Darkness Rising, Part 1

Darkness Rising, Part 1 is the series premiere and first episode of Transformers: Prime. It is the first part of the Darkness Rising mini-series.

Premise
After hiding for three years, the Decepticons return. They kill Cliffjumper and await their leader to return. With the Autobots having human witnesses, Jack, Raf and Miko are welcomed to the Autobot Base by Optimus Prime.

Synopsis
As Cliffjumper and Arcee were patrolling and talking about Cliff's little scare on the police, Cliffjumper found a mine full of Energon. The Nemesis flew over the area and sent Vehicons to secure the Energon. Cliffjumper called Arcee for back-up. He then tried to fight them off, but a stray shot caused the Energon to explode and knocked him out. The Vehicons carried him over to The Nemesis, where he was later killed by Starscream. Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Arcee arrive to Cliffjumper's location, only to discover nothing more than a horn broken off by one of the Vehicons. Ratchet checked Cliffjumper's life signal just as it went offline. The Autobots later mourn for Cliffjumper, but Arcee goes for a run to try to keep her mind away from his death. Meanwhile, Soundwave informs Starscream of a previous conversation between Cliffjumper and Arcee, and plan to kill the other Autobot.

Two Vehicons follow Arcee, so she poses as a parked motorcycle in order to evade them. Jack Darby sees her and sits on her to know what if feels like to ride on a motorcycle, as he wants to own one someday. At that moment, the two Vehicons spot Arcee. Arcee runs away in vehicle mode with Jack still sitting on her and surprising him, as she had no other choice. The Vehicons chased them all the way to a highway, where Bumblebee arrived and distracted them. The Vehicons followed Bumblebee and Arcee to a canal, where Raf Esquivel was playing with his remote controlled car. After a long battle, neither side was winning, until Bulkhead arrived. The Vehicons saw this as their sign to retreat, and left.

Back at the Autobot Base, Arcee informed Optimus about the battle. Optimus said that if the Decepticons believe those humans are their allies, they will attack them. Because of that, he sent Arcee and Bumblebee to pick them up from school. Raf happily went inside Bumblebee, but Jack decided to ignore Arcee. Arcee followed Jack to inform him that he must go with her, as he is one of the only to have ever seen Cybertronians out of their disguise. Just then, Miko Nakadai saw Arcee, as she was drawing her picture of Arcee in her vehicle mode, which Arcee had to bring Miko along too. Arcee and Bumblebee take the three humans to speak with Optimus Prime. Optimus said they are on Earth to protect it from Megatron and his Decepticon army. They left their planet Cybertron as it had been destroyed from centuries of civil war. He also said he will be pairing up Autobots with the humans to protect them from any Decepticon attack.

Back at the Nemesis, Soundwave detects a signal from deep space and orders Starscream to open the Space Bridge. Megatron comes through the Space Bridge, and informs his army that he has returned.

Autobots

 * Optimus Prime
 * Bumblebee
 * Arcee
 * Bulkhead
 * Ratchet
 * Cliffjumper (Killed by Starscream)

Decepticons

 * Megatron
 * Starscream
 * Soundwave
 * Vehicon

Humans

 * Jackson Darby
 * Miko Nakadai
 * Rafael Esquivel
 * Sierra
 * Sierra's Friend
 * Jerky Teens

Quotes
Arcee: Need backup?

Cliffjumper: Do I ever need back up?

- Arcee and Cliffjumper on their last conversation.

Cliffjumper: ''Scream, it's been a while. So, where's your master?''

Starscream: ''Never mind him! I am my own master! *stabs Cliffjumper* Any more questions?''

- Cliffjumper's last words before Starscream kills

Arcee: Scrap!

- Arcee giving us a new word.

Jack: Friend of yours?

Arcee: Family.

- Jack and Arcee about Bumblebee.

Rafael: What are they?

Jack: ''Talking cars that turn into robots. Or the other way around.''

