The Thrill of the Hunt

While Autobots encounter a mysterious muscle car creating havoc in Detroit, Ratchet keeps flashing back to his "tour of duty" in the Great Autobot-Decepticon Wars.

Synopsis
While debating the ethical dilemma of an auto parts store with Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, Ratchet’s old war wound tingles, making him think that trouble’s ahead. Just then, the lights in the city go out and the trio is confronted by a spiked muscle car with red headlamps. Thinking it’s a human out for a joyride, the Autobots go after the car. At a critical moment in the chase, Ratchet experiences a flashback to his days in the Great War.

Field tech Ratchet is in the middle of a war zone with a Decepticon barrage falling down around him. He’s found the object of his mission, an Autobot intelligence officer named Arcee. She is badly damaged and in need of immediate repair.

Ratchet flashes back into the present and is nearly run over by the muscle car, but is pushed out of the way by Bumblebee. The Autobots regroup at headquarters and Optimus inquires of Ratchet’s well being, but the crusty old bot doesn’t want to talk. Meanwhile, the tv news is broadcasting a live, high speed chase between the police and the strange car, and Ratchet experiences another flashback.

In the middle of the repair to Arcee, Ratchet loads her up and starts to evacuate the area, only to be caught and smacked down by a bounty hunter.

Flashing back in the present again, the Autobots begin the chase after the muscle car anew. Ratchet finally recognizes the muscle car as an old nemesis, Lockdown.

Another flashback reveals Ratchet and Arcee were the prisoners of Lockdown, who explains his work as a bounty hunter and his lack of allegiance to either side in the war. He also says he has a fondness for taking weapons and parts from his quarry as trophies and upgrades. This time, he’s taken Ratchet’s EMP generator as a trophy.

Flash forward to the present, and Prime finally forces Lockdown to stop. The bounty hunter incapacitates Prime with the EMP weapon and they disappear. In his hideout, Lockdown explains to a tied-up Optimus Prime about the bounty on his head for killing Megatron. Then he gets to work on removing Prime’s grapplers and installing them in his own body.

The Autobots scan the city for Prime, but don’t have much luck until Prowl finds that Lockdown’s ship is sitting in the middle of the city, cloaked as an ordinary warehouse. Before they roll out, Ratchet refuses to join the rescue mission without explanation.

Finished with his chop job on Optimus, Lockdown converses with Blitzwing, who is evidently the one who put the price on Prime’s head. The Autobots arrive at Lockdown’s ship and attack. Lockdown dispatches Bulkhead and Bumblebee without much trouble. However, Prowl is a bit harder for Lockdown to handle until the bounty hunter drops him with an EMP blast. Before he can take any more trophies, Ratchet arrives and confronts Lockdown. When he thinks he’s beaten the doc-bot, Ratchet reveals he was playing dead and throws Lockdown around with his magnetic powers. Inside Lockdown’s ship, Ratchet finds Prime and frees him, but Lockdown stops them from leaving. Ratchet takes him out again and when he’s pinned down, Ratchet forcibly removes the parts Lockdown stole from Prime.

Ratchet flashes back again when he and Arcee were Lockdown’s prisoners. In order to avoid interrogation from Megatron, Arcee asks Ratchet to use his EMP generator on her to wipe her memory core, which contains critical access codes for the Autobots. When Ratchet and Lockdown struggle for the device it overloads and goes off. Ratchet and Arcee are seen leaving Lockdown’s ship, but when Ratchet inquires of her condition, Arcee doesn’t know who she is or where they are, a result of the EMP blast.

In the present, Ratchet takes the EMP weapon back and zaps Lockdown’s ship. He escapes with Optimus as the ship crashes into a river.

Back at headquarters, Ratchet repairs Prime’s grapplers and then finally opens up to Optimus about his war experiences.

Stats

 * Written by: Andrew Robinson
 * Directed by: Ben Jones and Shunji Oga
 * Original airdate: January 19, 2008

Featured characters
Numbers indicate order of appearance.

Quotes
"Augh, it's primitive. It's barbaric. There ought to be a law against it!" "It's just an auto supply store, Ratchet." "You mean they actually sell spare parts on the open market? What kind of malfunction would be crass enough to buy this stuff?" "Hey guys, check out my new horn!"
 * - Ratchet, Optimus and Bumblebee. Evidently Bumblebee is crass enough.

"Ooh, I want to see him turn into a fire truck! Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh? Can I?"
 * - Crazy Blitzwing, being happy like a protoform in a supply shop.

"I'm not good with names and faces, but I never forget a trophy."
 * - Lockdown, best buddy of Kraven and Predator.

"Now that was just sad. HAHAHAHA."
 * - Lockdown, after supposedly taking out Ratchet with one shot.

"Humans call it playing possum. Don't ask me what a possum is."
 * - Ratchet after getting the drop on Lockdown. The doc-bot was playing roboto-possum, perhaps?

Transformers references

 * Bumblebee's "new horn" plays the traditional melody of the phrase "Ro-bots in Dis-guise"!

Miscellaneous trivia

 * This is the first episode of Animated where Sari does not appear.
 * This episode reveals how Ratchet's right horn got broken and why his left arm has a missing piece. Both were caused by Lockdown.
 * Susan Blu reprises her role of Arcee from the Generation One series.