After reawakening on the Nemesis, Smokescreen is being examined by Knock Out and Megatron, who think he has the final relic of Iacon. Confiscating his phase shifter, Knock Out's scanner then picks up that Smokescreen is hiding the final Omega Key in his chest. Using the phase shifter (and explaining a few plot holes regarding its use), Knock Out removes the relic, after which Megatron decides to interrogate Smoke by using the cortical psychic patch.
Meanwhile, the rest of Team Prime is trying to determine Smoke's location, and figure out that Alpha Trion must have knocked Smokescreen out during the siege of Iacon, and put the last Omega Key in there to keep it extra safe for Optimus.
Back on the Harbinger, Starscream is also musing about the key giving him tremendous negotiating power with both Bots and Cons. He even fantasizes about become Starscream I, Emperor of Destruction with the power of the keys. However, upon reflection, he realizes that as he is, he lacks the means to enforce such an idea. Thus, he plans to find a way to trade his way back into the Con ranks.
Using the patch, Megatron discovers the purpose of the Omega Keys, and resolves to find the Autobot base and find the remaining keys. Knock Out moves to reapply the patch, but grabbing onto the phase shifter (which Knock Out was wearing), Smokescreen escapes, leaving Knock Out trapped in a wall.
Running through the Nemesis, Smokescreen retrieves the two Omega Keys, and then jumps off the ship. Putting him back in contact with the others, a Free-Fall Fight ensues where Flyers try to catch Smoke, while he tries to secure a ground bridge. It ends with Smoke phasing through the ground, coming out the other side, and then getting a ground bridge back to base.
In triumph, the Autobots realize they're still missing one key, which Starscream conveniently takes the time to call about, asking for a T-cog replacement in return for "a powerful artifact". Extremely suspicious, the Bots move for a rendezvous, with half the team at the meeting point, and half the team at alert on the other side of the ground bridge. At first, we see nothing but a Starscream slumped, and maybe dead. However, as Ratchet moves to examine the body, a blur rushes past all the Autobots. Starscream has used his other dose of Red Energon to enter the Autobot base.
While contemplating gutting the Bots, and giving Arcee an Eye Scream, he quickly gets back on task, searching for the Omega Keys. It takes him a little while (and him finding Arachnid), but he finally finds the keys, and using a missile, blows down the door to them.
Around the same time, Optimus finally figures out Starscream's deception once they find out that he'd "been dead for quite some time". His first orders are to have Arcee close the bridge as the sprinkler system goes off inside (in response to Scream's missile). However, now holding the 3 keys, Starscream uses his speed to escape the base faster than lightning. Taunting the slow Bots, he begins to slink away, only for the Red Energon to wear off, turning his escape into a mad dash to reach the ground bridge he set up for himself, barely making it.
Optimus is understandably distressed, and lets loose a scream of frustration.
Meanwhile, Megatron refuses to release Knock Out from the wall he's stuck in, and reaches the bridge, only to find Starscream waiting there, bearing the Omega Keys as "a peace offering".
Tropes:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Smokescreen pleads to not be subjected to the cortical psychic patch again. He does this knowing Knock Out will step closer to the table to gloat and thus provide an opportunity to grab onto the phase shifter.
- And I Must Scream: Knock Out suffers a (mild) version of this when he's left stuck in a wall.
- Bad Boss: Megatron throws a few soldiers after the free-falling Smokescreen, forgetting that one of this has a car altmode.
- The Bad Guy Wins: After all of the mishaps and bad luck he had suffered throughout Season 2, deservingly so, Starscream finally wins one over Team Prime and steals the three Omega Keys to add to the one he took from Smokescreen last episode. Though he has no idea how to use them to restore Cybertron, he decides to sneak back onto the Nemesis one more time in hopes of using them as a bargaining chip and return to the Decepticons.
- Badass in Distress: Smokescreen is captured and strapped in the Nemesis. Luckily, he grabs his Phase Shifter back from Knock Out and makes his escape, with two of the Omega Keys the Decepticons just took.
- Big "WHAT?!": Megatron after Smokescreen grabs the key right out of his hand and heads for the other one.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Smokescreen's first response to interrogation at the hands of Megatron is to crack jokes and play dumb.
- Catch a Falling Star: Attempted, but Megatron and his troops prevent it.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Megatron has Knock Out use a cortical psychic patch on Smokescreen to find out that the four identical relics are the Omega Keys.
- Starscream uses the last batch of Red Energon and the Clone he ripped the T-Cog out of in a desperate bid to steal the other three Omega Keys.
