Need to Know

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"Need to Know"
Production code	216
Season	2
No. in season	16
Production company	Allspark Animation
Airdate	April 18, 2020
Writers	Kevin Burke & Chris Wyatt
Director	Pete Slattery
Animation studio	Boulder Media Studio
Watch this episode on YouTube

When Wedge and Bumblebee go on a rescue mission to save families of rock creatures from a meteor shower, they need help from Cybertron, in the form of Perceptor.

Synopsis

The recruits are studying in a simulated library, however Wedge is extremely bored and his fidgeting disrupts the other students' concentration. As they don't have a math and science teacher, they're being forced to study by themselves. Wedge thinks it's pointless as they'll never use any math or science knowledge in their rescues. The other recruits disagree, but Wedge still thinks it's unnecessary as he can just solve problems via brute force. The discussion is interrupted when rescue alarm goes off and Bumblebee arrives to tell Wedge they have a mission to go on in the Sigma.

Bumblebee has Wedge fly the ship to a ringed world where some tiny rock creatures live on chunks of ice in the rings. Unfortunately there's a meteor shower headed right for the ring, so the two Bots have to come up with a plan to rescue the critters. As they arrive at one of the ice chunks, an advance wave of meteors starts raining down, so the pair hastily gather up the family of rock creatures living there before the ice chunk is shattered. With the rest of the meteor swarm imminent, Wedge comes up with a plan to attach thrusters to the remaining inhabited ice chunks and move them out of danger. Bumblebee's about to start calculating the paths each ice chunk will need to take, but Wedge insists they need to act now. Unfortunately their first attempt at moving an ice chunk results in it crashing into another chunk. Wedge realizes that they need advance planning after all, and Bumblebee contacts Cybertron.

Perceptor arrives via space bridge and sets to work, coming up with a math formula to calculate the flight plan. Wedge is disappointed he's going to have to do math after all, but they set to work and soon have all of the inhabited ice chunks moved. Wedge thanks Perceptor for demonstrating the importance of mathematics, and Perceptor mentions appreciating the Academy and the work it's doing educating young bots, which gives Bumblebee an idea. Back at the Academy, the other recruits are playing a dice game when Wedge interrupts them to announce Perceptor has been appointed their math and science instructor. The others are surprised by Wedge's sudden zeal for science.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Others
Hoist (1) Whirl (2) Hot Shot (3) Medix (4) Wedge (5) Bumblebee (6) Perceptor (8)	Rock creatures (7)

Quotes

"Wedge, meet my old friend Perceptor. Perceptor was Optimus Prime's science officer, on more missions than I can count."
"Precisely three hundred, eighty one point five."
"But not more than he can count."

—Bumblebee introduces Perceptor

"Seriously, did Wedge catch some kind of space sickness?"

—Hot Shot

Notes

Continuity notes

• Wedge previously encountered one of the rock creatures in "About A Rock".
• Perceptor was shown to be one of the potential mentors for the recruits back in "Back To School", though he had not joined the academy at that point.
• Wedge notes he has Perceptor's Heroes of Cybertron card.

Transformers references

• The Aligned version of Perceptor has previously been shown to has been part of the Ark's crew, featuring in the Fall of Cybertron game and novels Exiles and Retribution. More specifically to the cartoon world, he was given a shout-out in the Transformers: Prime episode "T.M.I." and noted to have been blacklisted by the High Council in the Robots in Disguise episode "Enemy of My Enemy".
• Perceptor has a similar design and the same voice actor (Jeremy Levy) as his Transformers: Cyberverse counterpart.

Real-world references

• Bumblebee compares the ringed world to Saturn.

Animation and technical errors

• TBA

Continuity errors

• Bumblebee says Wedge is about to take his first space walk, though Wedge previously took one in "Flying Hunk-A-Junk" in an attempt to alter the course of a ball of trash.

Trivia

• The Cybertronian text used during this episode uses characters from Autobot script, mixed with new characters in the same style.
• Despite not being a faculty member at the moment of introduction, Perceptor already appears with a Rescue Bot insignia on his chest.

Foreign localization

• TBA