Crossfire (Prime)

« Transformers: Prime ep 33 »
"Crossfire"
Production company	Hasbro Studios
Airdate	March 31, 2012
Written by	Marty Isenberg
Directed by	Shaunt Nigoghossian
Animation studio	Polygon Pictures

Airachnid and Starscream struggle to control an Insecticon warrior.

Synopsis

Airachnid muses to Megatron about Soundwave's inevitable decryption of the Iacon files, and requests for her tracking abilities to be enlisted in the search for the resulting coordinates. Megatron dismisses her, and Soundwave replays the audio of her suggestion to leave Megatron earlier. He contacts Dreadwing, who replies with an oath of loyalty. The leader orders him to perform a task he normally performs himself, but now leaves to his first officer. The Seeker is confused, as Airachnid holds that position, but his mission becomes clear—he is to dispose of the treacherous spider.

Breakdown, Dreadwing, and Airachnid follow the trail of an unconfirmed energon deposit. Airachnid is amused at the heavy backup, and takes the opportunity to grill Breakdown on his lack of skill, and lack of eye. Dreadwing attempts to calm him, but another insult puts him into a frenzy. He jumps at the spider, but is webbed in the face. Dreadwing joins the fray, but is pinned to a tree by Airachnid's webbing, but not before he lets off a blast which collapses a tree on Airachnid. She finds one of her legs damaged, and retreats. Breakdown gives chase, and finds her collapsed in a ravine. As he raises his hammer to finish her, webs immobilize it in the air. Airachnid raises a leg to slice him through.

A contingent of MECH soldiers come upon Breakdown's remains.

In a cave, Starscream pities his lot in life as he jumps for a meager scrap of energon. He is interrupted by a nearby rumbling that surprises him—it is an Insecticon, unearthing a large chunk of energon. He orders the brute to hand it over, but it attacks him, forcing him to hide. He witnesses the Insecticon bowing to another surprise—Airachnid. He makes himself known, and she makes her rogue status known, giving Starscream the idea to propose an alliance to overthrow Megatron with the help of her oversized herald. She proposes an alternative—she overthrows Megatron, and orders the Insecticon to destroy Starscream.

At base, Ratchet recieves another high frequency signal with an embedded message, again from Starscream, who promises valuable intel in exchange for medical aid. His intel proves none-too-relevant until he mentions the Insecticon, and provides Airachnid's location. Back at base, Arcee berates Ratchet and Bulkhead for letting him go again, but Optimus is confident in sparing helpless lifeforms, regardless of personal vendettas.

Airachnid contacts Megatron and proposes a challenge. He accepts, and forbids Dreadwing to follow him.

Megatron arrives at the mine, and is beset upon by the Insecticon, who ignores Megatron's orders to stand down and begins to beat him down. Before long, however, the former gladiator is on equal footing with the beast. The Autobots bridge in, and Arcee goes for Airachnid. Below, Megatron gains the upper hand, removing the Insecticon's limbs and finally decapitating it. Megatron announces his superiority, before falling. The Autobots surround him, and Optimus Prime prepares to execute him. Laser blasts fill the air, and Dreadwing, accompanied by a large detachment of Vehicons, surrounds them. They agree to trade their lives for Megatron's. As Dreadwing and Megatron fly off, Megatron shows his appreciation for Dreadwing's disregard of orders.

Arcee follows Airachnid, but finds herself suddenly stuck in a trap. As her rival prepares to finish her, a missile streaks through the air and pushes the spider off Arcee. She escapes as Starscream—intent on payback—continues to fire. Now alone with Arcee, the Seeker recalls her decision to spare him earlier, and cuts her down to settle his debt.

Underground, even as she swears her vengeance, Airachnid comes upon the source of her warrior—an entire nest of Insecticons.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Ratchet (10) Bulkhead (11) Arcee (12) Bumblebee (13) Optimus Prime (14)	Soundwave (2) Megatron (3) Dreadwing (4) Breakdown (5) Vehicons (15)	MECH soldiers (6) MECH Commando (7)	Airachnid (1) Starscream (8) Insecticon (9)

Quotes

"I know we've never seen eyes-to-eye, but that doesn't mean we can't patch things up."

—Airachnid baits Breakdown with extra-strength puns.

"Easy prey."

—Breakdown on the crippled Airachnid

"You and your beast would do well to remember—I honed my skills in the pits of Kaon!"

—Megatron reminds all that he is not so easily beaten.

"It would seem Starscream orchestrated this convergence in the hope that all his enemies would destroy each other on his behalf."

—Optimus sums up Starscream for the fans. Even Starscream doesn't know he's behind this master plan.

"Never trust a 'Con. Kick Buckethead's bucket!"

—Bulkhead on Megatron's physical appearance

"You disobeyed my orders in following me here. You will make a fine first lieutenant."

—Megatron might have finally made a good choice for second-in-command.

Notes

Animation and technical errors

• When Bulkhead jumps out of the GroundBridge with Ratchet following behind, the wrecking ball on his left arm somehow transforms silently and invisibly back to his hand.
• When the Insecticon throws Megatron into the air and slashes at him with its horn, it injures him and Energon/mech fluid is splattered from the wound. When Megatron recovers, no injury is visible.

Continuity errors

• Soundwave's trace of Airachnid's signal appears to locate her around about Bolivia, while the Autobot trace of the same signal places it on the north coast of South America, in Guyana or Suriname.
• Starscream's missiles reappear on his arms after he fires them.

Continuity notes

• Arcee reminds the team yet again of how Airachnid took Tailgate away from her.
• Starscream hasn't forgotten how Arcee let him live after their last encounter from "Partners".
• Soundwave plays dialogue from "One Shall Rise, Part 2" to remind Megatron what Airachnid thinks of him.
• MECH comes across the dismembered remains of Breakdown, and cites it as a "familiar face".
• Starscream contacts Ratchet the same way he did back in "Orion Pax, Part 2", and meets him and Bulkhead in what appears to be the same place. Both he and Bulkhead even reference the events of that episode.
• The events of the two-part episode "Operation Bumblebee" are brought up while Starscream begs for treatment.
• The "task" Megatron normally performs himself—the disposal of treacherous soldiers—previously occurred in "Rock Bottom", where Starscream was the recipient.
• Megatron refers to his skills and training as a Kaon gladiator.
• Optimus successfully appeals to Dreadwing's sense of honour, similar to the previous episode. Sadly, Megatron lacks such a thing.

Transformers references

• The original Insecticons often functioned as an independent unit and more often than not disobeyed (or outright opposed) the original Megatron. Similarly, the Insecticon in this episode refuses to acknowledge Megatron's leadership. Unlike the originals, however, this poor Insecticon pays for it.

Trivia

• Starscream's arm-mounted missiles still work even with his T-Cog missing, since there's no transformation involved in firing them.
• After seeming to learn her lesson about running off on her own to avenge her dead partners back in Partners, Arcee rushes off on her own in pursuit of Airachnid and almost dies as a result. Are we sure Miko's the only one with problems learning her lesson?
• Breakdown's temper caused the failure of the assassination attempt on Airachnid and (depending on how fatal dismemberment is to Transformers in this continuity) his death. Arcee's temper almost got her killed were it not for Starscream's interference. Someone needs to look into anger management for both sides.