Go with the Flow

« Beast Wars: Transformers ep 47 »
You just know this won't end well.
"Go with the Flow"
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	February 18, 1999
Written by	Bob Forward
Directed by	Cal Shumiatcher
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity

The Predacons build a cannon that could destroy the Maximals, but require an organic life-form to finish the construction.

French-Canadian title: La Tendance ("The Trend")

Japanese title: びりびりー!しびればびれぶー (Biribirii! Shibire Babire Bū, "Zzzap! Tingly Tongly Too!")

Latin-American title: Sigue la Corriente

Italian title: Il raggio distruttore ("The destroyer beam")

Brazilian name: Seguindo a Correnteza ("Following the Current")

Synopsis

Phineas J. Whoopee, you're a genius!

Quietly, Cheetor sneaks through the forest. He whispers his activation code to switch into his robot mode, and is ambushed by Chak, the protohuman. Cheetor laughs at his company, and the two are joined by Una, putting Cheetor in a hammer-lock. Rattrap arrives and makes fun of Cheetor's attempts to teach the primitives self-defense. Cheetor moves on to trying to instruct the kids in basic engineering principles, language, and comedy through self-abuse. On a mountaintop, Megatron's army works to assemble a new, powerful weapon capable of destroying the Maximals, but because the "bi-polar energon source" to the device is installed before the shielding, the Predacons can't get near the machine they have erected. In order to complete the weapon, Tarantulas suggests recruiting the two educated protohumans on whom who he happens to have been spying.

This is one of two operations Una had to do.

Waspinator and Inferno attack the two Maximals. Waspinator captures Una and brings her back to Megatron. Depth Charge arrives to aid his two allies against Inferno, but with one of the humans captured already, Inferno retreats. The danger gone, Cheetor radios back to the Maximal base to report on the attack. Optimus calls Cheetor home and sends Depth Charge and Rattrap on a mission to retrieve the abducted child.

En route to the Predacon development, Una recalls Cheetor's self-defense lesson, and with her primitive spear, she removes several of Waspinator's wasp-mode limbs. Megatron is entirely unconcerned with the well-being of his underling, but hopes the girl is still in functional condition when she arrives. Once she is dropped off, Megatron orders the disruptor cannon fired on just low enough a setting to knock Rattrap and Depth Charge out of the sky. But even at a low setting, the unfinished weapon causes harm to the Predacons, forcing Megatron to order it shut down.

Depth Charge and Rattrap crash-land in a forest, lucky to be alive, but Depth Charge is no longer flight-capable. Rattrap leaves the manta and races off on his own to finish rescuing the damsel. Megatron begins his plot and instructs Una on how to install the shielding that the energy weapon needs in order to function. Una experiments in using the shielding plates as both fashion accessories and cuisine, but doesn't entirely comprehend the meaning of each of his precise instructions. After a fancy screen transition to show the passing of time, Una has completed the shielding installation in an adorably haphazard manner. As a final step, she installs the stabilizer crystal.

This is the second one.

Rattrap arrives to save the girl and stop Megatron, but Dinobot prepares to devour the intruder. Tarantulas approaches Una to kill her, too. She squashes the spider by knocking over a huge piece of machinery, but then falls off her platform. Rattrap drives through Dinobot's legs and transforms in time to catch the girl. Together, the two drive out of the Predacons' territory.

At the site where Depth Charge crashed, Una helps Rattrap unearth Depth Charge by recommending that he use a lever. With teamwork, they slide Depth Charge into a lake and then use the giant Maximal as a raft to ride away from the attacking Predacons. They escape from their pursuers by falling down a waterfall, tossing mud in Waspinator's face so he flies blindly into Inferno. The combined airborne mess of Predacons then lands on the Dinobot clone.

I can't believe we've gone this far without making a "monkey throws poop" joke!

Megatron prepares to fire the disruptor cannon and destroy his enemies. As the massive gun charges, the Maximals prepare for the worst. But the machine malfunctions, and instead of destroying the Maximals, it explodes in place—because Una stole the stabilizer crystal. With the Predacons slagged, Una and the two Maximals float into the sunset.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons	Protohumans
Cheetor (1) Rattrap (4) Depth Charge (11) Optimus Primal (12) Rhinox (13) Blackarachnia (14)	Quickstrike (5) Tarantulas (6) Dinobot II (7) Megatron (8) Waspinator (9) Inferno (10)	Chak (2) Una (3)

Quotes

"Sit down and keep quiet."
"Yeah, yeah, story of my life."

—Cheetor and Rattrap

"Peh, educational stuff. I'd rather watching things explode."

—Rattrap speaks for the intended audience.

"My disruptor ray shall destroy them."

—Megatron, proving that he really is using every trick in the book.

"Waspinator sees helpless target! Oh happy day!"

-Waspinator is overjoyed.

"Waspinator to Megatron. Waspinator has female fleshy-bot, but there is problem."
"She'd better not be injured."
"No, she injuring Waspinator."
"Ah, situation normal, then. Yes."

—Waspinator to Megatron, and Megatron has picked up the running gag.

"Waspinator want to re-negotiate contract!"

—Waspinator, getting hacked to bits.

[chuckles] "I ain't dead."
"This day's just full of disappointments."

—Rattrap and Depth Charge after the crash.

"What are you lookin' at?"

—Depth Charge to a butterfly that lands on him.

"Triumph is before me!"
"And da rat is behind ya!"

—Megatron and Rattrap

"The disruptor cannon is now operational. And as it happens, our targets are right in line with the Maximal base. We shall destroy both in a single, glorious onslaught of energon devastation!"

—Megatron

Notes

Technical and animation errors

• When Rattrap says, "...and die horrible, agonizing deaths!" before they crash into the forest, Depth Charge is also mouthing the words.
• When Depth Charge hits the rocks at the base of the waterfall (immediately before Dinobot says "Target immobilized!"), his right flipper very briefly clips through another nearby rock.
• Rhinox is looking through the parascope at the the mountain, while the image is displayed on almost all of the screens at the Maximals' base.

Continuity errors

• Dinobot slices Rattrap's tail, but later it seems to be full-length as Rattrap uses it to paddle Depth Charge.

Transformers references

• Rattrap's interaction with Depth Charge is somewhat reminiscent of his ongoing rivalry with the deceased Dinobot.

Real-world references

• "This Bot tries for positive programming." "Time to change channels, frisky!" These lines are references to human television.

Trivia

• Why didn't Inferno just wait until Waspinator had finished installing the shielding plate before plugging in the main power source?
• Cybertronix:
  • On Cheetor's blackboard: Seemingly random letters and numbers
  • On Megatron's first piece of graphics showing the firing of the cannon: "SCREAMIN ROCKS", "A BIG GUN IN A MOUNTAIN", "FIRE".
  • And again, shortly before the fatal firing: "DEREK", "NIKKI DAWN", "HOT STUFF".
• Shortly after Depth Charge crashes, a puff of smoke appears to emit from Rattrap's, er, tailpipe.
• In a moment of apparent premonition, Cheetor's spark chamber pops open just before the alarms start sounding.
• This episode was used in place of the planned episode "Dark Glass".
• The moral of the episode is, effectively, "It's good to steal."
• When Rattrap rescues Una from falling, Silverbolt's 'rescue' theme plays.
• Richard Newman is not credited for playing Rhinox in this episode. Presumably because his one line of a calm and earnest "Oh no." is something Rhinox has said before and is quite probably just lifted from that earlier episode.

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

2000 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Love Typhoon (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)
2006 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 3 (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Beast Wars — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)