Last week, we had a Cheetor focused episode, which made sense since his youthful personality made him the perfect audience surrogate for the show's intended demographic. This week we get... another Cheetor focused episode where Cheetor's recklessness gets him into a sticky situation. The placement of this episode is a little bit odd, seeing as we've had two episodes asides from the pilot that involve Cheetor getting into trouble. However, this is another episode that is salvaged through the characters and how they interact with each other.
When a planned mission to disable the Predacon's crashed ship to gain a tactical advantage is put off on account of an incoming storm, Dinobot convinces Cheetor to undertake the mission anyway. The mission quickly goes awry when lighting strikes a surveilence post that Cheetor ended up accidentally placing close to an Energon vein, transporting Cheetor onto a control panel in the Predacon ship. After a brief scuffle, Terrorsaur ends up transporting to the Maximal ship. Cheetor isn't out of danger though, as he soon finds himself in the sights of both Scorponok and Waspinator.
Plot wise - this episode is very similar to last weeks. There is some discrepency with the way that last week Cheetor found himself held captive by Tarantulas and was nearly eaten, and this week ends up taking on another stupid risk that results in him having to deal with the Predacons. You'd think that he would have learned his lesson from that, but this episode sees him being just as reckless. Like last week, the thing that makes the episode so watchable is the characters and the dynamics they have with each other.
With this being another Cheetor focused episode, it makes sense to start by discussing him. At the start of the episode, he just wants to prove himself and overestimates his abilities. He feels that Optimus treats him like a kid, which frustrates him as he wants to be seen as equal to his fellow Maximals. While he feels that he would be able to complete the mission, Primal forbids it due to how dangerous it would be. This is something that Dinobot is able to play into - after Optimus forbids them from going on the mission, Dinobot preys upon Cheetor's ego in order to get him to partake in the mission anyway. This is enough to get Cheetor to disobey Optimus and plant the surveilence posts.
This time, the main Predecon of the week is Terrorsaur, who ends up trading places with Cheetor and ending up on the Axalon. He doesn't get super fleshed out, but from what we see of him, we get a sense of his personality and his goals. When he comes across Dinobot upon arriving on the Axalon, his first move is to try and talk Dinobot into an alliance, with the aim of taking on Megatron together and then taking command of the Predecons. This essentially makes Terrorsaur this show's version of Generation 1's traitorous Decepticon Starscream, who similarly had aims to take over command from his leader Megatron.
The other Predecons don't get much focus this episode, with Tarantulus being absent altogether and Megatron only making an appearence at the very end of the episode. For about half the episode, Cheetor finds himself on the run from Scorponok and Waspinator. Here, they just take the form of grunts that Cheetor needs to flee from. Waspinator will eventually become the show's main source of comic relief, whereas Scorponok won't get more characterisation outside of him being loyal to Megatron.
Although he doesn't get as much focus, the most interesting character in this episode is Dinobot. This episode positions him as more of an anti hero willing to take out the Predacons by any means necessary - only working with the Maximals as their aims are somewhat aligned. At the beginning of the episode, he is frustrated that Optimus is calling off the mission since he wants to completely destroy the Predacons with a bomb that he's constructed. This heavily clashes with Optimus who's only aim is to gain a tactical advantage by destroying the base rather than outright destroying the Predacons. Dinobot heavily objects since if the situation was reversed, Megatron would not hesitate to destroy the Maximals.
Having noticed Cheetor's willingness to partake in the mission regardless of Primal's orders, Dinobot then decides to play into this and puff up Cheetor's ego enough so that he'll disobey Optimus and go on the mission anyway. Then after Terrorsaur ends up on the Axalon, he is more than prepared to kill him, but then decides not to as it's more interesting how Terrorsaur ended up there. He feigns an alliance with him in order to figure this out, and then once he does so, he immediately ejects Terrorsaur from the Axalon. He then informs Optimus of what has happened, and Dinobot convinces him to use this link between the bases to send his bomb to the Predacon ship.
Optimus in this episode is shown to be the all knowing leader that he's already been established as, but it's also clear from this episode that he cares about his crew - feeling that going out in a storm for this mission would be incredibly risky, and not wanting to put his crew at risk unneccesarrily. We also see that he merely wants to capture the Predecons rather than killing them, which causes friction with Dinobot.
In it's own right, this is a pretty entertaining episode. However, it's placement in the show's episode order is a bit jarring as we get two Cheetor heavy episodes right in a row and they both have incredibly similar premises, something which hurts this episode a bit more. In spite of this, the character's interactions with each other manages to make this episode worth a watch.
Next week: The Maximals need to elect a new leader after Optimus goes missing in 'Chain of Command'
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