After an attack on the Autobots ends with more Decepticon casualties than usual, Cyclonus, under pressure from Motormaster and Swindle and by the suggestion of the Quintessons, admits Galvatron to an asylum — a living planet named Torkulon.
Tropes:
- Animation Bump: Galvatron and Cyclonus's rush to destroy the core of Torkulon is much more fluidly and dynamically animated compared to the stiffness the rest of the episode exhibits.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Cyclonus's attempt to get Galvatron to go to Torkulon is incredibly half-hearted and obviously made up on the spot. Galvatron doesn't seem to notice or care however, as only a single mention of the Autobots is enough to convince him.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Galvatron completely wrecks Torkulon and he, Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps leave to harass the Autobots while the Torukuli's get attacked by their own patients.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Galvatron among his troops when attacking the Autobots. This is the breaking point that forces Cyclonus to do something about their leader's behavior.
- Freudian Couch: Attempted on Galvatron as the Torkuli's first attempt at rehabilitating him. It ends with Galvatron breaking free and attacking his therapist in response to the Autobots being brought up.
- Genocide Backfire: The Quintessons plan to cull the Decepticons by telling Cyclonus about Torkulon, the goal being to get rid of the "most dangerously unpredictable of them all" in the process. This plan fails the instant the planet finds out about Galvatron's deepest secrets and starts to tear itself apart.
- Insectoid Aliens:
- The Alya, Torkulon's Big Creepy-Crawlies that perform lobotomies on their victims if they prove too much for traditional methods.
- A few of the inmates on Torkulon are also insectoid in nature, including a centipede that splits itself into a dozen parts as Cyclonus and Scourge check up on their leader.
- Later-Installment Weirdness: Laserbeak of all characters (in his last appearance at that!) is shown walking after the fight on the asteroid.
- Laughing Mad: Ratbat's screeching this episode sounds like this due to high-pitched squeaks and low-pitched caws being bizarrely overlaid on top of one another.
- Lazy Artist: This was one of the last episodes Toei outsourced to Nakamura Productions in any capacitynote . As per the studio's norm, the animation seeps in this a good deal. Albeit nowhere near as much as AKOM.
- The episode has a near-consistent lack of shading, rendering characters only in their base colors, which was slowly starting to become the style of the company by this time. The only times it shows up are in a handful of shots where black inking is used (and botched in some instances), and a few shots with Cyclonus where the usual form of shading is shown. This can also be seen in "Madman's Paradise" from earlier in the season.
- In a rather confusing bit that is never seen elsewhere in the cartoon, the Sweep accompanying Scourge on Torkulon turns into alt mode by turning into an energy bolt before reemerging in verhicle form. Later, Scourge's Transformation as the Decepticons leave Torkulon to the inmates is obscured by Cyclonus's take-off.
- As Galvatron gets up from the repair table upon hearing Cyclonus's announcement about the Autobots, a frozen Cyclonus slides in from offscreen before he resumes his animation.
- Soundwave pulls a Chuck Cunningham and disappears from the asteroid just as the Autobots attack, only to be replaced by Swindle. He shows up later overseeing Swindle's repairs on Galvatron with Motormaster and Scourge.
- The Quintesson that talks to Cyclonus has a very severe case of Lip Lock in the close-up. Wide shots will also vary on whether or not the lips of characters will move or remain static.
- Lobotomy: What the "Alya Solution" entails, which involves making the patient become subjected to Torkulon's Big Creepy-Crawlies, the Alya, as they hook the victim up to the planet itself. It backfires spectacularly when all the hate built up in Galvatron is exposed to Torkulon itself, kicking off its eventual destruction.
- The Mutiny: Proposed by Motormaster, one of Galvatron's biggest supporters, and Swindle when Cyclonus attempts to defend Galvatron's actions on the asteroid. It is never brought up again after this.Swindle: Either you do something about his craziness, Cyclonus...Motormaster: Or we'll do something about both of ya'!
- Never Say "Die": Heavily averted this episode. Swindle brings up how Galvatron will "Be the death of all of us" to Cyclonus near the beginning, and "Kill" and "Killed" are uttered later on by Galvatron (during his Word Association Test where all he can say is that and other similar words including "destroy" and "mangle") and Cyclonus (when he chastises the Torkuli for trying to lobotomize Galvatron).
- Planet Destroyer: Galvatron at the end wreaks Torkulon from the inside. He's only stopped from going any further due to Cyclonus's intervention.
- Psycho Psychologist: Implied with the Torkuli near the end of the episode:"What we do to Galvatron, we can also do to you."
- The Reveal: The lead Tokuli therapist reveals Torkulon's living nature to Cyclonus just moments before they proceed with the Alya Solution on Galvatron.
- Rule of Three: The Torkuli attempt three different ways to rehabilitate Galvatron.
- Their first is strapping the Decepticon leader to a Freudian Couch and going through a Word Association Test. Which ends poorly when Galvatron tries to attack the therapist commencing the session.
- Their next attempt is to have him do some "Psycho-motor Reintegration". This ends in even worse failure the moment he builds a gun and begins firing it aimlessly in a fit of rage.
- The final attempt is "Exo-Drama", which goes about as badly as the other tries when one inmate won't stop screaming mindlessly, angering Galvatron even further than before and promising to give the inmate "something to scream about".
- Take That!: The episode is one to organized psychological treatment and how quickly they're willing to forgo everything for extreme measures. Episode co-writer Diane Duane would base the treatments on what she saw while working in various mental hospitals.
- Technobabble: A psychiatric version. The Torkuli's treatment methods include "psycho-motor reintegration" note and "exo-drama" note , highly technical names that sound official to a layperson but are actually made-up.
- Thick-Line Animation: Thick outlines dominate the characters in several shots, something rarely seen elsewhere in the series even in episodes worked on by the same studio.
- Sanity Slippage: The driving force of the episode. Galvatron's has gotten so severe that he's actively attacking his own troops to get at the Autobots, leading to a revolt unless Cyclonus does something to cure it. The episode ends with Galvatron's mentality more or less still stuck in insanity.
- Villain Episode: The most Decepticon focused by far, as the Autobots only appear during the opening scene and only get some token mentions throughout, including the episode's "Secret Files of Teletran II" segment.
- Villainous Breakdown: Galvatron suffers it badly in this episode, kickstarting the plot. It's this breakdown that also winds up the downfall of Torkulon and its therapists when they attempt to lobotomize him.
- Vocal Evolution: Roger C. Carmel's voices for Cyclonus and Motormaster sound noticeably aged compared to what they usually sound like, likely owing in part to his declining health by this time.
