Three's a Crowd (episode)
From MediaWiki
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 "Ben 10: Alien Force has nothing on these guys." | ||||||
| "Three's a Crowd" | ||||||
| Airdate | March 21, 2009 | |||||
| Written by | Rich Fogel | |||||
| Directed by | Kalvin Lee, Tetsuro Moronuki | |||||
There's a new boss in town... Dirt Boss!
Synopsis
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
Bulkhead: These AllSpark fragments should give the power core a boost.
Sumdac: Be careful, Bulkhead! We don't want to overload it.
Bulkhead: Relax. When it comes to space bridges, I know what I'm doing.
[The floor starts to give way beneath them]
Bulkhead: But I'm not so hot at structural integrity!
- —Bulkhead and Sumdac learn that there are flaws with building a giant space bridge in a tower.
"Tell 'em there's a new boss in town: Dirt Boss!"
- —Dirt Boss, every chance he gets.
"Will you slag that annoying little pipsqueak already?!"
"Who're you calling "pipsqueak", short stuff?
- —Dirt Boss and Bumblebee engage in height cracks.
"Oh, I so don't have time for this."
- —Optimus Prime, in desperate need of some leave.
"Uh, you promise me you will, ahem, never speak of this to Megatron..."
"Oh, I promise."
- —Lugnut and Liar Starscream engage in epic foreshadowing of something that, sadly, probably won't be brought up again.
Notes
Animation or technical errors
- Bulkhead is shown with the other Autobots as Lugnut crashes to the ground.
- One of the Detroit Powell Press editions has a headline typo: "RACKETEERS STRIKES OIL" should read "RACKETEERS STRIKE OIL".
- During Dirt Boss's debut scene, the position of his mouth switches several times from the middle of his face (at the "W" shape) to the bottom, and presumably correct, position.
Continuity errors
- When Bulkhead confronts Mixmaster and Scrapper, they speak to Bulkhead as if they remember the events that transpired in "Rise of the Constructicons", saying that they "don't work for no stinkin' Autobots anymore" and referring to Bulkhead as "Bulky". While nothing says they can't have regained those memories by some point, if that's the case, it wasn't shown when this happened.
- More AllSpark fragments are shown in the beginning of the episode, yet all the previously collected pieces the Autobots found were placed into Omega Supreme last season. It's possible more were found off-screen, but it seems an odd thing to omit.
Transformers references
- At least one Detroit paper is titled the Detroit Powell Press. Porter C. Powell has corporate investments everywhere, it seems.
- The Headmaster unit was recovered last episode.
- The Fossil Fuel Oil Company's logo is Generation 1 Sludge doing an impression of the Sinclair Oil logo.
- This isn't the first series to have a space bridge in a tower.
Real-world references
- The Detroit Powell Press is a reference to a real-life Detroit paper, the Detroit Free Press. Minus the freedom.
- Scrapper and Mixmaster are found drinking heavily in a manufacturing plant that is deconstructing luxury cars piece by piece. Striptease, anyone?
- The climactic scene with Dirt Boss on top of the oil tank is closely based on the ending of the gangster movie White Heat.
Trivia
- The Detroit newspaper business is incredible; within what is apparently a single night of Constructicon rampage, the Detroit Powell Press puts out three separate editions announcing the new threat. Either that, or the Autobots spend a long time focusing on hauling Lugnut out of his crater and nothing else. (Though really, it's impressive that newspapers even still exist in the future...)
- It appears that Lugnut has accepted Starscream's clones (or at least the liar) as part of the main Decepticon force. Apparently, being Starscream's duplicate is fine as long as you worship the GLORIOUS Megatron.
- What exactly did Dirt Boss hope to accomplish by climbing up to the top of the oil tank, again?
- An exploding oil tank in the middle of Lake St. Clair is probably going to be a real mess, isn't it?
