Crossing the Rubicon

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Man, female characters just can't catch a break.
"Crossing the Rubicon"
Season	3
No. in season	9
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	February 22, 1999
Written by	D. C. Fontana
Directed by	Trenton Carlson
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

After she experiments with the Transmetal Driver, Blackarachnia's core consciousness begins to crash.

Synopsis

Seriously, they never do get a break.

Some distance from Mount St. Hilary, Blackarachnia is setting up some equipment that will convert her into a Transmetal 2. However, Silverbolt detects Blackarachnia's energy signature, and, not understanding, pulls her from the machine. As Blackarachnia berates Silverbolt, she short circuits. Heading to the Maximal base, Rhinox concludes that the shell program is starting to degrade, and will erase her core consciousness if not treated soon. He can remove the shell, but it's never been done before.

Wandering off to think, Blackarachnia is followed by Silverbolt. She maintains that she's still a Predacon, and that becoming a Maximal scares her. Silverbolt points out that she's only a Predacon due to Tarantulas, and deep down, she is one of the good guys. The touching moment is ruined when Blackarachnia short circuits again.

Nice-looking arcade game.

In the lab, Blackarachnia has decided to go through with the procedure. Before she does, there is one last thing to do: transfer the access codes to the Ark to Optimus Primal, thinking that he'd have the best chance to keep them from Megatron. They begin the shell removal, but it has safe guards that will destroy Blackarachnia's core consciousness. Rhinox is able to destroy the first one. At his lair, Tarantulas discovers the removal process. He contacts Megatron, informing him of the situation. Megatron notes that such an act risks destroying Teletron 1's access codes, and concludes that she gave them to Primal. Tarantulas informs Megatron of his safeguards, but the Predacon leader decides to cause a little more trouble.

By Grabthar's hammer, you shall be avenged!

Inferno, Rampage, and Quickstrike are sent under Tarantulas to attack the Maximals. Optimus leads Cheetor and Rattrap in the defense of the base. Rhinox is almost finished, but two more power surges head for her core consciousness. Rhinox blasts one, but Tarantulas fires a rocket which causes Rhinox to miss the other surge, which hits Blackarachnia's core consciousness and extinguishes her spark. Rhinox leaves to inform Optimus and allow Silverbolt to be alone. Upon leaving, Silverbolt snarls out "Tarantulas…".

She's back and she's...blue?

Detecting that his creation is dead, Tarantulas orders the Predacons to break off, as Rhinox tells the others. Gathering around Blackarachnia, they express their regrets over not giving her their full trust, if only for Silverbolt's sake. As Rattrap notices that the Fuzor is absent, Primal realizes what he's planning to do, and the Maximals head to stop him. Unseen, the Transmetal driver begins to glow. Tracking down Tarantulas, Silverbolt easily defeats him and, with the villain unconscious, prepares to execute him. However, Rampage has been watching this and defeats Silverbolt. Preparing to strike the killing blow, Rampage is stopped—by Blackarachnia, now a Transmetal 2. Blackarachnia quickly defeats Rampage, and takes Silverbolt back to base.

In the control room, Blackarachnia explains to the Maximals that she saw only darkness, then a light, and thought Silverbolt was in danger. Primal points out that her actions weren't very Maximal, but Silverbolt express their gratitude at her return. Blackarachnia warns Silverbolt to stop rushing after her, but to show no hard feelings, kisses him, sending a power surge through him and disorienting him.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons
Blackarachnia (1) Silverbolt (2) Optimus Primal (3) Rhinox (4) Cheetor (5) Rattrap (6)	Tarantulas (7) Megatron (8) Rampage (9) Quickstrike (10) Inferno (11)

Quotes

"Oh, yeah. Sure. Like you were gonna help the Pred get more power."
"Maximal or Predacon, you're one of us! You should know that by now."

—Blackarachnia and Optimus Primal

Rhinox: How do you feel?
Blackarachnia: Like someone's been playing 'squash the spider' with an energon bomb.

—Blackarachnia gives a cheery view of her symptoms.

"See you soon, boys... if you're lucky."

—Blackarachina says what she thinks may be her final words.

"Ahh, the avenging hero!"

—Tarantulas on Silverbolt's attack

"Ah, such pain. I must help deepen it."

—Rampage, spying on Silverbolt

"Not a very Maximal approach."
"Even if I'm good, I'm still bad."

—Optimus Primal and Blackarachnia

Notes

Script timeline

• First draft: 19th June 1998
• Second draft: 6th July 1998
• Finalised: 12th August 1998
• As Air: 26th January 1999

Animation and technical errors

• Just as in "Proving Grounds", when Blackarachnia sits up in the scanning machine, the spider legs on her arms are missing.
• Each of the "wires" connecting the Predacon shell program to Blackarachnia's core consciousness has only one base point where they connect to the shell program. However, when Rhinox destroys the first link, the barely-visible link in the background also turns blue-only the near one should do so.
• When the Predacons are attacking the Maximal base, Primal first has his blast shields on his shoulders while talking to Rattrap. Then, when the camera goes back to Optimus, his blast shields are on his forearms, where they are in every one of his modes except robot mode.
• Rattrap's forearm compartments are rendered differently here, and are notably wonky-looking.

