Dinobot has a crisis of faith, yet again.
Last time on Beast Wars,
Tarantulas went house hunting. Megatron sent his minions out to build a jamming
station and a refueling station to prepare for a mysterious plan that even
Tarantulas thinks is insane. But that’s the only detail we get about it. The
arachnids, Tarantulas, Blackarachnia, and Quickstrike were sent to set up the
refueling station. Tarantulas, being a gremlin, put a tracer on their equipment
which sent their location to the Maximals. Silverbolt and Rattrap were sent to
investigate. Reaching the cave, Tarantulas liked the layout and immediately
wanted to turn this into a new lair, as his old one was cooked by the Doom Moon.
He attempts to get Quickstrike to sign on with him by mind controlling Blackarachnia
into flattering him. Blackarachnia decided she’s had enough of being his puppet,
grabs an Energon cube and begins squeezing it, threatening to kill them both
rather than be his slave. Tarantulas tries to call her bluff, but she actually
tries to blow them up, and he is forced to break the connection between them
when it sends her pain to him. Silverbolt and Rattrap arrive and they start
fighting. The battle ends when the entrance of the cave is blown up. Tarantulas
blames Silverbolt for destroying it, but the wolf-eagle says he didn’t do it.
It’s obvious to anyone paying attention that Tarantulas did it and turned the
cavern into his new lair. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
We open on the Predicon base,
before pulling out and seeing that this is a computer rendering of the base
that Dinobot is looking at. He pulls out further and has Sentinel add all the
new Predacon installations that Megatron has had his troops building this
season. All the points form a star shape that exactly matches one of the symbols
on the alien Golden Disk. Dinobot thinks that Megatron is proceeding with his
plans without the disks which is, concerning. He ponders what will happen if
Megatron’s plan succeeds and if he made the right call switching sides when he
did. His musings are interrupted by Optimus telling him that he needs to lead a
field team into Predicon territory.
This is less prestigious than he’d
hoped, as he’s once again forced to ride on Rattrap’s car mode. Because he’s
Rattrap, he makes some snide remarks about offering Dinobot some snacks and Dinobot
tells him to shut his snout. Silverbolt reports in and tells Dinobot that there
is a jamming station but he’s not seeing any Predacons. Dinobot order him into
his backup position while he and Rattrap go on.
They enter an area that Rattrap remarks
would be great for an ambush right before Inferno burrows out of the ground and
attacks them. Quickstrike sneaks up on Rattrap and they have a quick draw contest.
I swear, whenever Quickstrike shows up he forces the genre to shift to a
western. Rattrap pulls his gun fastest and knocks Quickstrike off the side of a
cliff. Dinobot duels with Inferno, Silverbolt tries to help but he’s shot down
and into Dinobot. Dinobot reverts to beast mode before passing out. Inferno compliments
Waspinator on the take down, Waspinator announcing that he, in fact, RULES! Inferno
orders Waspinator to take Silverbolt back and he takes Dinobot. Quickstrike joins
them and whines about Rattrap outshooting him, but Inferno tells him to not
think of the vermin and flies off. Waspinator asks “two-head” as he dubs Quickstrike,
to help him carry Silverbolt but Quickstrike tells him to PG piss off. Rattrap finds
Waspinator trying to lift Silverbolt and decides to help by being a gremlin. He
puts on a bad southern accent, throws Waspinator a detonator charge and tells
him to push the button, swearing that it’ll help him carry his burden.
Waspinator does… and is hit with knockout gas. Rattrap winks at the camera,
saying that he sure loves that guy.
Dinobot is taken to the Darksyde.
Tarantulas advocate for killing him now, but Megatron wants the chance to chat with
their dear old Dinobot. I’m sure he just wants to talk to someone that isn’t an
invertebrate half the time. Megatron orders they wake him. Tarantulas gets what
I can only describe as a cattle prod while Quickstrike and Blackarachnia hold
him up. Dinobot wakes up, knocks everyone aside and transforms. He gets his
sword to Megatron’s chest, who points out that was impressive but futile. The
other Predacons are ready to kill him if he so much as knicks Megatron’s chest.
Dinobot says that Megatron might also die if they do that and that would be a
waste of two good Predacons. Megatron is surprised by this, saying that he’d
thought Dinobot was a Maximal now, and Dinobot says times change as he kneels
before Megatron.
We cut back to Rattrap and Silverbolt
and their hostage Waspinator. Silverbolt is embarrassed by his earlier blunder
and says they must rescue Dinobot, but Rattrap tells him to wait. Rattrap orders
the injured Silverbolt to fly out of the jamming field and call-in backup. He
transforms into racer mode and goes to get Dinobot.
