An explosion on the Darkside seemingly leads to Maximal victory.
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: The episode closes with Optimus outright laughing in response to Rattrap and Dinobot's continued bickering.
- Alas, Poor Yorick: Said almost word for word by Dinobot about Tarantulas as he holds the seemingly dead Predacon's leg.
- Argument of Contradictions: Waspinator and Tarantulas get into it over eating and sleeping habits. The argument devolves into this, though it proves brief, due to Terrorsaur cracking up.
- As You Know: Megatron explaining his plan is clearly for our benefit, not his troops'.
- Big Damn Heroes: When Megatron puts the squeeze on Rattrap, Rhinox slugs him and throws him off the ship.
- Big "NO!": Cheetor when Optimus gets left behind.
- Cabin Fever: Being cooped up in a narrow crevice for days with the other Predcon's, as they wait for the Axalon to be repaired, really starts to get to Terrorsaur who begins to laugh uncontrollably until Megatron knocks him aside.
- Character Development:
- One of the first signs that Dinobot is becoming more of a genuine friend to the Maximals rather than merely an ally of convenience is that when he learns the Predacons are still alive, he rushes back to The Axalon to warn the Maximals instead of leaving them to their fate.
- This is also the episode where Rattrap and Dinobot's feud begins to go from "genuine hatred" to "good-natured bickering" .
- Dirty Coward: Megatron is aware of Terrorsaur's habit of this and quickly moves to cut it off before it happens. Humorously, he ends up wanting out not out of cowardice but after cracking under the idea of staying in a confined space with his teammates.Megatron: SO, NO ONE LEAVES!
Terrorsaur: Leaving? Who said anything about leaving? - Do Not Go Gentle: Implied. When he was the only one left standing, Rattrap was willing to at least attempt to transform and take on Megatron.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Again, the Maximals try and fail to get home.
- Faking the Dead: The Predacons do this by faking an energon explosion.
- Foreshadowing: Despite Scorponok being Megatron’s most loyal minion, he quickly turns against him, when Terrorsaur starts another mutiny. This is a sign that it was a fake and the Predacons are only pretending to be dead.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Blackarachnia built the device that masked the Predacons' energy signatures.
- Good News, Bad News: After seeing Dinobot running toward the ship.Cheetor: All right, he's coming back!
[Predacons appear on the horizon]
Rhinox: Problem is, he's not alone. - Heroic BSoD: Similar to last time, Dinobot is disturbed by the prospect of going back to Cybertron.
- Hope Spot: Damaged and forced back to beast mode, Optimus slowly limps towards the Axalon while carrying Dinobot. With the ship getting into the air, he throws Dinobot up to the elevator platform and manages to grab Cheetor's hand. Then all of a sudden, Scorponok fires a missile that breaks Cheetor's grip, sending Optimus back to the ground.
- I Am a Humanitarian: Tarantulas threatens to eat Waspinator. Based on a prior episode, that's a very real threat.
- I Choose to Stay: Like in the previous episode, Dinobot is less than enthusiastic about going back home, since he feels that, due to being a Predacon who just happened to have an alliance of convenience with the Maximals, he'll be treated like a criminal once back on Cybertron. As such, he decides to let them go and stay on the planet to make his own life. Of course, things don't quite turn out that way.
- The Idealist: Optimus ignores Rattrap's warnings about Dinobot, trusting him completely instead because Dinobot has earned it in battle and over time.
- In the Back: Dinobot is unable to simply run the rest of the way to the Axalon, due to taking one of Scorponok's missiles in the back.
- Insult Backfire:Rattrap: Man, y'know, it's your fault that I ain't kickin' back on Cybertron right now, you overgrown, stinky iguana!
Dinobot: Hmm, I have done the planet a favor. - Jerkass Has a Point: Rattrap in regards to Dinobot."He's still a Predacon. He's only with us 'cause he knew we'd win, not because he believed in what we stood for."
- Know When to Fold 'Em: As Rattrap lampshades, the Axalon is barely holding together meaning the Maximals have no choice but to go back to Cybertron. Optimus agrees.
- Moment of Silence: When Optimus loses his gripduring lift off, it gets very quiet, as Cheetor watches him fall to the ground. He doesn't die when hitting the ground, of course, but the other Maximals certainly don't like his chances with so many Predacons around.
- No One Left Behind: Played with. Optimus risks missing the ride home in order to save Dinobot, but he orders Rhinox not to try to halt the launch. Cheetor also manages to convince Optimus to let him help, but Rhinox has to tell Tigatron to sit back down. Though he then orders Tigatron to man the ship's guns.
- Noodle Incident: As alluded to in his Alas, Poor Yorick moment, Dinobot knew Tarantulas long enough to be familiar with the spider's sizable list of victims.
- Oh, Crap!: Dinobot when he finds the Predacons are still alive and now know he's on to them.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Dinobot is concerned about his future so much that he doesn't react to Rattrap's insults.
- Scorponok is one of the Predacons to turn on Megatron at the beginning. In hindsight, it actually kind of foreshadows that the whole thing was faked.
- Pragmatic Hero: Rhinox's solution to the Predacons outside the Axalon? Use the ship's guns.
- Pun: "For now, I shall crush you like a rat... in a trap!"
- Race Against the Clock: The Axalon is so patched together that Rhinox doubts he could safely shut down the lift off sequence. Optimus has mere minutes to fend off Predacons and get Dinobot into the ship. He barely manages to succeed, though Scorponok has other ideas.
- Sanity Slippage: Terrorsaur just can't take sharing confined quarters with his teammates anymore."You all make me sick! I can't stand this any longer, Megatron! I've gotta get out!" [laughs crazily]
- Shout-Out: "Is it a bird?" "Maybe a plane?" "No - it's Optimus!" Followed by a variation of familiar theme tune playing as Optimus is breaking the ship's fall.
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare: "Alas, poor Tarantulas. I knew him, Cheetor."
- Spanner in the Works: The whole episode happened because Terrorsaur tripped over the cable powering the Maximals' secret spy camera.
- The Starscream: The Predacons' con job relies on Terrorsaur being known for his duplicity. he stages a seeming mutiny when Megatron's experiment costs the Predacons some valuable energon.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: See Know When to Fold 'Em above.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Averted. Megatron grabs Rattrap in the middle of the rat's activation code.
- That's an Order!: When going for Dinobot, Optimus makes it clear he'd rather miss going home himself rather than strand the rest of the crew.Optimus: If we're not back in time, lift off without us.
Rhinox: No way!
Optimus: That's a priority order! Understood?!
[Rhinox lowers his head] - This Is Gonna Suck: Rattrap has this expression when he’s the only one left standing against a transformed Megatron.
- Transformation Is a Free Action: Subverted. Megatron clamps Rattrap with his robot mode hand’s jaws to prevent him from transforming.
- Undying Loyalty: Tigatron has this towards his comrades as he opts to rush out and fight alongside Cheetor and Optimus. Rhinox tells him to shut up, sit down and man the ship's weapons if he really wants to help.
- Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: Blackarachnia stresses that she hadn't finished perfecting her signature-dampening device when Megatron opted for this scheme. It works throughout the episode, though she is still not sure if it would've continued to do so. Dinobot discovering their hiding spot makes it a moot point, anyway.
- Visionary Villain: Megatron's plan wasn't simply for the sake of a sneak attack on the unaware Maximals. He wanted them to repair the Axalon so that he could gain the means to acquire all the stasis pods still in orbit and thus greatly expand his forces.
