Rattrap hits the spy gym.
Last time on Beast Wars,
Optimus was struck by a cyber bee from Scorponok. The bee was designed to
infect his mind and make him into a coward… but Scorponok is bad at his job and
instead turned Optimus into berserker. He could barely control his rage and was
placed in a holding cell. He’s freed by Cheetor, who was convince by Optimus
who thought he can aim his rage at the Predacons to try to get the antidote to
the virus. When the others aren’t sure, he says, “Screw you guys, I’m doing it
anyway,” and flies off. The others follow, causing a distraction that gives
Optimus enough time to confront Megatron. Megatron offers him the antidote in
exchange for his loyalty, but Optimus decides to take a page from a plant he
saw earlier and rips the bee off him and throw it at Megatron. As it’s also a
bomb, Megatron ran off to try to get it off him. Cheetor arrives, gets the
antidote, and cures Optimus. They all flee, victorious. At the end, Dinobot
says it’s good to have him back and back to normal. This closing the story arc
for him this episode, where he initially is unimpressed by Optimus’ scientific
thinking, strategy, and ingenuity, and now realizes that these make Optimus a
better leader not a worse one. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.
We open with an aerial shot of the
Axalon that shifts to a cavern in the cliffside it’s stuck on. Deep inside are
small lights attached to robotic spider drones, and Waspinator, Blackarachnia
and Terrorsaur working on something. The something is a large device Waspinator
is forcing into a tunnel. He calls it a bomb, but Blackarachnia corrects him,
saying it’s a sonic emitter. It’ll blow open a hole in the Maximal base… so it
feels like they’re arguing semantics. Terrorsaur says they need to dig a wider
tunnel, causing Waspinator to say, “screw you guys, I’m going home.” Terrorsaur
tries to force Blackarachnia to take over digging, but she threatens him
better, so he does it.
We jump up to the Maximal base
proper, where Rhinox is showing a simulation of the upgrades he’s been making
to the ship’s security system. It shows Megatron getting tied up in energy
cables, hit with stun guns and then hit with an energy field to knock ‘em out
for real. Optimus and Rattrap are impressed with Rhinox, who rather smugly says
the base is now impregnable. Rhinox says he’ll have the system, Sentinel, up
and running in 3 or four megacycles (hours). They get an alert for Waspinator
flying near the base. Optimus notes that this is the third time they’ve
detected Predacons in that area in a week, so he’s suspicious. He orders
Cheetor to contact Tigertron and to have their scout meet him at those
coordinates and flies off.
Shifting to Waspinator, he’s flying
and whining about not being respected by his peers as Tigertron watches from
the forest floor. Optimus joins him and asks how long Waspinator has been
flying in circles. He says long enough to make him dizzy; he asks if he should
shoot Waspinator down, but Optimus has a better idea. He’s going to scare the
bug and see where he flies to, he wants Tigertron following from the ground in
case he loses Waspinator. Optimus transforms and flies up to Waspinator, doing
the shoulder tap to get his attention. Waspinator, freaking out, flies off with
both Maximals in pursuit.
Back at the base, Dinobot is less
impressed with Rhinox’s defense upgrades, thinking the nonlethal route he took
with them was a waste of time. Rattrap, being a dick, turns on the “tangler”
energy guns and tangles Dinobot in them. Dinobot, extremely pissed at this
attack, breaks free and tries to stab Rattrap with his sword. Rattrap shoves
Rhinox and then dives out of the way himself, letting Dinobot stab the console.
Sentinel starts going off, having detected “intruders” which turns out to be
Rhinox, Rattrap, Dinobot and Cheetor. Rattrap asks why the Friend or Foe
program isn’t working to which Rhinox, rightly, angrily says he was installing
when Rattrap pulled this stunt. They’re forced to flee the base, Cheetor
grabbing Dinobot and Rhinox running after. Rattrap, instead, runs farther into
the base and pulls a panel off the airducts. He says that they can’t abandon
the base, and because he broke Sentinel, he’s got to fix it. As he’s climbing
through the ducts, he laments that he’s starting to sound like Optimus Pinhead.
Optimus, meanwhile, is chasing
Waspinator. Waspinator ducks into the cavern to avoid him and Optimus almost
runs into the cliff. He scans for Waspinator, but can’t find him, and then
starts shorting out so must return to Beast Mode. He links up with Tigertron,
who also lost Waspinator, visually, but still has his scent. Optimus gets the
alert from Sentinel about “intruders” in the base and is confused that the
system is already online. Tigertron tells him to go check in on that and he’ll
keep searching for Waspinator. Optimus offers to send backup when he can, but
Tigertron says he doesn’t need help. Optimus transforms again, his computer
telling him he’s at 15% shielded, but decides to risk it to get back to base.
He activates his maximum burn and flies off.
The three Maximals make it outside
of Sentinel as it activates its proximity shield. Rhinox tries to get in
contact with Rattrap, but the shield is blocking them. Dinobot notes that
Rhinox “built a better mouse trap,” as we go into Rattrap’s POV. Inside, he’s
avoided detection, but Sentinel actives “zero friction fluid” a water like
substance in the hallways. Rattrap isn’t impressed, dropping a grate onto the fluid,
and riding it like a surfboard. Sentinel then activates several energy nets. He
leaps over it and onto dry ground. Rather cockily, he says this isn’t a
security system but a gym for spy guys like him. Sentinel starts firing plasma
bolts at him, but he dodges around them, down a hall and then out of sight…
only to pop back into the camera’s view and waving goodbye. He’s got so
much Bugs Bunny in him.
