Darkness Rising, Part 3
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| "Darkness Rising, Part 3" | ||||||
| Airdate | December 1, 2010 | |||||
| Written by | Marsha Griffin | |||||
| Directed by | Todd Waterman | |||||
| Animation studio | Digitalscape | |||||
This is what happens when you leave Bulkhead in charge.
Synopsis
The three kids and their Autobot guardians head back to the Autobot base, where Ratchet is being attacked by a piece of animated equipment. Optimus Prime deals with it, but now suspects that both it and Cliffjumper were animated by Dark Energon.
Megatron, now powered up by the Dark Energon, has decided his next move and leaves the Decepticon ship in Starscream's hands. Starscream thinks Megatron's gone a bit loopy, and orders Soundwave to increase surveillance.
Optimus has realized Megatron's plan to create an undead army. As the rest of the Autobots arrive, Optimus announces he's going on a mission with Ratchet, who doesn't take kindly to Arcee's suggestion he may be a little rusty. Leaving Arcee in charge, the pair bridge out. Arcee immediately puts Bulkhead in charge and goes out on patrol with Bumblebee. Miko attempts to organize an impromptu band practice, but while she's belting out an electric guitar solo, the proximity alert goes off. The kids hide behind Bulkhead as Agent Fowler walks in to complain about the energon mine explosion. Unfortunately Miko's guitar gives them away, and Fowler announces he's taking them into federal custody, but Bulkhead puts his foot down, and Fowler storms out.
In a remote region, Prime explains to Ratchet that they're looking for the remains of an old Transformer battlefield, from the period in the war when energon started being hidden on other planets.
As Fowler flies from the Autobot base in his copter, he radios in a report, which is intercepted by Soundwave. Starscream orders Fowler captured, so Soundwave sends a drone. The drone catches up with Fowler, who engages in some deft maneuvers to try and avoid it, and even gets some shots off before it slices the tail off his copter and abducts him.
Fowler's distress call is picked up at the Autobot base. Though Bulkhead is reluctant to help, the others point out Fowler knows the location of the base. Raf sets about hacking into a federal computer so they can locate Fowler. Bulkhead leaves Jack in charge and heads out. Bulkhead finds himself near the Decepticon ship, but is surprised when Miko pops up next to him. After dealing with a Decepticon sentry, he contacts Arcee. Back at base, Jack and Raf have realized Miko is gone, and use the ground bridge to follow. Unfortunately this leaves the base unmanned when Arcee rings in to get use of the ground bridge. Jack and Raf arrive at Bulkhead's location, and immediately manage to attract the attention of the Decepticon drones on guard.
Starscream interrogates Fowler without much success, so he resorts to getting out the energon prod.
Meanwhile, Optimus and Ratchet reach the Transformer graveyard they've been searching for. Unfortunately so does Megatron, who uses a chunk of Dark Energon to raise an army of zombies.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
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Quotes
"I NEEDED THAT!"
- —Ratchet's tools suffer further abuse... from one of his already abused tools.
"I fear that when our master reached for the stars, he came down with a touch of... space madness."
- —Starscream, ever ready to undermine Megatron.
"Do I look like I do country? Just cover yourself in fake blood and jump around screaming."
- —Miko doesn't appreciate Jack's harmonica skills.
Notes
Animation or technical errors
Continuity errors
Transformers references
- Ratchet's comment that his hearing is still good even though his servos are rusty is a reference to the Animated Ratchet, who made a similar comment when Bumblebee made a joke about his age.
- Bulkhead has a compartment similar to his Animated incarnation, but higher up on his chest.
- When Soundwave deploys his Mini-con, the method is more simillar to the Breastforce rather than the previously known method.
- Soundwave's drone resembles Ratbat.
Foreign dubbing
Real-world references
Trivia
- This episode tries to resolve some of the continuity issues with Dark Energon the previous episode causes. Both Optimus and Ratchet know of its existence and even the rumor that it brings the dead back to life. Supplies of it were just so scarce as to be non-existent, hence their inexperience with it.
