Sabotage
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 "And that, Windblade...that is how one dominates." | ||||||
| "Sabotage" | ||||||
| Production company | Hasbro Studios | |||||
| Airdate | October 26, 2018 (Xfinity X1) November 9, 2018 (CN app and website) November 10, 2018 (USA) | |||||
| Writer | Dan Salgarolo | |||||
| Director | Ehud Landsberg | |||||
| Animation studio | Boulder Media Studio | |||||
Shockwave traps Bumblebee in a false memory designed to convince him he's a Decepticon.
Synopsis
As Shockwave watches a security video of Windblade and Bumblebee, he instructs Slipstream to dispose of Windblade while he goes into Bumblebee's mind to make him believe he is a Decepticon.
In the Bumblebee cave, the pair are searching through Bumblebee's memories for any clue as to the identity of the "king of the dinosaurs,"; invading the connection, Shockwave appears behind Windblade, and kicks her out of Bumblebee's memories. Masquerading as the Cityspeaker, he gets Bumblebee to access a memory, but is hesitant due to her monotone voice. Outside, the Decepticon scout ship, controlled by Shockwave, flies to the Seekers, much to Windblade's confusion.
Aboard the Ark, Optimus Prime tells the Autobots that Teletrann-1 has located the AllSpark. As the other Autobots cheer, Bumblebee sneaks off to transmit their coordinates to Megatron, who then praises Bumblebee for being his perfect spy, and instructs him to disable the Ark's engines to allow the Deceptions to capture the ship. After disabling the engines, Bumblebee bumps into Rack'n'Ruin, who tells him about the explosions in the engine rooms, and then into Wheeljack, who blames him for disabling the energon filtration system. After stinging Wheeljack and ejecting him out of the Ark, Ratchet finds out and starts to fight Bumblebee.
As Windblade is captured by the Seekers, Bumblebee has a breakdown, but is soon encouraged to finish the memory by Shockwave.
After being caught, Grimlock talks about Bumblebee's crimes, with Optimus at the end convicting Bumblebee guilty and for his punishment to be deactivation. Bumblebee knocks out his captors and runs away.
Windblade is able to escape her own captors, only to be stopped by the scout ship which Slipstream controls to start firing on Windblade.
After running through the Ark, Bumblebee is cornered by Optimus, only for him to reveal that he too is a Decepticon! Optimus tells Bumblebee that they should initiate the second part of the plan: kill everyone else aboard the ship.
Bumblebee, in complete disbelief, destroys the memory and declares it to be false. Shockwave then reveals himself, and demands Bumblebee to give him the location of the AllSpark in exchange for Windblade's safety. Bumblebee ignores him and disconnects himself. When Bumblebee reaches the piloting area, Windblade tells him to push the red button on that he's been avoiding, which makes the ship fly forward and self destruct on impact after Bumblebee and Windblade fled the area. While they have no fast method of transportation, or a way to access Bumblebee's memories, they are still glad they survived in the end.
Featured characters
Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Others |
|---|---|---|
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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 the previous episode, 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.
- Shockwave refers to the cortical psychic patch as "his", implying that, as in the Aligned continuity, Shockwave is the inventor of the device.
- 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
- TBA
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.
- Windblade mistakes a dog for a horse, most likely from her lack of knowledge on Earth's inhabitants.
Animation and technical errors
- In the "celebration" scene, Ratchet is missing his Autobot insignia.
Foreign localization
- TBA
Home video releases
- TBA
