Spotted

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"This isn't what the brochure said! I want my money back!"
"Spotted"
Production company	Allspark Animation
Airdate	September 7, 2019 (Australia/NZ) October 25, 2019 (CN app/website) November 2, 2019 (USA)
Writer	Zac Atkinson
Director	Jean Texier
Animation studio	Boulder Media Studio
Watch this episode on YouTube

Cheetor struggles to find ways to be useful to the Autobots, so Bumblebee offers to train him in scouting.

Synopsis

As the Autobots and Decepticons wage their war on Earth, Cheetor watches from afar, a silent observer to each of their battles. He returns to the AllSpark's resting place, musing that he hopes they might all be united together one day...

Aboard the Ark, Cheetor enters the bridge as Windblade returns from patrol, reporting no sign of Starscream, the seekers, or the AllSpark. Certain he will attack again, Optimus Prime reaffirms that Starscream must be found immediately. Each of the Autobots is dismissed to return to their assignments, but Cheetor wishes to know how he might contribute to the effort. He offers to help, but Hot Rod and Grimlock each politely decline, suggesting he find someone else like Ratchet.

Cheetor's habit of sneaking into areas unnoticed proceeds to catch the other Autobots by surprise, causing accidents and hindering his attempts to help. When he causes Ratchet to drop a case of energon canisters, he gets sent to help Wheeljack instead. When he causes Wheeljack to get caught by his own power paralyzer, he gets sent to Rack'n'Ruin. When he causes Rack'n'Ruin to knock over their stack of containers, he gets sent to Prowl. And when he causes Prowl's itchy trigger finger to let loose, he gets sent right back to Ratchet. Cheetor is discouraged, but Bumblebee offers to show him how he can help by teaching him how to be a scout.

Noting that Cheetor's stealthiness makes him an ideal scout, Bumblebee offers to teach him all he knows. Their first lesson consists of securing enemy intel, with Bumblebee ordering Cheetor to steal Prowl's rifle cartridge, one of Ratchet's canisters, and Wheeljack's power paralyzer without being seen, which Cheetor passes with flying colors. For their second lesson on tracking the enemy, Bumblebee hides and tells Cheetor to find him. Transforming to beast mode, Cheetor begins hunting for Bumblebee, only to hear him struggling in the distance. Cheetor follows the sound and finds Nova Storm, Thundercracker and Thrust attacking Bumblebee, who tells him to run. Cheetor takes off, but the seekers follow and begin to close in. Cheetor and Bumblebee lead them on a chase through a series of GroundBridges in an attempt to lose them. Using an explosion to conceal their movements, Cheetor and Bumblebee evade the seekers and return through the GroundBridge, only to be restrained by Acid Storm lying in wait. Starscream appears and gloats before knocking the two out.

When Cheetor and Bumblebee come to, they find themselves surrounded by Scraplets on all sides. Starscream emerges from a GroundBridge and tosses a Decepticon soldier's body for his children to feast on. He explains that the AllSpark is not there, as he does not want Cheetor to draw power from it, and instead intends to remove Cheetor's spark and merge it with his own so that he might similarly tap into the AllSpark. To prove his methods, Starscream has Bumblebee restrained and wired up to a machine along with one of the Scraplets. Acid Storm activates the machine, and it begins extracting Bumblebee's spark to merge with the Scraplet.

Thinking quickly, Cheetor opens the energon canister he took and splashes it on the other seekers, drawing the Scraplets away from him. Before the machine can finish, Cheetor slices the transfer cable and frees Bumblebee. Starscream orders the others to stop them, but Cheetor tosses the rifle cartridge and blasts it, triggering an explosion to cover them. As they run through the GroundBridge, one of the Scraplets manages to latch onto Cheetor, but the bridge closes before any more can follow. Bumblebee goes to his friend, but discovers to his relief that Cheetor used the power paralyzer to disable the Scraplet before it could strike. Bringing it back to the Ark, Wheeljack is excited by the progress he will be able to make studying a live specimen, and Optimus commends student and teacher, believing Cheetor will make a great Autobot scout.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Bumblebee (2) Cheetor (3) Windblade (4) Optimus Prime (7) Grimlock (8) Hot Rod (9) Ratchet (10) Wheeljack (11) Rack'n'Ruin (12) Prowl (13)	Thundercracker (1) Slipstream (5) Megatron (6) Nova Storm (14) Thrust (15) Acid Storm (16) Starscream (17) Decepticon soldier (19)	Scraplets (18)

Quotes

"I was only going to ask–"
"You're not very good at asking."

—Cheetor tries to help Prowl.

Notes

Continuity notes

• The flashbacks in the opening sequence feature scenes from Bumblebee and Thundercracker's battle from "Memory" and Windblade and Slipstream's fight from "Whiteout". The Optimus vs. Megatron fight is new, though, presumably taking place during the timeskip between "Eruption" and "Sea of Tranquility".
• The running gag of Rack'n'Ruin stacking boxes, only for them to be knocked down again, first appeared in "The Visitor".

Transformers references

• When startled, Rack'n'Ruin swear by Micronus.

Animation and technical errors

• Once again, just how the Scraplets feed is a bit inconsistent. In "Dark Birth", one bite apparently did enough damage to cripple Slipstream's arm, with energon flowing from the wound. In "Starscream's Children", despite savagely biting into several characters they only seemed to drain their energon without actually causing physical damage. Here, Starscream tosses a deactivated generic Decepticon soldier at them, and they swarm and bite as if devouring him like their Prime counterparts would.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Nouveau poste" ("New Post")
• Original airdate: September 29, 2019

German

• Title: "Erwischt"
• Original airdate: November 2, 2019

Japanese

• Title: "Cheetus no Shigoto" (チータスの仕事, "Cheetus's Task")
• Original airdate: November 8, 2019

Portuguese

• Title: "Localizado" ("Located")
• Original airdate: November 12, 2019

Home video releases

• TBA