Upgrades
| This article is about the Rescue Bots episode. For the IDW story, see Upgrade. |
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 You must seek out the Galvanic Mechamorphs! | ||||||
| "Upgrades" | ||||||
| Season | 4 | |||||
| No. in season | 25 | |||||
| Production company | Hasbro Studios | |||||
| Airdate | October 22, 2016 | |||||
| Writer | Nicole Dubuc | |||||
| Director | Kevin Altieri | |||||
| Animation studio | DHX Media Top Draw Animation | |||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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When Optimus Prime splits the Rescue Bots into different teams for new assignments, the evil genius Doctor Morocco returns to wreak havoc.
Synopsis
[edit]
The Greenes are celebrating Frankie's birthday. Her present is access to the top secret project they've been working on, the Scrubber Initiative. Doc notes his microfiber welding tool has gone missing, which the family suspects is the work of CeCe, however as they go to look for it, they're observed by the Morocco virus. Morocco is the real culprit behind the various recent thefts, having been busy building a MorBot in a basement area using the purloined tech. Cody and Chief arrive in Chase — Cody's interested in partnering with a bot, though Chief thinks he needs to stick to the command center for now. Joining the party, Cody gives Frankie a present — a prism necklace that doubles as a laser. The party is interrupted by an emergency alert from Dr. Meili Szeto in China. The Scrubbers they're upgrading have gone wild, and to the surprise of Chief and Cody, she reveals she knows about the Rescue Bots and that Optimus Prime has arranged for them to travel to China to help.
The team assembles at the mainland Training Center where Doc Greene briefs them on the Scrubber Initiative, a plan to eliminate pollution on a global scale, however as their programming is incomplete, there's the potential for a lot of damage. Dr. Szeto arrives via the GroundBridge and reconfigures the terminal so they can all use it to travel to her lab in Faxian. They arrive in China to find a high-tech city, and Dr. Szeto informs the Bots that they don't need to act like robots because they're already famous there. Chief has Cody patched in to the local cameras, and he spots the Scrubbers breaking out of the laboratory. One of Szeto's lab tech erects a repulsor cube which traps them, allowing the rescue team to move in. At Cody's suggestion, they use the local technology to disable the three Scrubbers until Drs Szeto and Greene arrive with EMP power-ups which the Bots use to knock them out. As the cube deactivates, Optimus Prime appears via hologram with the revelation that he's assigning the four Bots to different teams in order to guard the parts of the Scrubber Initiative.
Back in the training center, Blurr fires up the GroundBridge so everyone can head to their new assignments. Dani and Graham announce they're sticking with their Bots despite the fact it'll mean leaving Griffin Rock. Chase, Boulder, Blurr and Graham head off to Professor Baranova's North Pacific Lab. Blades expresses his concerns over being assigned to lead Quickshadow and High Tide, but heads to China with Dani. Chase's team arrives at Baranova's lab to find she doesn't really need their help with anything, while Blades is still uncertain about whether he should be leading a team in China, until it turns out that he's really popular there as a couple of fans make clear. Back at the firehouse, Chief oversees Servo doing maintenance, and has to deal with Salvage turning the stop lights purple to "help". Heatwave invites Cody to go on a patrol with him, since Kade's asleep.
Over at the lab, Morocco has finished building his new MorBot when he overhears the Greenes discussing the progress of the Scubber Initiative and sees his chance to get some new tech. Powering up his MorBot, he heads to the lab and manages to bypass Trex, though he trips the alarm. He's able to download information on the Initiative from the computer and steal the speed patch Doc Greene has been perfecting. The Greenes and Heatwave confront him when he emerges from the lab, but he takes off and heads to the firehouse where he uses the GroundBridge to reach the Training Center. There he's able to take control of the computer system, turning the Elma Hendrickson hologram into a copy of himself. From there he uses the GroundBridge to reach Faxian and obtains the resiliency patch that Dr. Szeto and her team have been working on. Blades's team is unable to stop him heading back to the GroundBridge and reaching Professor Baranova's lab where he grabs the hive mind tech. Chase's team manages to delay him long enough for Heatwave to set charges on the Training Center Groundbridge which explode as the MorBot comes through. Though the MorBot is destroyed, the Morocco virus is still intact and still has control of the Training Center's computer system.
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Humans | Others |
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Quotes
[edit]"Stop in the name of the Rescue Bots! ...It appears they have not seen our opera."
- —Chase
"Humans often use poetry to express their deepest feelings. It is thus that I bid you goodbye. Ahem.
Chief Charlie Burns is not a Bot
But the best partner I have got.
We often like to pass the time
Reciting laws and fighting crime--"
"I think he gets it, Chase. Let's start our new mission already!"
- —Chase and Blurr
"But I'm not ready to lead a team! Quickshadow is so serious. And I'm not sure High Tide even knows my name isn't really mosquito."
"C'mon, Blades. We'll do this together. Easy as flying."
"Bad example!"
- —Blades and Dani
Notes
[edit]Continuity errors
[edit]- The new 2.0 version of the MorBot is consistently referred to as the "Morocco-Bot" throughout this episode, as though that name had been in regular use before, when all previous MorBots were only ever referred to as just "MorBots". And the specific use of a "the" instead of an "a" when referring to this new MorBot stands out as odd since Morocco has had more than one MorBot before.
Continuity notes
[edit]- The Morocco Virus was revealed in "Back to Virtual Reality" and thawed out in "Cody's 11".
- The speed patch created by Doc Greene was previously seen in "Hot Rod Bot".
Transformers references
[edit]- (tbd)
Real-world references
[edit]- Doc refers to Frankie as his "little du Chatelet" in reference to French physicist Émilie du Châtelet.
- He also swears by Gay-Lussac's gases.
- Faxian is named after the Buddhist monk Faxian.
Animation and technical errors
[edit]- (tbd)
Trivia
[edit]- The GroundBridge portal is color-coded at the Training Center end. It appears orange when a GroundBridge is opened to Faxian, blue when traveling to the west coast, and its usual green when opened to Griffin Rock.
- Despite appearing in both this episode and the next, neither Quickshadow nor High Tide speak.
Foreign localization
[edit]French
- Title: "Divisés mais unis, 1ère partie" ("Divided but united, 1st part")
- Original airdate: ?
Italian
- Title: "Finale di stagione - parte 1" ("Season finale - Part 1")
- Original airdate: 11 October 2017
