The Five Faces of Darkness, part 2

With the two Autobots drastically outnumbered, it looks like they're doomed, but it turns out that since the Decepticons are so weak, their guns are as well, so they opt for simply battering Rodimus to death with their guns. However, what looks like a flaming meteor flies dangerously close and looks like it's going to crash into them all...
 

Though it turns out to be the asteroid ship belonging to Springer and Arcee, who deploy two of the pincers to pick up Rodimus and Grimlock to make a quick exit. Since the rest of the Decepticons are pretty much useless at the minute, Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps collect energon cubes and set off to revive Galvatron.
 

Back to those that were kidnapped, it turns out their kidnappers were the Sharkticons and their masters the Quintessons are interrogating Kup above the Sharkticon pit, asking him about the current status of Cybertron's defence systems. Despite his lies, they get correct answers in that the defence system is working well, while Ultra Magnus and Spike ponder over this apparent mind reading ability, though for Spike they seem less eager to interrogate.

Springer and Arcee land the ship and check on Rodimus, who doesn't seem to be in good shape, and is acting suspiciously like when Optimus Prime was dying, preparing to pass the Matrix of Leadership onto Springer. He denies it and tells him to simply stay alive, but with his optics dimming, Rodimus' life force slowly slips away.
 

After a mood ruining scream from Grimlock, the Dinobot suggests that Rodimus is alive; if he were dead, the Matrix would've emerged, so his life force must still be somewhere.

Thus ensues a very trippy dream sequence that involves about fifty explosions, the Quintessons form in his mind, and Rodimus re-enters consciousness while uttering their name. And after some welcoming back, Rodimus reveals he went inside the Matrix.

Rodimus tells the others about his mishaps during the movie on Quintessa, saying that he had no idea what the crimes they were being punished for were, so naturally that's where they have to go. Springer refuses, saying that Rodimus needs taking to Cybertron for rest, but the big cheese reminds him that he's in charge here, and he reluctantly obeys.

Other on Quintessa, the Sharkticons are taking their prisoners to their execution, but Kup proposes a spur-of-the-moment brawl to overpower them...

And it works! Kup and Magnus take care of the guards while Spike handles the sole Quintesson with them, grabbing his tentacles and a gun while threatening to blast him to smithereens. However, he does this while in the execution chamber, so the other Quintessons merely open the trap door to the Sharkticon pit, dooming the lot of them.

"Why do I feel like I've seen this before?"

While the walls slide away to reveal the Quintessons watching behind a glass panel, Cyclonus and the others arrive at Thrull, Scourge being sent to pluck Galvatron out of the ooze. He blindly obeys, Cyclonus happy to be the one who merely watches, and their leader rises once more.

Galvatron, however, seems more unhappy to have his "plasma bath" disturbed than be rescued, and sets about thumping Cyclonus on the noggin, ranting about deliverance and kingdom of desolation and all kinds of awesome nonsense before pushing him into the lava.
 

Cyclonus gets out, only to be met with a boot to the chin and sent flying forty feet into the lava again while his leader blows up a boulder while cackling wildly and claiming it's great to see his right-hand man again. The Sweeps are naturally rather discombobulated, and hail their leader regardless.
 

While Rodimus prepares to arrive at Quintessa, Spike questions the Quintessons on what crime he committed; he is a partner of the Autobots, and therefore guilty by association, while the Autobots are guilty of theft, as they did not always occupy Cybertron. Spike and Ultra Magnus are surprised at this statement, but Kup just says they're crazy.

The Quintessons sense that help is arriving the Autobots, the Matrix of Leadership onboard their ship, and believe this to be the perfect opportunity to obliterate it and therefore destroy the Autobots' stability. However, since the ship is on a direct course with the chamber, they bust out the defence systems and blow the thing to oblivion.

Back on Thrull, Galvatron demands to know where his legion of followers are; Cyclonus answers, saying the "gun fodder" are on Cybertron while he and the Sweeps will be his elite guards. Galvatron laughs at this, and begins firing upon them all for no reason, blasting a few into the lava, though ends his shooting spree when Scourge hails him and proclaims that he recognises Galvatron as his only superior. With that affirmation, they set off back to Cyberton.

But not without exploding Thrull, of course!

While the Autobots fight off the Sharkticons, Springer, Arcee and Grimlock arrive, having sent an empty ship in their direction, and Grimlock leaps off to stop the escaping Quintessons, only for the aliens to simply fly right past him and send him crashing into an empty throne. Springer lowers himself down to pick up those in the Sharkticon pit and fly themselves to higher ground.

Since they've no ship, the Aerialbots arrive to take down the defences and get their friends to safety. The Quintessons, however, escape in one of their ships and start the detonation of their planet, regretting that they'll never see the horror on their faces as they die, but if it destroys the Matrix then it's good enough for them. The Autobots board Silverbolt and the Aerialbots all head into a larger craft to escape, just as Quintessa detonates around them...

For taking account of probability and percentages and all that hoo haa, it sure is reckless of the Quintessons to just blow up their planet without measuring a possibility of their survival or something.

And since it's revealed that the shadowy figures in the last episode are Sharkticons, it's not like you could tell. There are only a few shots in that episode where the figures had the rotund frame of the guards, a majority of the time just being muscular robot things. So much for suspense.

Galvatron sadly loses his immense power in this episode shortly after, so no more planet exploding. =(

Rodimus' voice is the same in this and the previous episode, but for some reason, the recap at the beginning uses a different voice actor for him, sounding more like the younger Hot Rod than pessimistic jerk face Rodimus.

[recap voice] [episode 1 voice]

I recall reading somewhere that they had a preliminary voice actor for Rodimus before choosing Dick Gautier, and it had the name of this first guy but no idea if it was actually Judd Nelson or just some other guy. Hurf.

Not only is Rumble the same size as Soundwave in this episode...

But they have drastically different designs in this one shot.