- Rafael and Jack

Miko: ''Dude, what are you waiting for? Go with!''

- Miko says what the audience is thinking.

Ratchet: I thought there were two?

Arcee: ''Haven't you heard? Humans multiply.''

- Ratchet and Arcee about the increasing of newcomers.

- Rafael and Jack

Rafael: So, if you guys are robots, who made you...?

Ratchet: ''Ugh! Puh-leez...''

- Rafael and Ratchet

Optimus Prime: We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron, also known as Autobots.

- Optimus Prime to the humans.

Megatron: ''Decepticons! I have returned.''

- Megatron makes a comeback.

Continuity notes

 * Transformers: Exodus is the basis of the Prime continuity's backstory, according to Hasbro. However, Exodus has the split between Optimus and Megatron causing the war, whereas this episode implies with the line "In war, ideals change" that their split happened during the war. It's all neatly vague enough to imagine that "war" in this instance could have been a metaphorical summation of Optimus and Megatron's ideological conflict with the council, rather than actual battlefield warfare, and in any case, "One Shall Rise, Part 3" would later give a more detailed account of this period that retconned the characters' history back in-line with the depiction seen in Exodus.

Transformers references

 * Lots of references to "three years ago" as the last time the Decepticons and Megatron were seen. At the time the episode aired, three years ago was the year that Transformers came out in the cinema, by Prime showrunners Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.
 * Optimus Prime's introduction is almost exactly the same as Sam's first conversation with the Autobot leader in Transformers (2007).
 * Cybertron has been rendered uninhabitable by the war. This is not just established by Exodus and the War for Cybertron games, but was also part of the live-action film series canon and IDW Publishing's earlier Generation 1 comics.
 * The image of Cybertron from space that appears during Optimus's exposition reuses the model from War for Cybertron.
 * In this series, Energon is represented as a naturally growing blue crystal. Beast Wars was the first time it has been represented in this way.

Real-world references

 * The kids' phones are all based on BlackBerry® Pearl 8220 model flip phones, reskinned in different colors.
 * Miko's cellphone ringtone is a section of the sample tune "motocross" from the imovie library. Which was recorded in early 2010 at Abbey Road Studios.
 * Jack references the movie, "Fight Club," by saying, "The first rule of robot fight club is that you don't talk about robot fight club."


 * Adaptations of this episode include a prose version as part of Megatron Returns, a storybook for younger readers as Meet Team Prime, and a screen-capture-style comic as part of A Rising Darkness.

Errors

 * When Cliffjumper detects the Energon deposit where he has his encounter with the Decepticons, it is shown as on the right side of the road on his scanner display, but when he turns off the road to investigate, he makes a left turn.
 * When Ratchet attempts to scan for Cliffjumper's life signal, only five Autobots are shown on his screen, despite there being a total of six Autobots in the range of his scan (including the soon-to-be-dead Cliffjumper). This might be explained as being because Ratchet's own life signal doesn't appear on his own scanner.
 * During the scene where Arcee attempts to talk to Jack in the alleyway, her rear end clips a bin.
 * Upon this episode's original airing, the insignia on the floor of the Autobot base was the live-action movie Autobot insignia, rather than the standard Autobot insignia used on the characters themselves. This however was swiftly changed upon the re-airing weeks later, suggesting the rendering team either originally took note in time to effect the change, or they REALLY DO read everything on this Wiki to make the show better. This is us waving at you! *waves*
 * In the credits, Cliffjumper's name is parsed as "Cliff Jumper".

Trivia

 * This episode shows Energon growing naturally on Earth.
 * Cliffjumper's first appearance on this episode also marks his demise, sadly.
 * This is the only episode where we see Miko's host parents.
 * Adaptations of this episode include a prose version as part of Megatron Returns, a storybook for younger readers as Meet Team Prime, and a screen-capture-style comic as part of A Rising Darkness.

Gallery
Main Article: Darkness Rising, Part 1/Gallery