Continuity errors

• Throughout season 3 (not just in this episode), pre-Transmetal Blackarachnia appears to have battle damage (grey areas) which disappear when she's in the base. The damage extent also seems inconsistent, but in the same areas. Did she get into a fight between getting checked into the base and talking with Silverbolt outside? Or does the bright light of the base conceal her damaged body?
• Optimus Primal says "Maximize" despite already being in battle mode. Instead, he changes to flight mode. Previously, he has said "Optimus Primal—Flight Mode" to do this.
• Optimus Primal says that going off on your own isn't a very Maximal thing to do. Clearly, he hasn't been paying attention, since Cheetor, Rattrap, Silverbolt, Depth Charge, and Tigatron have all done so at one point or another.

Continuity notes

• Blackarachnia's invention at the start of the episode appears to be a replica of the cloning device Megatron built in "Feral Scream Part 1". It is also set up inside the same cave that Cheetor spent the night in back in "Feral Scream Part 2".
• This episode sees the culmination of Blackarachnia's plan to acquire a Transmetal upgrade, a character arc that was first foreshadowed in "Cutting Edge" and touched on with varying degrees of subtlety over the next few episodes.
• Megatron's "bath time rubber duckie" is seen again in this episode, but it has undergone a slight makeover. It now has metallic rings around it and an antenna on its head, probably a reference to the Transformers' Transmetal changes.
• Megatron refers to Tarantulas as "lieutenant", a reference to his rank in the Predacon secret police.
• After Tarantulas deduces that Blackarachnia transmitted the Ark's access codes to Optimus, Megatron notes that "fits in nicely with our little plan for him." That foreshadows the next episode.
• Silverbolt isn't just trying to kill Tarantulas, he's trying to kill Tarantulas after the guy is already unconscious and utterly helpless. This is a jarringly ruthless move, and although it seemingly clashes with his chivalrously goofy personality, it foreshadows a later development in Beast Machines.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Rampage carries a telescope.
• This episode contains the second instance of Inferno getting slagged while assaulting the Maximal Base. This time (and the next) by an Auto-cannon.

Transformers references

• Blackarachnia describes her near-death experience as first seeing darkness, followed by a light. While this might just be a reference to real-world individuals who have undergone such an experience, Optimus Prime described a very similar experience in "Dark Awakening".

Real-world references

• The Rubicon is a river in Italy. During the Roman Republic era, it was illegal for a Roman general to have his army cross it, thus protecting Rome from a military threat. Julius Caesar crossed it and started a civil war which would eventually lead to Rome switching from a republic to an empire. During this, he uttered, "Alea iacta est", Latin for "the die is cast". Today, "crossing the Rubicon" is an idiom meaning to go past the point of no return.
• When Blackarachnia goes offline, a flatline, as one from hospital monitoring equipment, can be heard in the background.
• The Maximals seem to treat Blackarachnia's shell program as a cancerous brain tumor, as evidenced by Rhinox's description of it and the risky surgery to remove it.
• Rattrap sings a fragment of "Pop Goes the Weasel" as he takes out Rampage.
• Blackarachnia's spark produces a sound that's very similar to an electronic heartbeat. It even quickens and slows down at different points.

Trivia

• "Proving Grounds" had Blackarachnia concluding that she's "fine with the way she is." Oh, really?
• The Predacons' plan involved the whole Predacon army in a coordinated effort with the sole purpose to kill an incapacitated Blackarachnia so she stays dead. When you think about it, that's one of the more openly diabolical schemes in a cartoon that usually involves battles where the losers limp home to CR chambers.
• The missile Tarantulas fires to finally disrupt Blackarachnia's surgery bears a "No Maximals" symbol on its nose cone.
• Once again, the mysterious Transmetal Driver gives us a deus ex machina at its finest—once Blackarachnia's Transmetallization plan goes wrong, Rhinox's antivirus program fails, and she's left for dead, the Driver activates, brings her back to life, and gives her a Transmetal 2 body... because...?
• Don't ever piss off Silverbolt.
• Blackarachnia is the last character in the show to use the "Maximize!" transformation code. That's one way to establish you've changed sides.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Le Passage" (Canada, "The Passage")

Italian

• Title: Addio Arachnia ("Farewell Blackarachnia")

Japanese

• Title: "Pikapikā Sha!" (ぴかぴかーしゃ!, "Sssshiny!")
• Original airdate: February 23 2000

• The hissing noise "ssha" was Blackarachnia's verbal tic in the Japanese dub of Beast Wars, indicating she is the one speaking the title.

Portuguese

• Title: "Atravessando o Rubicon" ("Crossing the Rubicon")

Spanish

• Title: "Cambiando de Bando" (America, "Switching Sides")

Mandarin

• Title: "Shēngsǐ Yīxiàntiān " (生死一线天, "The Line that Linked Life and Death")

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

2000 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Sssshiny! (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 3 (Universal)

DVD

2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers: Metals — DVD Box 2 (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
2004 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Third Season (Rhinomation)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Seasons 2 & 3 (Shout! Factory)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2006 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 3 (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Beast Wars — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)