Dark Awakening
Title card via TFWiki, fan-archive fair use
A resurrected Optimus Prime returns, but the Autobots' joy turns to horror when his motives prove sinister.
On the run from Galvatron, Rodimus Prime, Arcee, Ultra Magnus, Kup, Spike and Daniel try the old "detonate three-quarters of the ship" trick to lose their pursuers. What's left of the ship can't support human life for long, however, so they take refuge on board the nearby Autobot Mausoleum, an interstellar tomb containing many of their deceased comrades, most notably the venerated Optimus Prime.
While exploring by himself, Daniel is stuck in a dark room with robot corpses and gets appropriately creeped out... particularly when he sees what looks like the fully animated form of Optimus Prime. When he finds the others he swears he has seen Optimus Prime alive. To satisfy his curiosity and against the opinions of the other Autobots, Rodimus opens Prime's tomb, only to find it empty. However, they cannot investigate further because the Decepticons have followed them inside and attack them (turns out Galvatron has wised up to the detonate-three-quarters thing.) The fierce battle that follows appears lost for the Autobots, when suddenly they are saved by none other than Optimus Prime. With their ranks bolstered by the mighty warrior's firepower, they quickly drive the freaked out Decepticons into retreat.
The Autobots are amazed and confused at Prime's presence. Optimus can give them no explanation to his apparent resurrection, just the typical near-death experience of seeing darkness and then a light at the end of the tunnel. Rodimus Prime eagerly (too eagerly) returns the Matrix of Leadership to him, despite Prime's bizarre behavior and damaged appearance, and against the advice of Kup and Ultra Magnus. Without the Matrix inside him, Rodimus reverts to Hot Rod and declares, "Let's party!" Optimus evidently has other plans and attacks the Autobots and sets the auto-destruct sequence to the mausoleum ship. He then departs and leaves the others stranded.
After returning to Cybertron, Optimus informs the Autobots that Rodimus and the others were killed by the Quintessons. This puts everyone in a pretty bad mood (Springer swears vengeance - particularly for Arcee - while Grimlock spends at least a minute stomping and thumping his tail). Optimus re-assumes command and orders an all-out attack on a supposed Quintesson base.
Hot Rod and his group manage to escape, mere moments before the mausoleum ship plunges into a star and explodes. They return to Cybertron, but find nobody around but the Dinobots. Turns out most of the Autobots have left to attack the Quintessons. They pursue their friends in their own ship, but arrive to find the Autobot fleet already being decimated by Quintesson missile fire. Their frantic calls to stop the attack are dismissed by Optimus as Quintesson tricks.
Hot Rod and the others finally manage to board the lead ship, and the former Rodimus goes "Optimus hunting" after his zombified mentor. When the two meet, Optimus starts to pound on Hot Rod, but as he's kicking Hot Rod's tailpipe he begs Hot Rod to defeat him.
Fighting against both Hot Rod and himself, Optimus flashes back to his own reanimation at the hands of the Quintessons, who stole his corpse and reanimated it with their own evil programming to lead all Autobots into a trap. Optimus is nothing more than a "robotic zombie", combined with "lingering remnants" of his personality and memories. Hot Rod puts up a brave fight in a moment of compassion trying to help Optimus, Hot Rod is physically overcome by Optimus, but the influence of the Matrix allows Prime to overcome the Quintessons' programming. Ending the fight, Optimus returns the Matrix to Hot Rod's chest cavity, restoring him to his status as Rodimus Prime. As Optimus Prime takes his leave, the other Autobots find their battered leader and inform him that the equally battered ship is being evacuated.
Optimus Prime takes control of the ship, and orders the Autobot fleet away from the Quintesson trap.
—As Spike wonders about the limited oxygen for the first time in life in the Autobot life pod, Rodimus Prime takes "deadpan" to a whole new level.
—Galvatron wants to add insult to injury.
— For just one brief chill-bump moment, Optimus Prime is back.
—Rodimus misses some critical clues from Optimus Prime's behavior.
—Arcee freaks out the Dinobots.
- Galvatron still has some degree of alliance with the Quintessons, despite their betrayal in "Five Faces of Darkness". (Of course, it's leading to another betrayal, as the Quintessons are presumably luring him and the Autobots to zombie Optimus's trap.)
- As an episode built around the events of the animated movie, Galvatron's order to examine the debris of the destroyed Autobot ship is almost certainly a callback to the last time he blew up an Autobot vessel from afar - he's wised up to the Autobots' "detonate three quarters of the ship" trick!
- Kup alludes to the Great War when Daniel asks about Optimus Prime's inclusion in the Mausoleum.
- The Autobot Mausoleum includes the Veil of Remembrance, a "memorial to the Autobot heroes whose chassis and servos rest here". Optimus Prime's tomb rested in a burial chamber on the other side of it.
- Besides Optimus, the interred Autobots whose names are read off by Daniel are Ironhide, Prowl, Ratchet, and Huffer. The first three were killed off in The Transformers: The Movie, all in the same scene, in fact. This is the first time we learn of Huffer's death, however. The absence of Brawn (also killed off in the same scene) has led to joking fandom speculation that he must have survived getting shot in the shoulder (bolstered by his and Huffer's animation-error appearance in "Carnage in C-Minor"). Wheeljack and Windcharger's bodies weren't even mentioned, despite their offscreen deaths in the movie.
- The dead Autobot that nearly squashes Daniel isn't Ironhide, but follows his general design pattern: rounded head helmet, boxy torso with a front window chest. The details are off, though, and of course he's got a totally different color scheme (mostly gray, with an olive green chest).
Screencaps via TFWiki (Teletraan I), used under fan-archive fair use.