Enforcer HQ. It's cruel to pay debt from a menial job, which is likely to take forever to do. Even more so with two workers they can't stand. However, when they find working vehicle parts to eventually build what would be their CoolJet, the future SWAT Kats treat their punishment as this. They have a SecretLair to build and maintain their gear, they can protect the city without Enforcer authority, and Feral doesn't bother to check on them.

* TheWorfEffect: The first three jets Feral sends against Dark Kat are played up as being flown by his finest pilots. Dark Kat shoots all three down (at the same time!) to show how dangerous he is.

Meanwhile, the SWAT Kats are repairing the Turbokat, and think back to their last encounter with Dark Kat. When the two were still pilots in the Enforcers, they tried to stop Dark Kat from destroying Enforcer Headquarters. But an overeager Commander Feral, flying up behind their jet, demanded they back off and leave Dark Kat to ''him''. When Chance refused because they had a missile lock, Feral angrily passed them, his wing clipping theirs, sending their jet flying out of control. They ejected safely, but their jet hit Enforcer Headquarters, blowing up most of the upper floors. Blaming them for the destruction, Feral terminated them and sent them to work in the Megakat City Salvage Yard under the supervision of Burke and Murray. It was after this that they got the inspiration to build the Turbokat from discarded Enforcer vehicles, and become the SWAT Kats, allowing them to take on criminals their way without Feral breathing down their necks.

* DejaVu: Razor discusses this with T-Bone. They clashed with Dark Kat in the past, when they were Enforcers, and Feral is also involved. Now all three parties are drawn together again.

* Unishment: Feral decided to stick Jake and Chance in a salvage yard to pay off the damages to Enforcer HQ. It's cruel to pay debt from a menial job, which is likely to take forever to do. Even more so with two workers they can't stand. However, when they find working vehicle parts to eventually build what would be their CoolJet, the future SWAT Kats treat their punishment as this. And Feral seemingly doesn't bother to check on them.

Meanwhile, the SWAT Kats are repairing the Turbokat, and think back to their last encounter with Dark Kat. When the two were still pilots in the Enforcers, they tried to stop Dark Kat from destroying Enforcer Headquarters. But an overeager Commander Feral, flying up behind their jet, demanded they back off and leave Dark Kat to ''him''. When Chance refused because they had a missile lock, Feral angrily passed them, his wing clipping theirs, sending their jet flying out of control. They ejected safely, but their jet hit Enforcer Headquarters, blowing up most of the upper floors. Blaming them for the destruction, Feral terminated them and sent them to work in the Megakat City Salvage Yard under the supervision of Burke and Murray. It was after this that they got the inspiration to build the Turbokat and become the SWAT Kats.

* TurnInYourBadge: Feral fires Chance and Jake from the Enforcers in the flashback.

The SWAT Kats' arch-enemy Dark Kat (Brock Peters) lands outside of the Megakat Nuclear Plant in his massive aircraft, the Fear Ship. Using a holographic projection of himself, he warns the guards not to interfere, using the Fear Ship's heat beam to destroy their Jeeps when they refuse to listen. His minions, pink, gargoyle-like creatures called Creeplings (Creator/CharlieAdler), break into the power plant and breach the reactor despite the radiation-suited technicians' attempt to stop them and begin collecting the nuclear fuel rods inside. The Enforcers soon arrive on the scene, along with Callie Briggs. Covering the story from the air are reporter Ann Gora and her cameraman Jonny K., in the news chopper flown by Al (Creator/FrankWelker).

* OriginStory: The flashback reveals how Jake and Chance decided to become the SWATKats.

Callie argues with Commander Feral over the best course to proceed, with Feral opting for a direct assault against the Fear Ship using Enforcer Peacekeeper tanks. However, the ship is surrounded by a forcefield which repels the tank fire. Dark Kat destroys the tanks in retaliation, their crews barely bailing out in time. Feral counters with a squadron of jets, but Dark Kat shoots ''those'' down as well, although their pilots manage to eject. Callie contacts Chance and Jake, who are having a pepper-eating contest. Jake cheats, pretending to eat the biggest pepper but actually hiding it down his pants. After he and Chance suit up as the SWAT Kats, T-Bone expresses doubt that Razor ate the pepper, which he still has hidden down his trousers.

