After the new Sentinel security program malfunctions, Rattrap is trapped alone inside the Maximal base, and must disarm it.
Tropes:
- Abandon Ship: With Sentinel mistaking the Maximals for intruders and arming the defenses, Rhinox calls for this.
- Batman Gambit: Optimus shakes up Waspinator in order to see where he flees to. Though the Maximals lose sight of him in the end, they're close enough that Tigatron is able to pick up the trail.
- Big "NO!": Blackarachnia when Tigatron throws the activated sonic emitter into the ground.
- Big Red Button: What Rattrap needs to press to shut Sentinel down. Getting pinned by debris makes pushing it a challenge, especially with the Shatterfield about to fire.
- Blood Knight: Dinobot is unimpressed by Sentinel's tangler gun measures, preferring more lethal options.
- Bullying a Dragon: Rattrap testing the security program on Dinobot. It nearly gets him skewered.
- Character Development: Rattrap is officially less of a cowardly jackass and more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. This gets lampshaded by Rattrap himself. (See Honor Before Reason)
- "Die Hard" on an X: A malfunctioning Sentinel identifies the Maximals as intruders, so it arms the defenses and raises the shield. While the others are locked out, Rattrap heads into the vents and braves assorted defenses while trying to reach the computer core.
- Disney Death: Rattrap is presumed dead when Sentinel lowers the shield. Then he descends out of the ship while they're mourning him.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: The reason Waspinator left was because he was doing all the labor and getting repeatedly insulted by Blackarachnia.
- Due to the Dead: When they think Rattrap died, Optimus and Rhinox speak well of him. Dinobot, too, in his own way.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Waspinator insisted that instead of continuing their operation, they should deal with Optimus first. Well, actually Tigatron, since Optimus had crashed into a rock pursuing Waspinator, but still.
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: As the Maximals mourn Rattrap's apparent demise, the episode does an Iris Out. Partway through it, though, we hear a noise from the ship and cut to a living Rattrap.
- Foreshadowing: Dinobot does not believe in leaving out a person's negative qualities after that person has died. This comes up again when Dinobot himself dies.
- Gadgeteer Genius:
- Rhinox has devised Sentinel as a base security system, outfitting it with assorted defenses.
- Blackarachnia devised the sonic emitter as a way to break into the Maximal Base for a sneak attack.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: When the group thinks Rattrap died, Dinobot in particular calls out his assorted faults before sheepishly acknowledging that he would actually miss him.
- Honor Before Reason: Rattrap cops to how he helped cause this mess and therefore needs to clean it up.Rattrap: Oh, man, I'm startin' to sound like Optimus Pinhead.
- Hope Spot: Rattrap takes out a blaster in the shaft with a bomb. Before he can even catch his breath, though, Sentinel ups the ante with three blasters all primed to fire at once.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Dinobot objects to the security system being designed with nonlethal responses. Rattrap attempts to demonstrate that Dinobot is overrating himself, but the initial nonlethal response Dinobot is hit with fails to stop him.
- Little "No": Rhinox when the shield deactivates. He says that's only supposed to happen when an intruder is dealt with.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Averted - the Maximals don't leave out Rattrap's faults while eulogising him.Optimus: He was a difficult Maximal to deal with - at times, impossible. But I'll remember him with honor.
Dinobot: I won't disgrace his memory with lies! He was a stinking, omnivorous pestilence!...Still, in some perverse way, I will miss him.
Rhinox: Sure, he smelled bad; he was a rat. But he was my best friend. - Nice Job Breaking It Heroes: The Sentinel program malfunctions thanks to another of Rattrap and Dinobot's squabbles. Lampshaded by Rhinox.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Rattrap when a very pissed off Dinobot breaks free of the tanglers and charges him.
- Rattrap again when confronted by the Shatterfield blaster.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Tigatron gets rather touchy when Optimus suggests sending some back-up to assist him.Tigatron: I need no help hunting Predacons! And I prefer to hunt alone.
- Percussive Maintenance: Without the proper access code, Rattrap struggles to open the computer core's panel with simple typing. Hitting the panel with his fist, though, reveals the Big Red Button.
- Say My Name: "RATTRAP!"
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The Predacons scram before the emitter explodes.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Blackarachnia's view of being teamed with Terrorsaur and Waspinator for this mission.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Blackarachnia has zero tolerance for the fliers. She repeatedly insults Waspinator and pulls a gun on Terrorsaur to force him into finishing the manual labor.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Rattrap when cornered by three blasters in the shaft.
- Title Drop: Once Rhinox, Dinobot and Cheetor have evacuated the base, with Rattrap trapped inside:Dinobot (to Rhinox): Apparently, you built a better mousetrap.
- Wave-Motion Gun: The Shatterfield, the last defense that Rattrap faces after getting to the computer core. Dodging a blast is tricky enough, but the beam scatters debris everywhere, leaving Rattrap pinned. He just barely manages to shut down the system before getting fried.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: All of those defense systems Sentinel employs throughout the episode? They never appear again. Hell, Sentinel is never active when Predacons are inside the ship, and half the time Predacons are outside the ship as well. The impenetrable shield also never comes back, as the Axalon's shields are brought down by sustained or concentrated fire several times throughout the rest of the series.