Tigertron is still searching for
Waspinator. He followed the scent trail to its end but couldn’t see anything.
He looks around and then puts his paw through a wall. He walks in and realizes
the wall was being created by a holo-projector. He walks into the cave, sees
one of the spider lights and follows it.
Back at the base, the Maximals try
to blast through the shield, but it takes all they can dish out. They start
shorting out and return to Beast Mode as Optimus joins them. They let him know
what’s going on, Cheetor saying Rattrap must deactivate Sentinel soon or he’s
toast. Rattrap enters a maintenance shaft. Sentinel actives a crossbow with
disruptor ammo and a disabling field. It fires on Rattrap, who dodges and says
that Sentinel has no chance, as he’s a stealthy, a master marksman and a
demolitions expert. He pulls out a demo charge at that last bit and throws it
at the crossbow destroying it. He’s the best at what he does… which is ironic
as his voice actor, Scott McNeal, would go on to play Wolverine in X-Men:
Evolution. Scott is also Dinobot and Waspinator, just saying. Anyway,
Rattrap blows the crossbow, so Sentinel decides to upgrade its defense protocol
and activates more crossbows. Rattrap almost falls into the disabling goo, but
dodges around crossbow fire and blows a hatch open. He says he now must get to
the core show the ship who’s boss.
Tigertron finds the Predacons,
Waspinator demanding that his allies stop what they’re doing to get rid of
Optimus. Tigertron Maximizes and creeps around closer to the Predacons. He
almost gets caught when a thermal vent goes off, but they Predacon don’t give
it a second glance. Blackarachnia activates the emitter, saying they’ll be in
the base in 15 cycles. Tigertron says they’re going to the slag heap instead
and starts firing. He grabs the emitter, rips it from the wall and runs off.
The Predacons Terrorize and chase after him. He leads them deeper into the
cavern, leaps up and gets behind them. Blackarachnia says that he can’t escape,
the emitter will go off and destroy him. He decides to return it, throwing the
emitter and imbedding it between the Predacons. They scatter, Tigertron
returning to Beast Mode and running off. The emitter goes off, blowing a hole a
few feet from the Maximals. They maximize and go to investigate, only to find
Tigertron digging himself free. He says he’ll explain, but they’ve got to deal
with the base first.
Inside the base, Rattrap enters the
computer core. He climbs round and finds Sentinel’s main terminal. Sentinel
detects him and activates its turrets. Rattrap dodges around and gets to the
terminal, but almost falls into a disabling liquid. He catches himself with his
tail and transforms. He shoots the turrets and starts putting in the code shut
down Sentinel. He hits the terminal to get it to reveal the shut down button,
and Sentinel actives a shatter cannon to finish him off. Rattrap dodges one
shot but gets pinned under debris. He stretches to reach the button as the
cannon prepares another shot.
We cut to outside, where Sentinel
shuts down. Rhinox is terrified by this because Sentinel wouldn’t shut down if
an intruder was still active. Cheetor refuse to believe he’s gone. Optimus says
Rattrap was a difficult, almost impossible Maximal to deal with, but he’ll
remember him with honor. Dinobot says that he “won’t disgrace his memory with
lies. He was a stinking, omnivorous pestilence. But still, in some perverse
way, I will miss him.” Rhinox says that of course he stank, as he’s a rat, but
he was still Rhinox’s best friend. The episode almost cuts to the credits, but
then pulls back in as Rattrap comes down from the ship. He says that there’s
not a security system he can’t get around with. You just need to know how to
talk to them.
We’ve had a few episodes where
Rattrap being a rat has been useful, but this one really highlights how his
beast mode coupled with his other skills makes him an expert infiltrator.
Climbing through ducts, dodging cannon fire, using a prehensile tail, all
really useful things for an infiltrator to have. I do also appreciate that he
immediately tries to take responsibility for breaking Sentinel by being the one
to fix it. Rattrap is often a colossal dick, but he’s at least willing to own
up to his mistakes. This won’t, like, stop him from being a dick to Dinobot in
the future, but he never intentionally shoots him again. The bit where everyone
thinks he’s dead and mourns him for a moment is hilarious. I’ll be snickering
to Dinobot’s summation of the rodent for a while now. Rhinox, I think summed
him up best, as he’s an asshole but he was their asshole. The B-plot was neat
just to show off Tigertron. While he’s literally a bigger Cheetor with stripes
design wise, the show does a good job of highlighting his unique skill sets
when he’s in an episode. Namely, he’s the best tracker the Maximals have, as
he’s most in tune with his Beast Mode’s senses and uses them when his optics
and sensors fail him. And, not every Maximal could take on three Predacons at
once and come out a winner. I also liked the seeming confirmation that these
guys do wait around for the best lines before springing their attacks. It’s
good to be vindicated. So yeah. I’m
still figuring out what the last post of the month will be, so I’ll see you
there.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/85341681
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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