The Battle of Witwicky

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"The Battle of Witwicky"
Season	1
No. in season	24
Production company	Entertainment One Nickelodeon
Airdate	July 28, 2023 (Paramount+) April 20, 2024 (Nickelodeon)
Writer	Mae Catt
Director	Sebastian Montes, Alex Kwan
Animation studio	Icon Creative Studio
Watch this episode on Paramount+

With Agent Croft now moving against them, the Malto family and their allies gather to make their last stand.

Synopsis

Mandroid finds Executive Agent Croft overseeing cleanup around the still-active space bridge. He informs her that he's found a cure for his condition and presents her with a new device — one which, as he demonstrates, will give her power over anyone or anything wearing a G.H.O.S.T. badge. She immediately tries to turn the tables by slapping a badge on Mandroid, but he catches her arm and dangles her in the air, telling her that she should be focusing on the Malto offspring. Making changes to the space bridge settings, he tosses Croft aside and, despite her protests that it's untested, walks through.

Elsewhere, Robby, Twitch, Thrash and Nightshade are fleeing from Shockwave through a corn field. Robby observes that the 'Con is wearing a badge like the one Mandroid used to control Hashtag, shortly before Shockwave shoots down Nightshade and menaces them, but after a brief fight, the Maltos again attempt to get away. Back at the farm, Hashtag is desperately trying to reestablish communications with the others, when Jawbreaker points out that the system is tracking them and they're heading into Witwicky. The townsfolk flee as Shockwave fires wildly at the Maltos, however one of the townsfolk is an undercover G.H.O.S.T. agent who calls HQ to raise the alarm. G.H.O.S.T. starts mobilizing, with an agent briefing Dot Malto. The Maltos manage to take Shockwave down once Mo slices the cable to his arm cannon, but the celebrating team is quickly surrounded by G.H.O.S.T. agents. One of the agents panics and fires a rocket, which Thrash deflects, resulting it it instead hitting the road in front of Dot's truck, creating a crater that she crashes into. Alex arrives and goes to help her, but she instead tells him to go aid the kids. With Alex's help, the Maltos are able to get away bar Dot, who's surrounded by agents.

Back at the farm, Nightshade thinks they can safely remove Mandroid's control tech from Shockwave, though Twitch believes the Decepticon will still turn on them. Hashtag argues that as she knows what it's like to be controlled by Mandroid, and Jawbreaker points out that helping Shockwave is what Dot would have wanted. Thrash laments that maybe the Autobots and Decepticons have permanently ruined things with their war, but both Alex and Twitch refute that logic. Shockwave reactivates, but he's only interested in getting revenge on Croft — as it turns out, Hashtag discovers that G.H.O.S.T. has placed a communications blackout on Witwicky, so they can't get help in going after the clandestine organization. Shockwave shows her a subspace frequency to use to try to get around the block, but as she's doing that, Croft arrives at the farm with Dot. Alex intercepts them at the door and Croft invites herself into the house, hoping to meet the rest of the family. The two parents try to play along with her, and Alex makes the excuse that the kids are at a friend's place, stepping out to go "pick them up", only to find a troop of Ghoids outside the house.

In the Dugout, the kids resolve to fight their way out if necessary. Croft delivers an ultimatum to Dot to turn the Maltobots over to G.H.O.S.T., which Dot doesn't take kindly to and, as the bots crash out of the barn to battle the Ghoids, Dot and Croft start their own fight in the house. The battle outside is going so-so when reinforcements arrive in the form of Optimus Prime, Megatron, Elita-1, Arcee, Grimlock and Wheeljack, who received Hashtag's distress call. Dot kicks Croft out through the front door, and once the agent sees the comprehensive pounding her forces are undergoing outside, she goes to make an escape. A G.H.O.S.T. truck pulls up, only for Optimus to smash it with his axe. The Autobots surround Croft and Optimus demands she stand down, but instead she pulls out the device Mandroid gave her earlier and activates it. To her surprise, it attaches itself to the back of her hand and as the Autobots around her collapse, glowing lines appear over her skin. The Ghoids begin picking themselves up, restraining Shockwave and surrounding the Maltos. Dot tries to reason with Croft to no avail, but to the surprise of everyone present, clouds start gathering overhead. A portal opens in the sky and through it comes a monstrous robotic figure that speaks in the voice of Mandroid...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Terrans	Others
Optimus Prime (16) Grimlock (18) Elita-1 (19) Arcee (20) Wheeljack (21)	Shockwave (8) Megatron (17)	Executive Agent Croft (1) Mandroid (3) Robby Malto (5) Mo Malto (10) Plainclothes G.H.O.S.T. agent (12) Dot Malto (13) G.H.O.S.T. agents (14) Alex Malto (15)	Nightshade (4) Twitch (6) Thrash (7) Hashtag (9) Jawbreaker (11)	Ghoids (2)

Quotes

"We never should have been fighting in town like that anyway. If we hadn't, maybe mom—"
"No, your mother stayed behind so we could be safe. You're learning the world is a complicated place, and what is good or just isn't always easy. But your mother and I, we will always be proud of you for trying."

—Thrash gets some encouragement from Alex.

"Shockwave."
"Megatron."
"Clever using the old Decepticon emergency line."
"I think you mean 'ingenious'."

—Megatron and Shockwave are reunited.

"All you Cybertronians do is destroy each other. I'll be lucky if there's anything left of your miserable planet to conquer!"

—Croft in full supervillain mode.

"Ahh... home sweet home."

—Mandroid in his new, way creepier body.

Notes

Continuity notes

• This episode picks up right where the previous one left off, with Robby, Twitch, Thrash and Nightshade being menaced by Shockwave.
• The Terrans' opinions on what to do with Shockwave are all shaped by their past experiences. Twitch still assumes Shockwave will attack them as he did back in "Warzone"; Nightshade thinks Shockwave should be given another chance thanks to their experience with Tarantulas in "Missed Connection"; and Hashtag can sympathize with being under Mandroid's control, as happened to her in "Home, Part 2".

Foreign localization

Hungarian

• Title: "Kereszttűzben" ("In a Crossfire")
• Original airdate: September 30, 2023

French

• Title: "La bataille de Witwicky" ("The Battle of Witwicky")
• Original airdate: October 7, 2023

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "A Batalha de Witwicky" ("The Battle of Witwicky")
• Original airdate: July 29, 2023

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

DVD

2024 — Transformers: EarthSpark - Season 1: Episodes 11-26 (Paramount)