Double Jeopardy (episode)
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 "It's not a Penis Mightier, Mr. Connery! There's no such thing!" | |||||||||
| "Double Jeopardy" | |||||||||
| Production company | Mainframe Entertainment | ||||||||
| Airdate | October 7, 1996 | ||||||||
| Written by | Jesse Winfield | ||||||||
| Directed by | Mark Schiemann | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Mainframe Entertainment | ||||||||
| Continuity | Beast Wars continuity | ||||||||
| Packaged with | Wolfang | ||||||||
After a series of failed missions, Rattrap's loyalty is brought into question.
Synopsis
Dinobot and Optimus Primal explore one of the planet's frozen regions looking to retrieve the latest stasis pod. They find the pod overhead, hanging over the edge of a cliff, and protected by the three Predacon goons. While Terrorsaur and Scorponok bomb the Maximal duo, Waspinator grabs the pod to lift it back to the Predacon base. Primal sees the theft and flies after the bug, but is brought down by a shot in the back from Terrorsaur. With Primal downed, the Predacons scamper away.
At the Maximal base, Optimus Primal laments regarding the frequency of the Maximals being ambushed. Primal calls Rattrap into a private meeting, making it clear he suspects Rattrap has been feeding information to the Maximals' enemies. Rattrap denies this, and Cheetor and Rhinox can't believe it. As a test of loyalty, Rattrap is sent on a mission into one of the more dangerous sectors.
At the Predacon base, Tarantulas reveals the new Predacon made from the captured Maximal protoform: Blackrarachnia. Afterwards, they use their radio to eavesdrop on Rattrap's radio reports on how Rattrap's mission is going. Hearing that the rodent is by himself, Terrorsaur is sent to destroy Rattrap.
Terrorsaur and Rattrap battle, and with Rattrap unable to hit his target, Terrorsaur is able to stand over his enemy, his gun right in Rattrap's face. Desperate for his own survival, Rattrap bargains his own loyalty to Terrorsaur and the Predacons, while the rest of the Maximals listen, astonished by the change.
"Yeah, that's right. Turd Ferguson. It's a funny name."
Back at the Predacon base, Terrorsaur introduces his new underling and, with said underling's aid, overthrows Megatron (who is placed into the Predacon brig). Because he still can't be trusted, Rattrap is also imprisoned. The two captives are placed in cages and suspended over a flow of lava. Of course, Megatron has anticipated his own imprisonment and escapes with a few simple computer commands. Once Megatron is out of sight, Rattrap picks the lock on his own cage and jumps over the lava to freedom (barely).
Sneaking through the base, Rattrap follows another, actual rat. He passes by a Predacon computer console and discovers it contains a Maximal computer chip, explaining how they were able to listen to Maximal radio frequencies and anticipate the Maximals' movement. After removing the chip, he continues his sneaking, but activates a security alarm and is caught in a security web. He escapes, but Tarantulas follows Rattrap back to the suspended cages, compromising Rattrap's operation, or so he would be, were it not for Rattrap silencing the arachnid with a gun shot.
The Maximals begin an attack on the Pred base to retrieve Rattrap. With the other Predacons looking to him for leadership, Terrorsaur panics—even more so when Megatron pops up right next to him, free from his cage. But he deigns to give Terrorsaur rope to hang himself follow Terrorsaur's leadership as the Predacons counter-attack. Rattrap is freed to help in the defense, and on Terrorsaur's order, he opens fire on Optimus Primal, scoring a direct hit on his former leader. After the two armies bounce off each other a bit, Megatron gives Rattrap the opportunity to destroy Dinobot, but Rattrap declines and shoots Terrorsaur instead, giving Dinobot the time to free himself by kicking out some of Megatron's teeth. The Maximals take Rattrap and retreat. With Terrorsaur's command shown to be a total frak-up, Megatron effortlessly resumes command of his forces and rubs in the defeat.
Back in the Axalon, Optimus Primal explains to his friends that the entire betrayal was a charade—a ploy to let Rattrap into the Predacon base and find out how the Predacons have been listening to the Maximals' radio communications.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons |
|---|---|
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Quotes
"They're trapped! The pod is my trophy!"
- —Terrorsaur—shortly before looking up to see Waspinator flying off with the pod.
"Oh, be still my spinnerets."
- —Tarantulas after creating Blackarachnia.
"Will you still defend your friend, or will you see him for what he is—a traitor?!"
"You're a fine one to talk."
- —Dinobot gets burned by Rhinox.
"The wise tyrant always ensures his prisons are designed for his personal escape."
- —Megatron after getting out of his cage.
"So, the juicy rat has been running his maze."
- —Tarantulas being creepy as usual.
"And thus ends the glorious reign of Terrorsaur: a lost battle, a missing Blackarachnia, AND WHO KNOWS WHAT DAMAGE inflicted by the Maximal spy!"
- —Megatron exposing Terrorsaur's blundering leadership abilities.
Notes
Animation and technical errors
- Blackarachnia's protoform doesn't resemble those seen later in the series, instead using a modified form of the model used for pre-reformatting Megatron in "Beast Wars (Part 1)", but with Blackarachnia's head. The same model shows up with a different head as a generic Predacon in "The Agenda (Part 1)".
- Even by the standards of other season 1 characters, Blackarachnia's transformation is extremely cheatsy. Her entire body basically emerges from her beast mode mouth. (She's also by far the least toy-accurate model on the show, but when you consider that her toy is a repaint of Tarantulus's, that's probably a good thing.)
- Optimus closes his mouth plate when he takes off during the big battle at the end of the episode, but it's open again when Rattrap shoots him down.
