The episodes begins In Medias Res (of a sort) as a captive Arcee is dragged by a pair of Vehicons before Starscream. Starscream has intercepted an encrypted transmission and wants Arcee's access codes to decrypt it. When Arcee refuses, he tries to force her to comply by threatening another Autobot he has captured... Cliffjumper.
Arcee has been having a flashback to an incident on Cybertron as Miko and Ratchet try to help a recovering Bulkhead regain full use of his legs. Though concerned for her friend, Miko is pushing Bulkhead hard to recover, enough to make Ratchet protest. In frustration, Miko stalks off to the top of the mesa to brood.
Arcee decides to come up after her. She tries to tell Miko not to be too hard on herself or her friends because of their situation, something she knows all about after what happened to bot Tailgate and Cliffjumper. Arcee tells Miko about what happened shortly after losing Tailgate.
The previous flashback continues as Cliffjumper is thrown into a cell with Arcee. She is put off by his talkativeness as he searches for a way out. Meanwhile, Starscream and Soundwave discuss their failure to extract the information. Soundwave suggests that they take them to Kaon and get assistance, but Starscream is reluctant to share his glory. Soundwave throws back a recording of his own words saying how important the information is, and Starscream relents. The two are brought to Kaon and introduced to their new interrogator: Shockwave.
Using a cortical psychic patch, Shockwave extracts the codes from Arcee's mind, seemingly taking her offline. The encrypted message is from Optimus Prime, giving his location on Earth and calling for other Autobots to join him. Shockwave has been working on rebuilding a Space Bridge, and Starscream plans to drop his forces right on top of Prime. Arcee, who was faking being offlined, frees herself and manages to rescue Cliffjumper (using his big mouth as a distraction), and find out the location of Shockwave's Space Bridge. Cliffjumper and Arcee manage to get to the bridge and sabotage it, using it to jump to Earth. Shockwave tries to stop them in the middle of the Space Bridge, but Arcee defeats him and they make it to Earth just as the Space Bridge collapses, seemingly leaving Shockwave mid-transit.
On Earth, Arcee finally comes to accept Cliffjumper's friendship and officially makes him her partner as they set off to find Optimus Prime.
Tropes:
- Call-Forward: "The old-fashion way", in which Starscream planned to kill Cliffjumper, is how he actually did it in the first episode.
- Chekhov's Classroom: Cliffjumper claimed to have "played dead" when Starscream interrogated him. She later used this method to make it look like Shockwave's cortical psychic patch fried her circuits after extracting her message, then got up the moment Starscream was alone with them.
- Continuity Nod: Shockwave is revealed have invented the cortical psychic patch when he uses it on Arcee to extract the encryption code from her mind.
- Cliffjumper says that Earth reminds him of the time he was trapped in the Sea of Rust back on Cybertron.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Miko is being this to Bulkhead, early in the episode.
- Arcee actually calls her out on it by name.
- Eye Scream: During the final stand-off, Arcee blasts Shockwave in his eye.Cliffjumper: Whoo! Bull's eye!
- Flashback Within a Flashback: During the main flashback, Cliff tells Arcee that he knows about Tailgate's murder, causing her to briefly relive that terrible day like in "Predatory".
- Heroic BSoD: The flashbacks show Arcee still struggling over Tailgate's death.
- Hidden Depths: For most of the episode, Cliffjumper is a fun-loving guy, but he demonstrates a strong compassionate side.Cliffjumper: Arcee, I know it's rough. I really do.
Arcee: I don't know what you're talking about.
Cliffjumper: Tailgate... Closing yourself off from feeling won't help anyone. - Knight of Cerebus: Shockwave is introduced as a far more imposing and no-nonsense ally to Megatron than Starscream. Unlike 'Scream, Shockwave talks very little and prefers to get the job done through science and logic. His size makes him no pushover, either, in physical combat.
- Male Gaze: In the scene where Arcee frees Cliffjumper and straps Starscream to the slab, we see a shot focused on her behind.
- Meaningful Echo: Back when Arcee lost Tailgate to Airachnid, she preferred to fight alone and isolate herself from anyone else. Cliffjumper once told her that "Closing yourself off from feeling won't help anyone." She forwards these words to Miko so she understands she's not the only one concerned about Bulkhead.
- Motor Mouth: Arcee found Cliffjumper to be annoyingly talkative when they first met. She expresses how much she missed that now that he is one with the Allspark.
- No One Could Survive That!: Discussed after the collapsing space bridge portal seemingly destroys Shockwave.Arcee: Think Shockwave survived?
Cliffjumper: Hope so. I want a re-match. - Oh, Crap!: Both Arcee and Cliffjumper have this reaction when they realize who Starscream's partner is.Cliffjumper: We... might be in a little more trouble than we thought.Starscream: Autobots, say hello to Shockwave.
- Trailers Always Lie: The teaser heavily featured the line "Cliffjumper is back!" ...neglecting to mention it was a flashback episode.
- Tsundere: In the flashback, the idea of working with a new partner, Cliffjumper or Optimus Prime, does not bode well with Arcee. Justified since she already lost one partner in Tailgate, but she opens up in the end.
- Unexplained Recovery: The previous episode, "Hurt", had Bulkhead in a deep stasis lock; here, he's seen walking about. Though he isn't one-hundred-percent recovered from his injuries, the dialogue from the last episode seemed to indicate he was going to be out for longer than this, not to mention Ratchet explicitly mentioning he would never be fully functional again. However, it's possible a lot of time has passed between "Hurt" and "Out Of The Past".
- Whole Episode Flashback: This episode shows how Cliffjumper became Arcee's partner and how the two came to Earth and joined Team Prime.
