The Elite Guard

The Cybertron Elite Guard arrives on Earth to retrieve the All Spark and relieve Prime and his crew of their post, but they prove less than adept at blending in with the human world.

Summary
On the extensive highway system of Detroit, the Autobots are aiding in the repair efforts after their titanic battle with the Decepticons. Unfortunately the residents of the city don't seem to understand that the road system was blown to rubble by the battle, and are upset that the Autobots are holding up traffic. Optimus Prime heads over to address their concerns, and they flee in fear. Bulkhead comments that he liked it better when they were heroes, to which Ratchet retorts that they still are. All of them wonder what the heck has happened that Bumblebee isn't there helping them.

There's no reason for them to be jealous though, as the little yellow bot has been pressed into service as Sari's secretary at Sumdac Tower. The little girl realizes that there's a lot of pressure in running a business, and feels sorry for her father's having had to deal with this. Porter C. Powell is less patient, and expresses a fairly cold attitude towards her "wasting" company funds on locating the genius who designs all the company's myriad robotic technologies. Sari is unable to address his concerns though, as an unidentified flying object is spotted in Detroit's skies.

Spotting it, the Autobots speed to the scene, only to be met with some justified resentment by Captain Fanzone. However they are allowed to pass once the ship is revealed to be crewed by Autobots. Sentinel Prime steps out of the ship and, once the Autobot crew walk up the gangplank, quarantines the entire area in a forcefield.

Sentinel is assigned to decontaminating the long lost Autobot crew, a task he takes to with relish until he is interrupted by Jazz for overdoing it. Released, the Autobots are informed that the Elite Guard have come to retrieve the AllSpark. Optimus explains that it suffered damage in a battle with the Decepticons, a fact that Sentinel accuses him of lying about.

Stats

 * Written by: Rich Fogel
 * Directed by: Matt Youngberg, Irineo Maramba, & Yutaka Kagawa
 * Original airdate: April 12, 2008

Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes
Optimus: This is completely unnecessary, Sentinel! Sentinel: Can't risk an infestation, "old buddy". Take it like a real bot. [Jazz shuts down the decontamination system] Jazz: Cool it, Sentinel. Whatever went down between you and Optimus, you don't need to hassle his crew.
 * Optimus Prime and Jazz are reminded that Sentinel Prime is a jerk.

"Man, that was some funky blinkin colored light show! What'd you call those things again?" "Traffic lights?" "Traffic lights. Solid."
 * Jazz discovers the wonderful world of commuting with the help of Bulkhead.

Bulkhead: It's no good! These things are rolling off the assembly line faster than I can smash 'em! Jazz: Is it always like this on this crazy planet? Prowl: Pretty much.
 * Jazz learns that Prime's crew has anything but a quiet life.

"Hey, why is my office locked?" "Ms. Sumdac, I regret to inform you that your services will no longer be required. The board has unanimously elected me to take over as CEO of Sumdac Systems." "You can't do that! This is still my family's company!" "Is it? I took the liberty of doing some research into your claim. It might interest you to know that there is no will, no birth certificate, no adoption papers, social security number, or any kind of record for a 'Sari Sumdac'." "Are you saying I can't prove I'm Isaac Sumdac's daughter?" "I'm saying you can't even prove you exist."
 * Sari and Porter C. Powell create a drastic change in plot.

Continuity errors

 * Errors

Transformers references

 * Sentinel's past experience with organics is a reference to a previous episode.
 * The force-field that Sentinel uses to quarantine the area around the ship is highly reminiscent of the Sentinel security system in Beast Wars.
 * This episode reveals that both Jazz & Prowl are practitioners of the Cybertronian martial art of Metallikato, originally used by the Generation 1 character Bludgeon.
 * Jazz's curiosity and respect for Earth culture is a reference to his Generation 1 namesake's personality.
 * Prowl mentions space barnacles, first seen in "Nature Calls".

Real-world references

 * Ultra Magnus' Hammer is a reference to Thor's hammer Mjolnir.

Miscellaneous trivia

 * Megatron is evidently fully repaired now, while his subordinates are having trouble keeping their arms from falling off. Guy's got priorities, certainly.
 * We don't know what's happened to Starscream's body (alive or dead). Presumably he's either crawled off somewhere or been retrieved by Megatron, since it doesn't seem to have occurred to Optimus to use him as evidence of Decepticon activity.
 * Speaking of evidence, how about all that recorded footage of the 'Cons that Megatron was paging through?
 * So, what is the deal with Sari, anyway?
 * When they're being "decontaminated",Bulkhead remarks that the Jackass,er,Sentinel doesn't remember them, to which Bumblebee replies thats how he wants to it that way. Could they have met him before and don't want him to remember? Or is it a reference to their little video chat when they found the AllSpark?