- As Dinobot realizes that Optimus and Rattrap planned the latter's defection, the stripes on his right arm are reversed.
Continuity errors
- Other Maximals or Predacons who changed allegiances either previous to this episode or afterward signified the switch by changing their activation code. Rattrap doesn't follow suit. He simply changes the Maximal symbol on his arm to a Predacon symbol. Perhaps this should have been Terrorsaur's first tip that Rattrap wasn't truly defecting. (At one point, he says "Rattrap, Maximise" before he changes his symbol back to the Maximal one.)
- Far be it from us to question the Maximal's resident infilration expert, but surely sneaking around the Predacon ship in his (much smaller) beast mode would have made a lot more sense? It would have made his footsteps quieter, at the very least.
- There was really no need to keep the plan from the other Maximals (none of them had any contact with the Predacons until after Rattrap recovered the chip). It can't be that he was worred about being overheard while on the Axalon, since it looks like he briefed Rattrap about his plan right there on the bridge. Nor did it seem like there was any particular need to keep the deception going well into the battle in order to extract him from Predacon territory and all the way back to base afterwards. Did Rhinox not speak to Rattrap at all while carrying him on his back?
Continuity Notes
- This is the (not entirely auspicious) debut of Blackarachnia. After being introduced by Tarantulas, she transforms into robot mode, then spends a few minutes posing, preening, and doing karate moves in the background while Megatron talks. Later in the episode, she kicks Cheetor around (and admittedly, is a badass about it), then goes missing for no clear reason; though it does give early insight into her treacherous nature.
- Throughout Terrorsaur's big speech to gain leadership, Rattrap is making gestures in the background to punctuate his remarks.
- While sneaking through the Predacons' ventilation duct, Rattrap encounters a small rat, which seems to acknowledge his presence with a nod. Later on, Rattrap inadvertently saves the same rat from being eaten by accidentally walking into Tarantulas' web and triggering his alarm.
- The Maximal chip is labeled in Cybertronix. It says "caution very hot".
- The activation codes have now started to function more like battle cries. Both times Terrorsaur declares his intention to "terrorize", he has already finished transforming before he's even said the word. (Rattrap hilariously breaks cartoon etiquette by shooting Tarantulus before the latter has a chance to finish speaking his activation code..)
- When Rattrap blasts Tarantulas for discovering his escape, Tarantulas is shown to have ball joints. It even matches his toy. Score one for toy accuracy!
- When Terrorsaur laughs in beast mode, his eyebrows seem to bounce up and down, moving in unison with his beak. This may be a CGI error or an awkward decision on the animators' part to make him emote.
- The Female Black Widow Spider eating her tiny mate is a real life reference to the act after mating.
- For the first time in the series, Terrorsaur doesn't squawk when he orders the other Predacons to "Terrorize".
- "Feet" is used as a unit of distance, after metric units were used in previous episodes. It's like living in the UK!
- Someone at Mainframe Entertainment apparently got new "Battle Damage" software. Optimus looks like hell after he's shot down at the beginning of the episode, as does Tarantulus after Rattrap shoots him. All the Predacons are sporting various knocks and discoloured parts at the end as well.
- Gadgets and powers:
- Rattrap carries an infiltration kit (including lockpicks) in his forearms. We're beginning to suspect that his arms are how Rattrap accesses his own personal storage dimension.
Foreign localization
French
- Title: "Agent Double" ("Double Agent")
- Title: "Double Danger" (Canada)
Italian
- Title: "Doppia condanna" ("Double Jeopardy")
Japanese
- Title: "Kumo Onna no Kick" (クモ女のキック, "Kick of the Spider Woman")
- Original airdate: 19 November 1997
- When Terrorsaur introduces Rattrap and makes his big speech, Rattrap's mannerisms are accompanied by sycophantic, supportive dialogue. For instance, when Terrorsaur nominates himself as the new leader of the Predacons, Rattrap suggests, "And President!"
- When Rattrap makes the jump from the cage to the vent shaft, he announces "Flying Body Attack!"
- In the scene where Rattrap spies the shadows of Scorponok and Terrorsaur arguing over whether Megatron is the true leader of the Predacons or not, Scorponok is heard to be weeping heavily. When Terrorsaur dismisses him, Scorponok runs away crying.
- With this episode, the Maximals fully embrace the (irritating) running gag of making noises every time they fire their weapons. Rhinox shouts "danananana", Cheetor shouts "utsumashi" ("shoot"), Rattrap shouts "kuna" and so on. Every. Single. Time.
Portuguese
- Title: "Perigo Duplo" ("Double Jeopardy")
Spanish
- Title: "Riesgo Doble" (America, "Double Risk")
Home video releases
- VHS
1998 — Beast Wars — Beasties Escape (Alliance Video)
1998 — Robots-Bêtes — L'Évasion (Alliance Video) — French audio only.
1998 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Lonely Warrior Tigatron (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
1998 — Beast Wars / Robots-Bêtes Three pack (Alliance Video) — Available in English or French audio.
2001 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 2 (Universal)
2002 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 3 (Rhinomation)
- Laserdisc
1998 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Maximal Edition (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
- DVD
2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
2002 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 2 (Rhinomation)
2003 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete First Season (Rhinomation)
2005 — Beast Wars — Classic Episodes: Volume 2 — The Saga Continues! (Alliance Atlantis) — English and French audio.
2005 — Beast Wars — The Complete First Season (Alliance Atlantis) — English and French audio.
2006 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 1 (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Beast Wars — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
