Crash of the Titan

« Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy ep 104
A victory is worth a thousand words.
"Crash of the Titan"
Production code	252
Season	2
No. in season	52
Production company	Allspark Animation
Airdate	June 15, 2020 (UK) June 5, 2021 (US)
Writer	Kevin Burke & Chris Wyatt
Director	Pete Slattery
Animation studio	Boulder Media Studio
Watch this episode on YouTube

With time running out before Citadel Secundus crash-lands on Earth, the Rescue Bot recruits gather some old friends to roll to the rescue.

Synopsis

As Citadel Secundus heads out-of-control towards Earth, Wedge sends a distress transmission. All of the other Autobots are paralyzed by the anti-energon field, with him the only one online thanks to a shield emitter he managed to grab. On Earth, Whirl and Hot Shot puzzle over what to do, and Whirl hits on the idea of using Griffin Rock's new satellite dishes to try and control Secundus remotely. Hot Shot rushes off to get the encryption key from Heatwave before remembering Heatwave is on board Secundus, and Cody Burns, who has the other key, is out of contact on a campout. Hot Shot laments that they've always had the whole team for rescues, but Whirl has an idea for that too, and starts contacting some of the other Bots they've encountered.

While Whirl picks up Slash and Brushfire, Hot Shot convinces Laserbeak to help and finds Sludge and Snarl playing in a junkyard. Meanwhile Wedge has scrounged up two more shield emitters, which unfortunately aren't powerful enough to restore the teachers, but he uses them on Medix and Hoist. On Earth, Whirl briefs their new recruits who are skeptical they'll be able to help until Hot Shot gives them a pep talk. They send Slash to find Cody, while Brushfire clears a landing spot for Secundus. Sludge and Snarl are given the task of realigning the satellite dishes, while Laserbeak helps Whirl and Hot Shot rewire the controls at the Academy.

On Secundus, Medix and Hoist are worried about their situation as well, but Wedge encourages them. Slash finds Cody and heads back to base with him, arriving as Whirl and Hot Shot are finishing up the rewiring. The Bots on Secundus get communications going and contact the Academy. Whirl and Hot Shot let them know the plan, and Medix realizes they need to get Secundus into receive mode for it to work. Working together, the recruits and their friends successfully take control of Citadel Secundus, pulling him out of the crash moments before he can hit Milford. The sudden course change sends Wedge flying, causing him to disconnect a vital cable, but he's able to reconnect it and restore control in just enough time to avoid Secundus hitting a building. Hot Shot lands the Titan safely next to the Academy.

Later at the Academy, Optimus Prime congratulates the recruits on their work and invites Slash, Brushfire, Sludge, Snarl and Laserbeak to join as a new class of recruits, making Laserbeak an Autobot in the process. When Medix asks how everyone will fit, it's revealed that Citadel Secundus is now an addition to the Academy. Hot Shot and Whirl show off the sculpture they've made, which they reconfigure into a Rescue Bot insignia, with Hot Shot expressing his gratitude for everything the faculty has done and his optimism for the future of the Academy.

'Til all are one.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Humans	Others
Citadel Secundus (1) Wedge (2) Blades (3) Boulder (4) Chase (5) Perceptor (6) Bumblebee (7) Ratchet (8) Grimlock (9) Medix (10) Hoist (11) Whirl (12) Hot Shot (13) Slash (14) Laserbeak (15) Brushfire (16) Sludge (17) Snarl (18) Optimus Prime (19) Heatwave (21)	Cody Burns (20) Mayor Luskey (22)	Tough Luck Chuck (23)

Quotes

"Ugh, I believe I may have caroused too vigorously."

—Medix

"We helped out on a couple of rescues, but that was mostly by accident."
"Mostly? Entirely!"

—Sludge and Snarl

Notes

Continuity notes

• Slash was previously seen in "The Tracker", while Brushfire was introduced in "Brushfire", and is still in Australia. Laserbeak was rescued from a ship in "More Than Meets the Eye", and has been hanging out at the Academy since, albeit mostly unseen. Sludge and Snarl have had semi-regular appearances since their introduction in "Mission Dinobot", most notably carrying out a rescue on their own in "Dino-mite Duo".
• Citadel Secundus becomes an addition to the Academy, just like Wedge desired back in "The Lonely Titan".
• The device Optimus uses to change Laserbeak's insignia appears to be the Sparksayer.

Transformers references

• TBA

Real-world references

• The title is a play on the 1981 fantasy adventure film Clash of the Titans.
• The recruited team walks in slow-motion into the Academy, evoking similar scenes in films such as Armageddon.

Animation and technical errors

• TBA

Trivia

• With this final episode, Rescue Bots Academy officially ties with its predecessor for greatest number of episodes produced of any Transformers show. However, if you want to get technical, the original Rescue Bots featured 22-minute episodes as opposed to Academy's 11 minutes, so it could be argued the former is twice as long even though the numbers are the same on paper.
• Also with this final episode, the Aligned continuity comes to an end. As the episode released in the UK on June 15, 2020, falling two days short of the 10-year anniversary of the War for Cybertron games, it almost manages to succeed in making the continuity last a decade, as was originally planned. However, it wouldn't air in the United States for nearly an additional year, debuting on Discovery Family on June 5, 2021, easily surpassing the decade goal in its primary market.
• As the images of Secundus pop up on screen after Whirl starts powering up the controls, parts are labeled "REAR" and "POWER" in Cybertronian. This later switches to "MIDDLE" in green. The graduation certificates the recruits hold at the end unsurprisingly read "GRADUATE".
• Hopefully no one in Milford happened to be looking up!

Foreign localization

• TBA