Crossfire (Prime)

« Transformers: Prime ep 33 »
You'll get caught up in the...
"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

"Finally I can get ahead in this organization."

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, damaging one of her legs and forcing her to retreat. Breakdown gives chase, and finds her collapsed in a ravine, but as he raises his hammer to finish her, he is snagged by a webbing booby trap the renegade fembot has laid for him. Immobilized, Breakdown can do nothing to stop Airachnid from slicing him to pieces. She leaves his remains behind, which are presently discovered by a contingent of MECH soldiers.

"This is going to be awesome! With this Insecticon we can off Megatron and take over the whole thing!" "Insecticon, eat him."

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 Starscream dies. She orders the Insecticon to kill him.

At the base, Ratchet receives 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.

"One shall stand, one sha-oh, wait, too late."

Airachnid contacts Megatron and proposes a challenge, which he accepts, forbidding Dreadwing to follow him. Making his way to the mine, the Decepticon leader is immediately assaulted by the Insecticon, who ignores Megatron's orders to stand down and begins to beat him down. Though he does not initially fare well, it does not take long for the former gladiator to put himself on equal footing with the beast. The Autobots bridge in, and Arcee goes for Airachnid, chasing her off into the adjoining tunnels while the other Autobots watch as Megatron triumphs over the Insecticon, tearing off its limbs and head. The Autobots surround Megatron as he falls, exhausted. Prime mulls over the idea of ending his life when suddenly, Dreadwing and a large detachment of Vehicons descend into the cavern. Prime agrees to trade the Autobots' lives for Megatron's, but once the trade is made, Megatron orders the Vehicons to attack, and departs with Dreadwing, noting his appreciation for Dreadwing's disregard of orders.

Arcee, meanwhile, 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 Airachnid 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.

"You dare turn your back on a superior life-form? I am Commander Starscream!"

—Starscream using his former position to get others to do what he wants...again.

"Nonetheless, I do not condone the termination of any defenseless life form."

—Optimus Prime, who ironically will almost terminate a defenseless and injured Megatron.

"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.

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

—Bulkhead's opinion on Dreadwing's offer to trade Megatron's life for the Autobots'.

"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 back to his hand.
• When the Insecticon throws Megatron into the air and slashes at him with its horn, it injures his shoulder and Energon is splattered from the wound. When Megatron recovers, the injury appears on his neck instead.
• When Megatron switches to his vehicle mode, the webbing on his cannon disappears. If this was intentional, why not just do it to fight off the Autobots?

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, as well as how Starscream was responsible for Cliffjumper's demise.
• 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. Arcee seems to have learned about it as well.
• 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.

Trivia

• Starscream's arm-mounted missiles still work even with his T-Cog missing, since there's no transformation involved in firing them.