Nemesis Prime (episode)

The name or term "Nemesis Prime" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Nemesis Prime (disambiguation).

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"Nemesis Prime"
Production company	Hasbro Studios
Airdate	April 7, 2012
Written by	David McDermott
Directed by	Todd Waterman
Animation studio	Polygon Pictures

Optimus Prime becomes destructive while MECH reveals their master plan.

Synopsis

Agent Fowler drives out of a military base, listening to a few tunes, when a semi truck begins to tailgate him too close for comfort. He realizes that it's more than a case of road rage when the truck rams him. Fowler notices a familiar symbol on his attacker's grille-the Autobot symbol. He contacts the Autobot base, where Optimus is not present.The apparent Optimus Prime continues to attack, and as Fowler comes upon a bridge, he pushes his car through the divider, where it hangs precariously. The Autobots receive his message and bridge in, causing Prime to flee and Arcee to give chase. Bumblebee catches Fowler's car as it falls, but the bumper detaches, and Bulkhead catches it before it hits the ground. Arcee comes upon Optimus, but is knocked out when he runs her over.

The next thing she knows, she's back at base, being checked up on. Ratchet doubts Arcee's assertion that Optimus ran her down, and the big 'bot arrives at base. The team goes on guard, but is soon convinced that this is the real Prime.

The other Optimus drives full speed into the military base, wrecking helicopters and prompting chase until he stops. As soldiers surround him and open the door to find no driver, he transforms, and aims a weapon at them.

Fowler recieves a call about the rampaging Prime-in robot mode.

Back at the base, the other Prime tears through lines of soldiers, prompting Optimus, Bumblebee and Bulkhead to bridge to his position. He retreats, and arriving military helicopters mistake the real thing for the fake, firing on them. They retreat to base.

Fowler fields a call asking about the attack, and recieves the news that all Autobots are to be shot on sight. The team realizes that MECH has finally succeeded in replicating Cybertronians, inside and out, with the parts they'd salvaged from their various prey.

The false Prime arrives at a MECH bunker, with Silas in the control seat, expressing extreme satisfaction at the test run.

In attempting to locate the MECH base, Optimus notes that, unlike them, Nemesis must rely on his vehicle mode to move, so he can be tracked.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Bumblebee (3) Bulkhead (4) Arcee (5) Ratchet (6) Optimus Prime (10)	Nemesis Prime (2) Breakdown (14)	William Fowler (1) Silas (2) Raf Esquivel (7) Miko Nakadai (8) Jack Darby (9) MECH soldiers (11) MECH Surgeon (12) MECH Commando (13)

Quotes

"Yes, that's it. Follow the light."
"Wait, what? Not the best choice of words, Ratchet.

—Ratchet and Arcee

"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, and I bring you this message."

—Nemesis Prime steals one of Prime's catchphrases.

Notes

Animation and technical errors

• When the soldiers confront Nemesis Prime at the military base, right when one says "This is a restricted area!", one of the soldiers is running but not moving in any direction; running in place.

Continuity notes

• MECH has Breakdown's reassembled remains, which they collected after his destruction in "Crossfire".
• Ratchet recalls MECH's study of Breakdown in "Operation: Breakdown".
• Optimus recalls the theft of Starscream's T-Cog, which they learned about in "Crossfire" after it happened in "Operation Bumblebee, Part 2".
• Silas took a scan of Optimus at the end of "Convoy", which is evidently how he was able to produce a nearly-identical copy of him in this episode.

Transformers references

• Fowler listens to an instrumental version of "The Touch" on his car radio.

Real-world references

• The opening scene with Fowler references Steven Spielberg's 1971 film Duel, starring an evil truck.

Trivia

• Silas is a former member of the Special Operations branch of the military, while Fowler is an ex-Army Ranger. Fowler is also trained as a gunman.
• Nemesis Prime's transformation uses a modified version of the regular transformation sound effect, which makes it sound as if the transformation is not as smooth as that of an actual Cybertronian.