Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)



Vastly outnumbered, the remaining Maximals must defend their base from a Predacon assault while Rhinox takes a dangerous journey.

Summary
Vastly outnumbered, Dinobot, Rattrap, and Cheetor attempt to hold off the Predacons some distance from their base, to allow Rhinox to complete his mission to travel through the Allspark. When Megatron orders them to take no survivors, Silverbolt protests, saying they should let the Maximals surrender, only to be struck by the irate Predacon commander. When Silverbolt is perplexed by their resistance, Megatron realizes that they are keeping them from their base. He orders Waspinator and Silverbolt to head to the Axalon. Cheetor takes to the air, and Rattrap converts to vehicle mode, ordering Dinobot to hop on and provide cover fire (disgusting the former Predacon).

Tarantulas, however, is using the psychic link to force Blackarachnia to search for information on the Golden Disks. While she searches through the files, she discovers something of importance, but refuses to show Tarantulas. When Tarantulas is rendered unconscious by a boulder, Blackarachnia downloads the information, then destroys the computer, claiming that it was boobytrapped.

Reaching the Axalon, Silverbolt is shot down by the autoguns, and captured by the Maximals. Dinobot prepares to destroy him, but Rattrap and Cheetor prevent him, instead taking him in to repair him. Rhinox, who has finished, tells the Maximals they must hold the Predacons off for a little while longer. Inside the Axalon, a charge hits the device Rhinox was connected to, traveling to a stasis pod with a blank protoform. Outside, the shields fail under the fire, and the Maximals engage&mdash;to discover that they are out of ammo. The Predacons seriously injure the Maximals.

Having waited a long time for their victory, the Predacons approach, prepared to deliver the killing blow. Before they can finish the Maximals off, there is an explosion in the hull of the Axalon. When the smoke clears, the Maximals and Predacons alike are shocked to see the cause of the explosion&mdash;Optimus Primal. The Predacons attempt to destroy him, but Primal, now with his own Transmetal body, causes the Predacons to scatter. Primal takes to the air, dispatching the rest of the Predacons. Megatron attempts to kill Primal, but Silverbolt knocks Megatron off a cliff, defecting to the Maximals.

After the battle and some repairs, Primal inquires as to how the new bodies do with absorbing energon. Rhinox remarks that all the energon within the area either detonated or was converted to Energon cubes, so it isn't really a problem right now. They'll have to wait for Tigatron and Airazor's report on the rest of the planet. In the meantime, Primal remarks that he has to put his house in order, such as get to know the new additions, and remove Rattrap's personal effects from his quarters.

At the Predacon base, Blackarachnia tells Megatron that Dinobot stole the Disks and destroyed the computers. Megatron and Tarantulas ask if anything from the back ups can be recovered, and when Blackarachnia reveals that it was totally destroyed, Megatron smashes Tarantulas into the wall in rage. Megatron then declares that the Beast Wars has entered a new phase, while, unseen, binary code flashes across Blackarachnia's eyes.

Quotes
"Prepare for a full attack!" "What? We outnumber them more than two to one." "Yes..." "We have twice their firepower." "Yes..." "We should give them a chance to surrender!" "Mmm...no."
 * Megatron and Silverbolt have a tactical disagreement.

Waspinator "Waspinator is in command. Waspinator will lead. Yesss..." Silverbolt: "Well, since you're the one who knows the way, go ahead. Lead on." Waspinator: "You no tell Waspinator what to do. Waspinator in command." Silverbolt: "Okay, fine! What is your command?" Waspinator: "Doggy-bot follow Waspinator. Waspinator will lead."
 * And that's why Waspinator can only dream of being in charge.

"To think, that a warrior must become a... a rat patrol."
 * Dinobot on having to ride Rattrap.

"Tarantulas? Yo, Legs! (pause) Free!... for a second anyway."
 * Blackarachnia, discovering her mental link to Tarantulas has been briefly severed.

"Comes... the dawn." "And...[Dinobot's arm falls off]...our doom."
 * Rhinox and Dinobot.

"Well, that's just prime!"
 * Optimus Primal, alive and kicking.

