Megatron's new plan is a success, and Optimus Prime ends up unconscious in a crevasse! He creates a clone of him to destroy the Autobots from within, but can the Autobots find out their leader has been replaced before things take a turn for the worse?
Tropes
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Laserbeak knocks Prime into a crevasse, and Megatron leaves him there instead of killing him. Of course, that would have been too easy.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Neither Prime has the Matrix, as it didn't exist as a concept back then.
- Idiot Ball: The only reason the plot of this episode happens is because 1) the Autobots don't pick up on the clone's screamingly obvious giveaways (calling his comrades by the wrong names, not recognizing Teletraan 1, uncharacteristically demanding that they kill the real Prime), 2) the real Optimus also calls Trailbreaker and Spike by the wrong names, 3) They don't try some kind of jamming to prevent remote control (which is exactly what's happening) and 4) no one thinks of taking the two aside and asking them questions only the real Prime would know the answer to. Instead, the obvious solution is WE MUST HAVE A RACE.
- Impostor-Exposing Test: The Autobots come up with... interesting ways to determine which Prime is the real one, including racing.
- Mirroring Factions: Both leaders are shown wary about sending their troops towards the energy sourcenote in fact deadly Korlonium crystals until they can take readings (even if Megatron is expectedly more curt about it towards Starscream than Optimus is towards Cliffjumper).
- Mistaken for an Imposter: The Autobots nearly open fire on the real Prime as he returns to the base. Luckily, Ironhide talks them out of it.
- Near-Villain Victory: Even with some issues on his part, Megatron's imposter plan was almost convincing enough to lure the Autobots into a trap. His disregard of Spike, whom he had captured, gives away his identity, allowing them to destroy the Optimus clone.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Laserbeak, more known as a spy for the Decepticons, rather handily knocks Optimus unconscious with a few laser blasts. Note this was straight after Optimus trashed all three Seekers at once.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Zig-Zagged. The Clone!Prime keeps calling his comrades by the wrong names, but the Autobots only find out that Clone!Prime is a fake after he refuses to save Spike.
- Out-of-Character Alert: The Clone!Prime claims that Spike is not worth rescuing. Oops.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: In spite of everyone clutching the Idiot Ball in terms of recognizing Optimus' behavioural patterns, Ironhide is at least savvy enough to insist an Impostor-Exposing Test before turning on one of them, foiling Megatron's plan to have the Autobots shoot the real Prime.
- Remember the New Guy?: Warpath and Powerglide literally show up out of nowhere with the former doing nothing but getting shot and the latter saving Spike in the climax.
- Spot the Imposter: The theme of the episode.
- Worf Had the Flu: The real Optimus also calls the Autobots by the wrong names, so it's harder to tell the two apart.
