Darkness Rising, Part 1

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"Darkness Rising, Part 1"
Production company	Hasbro Studios
Airdate	November 26, 2010
Written by	Duane Capizzi
Directed by	David Hartman
Animation studio	Polygon Pictures

Optimus Prime and the Autobots investigate the return of the Decepticons while being forced to account for a group of young humans who have unwittingly become involved in their centuries-old conflict.

Synopsis

Please allow me to introduce myself! I'm a man of wealth and taste...

Cliffjumper is on the open road, boasting to Arcee over the comm about how he's been messing with the humans, when he detects a large amount of energon nearby. As he goes to investigate, a Decepticon ship appears over the crater and Decepticon troopers drop down to attack him. Arcee alerts the rest of the Autobots, who head back to base. Cliffjumper fights on, destroying several of the Decepticons, but their blasts detonate the energon, causing a huge explosion. They drag his defeated form back to the ship, where Starscream is upset about the loss of the energon. Cliffjumper is defiant, but Starscream executes him. The Autobots arrive at the crater via ground bridge, only to find the aftermath of the fight. Arcee picks up a horn Cliffjumper lost during the battle, and Ratchet reports that Cliffjumper's life signal has terminated.

Back on the Decepticon ship, Soundwave replays a recording of Arcee's comms talk, and Starscream decides she will be their next target.

Optimus reminds the other Autobots that they must continue to survive in order to honor the memory of their fallen comrade. Arcee refuses to dwell on it and drives off. In Jasper, Nevada, Jack Darby is working at the KO Burger drive-thru. Arcee finds herself being chased by a couple of Decepticons, and she ducks into the KO Burger parking lot, where Jack mistakes her for a real motorcycle and, fantasizing about one day having a motorcycle of his own, hops on.

But can he make out with his girlfriend on the hood of it?

Sierra and a friend catch him apparently talking to the motorcycle, but while Jack has an awkward moment, the Decepticons spot Arcee. She takes off with a startled Jack still on board. After a short chase, she attempts to let Jack go, sending him down a side alley with a warning not to tell anyone what he's seen. As she speeds off, she spots one of the Decepticons heading after Jack and is forced to double back and pick him up. The chase moves onto the freeway, where Bumblebee arrives to help them out.

In a nearby drainage canal, Rafael Esquivel is playing with a remote-controlled car when Arcee and Jack literally drop in. The Decepticons drop in as well, and first Arcee, then Bumblebee is blasted to the ground. Raf draws the 'cons' attention, which unfortunately works too well, and the two kids are forced to flee into a drain. While they make their escape, Bumblebee and Arcee stand defiant against the Decepticons and, as Bulkhead joins the fight, and the two Decepticons flee.

At Autobot headquarters, Optimus Prime informs the Autobots that since the Decepticons have seen the boys, the two humans may be targeted. At high school, Jack and Raf meet up again, and Bumblebee and Arcee come to take them to HQ. Though Raf roars off in Bumblebee, Jack walks away. Miko Nakadai, sitting outside the school, draws Arcee, but when the motorcycle disappears, she peeks around the corner and spots Arcee in robot mode arguing with Jack. She takes both kids and catches up to Bumblebee. They drive to the Autobots' HQ, concealed in a mountain, where the three kids marvel at the rest of the Autobots and Optimus Prime gives them some exposition regarding the Transformers' war. Optimus fears the imminent return of Megatron.

Soundwave detects a transmission from deep space, and Starscream orders the space bridge activated. As it opens, Megatron emerges, announcing his return.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Cliffjumper (1) Arcee (2) Optimus Prime (4) Ratchet (5) Bulkhead (6) Bumblebee (7)	Decepticon drones (3) Starscream (8) Soundwave (9) Megatron (15)	Jack Darby (10) Sierra (11) Sierra's friend (12) Rafael Esquivel (13) Miko Nakadai (14)

Quotes

"Scream, it's been a while. Where's your master?"

—Cliffjumper's last words

"Clean that up."

—Starscream after killing Cliff and not washing his servos

"Scrap!"

