Countdown (RB)

2012-08-05T10:06:45Z

125.239.110.237: /* Real-world references */

{{disambig3|Countdown}}
{{episode|
|otherseries=''[[Transformers: Rescue Bots (cartoon)|Transformers: Rescue Bots]]'' ep 20
|prev=You've Been Squilshed
|next=The Haunting of Griffin Rock
|image=
|title="Countdown"
|airdate=[[July 21]], [[2012]]
|production company=[[Hasbro Studios]]
|animation studio=[[Atomic Cartoons]]
|writer=[[Catherine Clinch]]
|director=[[Nathan Chew]]
}}

'''Cody and the Rescue Bots try to solve the vanishing mystery when the residents of Griffin Rock start disappearing.'''

==Synopsis==
The [[Helper Bot]] is pursued around the archive room by [[Edison]] and [[Aristotle]], who are in turn being chased by [[Frankie Greene|Frankie]] and [[Doc Greene]]. During the chase, one of the dogs knocks over a drum full of small spheres that turn into bugs. One lands on Doc Greene's nose, and when Frankie comes to find him, he's gone. The bugs quickly depart from the [[Hall of Inspiration]] and start spreading out. Soon cars are crashing, driverless and people are disappearing all over [[Griffin Rock]]. As [[Cody Burns|Cody]] takes a call from [[Sharma|Mr Sharma]], he sees [[Harrison (RB)|Mr Harrison]]'s empty helipack fly past. [[Kade Burns|Kade]] and [[Heatwave (RB)|Heatwave]] report finding empty campsites while [[Dani Burns|Dani]] reports empty ships at sea. The emergency calls all stop. After [[Chase (RB)|Chase]] stops a runaway truck, he turns around to find that [[Charlie Burns|Chief Burns]] has disappeared too.

Cody cycles through deserted streets to rendezvous with the rest of the team at the location the Chief was last seen. Though Heatwave blames the shrink ray, Cody doesn't think it's likely and a few moments later a man disappears in front of their eyes. When they spot the bugs running around, everyone piles into the bots for safety. Chase manages to catch one of the bugs, so [[Graham Burns|Graham]] suggests returning to the fire station so he can take a look at it. On the way, Cody gets a call from Frankie who's still in the archive. Blades makes a stop so they can pick her up, but they then have to shake off the swarm by flying through the wind farm. Back at the fire station, Graham pokes at the bug they caught and discovers a link to an experiment in the 50s to open [[subspace]] wormholes with quantum crystals. Graham explains that the townspeople have all been transported someplace else, but before he can explain the solution he's come up with, the bug lands on him and he disappears.

Graham lands up somewhere pitch black in the middle of his sentence. As he calls out, he's found by the Chief who says half the town is there. Graham and Greene swap notes before Greene shows them the power generator he's found. Chief switches it on and they find they're in a cavern with a half-built encampment. As they speculate as to where they are, Dani arrives and tells them the bugs got into the fire house.

Upstairs, Kade, Cody and Frankie deal with the bugs that got in, while the [[Rescue Bot]]s splatter the bugs that get into the garage. Blades manages to trap one in a jar, and [[Boulder]] discovers it doesn't like when he taps on the glass. Frankie gets the idea to contact [[Anna Baranova|Professor Baranova]]. Baranova says the bugs are [[Tracer (RB)|tracers]], part of the [[Sanctuary Plan]] project to safeguard the island's population in case of a cataclysm. The Sanctuary shelter turned out to be unstable, and the plan was shut down, but the location of the shelter is a mystery. Baranova is teleported by a tracer before they can go get her. Piling into Heatwave, the kids head for the lab to check for information on the Sanctuary Plan.

Back in the sanctuary, the trapped people have found they don't have any provisions, and quakes are making the cavern unstable, so they prepare to dig themselves out. Heatwave reaches the laboratory, but as Cody, Frankie and Kade get inside, Kade is zapped by a tracer. Frankie comes up with a blueprint for the shelter shortly before a tracer gets her, and Cody can only find that it's located in the biggest cavern under Griffin Rock. He disappears just as he's reporting his findings to Heatwave. The rest of the bots arrive, having found a sonic signal that disables the bugs, and the four bots resolve to search every cave under the island. Chase points out the nearby mountain, which Boulder says also happens to be called Griffin Rock, and Blades remembers seeing a door. The four bots race there and break through the slab blocking the entrance to the cavern, freeing everyone. Frankie makes Cody promise not to mention to anyone she's afraid of the dark.

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
*[[Heatwave (RB)|Heatwave]] (7)
*[[Blades (RB)|Blades]] (9)
*[[Chase (RB)|Chase]] (11)
*[[Boulder]] (12)
|c3=
*[[Frankie Greene]] (2)
*[[Doc Greene]] (3)
*[[Harrison (RB)|Harrison]] (4)
*[[Cody Burns]] (5)
*[[Kade Burns]] (6)
*[[Dani Burns]] (8)
*[[Charlie Burns]] (10)
*[[Graham Burns]] (13)
*[[Anna Baranova]] (14)
|c4=
*[[Helper Bot]] (1)
}}

==Quotes==
"You have broken the law and must now submit to the fair but firm hand of justice."
:—'''Chase''' arrests one of the bugs.

'''Blades:''' *groan*<br />
'''Frankie:''' What was that?!<br />
'''Cody:''' Engine noise!<br />
'''Dani:''' Funky rotor!
:—Frankie still doesn't know the bots are sentient.

"We're at war, and the [[Cybertronian Combat Guide]] says we should understand our enemy."
:—'''Blades'''

==Notes==
===Animation and technical errors===
===Continuity errors===
===Continuity notes===
*Heatwave refers to the [[Minimizer|shrink ray]] from "[[Small Blessings]]".
*Professor Baranova was previously introduced in "[[The Griffin Rock Triangle]]".
===Real-world references===

* Homage time again! This week, it's from such varied 'people are disappearing into thin air' sources as ''The Quiet Earth, Vanishing on 7th Street, Where Have All The People Gone?, Night Of The Comet'', and Star Trek TNG's ''Remember Me''.

===Foreign localization===
===Trivia===

{{epstub}}
[[Category:Rescue Bots episodes]]

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Countdown (RB)