(Silverbolt knocks Megatron off a cliff) "Consider that my resignation from the Predacons, Megatron! (to Primal) I know now that my place was always with the Maximals.  May I join you?" "Well...I like your resume."
 * Silverbolt and Optimus Primal

Stats
Writers: Bob Forward Original air date: November 9, 1997

Major characters (in order of appearance): Characters Minor characters (in order of appearance): Characters

Trivia

 * After Rattrap throws a rock in the air as an example of what would happen if they moved away from the cover of the boulder, it's blasted into a tiny pebble and hits the ground. All three Maximals' "eyes" then pop out of their heads towards the rock in the fashion of the eyeball gag in classic Tex Avery cartoons.
 * Blackarachnia's theft of the Golden Disk data would have consequences carrying through the remainder of the series.
 * Though neither admits it, it seems likely that both Tarantulas and Megatron see through Blackarachnia's sleight-of-hand with the backup data tracks. Blackarachnia tells Megatron that the computer was destroyed by Dinobot... after telling Tarantulas that it was destroyed because it was booby trapped.  Tarantulas says nothing to contradict this lie to Megatron, and later interrogates her when the chance presents itself in "Bad Spark".  Megatron likewise guesses the truth and attempts to strong-arm the data from her in "The Agenda (Part III)".
 * This episode continues the Spaghetti Western film references, especially when Optimus fights Inferno.
 * Speaking of Inferno, there were plans to have him be a reborn version of Megatron, but those plans obviously never came to be. This abandoned plot was hinted when the two flyers crash into one another, and recover only to find their heads on the wrong bodies. Megatron was capable of using Inferno's body during this mix-up to punch Inferno's head.
 * As of the end of this episode, four of the eight members of Primal's team have spent time as Predacons, one way or another.

Technical/Animation glitches

 * When Megatron opens fire on the Maximals the second time in this episode, his middle, ring, and pinky "fingers" are shown clipping through his cannon.
 * While in pursuit of Rattrap and Dinobot, Megatron transforms from his beast mode in mid-flight and continues to attack from the air, yet his VTOL engines are inactive on his back rather than deployed.

Continuity errors

 * Tarantulas and Waspinator arrive again mid-battle, despite having already arrived at the end of the previous episode.
 * Waspinator and Silverbolt take off for the Maximal base twice, clearly going over the Maximals' heads a second time as they reassert the danger of the situation in different phrasing than before. This is likely due to the usual pause break for commercials, but on DVD it still looks pretty stupid.
 * Dinobot says his weapon is depleted, despite clearly having ammunition bandoliers criscrossed over his torso. The weapon gets fired more times before the episode ends, anyway.
 * There's no real in-story reason for the Maximals to run out of ammunition before the Predacons, who have been unloading ordnance at them all night. Rhinox in particular should have fully loaded weapons when he enters the fight.


 * The Transmetalization of Optimus Primal's new body doesn't quite fit the established Transmetal pattern, which is that bodies active before coming to Earth were Transmetalized (unless in a CR chamber at the time), while those "born" on Earth were not. As a raw protoform, Primal's new body seemingly should not be mutated.
 * An earlier script revision called for the elevator into the Maximal base to be destroyed during the fight, giving Primal a more practical reason to blow a hole in the side of his own base.

Transformers references



 * While Blackarachnia is searching through Megatron's stuff, a gray model of Starscream's head is in the pile. (It's too small to be the real thing, given that Beast Warriors are shown later in the series to be much smaller than G1 characters. Part of a bust maybe? Ah, yeeesssssss.)
 * Other items in the pile include a WW2-era model airplane, a model helicopter, a number of books, the Holy Grail, two identical spiky planets, a pocket-watch, and a rubber ducky.
 * During one of Rhinox's trips through the Matrix, near the end of the episode, the Autobot Matrix of Leadership is seen floating.
 * When Rattrap asks where Rhinox went, he describes the Matrix as "where all are one".

Real-world references

 * The Rat Patrol was a 1960s TV show about a group of Allied soldiers fighting Rommel's Afrika Corps on the North African front during World War II. A remake starring Dinobot and Rattrap would be awesome.