—Arcee showing her fluency with Cybertronian expletives

"Friend of yours?"
"Family."

—Jack and Arcee on Bumblebee's arrival

"What are they?"
"Talking cars that turn into robots. Or the other way around."

—Rafael and Jack

"Dude, what are you waiting for? Go with!"

—Miko says what the audience is thinking.

"So, if you guys are robots, who made you...?"
"Ugh! Puh-leez..."

—Rafael and Ratchet

"We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron..."

—Optimus Prime likes to repeat the same introduction over and over again.

"Decepticons! I have returned."

—Megatron announces his grand return.

Notes

Animation and technical errors

• When Ratchet attempts to scan for Cliffjumper's life signal, only five Autobots are shown on his screen, despite there being a total of six Autobots in the range of his scan (including the soon-to-be-dead Cliffjumper). This might be explained as being because Ratchet's own life signal doesn't appear on his own scanner.
• During the scene where Arcee attempts to talk to Jack in the alleyway, her rear end clips a bin.
• Upon this episode's original airing, the insignia on the floor of the Autobot base was the live-action movie Autobot insignia, rather than the standard Autobot insignia used on the characters themselves. This however was swiftly changed upon the re-airing weeks later, suggesting the rendering team either originally took note in time to effect the change, or they REALLY DO read everything on this Wiki to make the show better. This is us waving at you! *waves*
• In the credits, Cliffjumper's name is parsed "Cliff Jumper".

Continuity errors

• Transformers: Exodus is the basis of the Prime continuity's backstory, according to Hasbro. However, Exodus has the split between Optimus and Megatron causing the war, whereas this episode says it happened during the war. But it's just not a proper Transformers continuity without early continuity divergences!

• One Shall Rise, Part 3 will later give a more detailed explanation of Optimus and Megatron's background... and pretty much state that the split between the two was what led to the war, after all.

Transformers references

• Bumblebee and Bulkhead are big walking references to the movie Bumblebee and Animated Bulkhead respectively, looking near-identical and (in the former's case) sharing the same speech impediment.
• Lots of references to "three years ago" as the last time the Decepticons and Megatron were seen. Three years ago was the year that Transformers came out in the cinema, by Prime showrunners Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

  

  Sup.

• Cybertron has been rendered uninhabitable by the war. This is not just established by Exodus and the War for Cybertron games, but was also part of the live-action film series canon and IDW's earlier Generation 1 comics.
• The image of Cybertron from space that appears during Optimus's exposition reuses the model from War for Cybertron.
• In this series, Energon is represented as a naturally growing blue crystal. This is not the first time it has been represented in this way.
• The Decepticon "drones" are extremely similar to the Decepticon troops in the Autobot campaign of War for Cybertron.

Real-world references

• Jack's statement "The first rule of robot fight club is that you don't talk about robot fight club" is a reference to, well, Fight Club.

Foreign localization

German

• Title: "Die dunkle Macht erhebt sicht, Teil 1" (The Dark Force Rises, Part 1")
• Original airdate: 23 September 2011

Korean

• Title: "Ak ui Buhwal 1" (악의 부활 1, "Return of the Evil, Part 1")
• Original airdate: 29 August 2011

Trivia

• Cliffjumper was presented as a key Autobot in the publicity material, and a big deal was made of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson being his voice actor. That made him the last character you'd expect to be killed off in the first few minutes of his first episode (to the extent some fans thought he'd turn out to be fine in episode 2). Prime's sister show, G.I. Joe: Renegades, pulled the same tactic with the hero Ripcord although in his case it would have been revealed that he turned out fine (albeit having the ability to "transform" into a Bio-Viper.)
• The two troopers that battle Arcee and Bumblebee are shown to be the toughest ones so far in the series. While most are weak and die easily, they battle two autobots and are basically winning the whole time untill they retreat from Bulkhead.
• given the durability of the same troopers and the fact that they quickly tracked Arcee, it can be speculated that they are the same two that survived the Enegon explosion and brought Cliffjumper to Starscream.