The "Previously On" segment is REALLY long. Almost 2 full minutes. It's pretty much the entire first part in accelerated.
Optimus summons Silverbolt to his quarters. He tells Silverbolt his thing with Blackarachnia has to stop, and that he'll be confined to quarters. He'll send Cheetor out to apprehend her (why send Cheetor alone?) Silverbolt says to send him instead, but Optimus won't hear it. By the way, Silverbolt again lives up to his master of missing the obvious status by claiming he was a Predacon once and changed sides, so therefore could Blackarachnia. Except where she was reprogrammed, and he was merely tricked. Silverbolt's not the sharpest tool in the shed. Optimus does call Silverbolt one of the noblest individuals he has ever met. Which is his strength and weakness apparantly.
On the USS Laserbeak, Comrade Ravage surveys his captive. Megatron notes how the Tripredacus councils are such brown nosers to the Maximals. Megatron notes that Ravage's ship is too enegon depleted to return to Cybertron. He tries to bribe him with Energon. He has caches, the Maximals don't. They expected rescue. But Ravage reveals that Tarantulas is an agent of the Predacon Secret Police, and he's the one who disabled the Darksyde. Tarantulas gives Ravage the locations of Megatron's caches. Megatron's reaction to Tarantulas' duplicity is... sarcastic to say the least.
Why not just use the Energon inside Tarantulas' lair? There's a ton of it. And it's stable... Also Tarantulas' "true" allegiance raises a plot hole. Clearly he could've stopped Megatron long before they crashed. He could have sabotaged the Darksyde pretty much at any points before entering Transwarp. Now, some stuff in season 3 will give a reason why the council (or at least himself) could have wanted Megatron's plan to go along... But for now, it's a big question.
So Silverbolt sucker punches Cheetor as he goes out apprehend Blackarachnia. He does so when Cheetor gives his apologizes to Silverbolt for the situation and promises to go easy on Blackarachnia. For his trouble he gets punched twice in the face. Gosh. Silverbolt is such a noble individual indeed Optimus. Rattrap sees this and sounds the Alarm. Silverbolt blows a hole in the hull and flies away, dodging gunfire from Sentinel.
Optimus and Cheetor go to retrieve the Energon. Cheetor sore about the whole Silverbolt thing, in more ways than one. Optimus tries to rationalize it that Silverbolt though he was acting in Cheetor's best interest. Oh yes, nothing says you care like repeated blows to the head. It's the small attentions that count! They find the cave and Optimus show again how he's in a hurry to get Megatron off this planet. As if he was expecting or worried about something specific... They enter the cave, but the Energon is unstable - useless. And worst, it's an ambush, Blender Butt is waiting for them.
Blackarachnia follows Waspinator on her sled thing towards a strange mountain with what appears to be rubble covering one side - almost like if something huge had smashed into this mountain side. Silverbolt catches up and they land. We get more Kiss-Kiss-Slap and Slap-Slap-Kiss between the two. The old stuff where Silverbolt tries to get her to change sides, and he knows there's good in her. She shoots him in the leg. Hrrrm. So much about how she wouldn't hurt you Silverbolt. You ARE full of stupid today aren't you? Anyway, he's got her so distracted their pod hoversled thing smashes into Waspinator when he stops to check if he's reaches his coordinate. The pod breaks, but Silverbolt rescues Blackarachnia. Waspinator meanwhile is blown to pieces. This by the way is the closest Silverbolt ever gets to hurting Waspinator in the whole show.
Meanwhile, Blender Butt fights Optimus and Cheetor, but soon he suffers from Energon surges as he's so close to the unstable crystal and falls. With the last of his strength he aims his gun at the crystals, shouting "For the Royalty!" Optimus and Cheetor barely manage to make their way out before the cave explodes. Inferno is seemingly disintegrated. Optimus reports to Ravage.
Ravage realizes this was a trap, and prepares to execute Megatron, who deduces Ravage has no intention to return anyone to Cybertron alive. Why? Surely the Council, who is pissed about the sanctions the Maximals gave them, could negotiate themselves something out of rescuing the Axalon crew. I mean, executing Megatron makes sense (and you could blame it on him trying to escape), but why the Maximals? Other than For the Evulz? But Megatron plays his final card. He asks Ravage if he ever wondered why he stole the golden disk.
Ravage frees Megatron from his cell, and says they have to talk.
Waspinator tries to re-assemble themselves, as Silverbolt and Blackarachnia look at the debris on the side of the mountain. A smaller mound is at ground level, like if someone had dug their way through the debris, then blasted it closed. Predacon Bomb fragment hint to it being Megatron. Since he won't leave without her, she tells him to help her dig.
Optimus and Cheetor fly back to base when they get a message from Rattrap. Who reveals that they won't have to worry about Ravage: He switched sides! Behind them, the Cruiser rises, with Megatron standing atop it. In the bridge, Ravage exclaims:
He then transforms (to the original sound) into a cassette and flies into his cockpit's tape deck. Megatron and the cruiser open fire.
To be continued...
- Ravage having a voice and being super loyal to G1 Megatron comes from the comic. It might seem surprising then, that going by the comic's incarnation, that Megatron never told his closest trusted associates (Of which Ravage was one) about his contingency plan.
- This would also be an AMAZING bit of fore planning for Megatron (G1), who wasn't really known much as a strategic long term planner (This goes double for the cartoon version). I guess he had his moments?
- Ravage's Transformation sound isn't the original as it was copyrighted, but a close imitation.
- Similarly, the plan for the ending music as Ravage Transforms was for the G1 theme song. As it too was copyrighted, a generic guitar riff was used instead. To be fair, nostalgia factor aside, I have trouble imagining how the song would've fit with the way the scene is shot, so the loss may not be that big.
- Frank Welker was offered to voice G1 Megatron for the message, but Scheduling conflict kept him from that. Megatron is thus voiced by Gary Chalk who does Optimus.
- In a strange bit of symmetry, David Kaye, who voices BW Megatron, would go on to voice Optimus Prime in Transformers Animated.
- Inferno was intended to die this episode, hence why we see him disintegrate.
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