* CheatersNeverProsper: Averted. Not only is he not punished for cheating in the eating contest, but having stuffed the pepper down his pants saves Razor's life later when he's able to pull it out and squirt its spicy juices into a Creepling's eyes.

* JamesBondage: Feral being tied up and gagged in the VolcanoLair.

* SomeKindOfForceField: The Fear Ship is protected by one of these. Razor even calls it, word for word, "some kind of forcefield."
* StabTheSalad: When Callie calls Chance and Jake, there's a very dramatic montage of them tying on ''Franchise/{{Rambo}}'' style headbands and pulling on gloves, looking as though they're about to fight... but then they put bibs on and it's revealed they're just really, really intensely preparing for an EatingContest.

Arriving at the Nuclear Plant, they attack the Fear Ship with Baby Boomer missiles, but these have no effect. Realizing the ship is protected by a forcefield, Razor prepares to short it out using his new Scrambler Missiles, byt tragedy strikes when Ann Gora goads a reluctant Al into flying closer to the Fear Ship for a better look. The heat beam hits the chopper, causing it to fall towards Callie, Feral and a crowd of innocent bystanders.

* CrazyPrepared: Dark Kat is DangerouslyGenreSavvy, to the point where he knew someone would try and disarm his weapon, so he made all the wires inside the Doomsday Device the same color.

* NeverLiveItDown: It seems Chance and Jake are forever destined to be unfairly blamed for crashing their jet in to Enforcer Headquarters.

* LighterAndSofter: Compared to [[Recap/SWATKatsS1E2TheGiantBacteria the previous episode]], "The Wrath of Dark Kat" contains no deaths except Creeplings. Even Dark Kat, though he seems to die crashing in his ship at the end, is [[Recap/SWATKatsS1E7NightOfTheDarkKat eventually revealed]] [[IGotBetter to have survived]]. Dark Kat targets the guard shack at the beginning rather than the guards themselves, and even when he targets vehicles, such as the guards' Jeeps and the Enforcers' tanks and jets, their occupants always manage to leap free before their vehicles blow up. It's possible this was a direct result of complaints about the previous episode's more gruesome elements.

* LighterAndSofter: Compared to [[Recap/SWATKatsS1E2TheGiantBacteria the previous episode]], "The Wrath of Dark Kat" contains no deaths except Creeplings. Dark Kat targets the guard shack at the beginning rather than the guards themselves, and even when he targets vehicles, such as the guards' Jeeps and the Enforcers' tanks and jets, their occupants always manage to leap free before their vehicles blow up. It's possible this was a direct result of complaints about the previous episode's more gruesome elements.

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Dark Kat is a BombThrowingAnarchist all decked out in a BlackCloak who appears to have no real goal beyond blowing Megakat City up so he can rule it.

* VisionaryVillain: His GenericDoomsdayVillain and BombThrowingAnarchist tendencies aside, Dark Kat avoids the common problem of AndThenWhat by having a definite plan for after he blows Megakat City into nuclear litter: he wants to rebuild it into "Dark Kat City," a post-apocalyptic hellscape "where lawlessness is the law of the land."

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Dark Kat is a BombThrowingAnarchist all decked out in black robes who appears to have no real goal beyond blowing Megakat City up.

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: Dark Kat is a BombThrowingAnarchist all decked out in black robes with demonic gremlin-like minions and appears to have no real goal beyond blowing Megakat City up.

* WireDilemma: Parodied. When attempting to disarm the Doomsday Device, Razor reminds himself, "Always cut the red wire!" only to then pry off the side panel and discover [[CrazyPrepared ''all'' the wires are red]]!