Siege episode 5
From Transformers Wiki
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| Go on and write me up for one-twenty-five, Post my face wanted dead or alive- | ||||||
| Episode 5 | ||||||
| Production company | Allspark Animation, Rooster Teeth | |||||
| Airdate | July 30, 2020 (Netflix) | |||||
| Written by | Brandon M. Easton and Gavin Hignight | |||||
| Director | Takashi Kamei | |||||
| Animation studio | Polygon Pictures | |||||
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With time quickly running out, the Autobots must divide and conquer to prepare their escape plan.
Contents |
Synopsis
At Decepticon headquarters, Soundwave has completed his analysis of the signal emitted during Ultra Magnus's death. He reports to Megatron that the signal transmitted a protocol containing a hidden code that is designed to traverse over Cybertron's infrastructure. Megatron is interested less in how it moves but what it can do, and to whom it was sent. He is frustrated that Shockwave failed to detect it and that Soundwave cannot decipher it. Shockwave proposes using a secret virus (whose secret development irks Megatron) in order to eliminate the code by destroying all processors that have ever received it, wherever they may be. He proposes the ironic solution of using Magnus's own body to transmit the payload, even as Soundwave warns that the virus will cripple planetary infrastructure. Despite this, Megatron orders Shockwave to proceed.
At the Ark, the Autobots question the imprisoned Jetfire. He claims that he has realized that Megatron has gone too far in his war and that he won't be a party to genocide of the Autobots. Optimus Prime is stunned as Jetfire recalls Magnus's fate, how he was murdered while shackled and defenseless. Jetfire promises that Megatron will do the same to all Autobots and pleads to join their team.
Nearby, Cog and Wheeljack are in awe of Bumblebee's newfound knowledge from the Alpha Trion protocols. The scavenger tells the two Autobots that in Cybertron's Golden Age, the Allspark moved across the planet, following a map that Bumblebee now possesses in his mind. As Wheeljack prepares to modernize Bumblebee's map for present-day Cybertron, Prime, Elita-1 and Prowl join them and voice their skepticism over Jetfire's intentions. At that moment, Wheeljack has located the Allspark; unfortunately, it resides in the treacherous Sea of Rust, from which escape is extremely rare.
Elita suggests waiting until the Allspark reappears somewhere safer, but Prime disagrees: retrieving the Allspark, launching the Ark, and activating the spacebridge must happen at the same time so that the Decepticons have no opportunity to stop their mission. Elita is exasperated; she loses more faith in the mission and feels bitterly that Prime needlessly endangers himself. Bumblebee points out that even though Autobots rarely return from the Sea of Rust, Decepticons have done so, having mapped out the area in the past. Prime realizes that Jetfire could be put to good use here, and orders Prowl to retrieve him.
At the spacebridge, Impactor and Ratchet put the final touches on its repair. Mirage congratulates their efforts as Ratchet powers it up, but immediately, a patrol of Seekers approach. In a desperate move, Mirage casts an illusion so large that it hides the entire spacebridge from view. The ruse is successful, and the rest of the team members feel a rare moment of relief.
Meanwhile, Magnus's corpse is strung up and run through with electrical cables as Shockwave's virus is unleashed across Cybertron.
Jetfire is eager to prove his usefulness to the Autobots even as Elita believes he can't be trusted. To earn their trust, Jetfire suggests that a core override be applied to his brain module, detonating him at the first sign of deception. The Autobots shamefully remember the dark times in which they applied the core overrides, but accept Jetfire's proposal that he submit to the procedure. Wheeljack reminds the team that the Ark needs more energon to fly, but Bumblebee says he knows how they can get it if they're willing to steal it from a mercenary named Soundblaster. Prime approves the plan, sending Arcee and Cog to accompany Bumblebee. Prime plans to journey to the Sea of Rust with Hound, Moonracer, Prowl, and Jetfire. Elita, growing weary of the morally grey areas of dealing with Decepticons and stealing energon, remains to prepare the Ark.
At Soundblaster's dome, Bumblebee is prepared to make a show of bartering the Autobots' last store of energon to get inside. He, Cog, and Arcee make it inside and try not to look suspicious. They approach Soundblaster at last, who is protected by Dome Guards. Careful not to offend him by calling him a failed Soundwave clone, Bumblebee offers him energon, and they are allowed to go to the receiving area. There, they see more than enough energon to power the Ark. Cog transforms and combines with Arcee and they hold up the Dome Guards at gunpoint. But before they can escape, Soundblaster arrives with more Dome Guards, and it is now Bumblebee's team being held up. Buzzsaw had been spying on them, and Soundblaster is amused knowing that captive Autobots are worth more than a few cubes of energon.
