Sound and Fury

Sari's new musical toy robot seems to have an evil streak­ and the ability to control other machines, but Bulkhead is the only one who sees it.

Synopsis
Bulkhead takes Sari toy shopping for her birthday (or "construction day" as he terms it), to purchase her something that makes the loud music she loves so much. The two of them are attacked by Professor Princess, who is on a crusade to destroy violent toys. They are able to defeat the bizarre villainess only after Sari uses the power of her Key to trigger a powerful sonic attack from the stereo systems in the toystore. Megatron, monitoring events via security cameras as usual, notices both the power of the Key and the frivolous ways in which Sari employs it. He designs a new robot for Sari, and tricks Dr. Sumdac into allowing him to produce it.

Sari's birthday party isn't much fun: she has no real friends, the only attendees being the children of Sumdac Systems employees, who continue to be put off by her bad manners. When the Autobots arrive to help celebrate, the kids are quite happy to go play with the giant robots and leave the weird girl behind. Bulkhead tries to present Sari with his gift for her, a xylophone (awwww!), but Dr. Sumdac steps in first and gives her the "toy" designed by himself and Megatron: a responsive, interactive, dancing music-and-lightshow robot, known as Soundwave. It's hard for Bulkhead to compete with that. As days go on, Sari pays less attention to Bulkhead and far more to Soundwave. When, inevitably, she starts to grow bored with her new toy, she uses her Key on it. Each dosage of the Key's power unlocks new features on Soundwave, making his musical lightshow more involved and impressive, and even more fun than plain ol' Bulkhead and the Autobots.

This had been Megatron's plan all along. Soundwave's systems were designed to grow and evolve when exposed to the Key; eventually, Sari would unwittingly upgrade him into a suitable body for Megatron himself. Bulkhead begins to see signs of Soundwave's evolving nature—"did that thing just move by itself?"—but no one believes him. Megatron successfully uses Soundwave's weaponry and voice-cloaking systems to make both Sari and the Autobots think Bulkhead is erratic, jealous, and dishonest.

Soundwave's musical transmissions soon become powerful enough to control other Sumdac Systems automatons... which are pretty much everywhere. Megatron had not forseen this. Sari takes Soundwave and Tutor Bot to the park, where they have an impromptu concert, complete with garbagebots banging on their fellow garbagebots, and dancing humans (even Tutor Bot does a little dance). Bulkhead arrives, trying to convince Sari that something is wrong with Soundwave. However, as she turns her back to him, Soundwave activates a cannon and targets Sari. Bulkhead destroys Soundwave, forcing Sari to use the key to restore him, and he immediately starts up again. Megatron is convinced that Bulkhead is no longer a problem, and descides its time to take Soundwave for a test run.

But even Megatron himself is taken by surprise when, after sufficient doses of All Spark energy via the Key, Soundwave's mind grows fully self-aware and his body becomes enhanced with Cybertronian upgrades. Neither Megatron nor Sari can control Soundwave anymore. As he explores Detroit, he is puzzled and angry to see machines like himself forced into servitude for humans; he finds this illogical and believes it should be the other way around. Megatron reveals himself to Soundwave, rather straightforwardly telling him of the Decepticon goals of conquest and machine supremacy, the injustice of the key in Sari's possession, and their hatred for the treasonous Autobots who value organic life. Soundwave compels hundreds of smaller automatons to merge with him, constructing a new transforming body for himself and proclaiming himself to be a Decepticon. He commences "Operation Recruitment", using his sonic signals to turn all the automatons against both Autobots and humanity. The Autobots attempt to track down Soundwave, but they are overwhelmed by his minions and flustered by his ability to forge deceptive messages on their own communication systems. Bulkhead manages to come face-to-face with Soundwave, but even the largest Autobot is swatted down by Soundwave's concussive sonic attacks. Soundwave attempts to convince Bulkhead of the rightness of the machine cause and the inferiority of humanity, and orders him to destroy Sari. Bulkhead plays along for a few moments, but it's all a trick: as soon as he gets within range, he clobbers Soundwave, who shatters into thousands of tiny scraps of his automaton pieces.

The crisis averted, Bulkhead and Sari strengthen their friendship over some (quiet) music. Megatron fumes in disgust at their victory, swearing again to reconstruct himself. And far beneath the city, the last intact piece of Soundwave, a cassette player, flickers back into activation....

Stats

 * Written by:
 * Directed by:
 * Original airdate: February 23, 2008

Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes
"I am Soundwave! I am Decepticon! The revolution begins now!"
 * Soundwave achieves sentience...and a new body.

"Good afternoon, Sari. Today's lesson is...the extinction of all humanity!"
 * Tutor Bot prepares to kill Sari. All that abuse has finally caught up.

"We're coming to you live from downtown Detroit, where it appears that all the automatons have gone amuck...including my camerabot! AHHHHHH!
 * The Anchorman reportingand participating inthe robot revolution.

"Split up! Bumblebee, you're with me. Prowl, you're with Ratchet. Bulkhead" "Yeah, yeah, I'm on my own. As usual."
 * Optimus Prime ' s orders depress Bulkhead.

"The key's power will be worth his sacrifice when I get my servos on it...as soon as I HAVE servos."
 * Megatron reflecting on the defeat of Soundwave.

Other notes

 * Surprisingly, Soundwave's true form still transforms into a radio; his upgraded form turns into a Scion xB car.

Continuity errors

 * Megatron wanted to use Soundwave as his own body; but in "Nanosec", Megatron makes clear that such a body would have to be built from destronium, which he cannot acquire. Then again, Soundwave was very easily damaged by Bulkhead at all stages of his evolution; perhaps Megatron meant to use the permanent repair powers of the Key to make up for sub-par construction materials.

Animation errors

 * When Megatron watches over Sari and Bulkhead after she has put the key into Soundwave, the key is still present around her neck.

Transformers references

 * Kremzeek is part of the "Please Stand By" image on a malfunctioning TV station.


 * Daniel is one of Sari's "friends."


 * At Sari's party, the pinata is a purple Tyrannosaur. Yess...


 * When arguing against using the Key, Bulkhead brings up various diasters it has caused:
 * The creation of the Dinobots and their subsequent rampage in "Blast from the Past".
 * Adding the turbo-boosters to Bumblebee in "Nanosec".
 * Blackarachnia draining the life from everything organic in "Along Came a Spider".


 * Laserbeak did not appear in this episode.


 * Optimus finally uses his faceplate.


 * Soundwave speaks in the same robotic monotone as his G1 predecessor.

Real-world references

 * The episode's title is, of course, taken from a line in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, but it probably doesn't signify anything.


 * The decapitation of Professor Princess' Unicorn is a nod to a famous scene from The Godfather.


 * When Bulkhead is pretending to join Soundwave, he winks at Sari to tell that he's acting out, which similar to a scene in I Robot