Inside Job

Inside Job is the forty-ninth episode of Transformers: Prime. It aired on October 12, 2012.

Premise
Smokescreen makes an escape from the Decepticon warship and brings the remaining Omega Keys back. Meanwhile, Starscream devises a plan to get the keys from the Autobot base.

Synopsis
Smokescreen regains consciousness to find himself on a slab in the Decepticon warship with Knock Out standing over him. Megatron demands the final relic, pointing out Soundwave's work decrypting the Iacon database has revealed an image of Smokescreen, but Smokescreen is merely confused as to what it means. Knock Out scans the Autobot, and finds the last relic is hidden inside.

The other Autobots, meanwhile, realize that the Decepticons must have decoded the last coordinates and speculate that Smokescreen holds the Omega Key inside him, largely due to being installed within him while unconscious by Alpha Trion.

Knock Out advances on the alarmed Smokescreen with a rotary saw, only to reveal he's actually going to use the Phase Shifter to do the operation. He reaches inside Smokescreen and soon has the Omega Key in hand. Smokescreen refuses to tell the Decepticons what the Omega Keys are, but Megatron has ways of finding out.

Starscream ruminates on the one Omega Key he possesses, while talking to his dead clone. Imagining himself in charge of a reborn Cybertron, he quickly realizes that he doesn't have the resources he would need to rule it. Megatron listens in on Prime's briefing about the Omega Keys, thanks to a cortical psychic patch hooked up to Smokescreen. Once they've learned all they need, Knock Out unplugs the pair and Megatron orders Knock Out to use the patch to find the location of the Autobot base so they can retrieve the other Omega Keys. After Megatron leaves to put their new key in a safe place, Knock Out moves in, only for Smokescreen to grab the phase shifter attached to his wrist and uses it to free himself. The pair grapple until Smokescreen manages to pull the device from his opponent's wrist, leaving Knock Out embedded in a bulkhead. Though Knock Out points out Smokescreen has no means of escape from the ship, Smokescreen has plans of his own. Through use of the phase shifter, he manages to catch up with Megatron near the storage area, where he snatches back the Omega Key and takes the one in storage as well. The Decepticons attempt to stop him, but their firepower passes straight through him. He eventually reaches the outer hull, only to be confronted by Megatron. With no other choice, the Autobot bails the ship.

At the Autobot base, Ratchet picks up Smokescreen's signal, but has trouble locking on due to the fact that Smokescreen is plummeting through the air. Harried by Vehicons, Smokescreen drops towards the Ground Bridge Ratchet opens, only to be knocked off-course by Megatron. He uses the phase shifter to pass through the ground. Moments later, Megatron lands and demands his subordinates search the wreckage. Smokescreen bridges back to base, where the Autobots congratulate him, but wonder where the fourth key is. Their query is answered a moment later when they get a message from Starscream offering the key in return for the replacement of his T-Cog. Having considered it, Optimus Prime decides it's too important to not take Starscream up on his offer.

Optimus, Ratchet and Bulkhead bridge to a forested location and approach Starscream, only to find him apparently dead. It is, of course, just the dead clone, as the real Starscream uses his Red Energon to nip through the Ground Bridge into the Autobot base. Moving too fast to be seen, he is tempted at first to finish off the slow-moving Autobots, but goes back to finding the Omega Keys first. The Autobots in the field realize they've been deceived just as Starscream blows open the vault holding the keys. Though Optimus orders Arcee to close the Ground Bridge, it is too slow to prevent Starscream from escaping the base. He stops to mock Optimus, Ratchet and Bulkhead, only for the Red Energon to wear off right at the worst possible moment. After firing a missile at the Autobots, he frantically opens his own Ground Bridge and escapes back to the Harbinger, much to Optimus's despair. Though Bulkhead and Ratchet believe they can get the keys back Optimus grimly announces the fate of Cybertron is now in Starscream's hands.

Despite Knock Out's pleas, Megatron refuses to release him from the wall. Megatron and Dreadwing return to the bridge, where they find Starscream who has come with a peace offering of all four Omega keys in his possession.

Trivia

 * Megatron and Optimus scream exactly the same way after losing their Omega Keys.

Gallery
Main Article: Inside Job/Gallery