Red Alert has his logic circuits damaged when the Decepticons attempt to steal the Negavator, a new superweapon the Autobots have built. Consumed with paranoia, Red Alert believes the Autobots are planning to betray him and flees as his condition gets worse. He soon finds in an unlikely ally in Starscream, who takes advantage of Red Alert's paranoia so he can steal the Negavator for himself.
Tropes:
- Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Red Alert has dark pink circles underneath his eyes after his logic circuits are damaged, indicating that he's slowly losing his grip on reality.
- Mistaken for Transformed: While searching for Red Alert, Ironhide thinks he spots him at the scene of a fire in his alt-mode and is confused why he won't transform. The fire chief soon comes out and yells at Ironhide to put his car down.Ironhide: Sorry, chief. It looked like a friend of mine.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Red Alert is dangerously close to self-destructing by the end of the episode. Starscream blasts him with with null-ray to get Red Alert off of him, which ends up stabilizing his circuits and restores his sanity back to normal.
- No MacGuffin, No Winner: Red Alert activates the Negavator's self-destruct sequence to ensure it doesn't fall into the hands of the Decepticons, but also deprives the Autobots of their latest weapon. At the very least, the Autobots aren't too choked up about it and are just glad Red Alert is okay.
- Obviously Not Fine: Optimus realizes that something's wrong with Red Alert, but he insists he's fine as sparks shoot from his head and his speech messes up:Red Alert: I'm fine. It's just an electro-glitch that comes and goes. Comes and goes.
- Sanity Slippage: Red Alert is blasted by a missile that damages his logic circuits. He becomes consumed by paranoia and believes the other Autobots are planning a conspiracy against him. In his delirious state, he ends up turning to Starscream and is convinced to turn against his team for their supposed betrayal.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Megatron is not amused by how badly his men are bungling his attempts to steal the Negavator, climaxing with Ramjet accidentally crashing into the Negavator while Megatron was piloting it:Megatron: I've got morons on my team!
