The Vok activate a device to wipe out all life on the planet, but the spiders may have provided the Maximals with the means to stop them
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Optimus is slightly amused by Rattrap asking to have his quarters if he doesn't make it back.
- Admiring the Abomination: Megatron is quite impressed with the Planet-Buster, as well as how the Vok would go to such lengths to destroy sentient beings.Megatron: What sheer ruthlessness. What disregard for sentient life. I rather like these aliens.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The Vok's Planet Buster, in spades. It takes forever to charge up and requires a manual activation from the planet which itself needs to charge up, and when it finally does fire it still gives ample time for the beast warriors to formulate a counter-attack. Oh and it's taken out by a single explosion.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Technically the Maximals and Predacons had the same goal in this episode note but Megatron's last-minute plan to kill Optimus goes off without a hitch; the last thing Optimus sees is Megatron laughing.
- Bittersweet Ending: The planet is saved, but Optimus is dead.
- Cliffhanger: Optimus is blown up.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Inferno dishes out one to Tarantulas, catching a dart fired by him in mid flight. Tarantulas does take the chance to shoot him but Inferno laughs it off before setting Tarantulas on fire.
- The End of the World as We Know It: The Planet-Buster will super heat all the energon and cause an explosion big enough to destroy the entire planet.
- Evil Versus Oblivion: Megatron's predicament; he cunningly repurposes Tarantulas's escape attempt in order to avert it. Blackarachnia is also compelled to cooperate with the Maximals under this threat.
- Fake Shemp: Tarantulas’ one line of dialogue is provided by Scott McNeil, rather than his usual VA Alec Willows.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Pause the scene after the explosion at just the right spot, and you can see Optimus's severed head.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Optimus' plan to stop the Planet-Buster runs the risk of being this, though he intended to at least try and get clear of the blast before Megatron sabotaged him. As he puts it to Blackarachnia, they're all about to die anyway if they don't do something.Blackarachnia: You'll blow yourself to atoms! [snickers]
Optimus: If it saves this planet, it'll be worth it. If not, I'm no worse off. - It Has Been an Honor:Optimus: Whatever happens out there, I want you to know that you're the finest crew I've ever served with.
- Little "No": Optimus when he realizes the purpose of the Vok device is to cause the planet's vast amount of energon to explode.
- Mood Whiplash:
- Tigatron and Airazor wish Optimus luck and hope that he comes back, while Cheetor just stares in anxious silence. Rattrap just asks if he can have his quarters.
- Optimus tells the rest of the Maximals they are the best crew he has ever served with, and Blackarachnia mocks Maximals for getting so sentimental. Airazor punches her out for that remark.
- More Hero than Thou: When Optimus reveals his plan, every Maximal in the room except Rattrap offers to go in his place. Optimus points out that only a flyer has a chance of escaping the explosion, so it's either him or Airazor - and he's the one giving orders.Optimus: What about you, Rattrap?
Rattrap: Hey, heh, suicide ain't in my job description.
Optimus: Hmm. Or mine. - Mythology Gag: Ever since The Transformers: The Movie, Optimus Prime in any given incarnation makes a Heroic Sacrifice and risks dying. While there was a chance of escape here, Megatron strips that away. It doesn't stop him from throwing a Take That! at his enemy Primal, though.
- Oh, Crap!: Blackarachnia has one as she Rattrap and Airazor hold her at gunpoint.
- Out-Gambitted: Tarantulas by Megatron. Back in "Before The Storm," Megatron downloaded a virus onto the Transwarp cell that Tarantulas stole, with the latter none the wise. So, even if the spider had finished jury-rigging the stasis pod into a ship, he would've just been sent on a suicide run into the Planet Buster. Ironically, by torching Tarantulas, Inferno inadvertently saved his life.
- Phrase Catcher: "Shut up, Rattrap!"
- Pragmatic Villainy: Blackarachnia doesn't want to hand the stasis pod she just worked on to the Maximals. Optimus reminds her that she is going to be destroyed along with them, instantly changing her mind.
- Race Against the Clock: Once the Planet-Buster is activated, the Maximal computer projects the planet will be destroyed in 28.5 cycles. By the time Optimus is closing in with the stasis pod, they're down to 5.3 cycles.
- Spanner in the Works: Ironically enough, it's Inferno who nearly ruins Megatron's plan by torching Tarantulas.
- Too Clever by Half: Megatron sending Inferno to monitor Tarantulas and Blackarachnia nearly backfires when he attacks the two and torches Tarantulas.
- Uriah Gambit: Megatron welds shut the door of Tarantulas's exit strategy, intent on averting annihilation with the treacherous spider's death. To his great delight, circumstances place Optimus in the soaring coffin instead.
- Wham Line:Megatron: The Beast Wars are over, Optimus. You... lose."Goodbye, Optimus." note
- Women Are Wiser: Whereas Tarantulas got roasted for fighting head on, Blackarachnia gets the better of Inferno by relying on more guile tactics.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Having downloaded his own programming into the Transwarp cell that Tarantulas stole for the stasis pod ship, Megatron's original plan is to hijack the pod in flight and crash it into the Planet Buster after setting the Transwarp cell to blow, the explosion taking Tarantulas and/or Blackarachnia with it. To his delight, Optimus comes up with the same idea and decides to pilot the pod himself, so all Megatron has to do is hack the pod's systems to seal it shut, and as a result, his rival is destroyed along with the Planet Buster.
