As the Kospego Commands!

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"As the Kospego Commands!"
Production company	Hasbro Studios
Airdate	March 7, 2015 (Australia) April 25, 2015 (USA)
Writer	Michael Ryan
Director	Scooter Tidwell
Animation studio	Polygon Pictures

Sideswipe's loyalty to the team comes into question as he and Bumblebee track down a Cybertronian crime boss.

Synopsis

Fixit manages to avoid a falling stack of stasis pods just in the nick of time, only to almost be flattened by another pod which Bumblebee catches. Bumblebee asks why Sideswipe isn't helping him, but it turns out Sideswipe has given an excuse so he can slack off and listen to music. Bumblebee's attempt to tell Sideswipe off is sidetracked when Bumblebee starts listening to the music himself, but he gets his point across. Denny announces a customer has arrived, and the bots disguise themselves as a vehicle pulls up. The teens who hop out announce they've come on behalf of the Kospego, a local legendary creature. The Kospego has demanded Arnold and his friends acquire for it a number of components. When Arnold rattles off the list of components needed, Bumblebee recognizes what they're needed for and asks Russell not to let them have the generator they need. Arnold is unhappy when he finds he can't get a generator, as the only other place to get one would be the dam.

As the Kospego's minions drive off, Strongarm returns from searching the Alchemor crash site with a strange device she's found, which Fixit identifies as a Decepticon hunter — a multi-purpose weapon that adapts to its wielder's desires. After Strongarm attempts to make it turn into a protoblaster unsuccessfully, taking out Denny's vintage refrigerator collection in the process, Bumblebee reveals he believes the Kospego is a Decepticon aiming to build a space bridge. Though the other Autobots are excited at the prospect of returning to Cybertron, Bumblebee doubts that the space bridge will be stable, and will more likely produce a black hole that could destroy Earth. Fixit checks the database and finds the likely Decepticon is Thunderhoof. The Autobots set out for the dam to make sure the Kospego's minions don't steal the generator.

Leaving Grimlock and Sideswipe to guard the generator, Bumblebee and Strongarm begin searching the area. Sideswipe naturally grows bored and decides to go scout the perimeter, or more precisely go listen to music somewhere quiet. Bumblebee and Strongarm find him boogieing, and while Bumblebee reprimands him, they hear Grimlock being confronted by someone over the comms. They return to find the generator gone and Grimlock flattened. Bumblebee pointedly blames Sideswipe for leaving his post. When Grimlock proves unable to get back to the scrapyard under his own steam — he seems to have forgotten he can't fly — Bumblebee orders Strongarm to help him. Bumblebee and Sideswipe meanwhile go looking and soon find the space bridge Arnold and his pals are building. Needing to get the humans away from the site, Sideswipe comes up with a plan — he and Bumblebee disguise themselves with tree branches and pretend to be the legendary creatures "Sideswingo" and "Bumbeego". Once they act menacingly and Sideswipe breaks a tree, Arnold and his friends flee.

As the two Autobots inspect the space bridge, Thunderhoof himself arrives and is unimpressed that his workers have been scared off. He offers to cut a deal with the pair and let them have some of his criminal empire if they help him return to Cybertron, but Bumblebee is naturally uncompromising, though Sideswipe actually seems to consider it a good idea. While Bumblebee fights the Decepticon, Sideswipe stands back, and when Thunderhoof has Bumblebee on the ground, Sideswipe announces he wants to help with the space bridge. He convinces Thunderhoof not to stomp Bumblebee and instead they fire up the space bridge, which seems to work until it turns an ominous purple color and start sucking things in. Thunderhoof decides to test it out by sending a reluctant Sideswipe through first, but Sideswipe uses the Decepticon hunter as a mace, knocking Thunderhoof off balance and towards the space bridge. Thunderhoof stops himself on the threshold, but Bumblebee releases some girders which knock Thunderhoof in and he disappears. The two Autobots realize they can stop the black hole with an explosion and throw the generator into the space bridge. There's a explosion, and the whole space bridge is history. The Autobots pick themselves up and wonder what happened to Thunderhoof.

