Sabotage
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 "And that, Bumblebee...that is how one dominates." | ||||||
| "Sabotage" | ||||||
| Production company | Hasbro Studios | |||||
| Airdate | October 26, 2018 (Xfinity X1) | |||||
| Animation studio | Boulder Media Studio | |||||
Shockwave traps Bumblebee in a false memory designed to convince him he's a Decepticon.
Synopsis
As Shockwave watches at a security video of Windblade and Bumblebee, he instructs Slipstream over a communicator to distract of Windblade while he goes into Bee's mind to reveal what he really is: A Decepticon.
In the cave, the pair are searching for "the king of the dinosaurs". Shockwave appears behind Windblade, and changes his appearance to look like her. Masquerading as Windblade, he gets Bee to access a memory, but Bee is a bit hesitant because of "her" monotone voice. Outside, the real Windblade realizes what’s happening and tries to stop it, but fails. As she attempts to operate the ship's controls, the ship takes off by itself, with Shockwave in command, taking it to the Seekers.
Inside the Ark, Optimus Prime tells the Autobots that Teletrann-1 has found energon. As the other Autobots cheer, Bumblebee sneaks off to… transmit their coordinates to Megatron?!? After disabling the engines, Bee bumps into Rack'n'Ruin, who tell him about explosions in the engine room, and then into Wheeljack, who blames him for disabling the energon filtration system. After stinging Wheeljack, Ratchet gets angry after seeing him outside in space, where fighting ensues.
After getting captured, Grimlock gave a little exposition. After Grimlock’s speech, Optimus declares that Bumblebee’s punishment is deactivation. Bumblebee doesn’t like this, so he knocks out his captors and runs away and Optimus gives chase. After running a little ways, Bumblebee gets cornered. Before he can be deactivated, though, Optimus puts his axe away and tells Bumblebee that they should initiate the second part of the plan: kill everyone else aboard the ship.
Realizing that it isn’t real, Bumblebee gets mad and soon realizes that Windblade isn’t actually Windblade, but rather Shockwave. He says that he had forgotten about Bee’s ultimate loyalty to Optimus Prime.
Arriving at the abandoned plane shed where the seekers were, they captured Windblade and Slipstream took her time as to how she was going to get rid of Windblade. But before she can figure it out, Windblade spreads her wings and blasts off. What she doesn’t realize, though, is that Slipstream has control of the ship, and attacks Windblade. After this happens, Bumblebee wakes up and sees the ship attacking Windblade. Windblade tells him to push the big red button, which he does, sending it crashing down to the Seekers below, exploding on impact. Driving away, Bumblebee and Windblade reflect over the fact that they can’t access Bee’s memories anymore, but Bee is just glad to have her back.
Featured characters
Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
|---|---|
|
Quotes
Notes
Continuity notes
- Maccadam told Bumblebee and Windblade that they needed to find the "king of the dinosaurs" in the previous episode.
- Deadlock, first seen defecting from the Decepticons in "Maccadam's", is here shown as an Autobot and part of the crew of the Ark; according to writer Gavin Highnight, he has in fact changed his name to Drift as is traditional for the character.[1] Of course whether or not he's actually part of the crew is open to a little question, given the flashback memory was either modified or created from whole cloth by Shockwave.
Transformers references
- While scouring his mind for information about kings, Bumblebee notes that he has a memory of Starscream wearing a crown — a reference to Starscream's infamous "coronation" scene from the 1986 animated film, which was homaged in 2012's Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and many, many toys.
- First appearing as a Wrecker in the Marvel UK comics, a new version of the classic character(s) Rack'n'Ruin marks the first televised appearance of this oddball 'bot. The nature of this "flashback," however, makes it difficult to discern if they were really members of the Ark...
Real-world references
Trivia
- This episode was originally scheduled to debut on Canadian television on October 21, 2018, several weeks ahead of its US broadcast. A re-run of "Fractured" wound up airing instead.
- This episode was made available for YouTubeTV subscribers and OnDemand for subscribers to U.S. cable provider Comcast's Xfinity X1 service on October 26, 2018, along with the ninth, tenth, and twelvth episodes of the series, "Shadowstriker," "Maccadam's," and "Teletraan-X," all prior to their Cartoon Network broadcast debuts. Intially, "Sabotage" was not included in this release, leaving a one-episode gap, but it was added before the end of the same day.
Animation and technical errors
- In the "celebration" scene, Ratchet is missing his Autobot insignia.
Foreign localization
Home video releases
- TBA
