Pilot (Part 1)

Pilot (Part 1) is the first episode of Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

Premise
Assigned on a solo mission to Earth, Bumblebee unexpectedly finds himself saddled with a team.

Synopsis
Years after the Great War, Cybertron is now back to its normal roots. Lieutenant Bumblebee is now a street cop patrolling the streets on Cybertron when he and his cadet Strongarm investigate an alert they received. While Strongarm is honored to work with Bumblebee, she is surprised that Bumblebee wasn't in a better position than a street cop. The pair finds Sideswipe driving around the huge statues, scratching the floor that was around the Optimus Prime statue. When Bumblebee informed Strongarm that Sideswipe was not a threat, he is interrupted by a vision of Optimus Prime in a reflecting pool. Strongarm leaves Bumblebee to his vision while she deals with Sideswipe. Bumblebee sees Optimus pointing to a diagram of Earth. Strongarm was able to knock Sideswipe into the statue of Optimus Prime and slaps one of her cuffs on him, but the statue topples over from the damage to its right leg and topples over, nearly crushing Bumblebee. Bumblebee, snapped out of his trance, orders Strongarm to take Sideswipe to the station while he goes to the building Optimus pointed him to.



On Earth, Denny Clay is moving around a train in his scrapyard when his son, Russell Clay, arrives while his mother's in Copenhagen. While he wasn't too thrilled about this arrangement, Denny shows off the 14th Street Diner that he's recently moved to his scrapyard. Suddenly, their conversation is cut short when a loud boom goes off somewhere in the woods. Not far away in the woods, Fixit comes out of the shattered Autobot prison ship Alchemor.



On Cybertron, Bumblebee enters the Cybertron History Museum and pokes around the back rooms. He soon finds a space bridge with Earth co-ordinates already input. Optimus speaks to him in another vision, telling him he's needed on Earth for a new mission. In the middle of this vision, Strongarm and Sideswipe followed Bumblebee there as per a regulation which means Strongarm has to accompany Bumblebee at all times. She still has Sideswipe handcuffed to her and after Bumblebee explains he's received a mission from Optimus. Strongarm, excited by this honor, tells Bumblebee that she is in and he tells Strongarm to try to get the space bridge working while he distracts the two guards that were coming. Strongarm asked Sideswipe if he knew how to disable security systems, to which Sideswipe stated "No.....maybe."



A news reporter reports about a meteor crashing on Earth, which gave Denny Clay an idea of looking at this but he realized he has a deal to make about selling some Billy the Breakfast Beavers. Russell offered to look for the meteor while Denny closes the deal. At the crash site, Fixit tries to send a mayday signal to Cybertron Control reporting that he lost most of the stasis pods that the ship was carrying.

Bumblebee was able to distract the guards for a short time until they figured out he was up to something. Bumblebee was forced to disable them both while Sideswipe finished fixing the bridge. Bumblebee thanked both of them and ordered Strongarm to remain behind before charging into the bridge. Bumblebee looked around Earth for a brief moment until Strongarm and Sideswipe followed him to Earth. When Bumblebee destroyed the cuffs that Strongarm and Sideswipe were in, Sideswipe went off. Meanwhile, Russell explores the forest and did not notice the giant footprints in his area. Bumblebee and Strongarm found Fixit, who was still attempting to contact Cybertron Control. Fixit explains to them about the missing prisoners and when the tracking systems came back online, Fixit detects a nearby Cybertronian signal. Bumblebee, believing it is Sideswipe, goes with Strongarm to recapture Sideswipe.



Sideswipe was echoing in a little canyon when he bumps into Russell. They were both in shocked as they saw each other. Suddenly, Underbite strolls up besides them and roars at them. Sideswipe introduces himself and notices the Decepticon symbol on Underbites' chest. Underbite clarifies himself as the Decepticon who ate Nuon City before attacking Sideswipe and Russell. Before he began to chase them, Underbite consumes an abandoned van for energy. Russell ran through a stream and the forest while Sideswipe jumped from tree to tree. When the pair reached to an opened space area, Sideswipe transformed into a Cybertronian vehicle form.