Elita watches Prime's team remotely from the Ark as Ironhide gives her more bad news: Autobot outposts across the planet are suffering total system failures. What she doesn't know is that the failures are being caused by Shockwave's virus, which has nearly disabled the entire planet's infrastructure. Before all communication breaks down, Elita orders all other outpost teams to report to the Ark. She tries to reach Prime, but his signal is lost. The virus finally reaches the Ark, damaging its repair bays, power supplies, and ultimately its cloaking device!
Prime's team arrives at the inhospitable Sea of Rust, and immediately are forced to dodge lightning. Jetfire launches flares that provide relatively-safe passage for the Autobots, but they must contend with metallic vortexes. The former Seeker is confident they can make it past the vortexes, but Prowl is unexpectedly pulled into air around the dangerous storm. Jetfire transforms and risks his life to rescue him, and barely succeeds. Back on the ground, Prowl believes the Decepticon has demonstrated valor, but Jetfire believes the Autobot will value pragmatism over appreciation. After the Autobots pass through the vortexes, they detect the Allspark in a valley below. Inside the crystal-strewn valley, Prime feels an uneasy feeling, as if the Matrix itself had issued a warning. As if on cue, the valley begins to rumble, and the undead Sparkless erupt from the ground itself. Though they are shambling, they are strong; one quickly rips off Moonracer's arm. Jetfire and the Autobots are surrounded by the horde!
Meanwhile, Megatron is on the verge of triumph: Shockwave reports the detection of the defenseless Autobot Command at last, and Starscream has discovered increased Autobot activity near a spacebridge. He orders his lieutenants to assemble all Decepticons and will personally lead an assault to crush the Autobot resistance once and for all!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Mercenaries | Others |
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Quotes
"(groans) Another one of your secret experiments that we don't know about? (grumbles) Tell me more."
- -Megatron is annoyed at Shockwave being Shockwave, but not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"A Decepticon saving an Autobot? It doesn't feel right...holding onto this thing after you saved me."
"But for the sake of the mission...you will."
- —Prowl is ready to disable Jetfire's core override detonator and begin trusting him
Notes
Transformers references
- Bumblebee mentions a former Seeker named Dreadwing. Whether this refers to the combined Powermaster jet, the alternate name for one of those said Powermasters, the Generation 2 stealth bomber, or a "Generation 1" version of the Prime captain of the Seekers is unknown. For simplicity's sake, we register this as the Generation 2 Dreadwing.
- The Sea of Rust has appeared in other media, notably being the place of origin for the Rust Renegades in the Combiner Wars toyline.
- Soundblaster having a partner in Buzzsaw is a reference to The Headmasters toyline in Japan. Similar parallels were also made with Logos Prime and Hell Buzzsaw from Galaxy Force and more recently, Soundblaster and Buzzsaw from the Fall of Cybertron toyline.
Animation and technical errors
- Like his red clone in episode 2, Cog's torso piece disappears when he combines with Arcee.
- When Cog combines with Arcee, her backpack disappears.
Trivia
- Arcee appears to be a similar case to Bumblebee (see: Siege episode 1#Trivia), as her character model shares a lot of her Earthrise details (evident in her forearm panels and tech detailing). Though, much like Bumblebee, a lot of the details also appear to have been made up using existing Generation 1 Arcee designs to fill in the blanks.
- Cliffjumper is a straight reskin of Bumblebee's character model using the same head design and all. This would later be a similar case for Exhaust in the Earthrise portion of the cartoon, who ends up being slightly less accurate to his toy due to his model using the existing Wheeljack head instead of the new one the toy came with. Both of these are likely down to budget constraints.
- Like Cliffjumper, Moonracer's model is reskinned from Chromia. Unfortunately, the similar-looking colors and model reuse means the two look very alike.
- Soundblaster's model sports a few differences from his Siege toy, namely additional black parts, a flatter chest owing to being reskinned from Soundwave, and a Mercenary symbol instead of a Decepticon badge. Another thing to note in both Soundwave and Soundblaster's on-screen appearance is they are both missing one of the vehicle engine parts on the right side of both their backs, likely to make room for their shoulder cannons as the hollow side of those parts has been completely covered over.
- TakaraTomy would eventually release their own Soundblaster with a deco that greatly resembles his on-screen War for Cybertron Trilogy appearance and would replace his Decepticon Insignia with the Mercenary one. This release was an exclusive to TakaraTomy Mall and later TakaraTomy's Generations Selects line.
- Prowl's detonator to Jetfire's core override uses the same model for the Cybertronian scanner used in Transformers: Prime, likely a case of asset reuse on the part of Polygon Pictures, which also did the animation for Prime.