Back at the Darksyde, Dinobot
tells Megatron he’s willing to serve again. When Megs is skeptical, Dinobot
says he only defected when he thought Megatron had lead them to the wrong planet,
and after Megs betrayed him. He thinks that Megatron is the cleverer combatant
and that victory will soon go to the Predacons. To show his loyalty, he reverts
his activation code to Terrorize. Tarantulas says that this proves nothing, as
anyone can change their code at anytime, and offers to do some poking around in
Dinobot’s brain to be sure. Megatron isn’t sure that that would be a good idea,
and Blackarachnia offers the alternative of a trial by combat against
Quickstrike. Quickstrike is eager to fight and Dinobot also agrees.
The Predacons travel to a lava ring
outside the base and the two face off. Dinobot goes into beast mode and tricks Quickstrike
into poison blasting the spiders before he goes to beast mode as well. Dinobot
throws him aside. Quickstrike transforms again and shoots at Dinobot, but
Dinobot overpowers his poison beam with his laser eyes. He fries Quickstrike
until he passes out. He tries to walk away, but Megatron throws Dinobot his
sword and tells him to finish it. Dinobot refuses, saying that Quickstrike is a
good fighter, and that under his tutelage he can be great. Megatron agrees that’s
a good idea and tells Inferno to fix Quickstrike. He then demands Dinobot turn
over the disks. Dinobot reveals he gave the alien Golden Disk to Rhinox but hid
the Earth one. He orders Dinobot to take him to it.
They fly to the location, Rattrap having
the good timing to see them fly by and follow. Dinobot recovers the disk and
gives it to Megatron. He announces that the disk will allow him to write a bold
new chapter for their race. Dinobot is less interested in a bold chapter and
more interested in just knowing something for sure. Megatron prepares to execute
Dinobot with his back turned, but Rattrap shoots Megatron from behind. Dinobot
shoots Rattrap and knocks him out, the Rat asking if he missed something before
passing out. Dinobot says they should go before Rattrap’s backup arrives. Megatron
agrees but says he’ll need to execute Rattrap first. Dinobot doesn’t want to,
but Megatron says it’s the final test of his loyalty. Rattrap looks up at him
and says, “I always knew you were a stinking pred.” Dinobot can’t do, Megatron
sees that and almost stabs him, but Dinobot blocks him. Rattrap hears from Silverbolt
that he’s nearly arrived with Optimus. Dinobot tells Megatron that his ambition
has driven him insane and he’s risking every Transformer for whatever his plan
is. Megatron tells him to rejoin his Maximals, then, if they’ll suffer a
traitor. He transforms and flies off.
Silverbolt and Optimus touch down.
Rattrap lets them know that Dinobot betrayed them, and Dinobot owns up to it.
Silverbolt is shocked the most by this and asks how his honor could allow that.
Dinobot points out that he’s a Predacon and their honor code is… complicated.
He says that Megatron is on the verge of a great victory, and that he thought
he wanted to be part of it… but realized it would come at too high a cost. He
says that he wants to stop Megatron. He’ll do it alongside the Maximals, or on
his own if they can’t trust him anymore. Silverbolt, a recent Predacon defector
albeit under wildly different circumstances, wants to give him another chance.
Optimus asks Rattrap for his opinion. Rattrap lists a litany of reasons why he
hates Dinobot… but ultimately votes to keep him as he’s gotten used to him.
Dinobot changes his activation code back to Maximize. He tells Optimus that he
must discuss something of great importance with him. Optimus says they’ll
discuss it back at the base, and they’ll see him there. He and Silverbolt fly
off, and Rattrap transforms into car mode and offers to give him a ride. Rattrap
says that he was sure Dinobot would scrap him and asks why he didn’t. Dinobot
says that when the day comes, he’ll destroy Rattrap when he chooses, so to
think of it as a rehearsal. They drive off, Rattrap taking a very bumpy road as
a passive aggressive punishment for Dinobot.
Well, that was a roller coaster of
emotions. Dinobot is having a very serious existential crash out now that he
knows that Megatron did take them to prehistoric Earth like he’d planned. Whatever
plan Megatron hatched (Yes, I know what it is, but it’s more fun acting like I
don’t) is apparently diabolical, crazy, and could work or wipe out the
Transformers as a species. So… ya I get being conflicted about whether you want
to help with that or not. His fully betraying the others was a punch to the gut
when I was a kid, and still doesn’t feel great now. Again, I understand his
mindset, I get his motivation, and I know how this works into his character
arc. It’s a good moment, but I still hate it because I like Dinobot and don’t
like seeing him regress like this. I do like that they made it clear that Megatron
really wasn’t going to honor his end of the deal, because he’s Megatron of
course. Dinobot could offer Megatron everything he wanted and Megatron would
still kill him for disobeying him. Megs is a one-and-done when it comes to
betrayals. Unless you’re Terrorsaur, Tarantulas, or Blackarachnia. But only
those three. Rattrap and Dinobot’s relationship took a hit with this episode,
but we’ll only see how bad of one in a few episodes. Confidence was shaken,
that’s for sure. And now Megatron has the Golden Disk back, which, ya know, is
extremely bad. But we’ll see more of why soon. Next time the Aliens make
another appearance. What fun. See you there.
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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