Underbite caught up to them and Sideswipe drove away with Russell inside of him. Sideswipe managed to catch up with Bumblebee and Strongarm, which Bumblebee remarked on how Sideswipe already revealed himself to a human and Strongarm found Russell interesting as she gently pokes his face. Underbite chases all four of them back to the scrapyard while Fixit and Russell hide behind a stasis pod.



As the pair hid behind the intact stasis pod, Grimlock pokes his head out to see what was going on. After Underbite knocks the Autobots aside, Grimlock managed to goad Underbite into destroying the stasis pod he was trapped in, thus freeing him in the process. Underbite manages to spot the scrapyard through the forest and drives off to investigate. As the Autobots recover from the fight with Underbite, Fixit informs them that Underbite is a Chompazoid who gains power through eating metal. The Autobots realize that the scrapyard is full of metal to make Underbite unstoppable. Russell also points out his father was in the scrapyard. To be continued

Autobots

 * Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime
 * Will Friedle as Bumblebee
 * Constance Zimmer as Strongarm/Matronly Docent
 * Darren Criss as Sideswipe
 * Mitchell Whitfield as Fixit

Decepticons

 * Khary Payton as Grimlock
 * Liam O'Brien as Underbite

Humans

 * Ted McGinley as Denny Clay
 * Stuart Allen as Russell Clay

Quotes
Russell: ''It's kinda weird. Like living in a scrapyard.''

Denny: Please, 'vintage salvage depot for the discriminating nostaligist'.

- Russell and Denny.

Optimus Prime: Bumblebee, I knew you would understand.

- Optimus Prime.

Sideswipe: ''PLEASE take me to jail. This place is so much worse!''

- Sideswipe.

Strongarm: You're a punk, you know how to take out security systems don't you?

Sideswipe: No! "(Pauses)" Maybe!

- Strongarm and Sideswipe.

Fixit: ''Now, I've reconned the crash site and we're missing most of our stasis cells. Several nearby have ruptured, their inmates are presumably at lar''ge.

Strongarm: How many is "several"?

Fixit: Oh, a couple of hundred.

- Fixit and Strongarm.

Underbite: You ever heard of Nuon City?

Sideswipe: Noo.

Underbite: THAT'S CUZ I ATE IT!!

- Underbite and Sideswipe.

Grimlock: ''I hear fighting. Who's fighting? I wanna fight!''

- Grimlock.

Grimlock: Hey, aren't you Underbite, the 'Con who ate that city?

Underbite: ''Finally! What gave me away? The muscles?''

Grimlock: The smell.

- Grimlock and Underbite.

Trivia

 * First appearances of Strongarm, Fixit, Grimlock, Underbite, Denny Clay, and Russell Clay.
 * The opening shot of Cybertron is identical to how it looked in Transformers: Prime and the War for Cybertron games.
 * Bumblebee's narrating line "My name is Bumblebee, and I keep the peace around here..." is a direct reference to his final line at the end of Predacons Rising, in which he promises Optimus: "You can count on us to keep the peace."
 * It's later revealed in the episode "Can You Dig It?" that Bumblebee and Strongarm were on patrol in Kaon.
 * It is also revealed that the park they were in is called “Kaon Plaza” in the episode “Five Fugitives”.
 * The statues in Kaon Plaza depict the Thirteen Primes.
 * Sidewipe's use of 'No...maybe' is much similar to what Bulkhead sometimes said in Transformers: Prime.
 * In this and part 2, the capsules holding the Decepticons are referred to as "stasis cells", whereas in later episodes they're referred to using the more standard name "stasis pods". This change appears to have been made due to the amount of spitting the term "stasis cell" produced in the recording booth.[1 ]
 * "211" is actually the US police code for a robbery. However, Sideswipe just seems to be causing a public nuisance.
 * As with the following dozen episodes, this first premiered in Mandarin on Chinese streaming video site M1905
 * Unlike Transformers: Prime, Strongarm and Sideswipe have unique Cybertronian robot and vehicle forms.
 * Before even scanning an Earth vehicle, Sideswipe's Cybertronian alt mode has a normal vehicle interior, including seats and seat belts, even though these would serve no practical purpose on Cybertron.
 * Fixit states his favorite color is red.
 * Strongarm throws Sideswipe into the shins of the Optimus Prime statue and it all comes crashing down. Either Strongarm seriously lives up to her name or the statue was made of sawdust.

Gallery
Pilot (Part 1) Gallery