Nemesis Part 2

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It had a good run, but Beast Wars never did want to live forever.
"Nemesis Part 2"
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	May 7, 1999
Written by	Simon Furman
Directed by	Cal Shumiatcher, Steve Sacks
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity

Megatron has possession of the Nemesis, and the Maximals need a last-minute miracle to defeat him as the Beast Wars come to an end.

French-Canadian title: Némésis 2

Japanese title: ハッピー?これでいいのだ (Happy? Kore de ii no da, "Happy? This Should Do It")

Latin-American title: Nemesis Segunda Parte

Italian title: Destini - Parte 2 ("Fates - Part Two")

Brazilian name: Nemesis Parte 2

Synopsis

Optimus and Tigerhawk conclude that it is better to fight and die than run.

Megatron has raised the Nemesis from its watery grave and has begun a random attack on everything in sight, all the while quoting the Covenant of Primus. After telling Rhinox to "deploy Operation Eternity", Optimus Primal and Tigerhawk attempt to fight it off, but their weapons don't even scratch the hull. Tigerhawk tells Primal to rally the Maximals and that he will remain to fight. On the Nemesis, Dinobot is commenting that his spark has changed and feels complete. Aspects of the original Dinobot begin to emerge. He admires Tigerhawk's defense. Tigerhawk is able to damage power on several decks, limiting Megatron's offensive options to using the fusion cannon, which he uses to destroy Tigerhawk. Going to the Protohuman settlement, Megatron prepares to destroy it. Dinobot objects, asking where the honor is in such an act, but Megatron fires anyway, killing Inferno and Quickstrike in the process.

The Nemesis hovering like some vast, predatory bird over Mount St. Hilary.

At Mount St. Hilary, the Maximals are preparing a last-ditch strategy—bring the Ark online and fight the Nemesis. However, the ship has been offline too long, and Rhinox and Blackarachnia are having trouble restoring power. The Nemesis arrives, but Tigerhawk's attack has depleted its energon reserves, and the fusion cannon requires time to recharge. Megatron activates its tractor beam, and Primal enters the Nemesis. He and Megatron duke it out, but the Predacon clearly has the advantage. On the Ark, the Maximals manage to get the engines on line, but they burn out almost instantly. Rattrap proclaims that they are all going to die, and for once, no one tells him to shut up. Instead, the characteristically stoic Rhinox simply responds with "Yup".

If Optimus can't beat Megatron, what chance do we have?

However, Dinobot, disapproving of Megatron's actions, sends a message to the Maximals of an Autobot shuttle stored in the Ark. Megatron orders Dinobot to fire, but he refuses, stating that he has his honor. In a last bid to save them all, Rhinox pilots the shuttle on a collision course with the Nemesis' bridge, crashing through the viewport and going out the other side. Optimus urges Dinobot to save himself, but he remains with the ship, bidding farewell to Primal. As the Nemesis crashes, Primal rejoins the Maximals.

The Beast Wars are over—finished. But it never ends!

Some time later, the Maximals, having repaired the shuttle and rigged a transwarp cell to it, leave Earth for Cybertron. Optimus, piloting the ship, declares that the Beast Wars are over, and memorializes the Maximals who fell during the war. Rattrap, however, is more happy to be going home and points out that they won't have to see Megatron 'til they get there, as the Predacon is tied to the hull of their shuttle. As the shuttle enters transwarp, the scene shifts to the Protohumans, who have built a village and are using parts of Inferno and Quickstrike in a ritual to celebrate their new leader...Waspinator.

In the ultimate act of karma, Waspinator declares that he is "happy at last."

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons	Protohumans
Optimus Primal (1) Tigerhawk (2) Rhinox (3) Silverbolt (4) Blackarachnia (5) Cheetor (6) Rattrap (7) Dinobot (Flashback) (15) Depth Charge (Flashback)	Megatron (8) Dinobot II (9) Inferno (11) Quickstrike (12) Waspinator (16) Rampage (Flashback)	Protohumans (10) Leader Neanderthal (13) Una (14)

Quotes

"'I am that which is, which was, and is yet to come! And you will know my name is Megatron when I lay my vengeance upon you!'"
"You have already read the Covenant of Primus?"
"Just the good parts."

