Madman's Paradise

Rodimus Prime and his crew are introducing an ambassador to Cybertron, letting her meet the Witwicky family who are Earth's ambassadors, but ultimately this has nothing to do with the episode's story and is merely a simple way of getting Daniel bored and making him wander off, meeting up with a ridiculously dressed Grimlock as they roam into an area they are unfamiliar with and end up opening a secret tunnel!
 

The two accidentally fall down, sliding down a shaft and flying across a hazardous gap, ending up in a room they assume no one has entered in years, filled with ancient hieroglyphics and a large carving of men fighting a great dragon. Grimlock's needless showing off causes his tail to hit it, causing the circle in the floor of the room to grow and begin absorbing the two morons.
 

The two end up in a bizarre marsh like area, which Grimlock suggests is possibly an American state, but the fact there's a crooked cliff with a mysterious castle at it's peak along with wacky pterodactyl creatures around them gets them the same answer: They should find a way back home. The pterodactyl sets off to said castle and informs the man inside, a red wizard, of the two's presence, who assumes they are more of "the golden one's" minions.

Daniel and Grimlock, while exploring, are surrounded by trees that shape shift into half tree-man half mammoths things that claim they are minions of the golden one, and question them on which side they fight for; choosing no alliance is apparently the wrong answer, as the creatures immediately fling a boomerang at them and then try tying Grimlock down, only to bust out some spears to weaken him some more.

Meanwhile, Carly can't find Daniel anywhere, and after the ambassador informs her that she last saw him with Grimlock, Blaster and his cassettes are brought in to sniff out the trail and investigate.
 

Grimlock isn't faring too well against the tree creatures, as Daniel is a crappy fighter and one of them uses a sword that freezes his leg, leaving him to topple over and be tied up, with the Red Wizard watching and believing he could find use for the robotic reptile. He uses lightning to send the creatures scattering and reverting to tree form before sending a minion to appear before them, who leads them to the castle despite Daniel being told never to go off with strangers.

Upon arriving, the two are enlightened on who or what the Red Wizard is: Long ago, this red magic dabbler fell from a red circle in the sky and was the favourite student of the Golden One, though after the Golden One vanished mysteriously, the Red Wizard took over position of ruling the land himself, invoking an era of great prosperity, though people aimed to overthrow him, and with Grimlock's help, they could withhold this prosperity forever. Though in actuality the Red Bastard shot the Golden One into a cave, sealed it with a boulder and generally made everyone's lives a misery. That's propaganda the minion's telling, kids!

The minion notices Daniel sleeping, so has the wooden robot guards take him away to somewhere he can "rest comfortably", also known as a holding cell, while Grimlock is taken to the battlements to see his opponents and given a lecture on why he's needed to fight even though the Red Wizard is so powerful, leaving the poor Dinobot rather distraught at the opponents' ruthlessness. He's told when the fighting will start, but magic lightning striking by suggests that the fighting is starting early, leaving the minion to make an exit while Grimlock promises to fight strong.

 Steeljaw and Ramhorn, meanwhile, discover Grimlock's tattered apron and the secret tunnel while Ultra Magnus collects Perceptor before heading down, so he and Rewind can translate the hieroglyphics, revealing that the tunnel they're in was used long ago to dispose of Quintesson criminals (I didn't know there were innocent ones!). Essentially, they got the ne'er-do-gooders and chucked them into alternate dimensions, and the clever cassette man believes Daniel went into the dimension they're in now with a name that's impossible to spell; everyone, including Carly, enters to retrieve the two while Perceptor is left to get them back out again, if possible.

Back to Daniel, he realises a red-robed elder chained to the wall in his cell, who tells him that the Golden One is an enemy of the Red Wizard, what with the crimson sorcerer imprisoning both the gold guy and his minion, whose form was used by the Red Wizard earlier when telling the tale, and the armies that Grimlock was ordered to fight are doomed to fail without the Golden One to lead them. Daniel releases the minion, who claims he can lead him to the Golden One's location, but getting him out is a whole different ballgame.
 

Meanwhile, the army attacks and without the Red Wizard to lead him, Grimlock just stands there like a moron and lets boulders smack into the side of his head, though he does eventually come out in the form of a fireball and starts ruining the Golden One's army's shit.
 

The attack ends up destroying the outer wall of the cells, allowing the prisoners to escape and for the minion to lead Daniel to the cave where the Golden One is imprisoned, and begs him for help, a strong wind blowing Daniel's cufflink away. Meanwhile, the other Autobots arrive and are happily taking part in defending the castle, though Carly finds the cufflink, so she, Steeljaw and Ramhorn head off in the direction it came from.

Daniel and Carly reunite, the latter of them telling the other about the army's attack being driven off, which is bad news for those that actually know the real situation, though before the minion can go whining some more, Ramhorn busts the stone and the Golden One is free once more!

The minion informs him of what's up in a single sentence, the Golden One responding by becoming the golden dragon and flying off, arriving at the castle in seconds flat and using eye lasers to reveal the Red Wizard's true form: A Quintesson! One who had been thrown into this dimension for practising witchcraft! How convenient! He informs the Golden One that he has become more powerful than last time; powerful enough to deprive him of his dragon form, even.

The Golden One explains that the only way to defeat the Red Wizard is via counter-spells, though he's too weak to hurl them out, so Blaster transforms and uses his microphone to amplify his magic words, causing the Quintesson to get coated in electricity and fall out of the window, exploding on contact with the ground and leaving no remains.

Even though he blowed up real good, the Golden One claims if the Red Wizard does return, he'll be ready; and with the day saved, our heroes haven't much else to do but go home, so with Perceptor opening the portal again and the Golden One elevating them through it, they arrive safely back on Cybertron.

Even though he just saved an alternate dimension, Spike still needs to have a word with his son, though Daniel claims it was all an accident, and Grimlock backs him up by saying he didn't mean to get all dirty. Everyone begins laughing at the Dinobot's statement, leaving Grimlock confused and left out. Poor Grimlock. =(

If the Golden One is the most powerful wizard there is, why couldn't he just magic the boulder away?

One wonders why Perceptor is even in this episode; he gets two brief lines and contributes in no way at all to a role that could've been easily replaced with someone less major, like Springer or someone.

Steeljaw receives a hug before Carly arrives, which is a surprising amount of affection given to someone who did pretty much nothing in this episode.