Call of the Wild
Title card via TFWiki, fan-archive fair use
The crews’ beast modes begin to overwhelm their robot minds, threatening to turn them feral as the Energon fields surge.
A cheetah enthusiastically chases some antelopes, when the ground around it breaks up and it is sent falling into hot lava. Before the cat gets burned, the sequence ends, revealed to be a dream of Cheetor's. Cheetor awakens from his nightmare in time to hear the alarms triggered by a Predacon assault. As the other Maximals prepare Sentinel, Dinobot drags Cheetor outside to battle.
Primal exits the Maximals' control room via the roof hatch, but is unable to prevent Waspinator and Terrorsaur from grabbing a piece of Maximal hardware off the roof and retreating with the other Predacons. A well-placed rocket from Megatron prevents Primal from chasing the fliers. Airazor is just able to catch the Maximal leader before he crashes into the ground, but lowering Primal after taking a hit from Terrorsaur seriously taxes Airazor's systems. On the upside, the Predacons are no longer attacking.
Inside the base, recuperating, the Maximals suddenly feel the harmful effects of energon build-up. Rhinox explains that without the rectifier coil the Predacons stole, the Maximals will have to stay in beast mode. Meanwhile, the Predacons, after an uncharacteristically successful mission, enjoy a hearty laugh together.
Days later, Rhinox interrupts a dream Primal has (of being a real ape) to mention that Predacons are still haunting the local area. Rattrap suffers frustration from his beast mode's diminutive size and limb length. Primal and Rattrap almost get into a fight with each other, their minds suffering from bestial traits leaking into their personalities, but Rhinox lays down the line. Once the Preds leave, the Maximals take some much-needed rest.
In his dreams, Primal is tormented by eyes glowing in the dark, Dinobot dreams of hunting surprisingly tiny hadrosaurs, and Rattrap dreams of rat stuff. The dreams overpower their respective dreamers, and the Maximals awaken, trapped in the mindsets of the creatures whose forms they wear. The animals all eventually exit their base. Their foes' intellects gone, Megatron and the Predacons begin their hunt.
Airazor exits the CR chamber to meet Tigatron in the empty Maximal base. Tigatron resolves to reform his Maximal companions before they're killed, while Airazor has her own mission. She heads to the unoccupied Predacon base, deftly dodging the automated defenses. Inside, the rectifier coil is under no protection she can't destroy.
In the jungle, Tigatron comes to face the feral Cheetor and Rhinox. The two follow him for reasons their animal minds don't comprehend. Next Tigatron recruits the primal Optimus into his party, and finally Dinobot and Rattrap. His friends gathered, Tigatron speaks to the dormant minds of his friends. He explains how the schism that exists between the Maximals' two modes is a side effect of a programming block, and as long as that program exists, the animal and Maximal identities will never reach cohesion. Now embracing the beasts within, the restored Maximals are ready to "Slag some bot!"
Primal swings Megatron off of his throne as the two Maximal cats tackle the two Predacon goons who were carrying their leader. Dinobot's raptor mode conquers Blackarachnia. Rhinox knocks over a tree to ground the Predacon fliers, and a ratball special puts Rattrap into position to pump gunfire into Terrorsaur. After the Predacons start to feel the effects of energon build-up, Megatron orders a retreat, and Optimus beats his chest, roaring in victory.
—Rattrap on Cheetor.
—Airazor spots the Axalon under attack.
—Megatron's order comes a wee bit too late to save Tarantulas.
—Waspinator in a rare moment of having the upper hand... It won't last.
—Airazor shows some wit.
- An unproduced Beast Wars episode named "A Greater Ape" would have adopted the basic premise of a Maximal believing themselves to be a real animal, focusing specifically on Optimus Primal. It's unknown if this episode was written after Mainframe scrapped the aforementioned concept, citing the need for too many expensive models. Similar concepts regarding how well Maximals integrate their beast and robot modes would later surface in Beast Machines. The idea of the Maximals temporarily turning feral was revisited in that series in "Forbidden Fruit", but for different reasons.
- When the Maximal computer announces that the Predacons are withdrawing from the area, text in the Maximal version of the Cybertronix language scrolls by the bottom of the screen, and more text flashes in blue in the middle of the screen. The blue flashing text reads "area clear", and the text on the bottom reads "its been a long time since ive had sweet thistle pie".
- In his beast dream, Dinobot—supposedly experiencing the instincts of his beast mode, Asia's Velociraptor—dreams of chasing what appears to be a Parasaurolophus, which only lived in the Americas and which furthermore is portrayed as far too small. Since the creature is never actually named, it may be taken as representing a different dinosaur species as-yet-undiscovered.
- When Megatron "suggests" to his troops to laugh with him, Blackarachnia is the only one who refuses to pay him that courtesy. Clearly, Dinobot is not the only who's got some bearings of chrome steel.
- Despite them regularly sporting Predacon symbols since "Chain of Command", Scorponok's missiles are yet again shown with Maximal insignias when he attacks the Axalon.
- This is the first and only appearance of Megatron's double-barreled hunting gun, a weapon that seemingly conceptualized out of nowhere rather than being taken from his toy, which included no such accessory. The purple scaly skin texture of the weapon suggests it originates from Megatron's Beast Mode construction as opposed to having been made just for the occasion, in the same vein as Cheetor's Gut Gun.
Screencaps via TFWiki (Teletraan I), used under fan-archive fair use.