Megatron wasn't kidding when he called this a final gamble.
Last time on Beast Wars,
things took a turn for the worst. Optimus realized that Silverbolt was
fraternizing with Blackarachnia and ordered him to stop seeing her, ordered him
confined to quarters, and told him that Cheetor would be the one to bring
Blackarachnia in. Silverbolt objected to this idea, knocking out Cheetor and
fleeing the ship to speak with Blackarachnia. He finds her, she shoots him in
the leg for interfering with her project, but they make up. He spends the rest
of the episode helping her dig out a hole that Megatron dug and then filled in.
Meanwhile, Megatron tricked Cheetor and Optimus into an ambush by Inferno with
the lure of Energon. While Optimus is out, he speaks with Ravage and reveals to
the former Decepticon that he was working under the orders of the Original
Megatron. G1 Megatron decided to make a contingency plan if the Great War went
south on him, engraving on the Golden Disk his plan to use a Transwarp drive
ship (which was being developed) to go back in time. Ravage immediately
releases Megatron and aids him on an assault on the Axalon. Oh, and it’s
revealed that Tarantulas was a Lieutenant of the Predacon’s Secret Police this
whole time. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
The episode begins with Megatron
flying over Ravage’s ship as the special agent fires on Optimus and Cheetor.
They land, transform and fire on Ravage’s, but are sucker punched by
Quickstrike riding Rampage in Tank mode. They fall back as Ravage keeps firing
on Rhinox and Rattrap. In the ship, they’re doing their best to keep the
shields going, but Ravage’s weapons are state-of-the-art and not partially
broken due to a crash. Rattrap tells Rhinox to drop the shields for just a
moment after grabbing some demolition charges. He transforms into rat-racer
mode (he calls it his Evel Knievel mode) and does a racing jump out of the Axalon
and onto Ravage’s ship. He uses a blowtorch he assembled to start cutting a
hole in the side. While that’s going on, Rhinox activates the external auto
guns to help the others. He’s able to shoot Quickstrike off Rampage, who runs
him over him. Cheetor and Optimus celebrate, but are shot by Megatron. Rattrap
rips the final chunk of metal off Ravage’s ship and starts to dig in. Rampage
fires a rocket at the Axalon and finally disables the shields. But
Rhinox had expected that and came out with his gatling guns whirring. Ravage
and Tarantulas see that the Axalon’s shields are down and prepare to
launch a full assault on the base. Rattrap bursts in before Tarantulas can
fire, though, and throws some sticky bombs on the spider’s hands. The bombs go
off, Tarantulas ends up surviving but Ravage is consumed in the blast (for some
reason) the special agents final words being “Decepticons Forever.” The ship
crashes, Rattrap riding on their big missile like that dude from the Dr.
Strangelove scene. The ship nearly crushes Rampage before coming to a halt…
but then the rocket goes off and blows him up. Rattrap gets launched into the
air, but Rhino catches him. Rattrap calls him his ‘Hero,’ before the big lug
drops him. Cheetor wonders if it’s over now, but Optimus says no. He knows
something turned Ravage against them, and Megatron isn’t headed back to the Darksyde.
He and Cheetor transform into flight mode to follow him, carrying Rhinox and
Rattrap respectively. Optimus says they must hurry, because if Megatron has
found what Optimus thinks, the battle is just started.
We find Blackarachnia and
Silverbolt still digging out the tunnel. The big wolf stops and stares at the
sky for a minute. Blackarachnia asks what he’s staring at, and he tells her
he’s looking at Venus, saying that the planet reminds him of her. She says
“Hot, poisons and deadly” and that that’s sweet of him. Silverbolt is befuddle
by her response… but, dude, you love a spider, obviously those are compliments
to her.
The others are in hot pursuit of
Megatron, Optimus telling his squad they need to stay together. He knows
they’ll need all their firepower to stop Megatron. Cheetor asks what is this
thing that Megs found that has him so scared and Optimus cryptically tells him
that it’s the beginning of everything and possibly the end.
Silverbolt and Blackarachnia break
into the cave. They only have to walk in
a short way to discover… the Ark. Silverbolt grabs Blackarachnia and
flies her inside. If that name doesn’t ring any bells, Blackarachnia gives us a
history lesson. It’s the escape ship that the Autobots used to flee Cybertron
at the start of G1 Transformers. Megatron and the Decepticons followed and both
armies ended up trapped in the ship when it crash-landed on prehistoric earth.