—Megatron and Dinobot II

"I'll say one thing for my namesake, he liked his artillery big and plentiful. Now, where was I? Ah yes, mindless destruction! Good for the spark I always say."

-Megatron, commenting on the Nemesis' firepower.

"Quickly, go to your fellow Maximals. Prepare them! If Megatron destroys the Ark and its occupants, history as we know it will unravel."
"You can't stop that thing alone."
"Perhaps, but it is my destiny to try. I will hold the line here. Go!"

—Tigerhawk and Optimus Primal

"Ah, NOOOO!" [smashes the blast doors] "This ends here, Megatron. No more good friends will be sacrificed to your insane ambition. I swear it! NO MORE!"
[entering] "Uh, you knock?"

—Optimus Primal learns of Tigerhawk's death, while Rattrap is just confused.

"Hmm, I suppose, given my imminent godhood, these primitives should really be beneath my intention. Ah, still, no score is too small to settle, I always say."
[stops Megatron from activating the weapons] "You would turn the full fury of this mighty warship on a lone anthropoid?! Tell me, Megatron, where's the honor in that?!"
[growls] "You dare use the h-word to me?!"
"I…I apologize. I merely felt our power should be conserved for…the larger battle."
"Duly noted...and ignored!"

—Megatron and Dinobot II

"Well, come on, let's have it. The usual 'destiny and honor' speech."
"Speech this!"

—Megatron gets decked by Optimus Primal

"'And there came a hero who said, "Hurt not the earth, nor the seas, nor the trees, nor the very fabric of time." But the hero would not prevail'".
"Finish the quote, Megatron. 'Nor would he surrender!'"

—Megatron and Optimus Primal

Rhinox: "Blackarachnia, is that capacitor circuit ready?"
Blackarachnia: "I need a conduit cable to finish the connection...ah!"
[Blackarachnia takes Rattrap's tail/sword.]
Rattrap: "Hey! Ya emasculatin' fembot!" [Blackarachnia severs the point on the sword; Silverbolt shudders.]
Blackarachnia: "Yes! Main thrusters connected to Teletron I!"
Rattrap: "It's Teletraan!"
Blackarachnia: "Oh, whatever".

—The Maximals prepare for liftoff, witness a castration, and then fanwank.

"No power, no weapons...huh. We're all gonna die."
"Yup".

—Rattrap and Rhinox

"Destroy them!"
"...Negative."
"What?! What possible reason could you have to disobey me?! I am your master! I am your creator!"
"And I...have my HONOR!"

—Megatron and Dinobot II

"For everything that ever was..."

—Rhinox just before crashing into the Nemesis

"'In the Spark of an enemy, there will be salvation; and in the darkest hour, there will be a light.'"
"Yeah, from a very unexpected source – Ol' Chopperface's clone. Who'da thunk it?"
"And let us never forget those other brave bots, whose sacrifice safeguarded past, present and future."

—Optimus Primal and Rattrap

"Waspinator happy at last."

—The most well known ending of all. Until he gets chased away.

Notes

Yoink!

• Kid Rhino's Season 3 box set contains an animatic with additional footage cut out from the final episode (presumably to save time). One of the edits shows Optimus Primal tearing out a transwarp cell from the Nemesis's control deck prior to telling Dinobot II to save himself. The transwarp cell is later seen towards the end of the (finished) episode, installed to the controls of the Autobot shuttle, explaining how the Maximals were able to travel through both space and time and return home.
• In an interview, Furman stated he was approached at BotCon 1998 to write a "G1-centric" episode, and worked closely with Bob Forward on what would become "Nemesis" (they originally weren't sure who'd write which part). Various ideas were pitched, but for reasons of budget and a lack of a fourth season meant everything needed to be wrapped up here; one key decision was to ensure the core cast "got a good send off, one that didn't leave them in limbo". Bob would do most of the Dinobot 2 writing. [1]
• In the early plot of the episode, the Maximals successfully launched the Ark instead of an Autobot shuttle. Also, Dirge, Ramjet and Thrust would be reactivated and ram into the Nemesis instead of the Autobot shuttle. This would have possibly explained where the three Coneheads came from when they suddenly appeared in season two of the original cartoon. This is one of the more popular reasons as to why writer Simon Furman included Dirge as a Herald of Unicron in Worlds Collide.
• It should be noted that had Megatron heeded Dinobot and not turned the fusion cannon on the proto-human colony, he would have most likely won the Beast Wars, by the simple fact that it would have been fully charged by the time the Nemesis reached the Ark (As pointed out by Dinobot, the fusion cannon's reactor was depleted to 65% power when they had arrived) without the Maximals having a chance to prepare in time. In retrospect, this could be why he makes such a big deal about displaying honor later on...
• This appears to be the first time that an Optimus loses a tooth in battle, but it would not be the last
• By the end of the series of the original ten Maximals and Predacons only Optimus, Cheetor, Rattrap, Rhinox, Megatron, and Waspinator survived the Beast Wars. Beast Machines would wipe out several of the Beast Wars survivors leaving Cheetor, Rattrap, and Waspinator as the only ones who managed to survive both series from very beginning to very end.