Elsewhere in the woods, Thunderhoof rematerializes to discover he's still on Earth, and decides to set up a new empire here instead. He's interrupted by Steeljaw, who invites him to a team up. Also, Arnold and his friends are searching in the forest fruitlessly for Sideswingo and Bumbeego.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Fixit (1) Bumblebee (2) Sideswipe (3) Strongarm (8)	Thunderhoof (7) Grimlock (9) Steeljaw (11)	Denny Clay (4) Russell Clay (5) Arnold (6) Morton (10)

Quotes

"Oh Fixit, we don't have any elephants."
"Oh...Then what have I been cleaning?!"

—Fixit worries about what he's been cleaning all this time.

"The music on this planet is pretty great. The melodies are complex and the lyrics frequently have multiple meanings."
"I like the UNZA UNZA parts."

—Bumblebee and Sideswipe

"I need stuff and yous gonna get it for me. Or else I'm gonna break some junk, and by junk I mean yous."

—Thunderhoof gives his first command to his followers.

Bumblebee: Autobots!
Sideswipe: Here comes another stinker.
Strongarm: Nope, this time he nails it.
Bumblebee: Let's rev, rock and rumble! [sees Sideswipe and Strongarm's faces] Oh really? I kinda liked that one.

—Bumblebee tries out another motto.

"Since when can't I fly?"

—Grimlock (whilst dizzy) thinks he can fly. Poor, poor Grimlock.

"There are other legendary creatures of, great, legendary-ness that walk the forest. Such as me Sideswingo."
"And me, Bumbeego."

—Sideswipe and Bumblebee pretend to be "legendary".

"Why do legendary creatures hate trees so much?!"

—Arnold wonders why legendary creatures hate his oh-so-beloved trees.

Notes

Continuity errors

• The Decepticon hunter looks exactly like one of the capture tools the Autobots used in "Pilot (Part 2)". While it could just be that that tool was also a Decepticon hunter, Fixit makes a big deal in this episode over how Strongarm managed to find one.

Continuity notes

• The Decepticons were previously able to use stolen Earth technology to build a space bridge in Transformers: Prime.
• The Autobots are established as not possessing any elephants.

Prisoner manifest

• In stasis: Underbite, Hammerstrike, Bisk, 4/5ths of Chop Shop, Terrashock
• On probation: Grimlock
• Known at large: Steeljaw, 1/5th of Chop Shop (possibly unknown to Bee), Thunderhoof
• Countless others all missing, presumed at large

Real-world references

• The Kospego's name and description is similar to a real world mythical creature, the Wendigo.

Trivia

• The first thirteen episodes of the series, this included, first premiered in Mandarin on Chinese streaming video site M1905.

Foreign localization

Chinese

• Original airdate: December 31, 2014

French

• Title: "Sous les ordres du Cospego" ("Under the Orders of Cospego")
• Original airdate: February 16, 2015

German

• Title: "Der Kospego" ("The Kospego")
• Original airdate: April 27, 2015

Hungarian

• Title: "Kospego parancsol" ("Kospego Commands")
• Original airdate: March 23, 2015

Italian

• Title: "Come vuole Kospego" ("As Kospego wants")
• Original airdate: March 16, 2015

Japanese

• Title: "Densetsu no Yōkai Shikapyon, Arawaru!?" (伝説の妖怪シカピョン、あらわる!?, "The Legendary Spirit Shikapyon, Revealed!?")
• Original airdate: April 19, 2015

• The Japanese name for the Kospego, "Shikapyon" (シカピョン), is a portmanteau of "shika" (鹿), which means "deer" or "elk", and "pyonpyon" (ぴょんぴょん), a mimetic adverb which means "hopping" or "repeatedly jumping" (as deer and elk are known to do).

Portuguese

• Original airdate: March 9, 2015