Months after their arrival to Earth, the Decepticons come out of hiding with a new plan to transfer Energon cubes to Cybertron. When Bumblebee and Spike stumble upon their new Space Bridge, Spike is captured and forced to test out the Decepticon's latest shipment to Cybertron.
Tropes
- Distressed Dude: The Autobots have to rescure Spike after he's captured by the Decepticons, who intend to use him as a guinea pig for their Space Bridge.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Spike and Bumblebee are trapped inside the transport shuttle, Spike wishes that their luck would change. This gives Bumblebee the idea to change into his vehicle mode and break out of the shuttle.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Megatron gets blasted into his own Space Bridge at the end of of the episode and is transported back to Cybertron. He has to wait until the next episode before he can return to Earth.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Optimus uses his rifle to blast away the individual restraints keeping Spike inside the transport shuttle without hurting him. All while the shuttle is moving away from him.
- Improvised Weapon: Jazz rips out a stalagmite and uses it to bat away the blasts coming out of Starscream's null ray, complete with baseball quips.
- Literal-Minded: Spike assures Bumblebee that they'll escape from the Decepticons "by the skin of our teeth". Bumblebee claims he didn't know humans had skin on their teeth.
- Lured into a Trap: After foiling Bumblebee's attempt to escape, Megatron alters his memory circuits about the location of the Space Bridge. Bumblebee is let go and leads the Autobots into a nearby cave, unaware that the Decepticons have set up an ambush inside.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Optimus gets his foot caught in some rubble and Megatron tries to finish him off by launching a saw blade at him. Instead of killing him, the saw blade misses Optimus and cuts through the rocks, freeing his leg.
- No-Sell: Cliffjumper tries to take on Megatron on his own by punching him in the crotch. Megatron doesn't even flinch and just knocks Cliffjumper aside.
- Portal Network: This was the first episode to introduce the concept of "Space Bridges", which the Decepticons use to transport supplies to and from Cybertron. The process is shown to be unreliable, since the Space Bridges have to be perfectly aligned with each other and can only be open for short periods of time.
- Scary Shadow Fakeout: At the beginning of the episode, Cliffjumper panics when he sees a shadow of what he thinks is a Decepticon and blasts it. However, Ironhide reveals that it was only a rock formation and Cliffjumper didn't have anything to worry about.
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Four million years have passed since the Autobots and Decepticons left Cybertron. Not only has the planet remained mostly unchanged, but Shockwave still expects Megatron to answer his distress call after waiting millennia with no reply. While Cybertronians do have incredibly long lifespans, apparently nothing particularly noteworthy happened on Cybertron in the same amount of time it took for humanity to evolve on Earth.
- Undying Loyalty: Shockwave's faith in Megatron has not faltered even after four million years have passed since he last left Cybertron. He also kept his promise keep Cybertron exactly as Megatron had left it, since not much has changed in his absence.
