Darkness Rising, Part 5

« Transformers: Prime
"Darkness Rising, Part 5"
Airdate	December 3, 2010
Written by	Joseph Kuhr
Directed by	Vinton Heuck
Animation studio	Digitalscape

Synopsis

Optimus Prime imagines in dread what will happen if Megatron uses the Dark Energon to raise an army of zombies on Cybertron and uses them to conquer Earth.

Jack arrives at KO Burger, and encounters Arcee, who says she's already lost one friend recently. The Autobots have pinpointed Megatron's space bridge in Earth orbit and must use the ground bridge to reach it, despite the risks this poses. Arcee and Jack arrive back in time for Arcee to join the mission, and Optimus leads the team (minus Ratchet) through the bridge. They land up on the space bridge terminal and look up to see the Decepticon ship moving into position. Megatron observes their presence, but Starscream says that Soundwave is locking on to Cybertron's coordinates.

Optimus notes that ship is damaged, and the Decepticons will be unable to use it to aim the space bridge. Raf reasons that the Decepticons may be using a radio dish array in Texas, but Fowler is still too out of it to alert the array staff of the danger. Raf attempts to hack in, but the array's firewalls are too good. Jack thinks they should go on site, and they talk Optimus into letting them do it.

Meanwhile Megatron sends out the Decepticon forces to attack the Autobots. Battle commences.

The kids ground bridge to the array and sneak in. In a small unused room, Raf finds a computer and determines that the Decepticons have also hacked in, but takes the opportunity to download their space bridge plans onto his flash drive. Little do the kids know that Soundwave is in the very next room, plugged into the computer system as well. He aligns the array, which sets the space bridge ready to use, but Raf promptly realigns it. Responding to Starscream's requests to know what's going on, Soundwave taps into the installation's security systems and locates the three kids. While the kids are discussing what the Decepticons could do, Soundwave's tentacle slithers into the room behind them and attacks. As it goes after Raf, Miko grabs an axe and strikes at it. She completely misses, and the tentacle strikes her backward before picking up the axe itself. Though the kids believe it's about to attack them with the weapon, the tentacle withdraws. The kids run to the next room, where they found Soundwave has realigned the dishes and used the axe to cut the hard line, making it impossible to realign the dishes again. Miko then takes a photo on her phone of Soundwave. Before Soundwave leaves, he takes a photo of them.

Starscream activates the space bridge and Megatron physically throws a huge chunk of Dark Energon through. The Dark Energon strikes Cybertron, swiftly covering the planet and turning millions of dead Transformers into millions of zombies. Optimus realizes that the only course of action left to them is to destroy the space bridge. Raf supplies the specs he downloaded earlier, and Ratchet sets about working out a way to do so. As Optimus faces Megatron, Bulkhead, Arcee and Bumblebee go to implement some sabotage.

Megatron manages to defeat Prime, but as he raises his sword, Starscream alerts him to the actions of the other Autobots. Optimus takes advantage of the distraction to blast Megatron, but the Decepticon leader transforms and flies off to find the other Autobots. Arcee's team has succeeded in rigging the space bridge to blow when Megatron attacks and blasts Arcee off into space. The Autobots jump into the ground bridge, Bumblebee collecting Arcee on the way. Megatron realizes his ship appears to be absent, but before his army of zombies can come through, the space bridge explodes in his face.

A short distance away in the ship, Starscream notes that there's totally no way Megatron could have survived that, and he is leader now.

The Autobots make it back to their base, though Arcee's in a bad way. Optimus announces that there's totally no way Megatron could have survived the space bridge explosion. Fowler thanks the Autobots for saving him, and leaves. Optimus gives a big speech, and sends a signal into space to let the galaxy know that Earth is defended by the Autobots.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Arcee (2) Ratchet (3) Bulkhead (4) Optimus Prime (5) Bumblebee (6)	Megatron (9) Starscream (10) Decepticon drones (11) Soundwave (13)	Jack Darby (1) Miko Nakadai (7) Rafael Esquivel (8) William Fowler (12)	Zombies (14)

Quotes

"Optimus, if you leave me stranded on a planet teeming with humans, I will never forgive you."

—Ratchet

"Optimus Prime never disappoints. Unlike YOU, Starscream!"

—Megatron

"Surely, Lord Megatron, the Autobots are up to something."
"Really, Starscream?"

—Starscream observes the Autobots and Megatron lays on the sarcasm.

"I hold no illusions about engaging your army, Megatron. But I might derail its objective... by removing its head."

—Optimus Prime's solution to most problems.

"Starscream! Where is my ship?"
"We would never make it, Lord Megatron! Don't be a fool! Take flight and retreat!"

—Starscream fruitlessly tries to get Megatron to flee the detonating space bridge.

"Decepticons, it is with deep sorrow that I note for the log... Megatron's spark has been extinguished. All hail Starscream."

—Looks like Starscream is back to his old self again.

Notes

Continuity errors

• The zombies are able to leave Cybertron and pass through the space bridge despite the fact that it's in space. Even accounting for the fact that Decepticon corpses might have flight capabilities, it seems unlikely that every zombie would.

Astronomical errors

• The Autobots somehow jump from the detonating space bridge straight into the waiting ground bridge vortex, which is positioned below the space bridge, even though there is no gravity in space!

Transformers references

• There are two references which are directly related to the 1986 animated movie. First Ratchet says, "Then by all means, let us light our darkest hour." Later, Optimus exchanges with Megatron: "One shall stand, one shall fall."
• Megatrons have been known to survive space bridge accidents and malfunctions and even space bridge-related suicide attempts. Same goes for ginormous explosions where he stood at Ground Zero. Hope Starscream and Optimus don't expect to relax.
• Optimus's Energon blade and Megatron's hidden fusion cannon blade are references to their movie counterparts
• Optimus' speech at the end is similar to the ones Movie Optimus gives at the end of both movies.

Real-world references

• Miko tries to use an axe on Soundwave's tentacle, which is the same tactic Tom Cruise's character tries on the Tripod tentacle in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds.

• Miko refers to space as "The final frontier". "Space. The final frontier" is the first line of the opening credits of several Star Trek TV shows. Prime show developers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are also the screenwriters of the current Star Trek movies.

Trivia

• Winged versions of the Eradicons make their appearance here.
• The Decepticons are unable to simply warp to Cybertron thanks to Bulkhead ripping off a vital piece of equipment in the previous episode.
• While it's unlikely anything from Exodus applies to the cartoon, a number of Autobots including Ultra Magnus, Omega Supreme and the Wreckers were left behind on Cybertron at the end of that book. Sure hope they weren't around when the zombies came crawling. In a similar vein, Shockwave is also still on Cybertron at the end of the novel. Given the established fact that the war had continued on other worlds after Cybertron's shutdown, though (as stated by Cliffjumper in the prequel comic), it's probable that all of them have since moved on to less hostile locales in the intervening years.
• When Starscream tries to convince Megatron to retreat, there is a surprising tone of concern in his voice. Either that, or he's a much better actor than certain other Starscreams.
• It seems to take a lot longer for the zombie army to come from Cybertron across the space bridge than it took for the Dark Energon to get there in the first place. Must've been the sheer mass of all of them.
• A short video showing a rehearsal or an earlier take of the confrontation between Optimus Prime and Megatron was screened at both BotCon 2010 and San Diego Comic-Con 2010 . The dialogue was somewhat different, with Optimus referring to battle on an alien world when ordering the Autobots away, and lacking the "One shall stand, one shall fall" exchange.