- Decoy Protagonist: Smokescreen is this in the first half of the episode as he collects all Omega Keys and escapes the Nemesis back to the Autobot base. Starscream usurps this role for the second half clearly enforcing his role of a Villain Protagonist as he uses Red Energon to gain super speed and sneak into the Autobot base to collect the keys himself.
- Free-Fall Fight: At one point, Smokescreen jumps off the Decepticon warship. While still being chased.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Starscream is at point blank in front of the Autobots and yet they miss him as he runs (completely straight) back to home base.
- Internal Reveal:
- Thanks to the cortical psychic patch on Smokescreen, Megatron finally learns the truth about the Omega Keys.
- While looking for the keys, Starscream happens upon the stasis pod containing Airachid. He admits he had been wondering why she disappeared.
- Karma Houdini: Starscream's Super-Speed wears off as he gloats right behind Optimus with Omega Keys in hand. Luckily for him, he has his own Ground Bridge to escape before Optimus could grab him.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Starscream realizes that even if he did somehow gain all four Omega Keys and somehow use them to revive Cybertron under his own leadership, he lacks the necessary resources to enforce his rule. He has no warship or army and only a few minor assets to his name, such as a dead clone and no T-Cog. So, after stealing the Omega Keys, Starscream decides to use them as a bargaining chip with Megatron, hoping to rejoin the Decepticons instead of continuing solo.
- Mythology Gag: Not the first time the sleek, treacherous flyer gets supercharged on a special kind of energon, only to get caught by surprise when it suddenly wears off.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Optimus accepting Starscream's bait wasn't enough, Ratchet screams out loud, "HE HAS THE OMEGA KEYS!!" when Starscream is 90% done with the bait scheme.
- No Honor Among Thieves: As Megatron proved back in Season 1's "Operation: Breakdown", he doesn't give a frag if anything bad happens to Knockout or Breakdown, not so much (or at least only) out of spite but because those two never accomplished anything. After Knockout is left stuck in a wall immobile, Megatron declines his pleas to release him deciding he'll be more useful as an example and reminder to those who dare fail him.
- Oh Scrap: "The Red Energon wore off, didn't it?"
- After Smokescreen makes his dramatic escape, Megatron tosses the two closest Vehicons off the Nemesis after him. One can transform into a jet, the other... a car. The latter screams all the way down.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Once Smokescreen jumps off the Nemesis with the two keys, Megatron reacts by throwing Vehicons at him from the sky, including one that can't fly.
- Quizzical Tilt: The Insecticon that Smokescreen passes through does this after seeing him run through a wall.
- Rule of Three: Starscream contacts Ratchet for a third time in the series for medical assistance in exchange for valuable, this time being the Omega Key he took from Smokescreen. He knows they are still too cautious to trust him, so he uses the lifeless body of his last clone to distrsct them while using the last of the Red Energon to rush through the base and steal the other Keys.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Starscream after the Red Energon wears off and Ratchet loudly annoucing he has the Omega Keys.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Smokescreen is cornered on the edge of the Nemesis.Megatron: A pity you are incapable of flight.
Smokescreen: Yeah, like I'm gonna let that stop me. [jumps] - Skyward Scream:
- Megatron after Smokescreen steals both keys.
- Optimus is not above losing his cool in the Transformers franchise, but this makes this the first time in the series that we ever see him do so, after Starscream steals the three right from Autobot HQ.
- Thanatos Gambit: Ratchet investigating the lifeless Starscream clone allows the real 'Scream extra time to steal the Omega Keys, though he almost wastes it to gloat.
- Time for Plan B: When Megatron prevents Smokescreen from going through the first midair Ground Bridge, he resorts to using the Phase Shifter as he hits the ground below. He emerges from another area unscathed then asks for another Ground Bridge while Megatron searches in confusion.
- Villain Ball:
- Starscream and his big mouth yet again. When sneaking into the Autobot Base while fueled by Red Energon, he takes every opportunity to gloat about how fast he's gotten, even stopping to gloat about Airachnid's (well-deserved) predicament inside an Insecticon hive. Had he just taken the keys he would've had time to slash the Autobots with his sharp fingers and arrived home without having to run.
- Megatron could have found out the location of the Autobot's base if he flew to the portal with reinforcements and acquired all 4 Omega keys when Ratchet opened up the Ground Bridge. Instead, he pushes Smokescreen away from the portal, setting the Decepticons back to square one on finding the Autobot base.
- You Have Failed Me: Megatron decides Knockout being stuck in a corridor due to the Phase Shifter's effects will make him a perfect demonstration of those who fail him.
