if it was a trap set by airachnid, it should have shown how the trap was triggered to make more sense.
If it's mech, perhaps they are building a combination robot. when you look at the prototype they had, it had parts resembling a few different bots. (although this doesn't make much sense to me)

I hope this gets explained cuz it's really bugging me.

 

I'm not steadfast on my view. I didn't notice the shadow; I feel shamed, as I watched the episode twice. I agree that Airachnid is deadly, but damn if I didn't think she was that deadly.

 

You do know this show cuts major corners to save money right? If they can’t/won’t show a full classroom, fully animated flashbacks or even transformations, why would you think they’d show Airachnid set her trap? You know she got ahead of Breakdown—it happened before your very eyes—you saw her dash past him and play hurt just a few meters ahead of Breakdown.

MECH told us way back in Convoy that they were all about acquiring the newest tech. Why would MECH trade in their bullets and lasers for webbing? Better yet, why would they using webbing when they have weapons that can completely incapacitate Cybertronians?

If you’re waiting for more visual/official confirmation, you’re going to be waiting a long time—I'm not trying to be snarky, but the episode was pretty straightforward.

Her ship (its trophies really) and her theme tell us all we need to know really  <-Oh, how I wish this could be swapped out for an emoticon of Airachnid winking 

 

I took it all as MECH setting a false energon signal to attract a Transformer like they did when they stole Bumblebee's T-Cog.
Airachnid gets injured and sets the web trap for Breakdown. Maybe she already had her Insecticon lying in wait since she obviously knew Megatron had intended for her to be terminated during this mission. Firing a web line across two spans isn't impossible. Shoot to one rock and then attach the other end to another rock. Spider-Man that shit.
Airachnid then waits for Breakdown to lumber in and get snared so her Insecticon can finish him off.
With Breakdown dead, she leaves with her Insecticon to get energon to replace what she bled out.
Later MECH has decided to scout the area to see if any TF are going to show up to their false energon signal trap and they discover Breakdown's remains and take them as an easy catch before any other TF (such as the nearby Dreadwing) show up.

That's how I thought things were intended to be interpreted.

Or it's entirely possible that the Insecticon (and its hive) was the energon signal everyone was tracking and when the one Insecticon scout felt Airachnid's injury distress through the buggy mental link it came to investigate and saved her by killing Breakdown. MECH was just in the area tracking the signal like everyone else and perhaps hoping to bump into some Transformers to catch as well because they knew they'd be investigating the signal too and got a nice unexpected free prize out of it.

 

I'm re-posting this so it's less likely latecomers to the thread beat up on you (though it will still happen). Don't feel bad...whoever writes the TFWiki synopses made the same error at first.

I think that the scene was quite unclear, unfortunately. First of all, it was dark. Second of all, the staging indicates that he was snared by an existing line of webbing (the trap) but it seems that at the last second Airachnid's "squirting" sound effect was added so that people would understand that it was webbing. But then that leads to the "web gun" theory because Airachnid couldn't have shot that web from there.

As for MECH, I'm sure they are chasing down every energon blip ever since Starscream showed them (sigh) how to find them. And they just happened to get a jackpot of fresh parts left over from a robot fight.

The thing that really clinches it for me is that it's an unmistakable homage to the scene where the Predator corners Arnold Schwarzenegger. Except this time the quarry is the one who has the glowing blood and chops people up.

 

That's not what happened. You know she finished him off herself--you see her strike before Breakdown shrieks.

She first comes into contact with the Insecticon when she calls it off of Starscream, enchanting it with her mind. She became in tune with it when she commanded it to on screen, not before.

...or they herd that loud shriek that could have disturbed the dead, it scared $#!+ out of a flock of birds in trees nearby.

I thought MECH's presence was just a coincidence, though Breakdown's shriek most likely lured them to his corpse.

I wonder if Airachnid is the only one who can hear them--she isn't exactly like every other Cybertronian.

If Megatron couldn't pick up their signatures when tracking Airachnid, I doubt anyone else could either. MECH wasn't even in the cave, but above ground. While carrying out military maneuvers unrelated to the scuffle that took place before their arrival, they stumbled across Bulkhead gutted, which was no doubt a huge score for them.

 

that just shows that would could of happened when anyone attacked her Lol. Then how she gloats about her kills Lol.

 

I wrote that synopsis.

 

I second, Mech picked up a signal and went in to investigate.