Technical/animation glitches

• As Tigerhawk is about to be overwhelmed by the fusion cannon, it cuts to a reaction shot by Dinobot, whose "monocle" is on the wrong eye.
• When Optimus returns to the Maximal base and tries to communicate with Tigerhawk, his right wing is missing.
• At one point, Optimus tears his wing off and tosses it to jam the giant grinder mechanisms on the bottom of the Nemesis. However, in the next scene in which he appears, his wing has been replaced with no explanation.
• As the Maximals await their doom inside the Ark and Rattrap comments on how they're "all gonna die", he's missing his robot-mode "backpack".
• Megatron apparently transforms to dragon mode off-screen, transforms back to robot mode on-screen before the scene cuts away, then when next we see him, he is in dragon mode again!
• For most of the episode, Optimus is missing the "blast shields" that he usually wears on either his forearms or shoulders.
• In the final battle scene, Dinobot is flipped horizontally. (See first glitch.)

Continuity errors

Ploink!

• Although it was cut from the final episode for time, the script called for Generation 1 Megatron's spark to be removed from BW Megatron and placed back in its proper body before the Maximals leave Earth. This very brief scene was animated and can be seen on Beast Wars Season 3 box sets produced by Kid Rhino and Madman Entertainment. It should be noted, however, that despite the cut, Optimus's lines from that segment were still included in the episode, albeit used in a different context.
• In "Other Victories", Megatron is perplexed by the idea of Tarantulas trying to destroy the Ark and Tigerhawk states that doing so would erase those descended from Autobots and Decepticons. So why is Megatron doing it now? Considering his religious babbling, it comes off like he's gone mad and thinks it'll erase everyone but him...
• It seems unlikely that the Maximals would leave a Predacon on Earth, even one as incompetent as Waspinator. It's possible they just didn't know he was still alive, though in the Beast Machines episode "The Catalyst", Blackarachnia remarks that she was aware that they'd left him stranded on prehistoric Earth.
• Why didn't Inferno and Quickstrike just call Megatron on their comm links instead of just standing where Megatron couldn't see them and waving their arms around like idiots ? And why didn't Megatron call back Inferno and Quickstrike as soon as he found the Nemesis ?

Transformers references

• There is the Nemesis itself.
• "In the darkest hour, there will be a light," a line from the Covenant of Primus most likely derived from "Light our darkest hour" in The Transformers: The Movie.
• Speaking of that movie, Primal's declaration of "This has to stop! At any cost" mirrors Optimus Prime's declaration of "Megatron must be stopped! No matter the cost".
• After Dinobot flashes between himself and the original Dinobot, his voice no longer has the electronic effect.

Real-world references

• The lines Megatron reads from the Covenant of Primus bear some similarities to lines from English translations of the Bible of Earth's humans.
• One of Megatron's Convenant of Primus quotes bears stronger resemblance to the paraphrase of Ezekiel 25:17 in the film Pulp Fiction than it does to the original Bible quote.

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

2000 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Happy? This Should Do It (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 4 (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)

External links

• BWTF.com page for "Nemesis Part 2", which includes a cut clip from that episode showing the restoration of Generation 1 Megatron's spark.