They’re both knocked about by geological activity, and Blackarachnia says that
the volcano they’re in will erupt in 1984 and lead to the Great War beginning
anew. Silverbolt realizes that this is why Optimus was so worried, the power in
the Ark is immense. Blackarachnia begins to gloat, saying that power is
all hers… but then Megatron arrives and shoots. He knocks Silverbolt into the
force field around the Ark, electrocuting him and knocking him out. He
then turns and blows the cavern entrance shut again. Optimus and the others had
just arrived, and when Rattrap asks what they’re supposed to do now, Optimus
resignedly says, “dig.”
Megatron finds out that Teletran-1,
the Autobots computer system, is active and keeping him out. Blackarachnia
teases her boss asking if he has the codes to unlock it from the Golden Disk.
This turns out to be the wrong jibe, as it makes Megatron realize that she
has the codes. Remember, she stole them a while back before destroying
Megatron’s backup. She refuses to give them to Megatron, since he can’t
threaten to shoot her as he’ll still be without the codes. Then Megatron
threatens Silverbolt.
The Maximals are busily digging a
new entrance but it’s slow going even with four of them. Inside, Megatron
repeats his threat. Blackarachnia tries to bluff, saying that Silverbolt means
nothing to her. But when he prepares to shoot, she says, “It’d be a waste of
ammo.” The Maximals start to get inside, and Blackarachnia says he should run.
Megatron says that he thinks he’ll take care of Silverbolt first. Blackarachnia
tells him to stop and that she’ll get him inside. But only because they need to
get to cover. She opens the lock as the Maximals burst in, Optimus shouting “By
Primus, NO!” Megatron has Blackarachnia activate the autoguns and goes to
prepare a more… permanent solution.
The Maximals hurry to get through
the Ark’s defenses, but the ship is incredibly fortified. When Rattrap
says that the ship wasn’t built but pored, Optimus says “Diecast Construction.
It’s a lost art.” He doesn’t wink at the audience, but it feels like he does.
Megatron enters the main hold of
the Ark. He gives an evil speech as he flies through the hold, passing
Soundwave and Starscream’s inert bodies as he does. He admits that he was
hesitant to follow G1 Megatron’s instructions up to this point but realizes now
that this is the only way. He flies up to Optimus Prime and says that this is a
day of reckoning.
Outside the Maximals fire on the
Fusion cannon that is holding them up, Rattrap making the shot that destroys
it. The shockwave knocks Blackarachnia back and disables the shields, Optimus
yells at his team to move.
Megatron gloats over Optimus Prime
for just a moment more, charges his lance to maximum and prepares to fire. The
Maximals can’t get inside because the door lock is jammed. Running out of time,
and furious, Rhinox just shoots the lock open and rips the door wide open.
Moments before Megatron takes the shot, shooting Optimus Primal point blank in
the face. The death of the Autobot’s leader and hero of the Great War causes a
huge space time anomaly to spread out from the Ark. A Space/Time storm
engulfing the solar system. Megatron arrives to gloat, telling Optimus and the
Maximals to ‘say goodbye to the universe,’ and pronounces with his space/time
alterations, the Maximals no longer exits! The finale ends with a “To be
Continued?”
Imagine having a season finale
where, if your show wasn’t renewed, it ends with evil triumphing and your
heroes dying in unimaginable terror. Twice. It’s a ballsy move, I give them
that. I remember my jaw dropping back in 98 when I saw this episode for the
first time and thought in that way of children that the bad guys won once and
for all. It shook me. Megatron’s evil speech was a nice touch, as it does
neatly explain why Megatron hasn’t executed this plan despite the episode
making it clear that he found the Ark some time ago. Obviously, loading
up on raw Energon and bringing it back to the future to power up a new Predacon
war machine is a significantly less risky tactic than rewriting history. But,
pushed into a corner by the Maximals and his superiors interfering, Megatron
goes for the big gamble. Imagine how embarrassed he’d have felt if nothing
happened… because unbeknownst to them Hot Rod was on the Ark, and thus
was there to inherit the Matrix when everyone powered back up and became
Rodimus Prime and thus was able to lead the Autobots to victory anyway. I liked
how they decided to handle Blackarachnia’s feelings for Silverbolt. The
she-spider’s reluctance to admit that she loves the bird-dog even as Megatron
is pointing a blaster at his face, but still trying to convince her boss to
back off is classic Rachnia. And I liked the cameos from Starscream and
Soundwave, even though the way the computer animation worked back in the day
made it seem like the Ark’s hold was basically empty besides those two and
Optimus instead of being filled to bursting with warring Cybertronians. So,
Optimus Prime is dead, Megatron has declared everlasting victory, and time is
rewriting itself. Are you glad you won’t have to wait months to see how this
plot resolves? See you tomorrow. Stay safe.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/viewer-log-beast-149387859
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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