The Great Divide
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 Wasn't this the plot of an Animorphs book? | ||||||
| "The Great Divide" | ||||||
| Production company | Hasbro Studios | |||||
| Airdate | June 3, 2017 | |||||
| Writer | Andrew R. Robinson | |||||
| Director | Todd Waterman | |||||
| Animation studio | Polygon Pictures | |||||
A freak combiner accident causes Sideswipe to split into two individuals, causing problems when the Bee Team tries to take in Drag Strip.
Synopsis
Bee Team pursues Drag Strip through a forest as the Stunticon has an artifact stolen from one of Windblade's caches. Strongarm complains about Sideswipe splashing her with mud from the bog, but moments later, Sideswipe ends up landing face-first in the swamp. Ahead, Drag Strip ends up bogged down, literally, and the Autobots catch up with him. Sideswipe moves in for the arrest, only for Drag Strip to ignite a methane bubble. After the resulting explosion, Drag Strip grabs the artifact, but turns tail when he sees the Autobots have merged into one robot. The Autobots recover consciousness and initial confusion gives way to panic when they realize what has happened. As they argue, a Mini-Con takes the opportunity to spirit away Sideswipe's Decepticon Hunter. Bumblebee manages to coordinate his team enough to stand up. As soon as Sideswipe tries to grab Drift, the entire robot goes crashing into a tree, and the team separates. As they puzzle over what happened, it quickly becomes clear that some bots are more separated than others — Sideswipe has somehow split into two bots. The two Sideswipes start fighting, and Bumblebee contacts Fixit to get a GroundBridge home.
Back in the scrapyard, they fill Fixit in on what happened. The two Sideswpes are separated to stop them fighting, while Fixit promises to work on some theories and solutions about both that problem and their impromptu combination, though Bumblebee is more worried about the stolen relic.
Drag Strip arrives at a deserted base and is met by Wildbreak and Motormaster, the latter of whom asks Drag Strip to demonstrate what he's found. Drag Strip zaps Wildbreak with it, revealing it to be a Gravitic Adjuster. Motormaster announces it's time to show the opposition that they mean business.
One of the Sideswipes protests at being the recipient of a permanent bear-hug from Grimlock, who will only release him on Bumblebee's say so. The other Sideswipe insists that they're two halves of the same bot and need to work together to be effective, but his other half is unconvinced.
Drag Strip drives through the desert, looking for a suitable target that will get the attention of both Autobots and humans, and settles on a State Trooper station.
Strongarm and Drift work on tracking the relic without the use of the main command console as Fixit's busy with it, and discuss the Sdieswipe situation. Fortunately Fixit's come up with a theory, that the Autobots were altered by the radiation they encountered during their battle with Heatseeker. Sideswipe realizes his Decepticon Hunter is missing. As they puzzle over how to trigger their combination without the use of an explosion, Fixit detects a distress call from the trooper station. Bumblebee initially intends to bench the Sideswipes, but they and Strongarm talk Bumblebee into taking them along.
Elsewhere, the Mini-Con activates a GroundBridge portal and sends the stolen Decepticon Hunter to Soundwave, before following it through.
Drag Strip is using the Gravitic Adjuster on the trooper station and beginning to have ideas about using to be become boss when the Autobots arrive. Bumblebee sends Strongarm and Sideswipe to make sure the station is evacuated, and after some bickering, the trio head off. Drift and Grimlock are both hit by the Gravitic Adjuster, pinning them to the ground, and when Bumblebee attempts to bum rush Drag Strip, he too is zapped by it. Drag Strip continues blasting Bumblebee while fantasizing about duplicating the relic and making a fortune, until Grimlock bounces a rock off his head, causing him to drop the relic which bounces away.
Down at the trooper station, the Sideswipes are once again bickering, until one has to save the other from falling rubble. The pair finally come to an understanding, moments before Strongarm is knocked flat by more debris. The Sideswipes are trying to dig her out when Drag Strip brings more of the building down on them. As the Con moves in to finish off Strongarm, the Sideswipes come up with a plan — one of them distracts Drag Strip long enough for the other to zoom in and punch him. They collect Strongarm and return to the rest of the team.
Later, Fixit wires up both Sideswipes and, despite some less than convincing statements about how likely it is to work, the process succeeds.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Am I the bottom? I am, amn't I?"
- —Grimlock doesn't like being the legs.
"I don't think that's a 'Con, Sideswipe. I think there's...TWO of you!"
"Oh, no. I've had nightmares about this exact thing."
- —Bumblebee enlightens Strongarm to the horrifying truth.
"Unified, Sideswipe is barely tolerable. Divided, his two sides are... maddening."
- —Drift
Notes
Continuity notes
- Strongarm claims that being combined with Sideswipe "isn't exactly a day at the car wash for [her] either". Strongarm's affinity for car washes was established waaay back in Sideways.
- Fixit hypothesizes that the nuclear radiation the Bee Team was exposed to in the season-opening two-parter may be what has made them capable of combining when exposed to explosions (although the presence of the Crash Combiner Heatseeker at the bottom of the pile probably didn't hurt).
- Soundwave notes that he is "more than halfway" to finishing whatever project he's working on in the Shadowzone that requires the acquisition of Decepticon Hunters, having previously received Bumblebee's from Stuntwing in "King of the Hill (Part 2)".
Transformers references
- When he's assigned as part of the group to go make sure the trooper station is clear, one of the Sideswipes complains "What am I? Some kind of Rescue Bot?"
Real-world references
- (tbd)
Errors
- We're gonna list an anti-error here: The Autobots actually retain their mud-spatters between scenes! In many prior episodes, mud-spatters, burn marks and even puncture holes in armor disappear in seconds. Here, the swampy slime stays on the bots across multiple scene transitions.
Trivia
- (tbd)
