When Optimus asks how he got there.

when he said he went straight back into groundbridge and exited it right after the explosion. I mean we saw clearly in 'darkest hour' that the vortex had closed right after ratchet had gone through, and it was several seconds later when the nemesis fired on the base. Plus if what smokes said was true, Optimus would hav seen him, not to mention Ratchet.

I know I am nitpicking, but this just screams of bad writing. Just to ensure that Smokescreen could be there to help Optimus.

 

Megatron taking a flight around Darkmount to waste some time(one minute) until they found Jack and Arcee.

 

Well, there is no way SmokeScreen could return to the base unnoticed before Ratchet had left.
As I understand, Ratchet needed to open GroundBridge every time for every group: he sent SmokeScreen, then he re- opened a new bridge window. Which means that SmokeScreen returted to base before Ratchet set new coordinates and left it. Both Ratchet and Prime saw SmokeScreen's return.

 

Maybe he made a hard turn using the phase shifter just before anyone noticed him?

 

ChaosDonkey, do you mean he fell down under the base's floor? Then he had been there for quite a long time.

 

By the way, why didn't SmokeScreen die, when he left Megatron's Vessel? He went through the surface, but then he crashed to the another Earth's "layer". His speed was the same, he must have received the damages.

 

Something like that, didn't he explain that he used the phase shifter.

 

ChaosDonkey, still, it's unlikely. Ratchet didn't have time, he closed the SS's window almost immediately, because we didn't even see him opening another one. And Optimus was looking right there. And it's doubtfully that SmokeScreen could fly away being inside the Bridge's tunnel: he, probably, needed to jump down right in front of O- Prime's...Chest? Belly?

 

Is it possible that Ratchet opened another groundbridge but didn't close Smokescreens?

I think Smokescreen may have been hiding, but the writers just didn't get the message out in the right manner.

 

The ground bridge works in mysterious ways  
I didn't say it was possible, just how they tried to explain it.

I was for one expecting WJ to be the one saving Optimus, since it would be the most logical direction of the plot after the end of season 2.

But it looks like the writers them selves weren't completely sure how to continue the plot from that point.

 

JackWheel, we have never seen it working like that. More likely, it's impossible to have many windows.
Where could you, actually, place all of them alltogether? I think, every "window" needs it's own platform.

 

That's probably true.

 

But the opposite: the opened windows can be opened anywhere: withing the air space, forest and so. But even here, I suspect that it is very hard to open several windows and let them connect with each other in one point- the base's platform.

 

We had a similar situation when zombie Skyquake was caught in another dimension, though with two bridges. I guess a similar thing could happen if you tried to open several windows with one.

 

Yep.

Plot devices.

 

It is worth noting that Smokescreen says that he ran back in and THEN the base came tumbling down, but the animation only shows him walking around when the base is already destroyed.

There is a weird noise when he walks on-screen, like the bridge's noise except corrupted, it's like the sound people wanted to show that he walked out of the broken space bridge.

So yeah there was definetely a miscommunication between the writers and the animation/post-production people.

 

Here's what I got. I think he knew he would be disobeying Prime, so he just went back and shifted into the floor. He took advantage of Prime and Ratchet having their farewell to hide himself... But the scene really is a bit contradicting. I just take his story as true, and pay no attention to any error there might be, because is story DOES make sense, it's just contradicted by what we were shown... As someone pointed out, though, Megatron flying around for no good damn reason, makes zero sense. I actually though it was him shooting at Jack, but no... Perhaps he took the time to go take out the trash bags? who knows?

 

Megatron was flying to the Nemesis. That is why the storyboard flat out shows the Nemesis docked down there as he takes flight. The Decepticons were checking out the live-feed inside their airship.

 

He was flying to the Nemesis, which was where Soundwave was. He said he wanted a live visual.

Many of the problems people have are due to them not paying attention to scenery or dialogue. Though Smokescreen is still a big stretch.

Edit: I re watched Darkest Hour and I didn't see Ratchet change the coords for himself after Smokescreen left. You can see the comp screen and he doesn't choose another location like he did for everybody else. If that's the case, Smokescreen's story makes sense. He could have entered the base through the ground and resurfaced right after the base was blown up.

 

Yes. It seems odd and almost impossible unless he altered reality to a degree. Hmm me conspiracy sense are tingling