About the poster: The image from the past four posts was for the special theatrical showing of the previous episodes. It felt fairly right using that artwork for them. But since the rest of the series wasn’t included, I’ll be using this instead. It’s one of my favorite posters; I had this on my bedroom wall when I was younger, and seeing it brings back a lot of memories!
Roll For It
Synopsis: The Decepticons are on the hunt for a powerful antimatter formula. Only the Autobots, with their new human ally Chip Chase, can put a stop to the Decepticons’ plans!
The Episode: The episode begins with a trio of Decepticons–Starscream, Thundercracker, and Soundwave–who are heading to a hydroelectric power station in order to pilfer more energy. Starscream is calling out orders to his fellow Decepticons; Megatron is still presumed deactivated, and Starscream has laid claim to the title of leader. As he bosses the pair around, Starscream nearly clips Soundwave in mid-flight, which Soundwave seemingly does not appreciate in the slightest.
At the hydroelectric power station, one of the workers mentions that it sounds like the oncoming jets are about to land on top of them. His coworker confirms that they are, but they’re not regular aircraft; the alert goes out that they’re under Decepticon attack!
A small group of security guards rushes forward with their weapons drawn and order the Decepticons to leave. Starscream is less than impressed by their bravado and simply blasts some nearby steel drums, which causes the group to retreat. With the station under Decepticon command, the group begins producing energon cubes.
However, they don’t have long to enjoy their victory, as Optimus Prime and a group of Autobots arrive on the scene. After a brief battle, the Decepticons retreat–in Soundwave’s case, extremely comedically–due to their loss of both the energon cubes and their control of the station. Optimus Prime sends Bluestreak and Prowl to keep tabs on them but warns them not to get in over their heads. The pair take off in pursuit.
Cut to Cybertron, as Megatron is still stuck there and wondering just how badly Starscream is running his organization into the freaking ground. He makes contact with the Decepticons and promptly notes that Starscream doesn’t sound too broken up over the fact that he’s still functional. Megatron orders the group to be ready to attack an antimatter laboratory, but the damaged Decepticons point out that they’re not in any shape to fight. Megatron tells them to get ready anyway, then boards the Space Bridge to return to Earth.
We catch up with Bumblebee, who happens to be driving Spike and his friend Chip Chase, to the aforementioned antimatter laboratory. The security guard exchanges pleasantries with the two kids, which prompts Bumblebee to ask, “No kind words for me?”
The guard admits he’s never met an Autobot before.
The group is allowed in, but not before Reflector catches the access code for the lab. He immediately takes off to meet with the other Decepticons.
Inside the lab, the group meets Doctor Alcazar, who speaks of Chip’s contributions to their work. He also gives Chip a floppy disk that will allow Chip’s computer to interface with the lab’s. Afterward, everyone leaves, but Bumblebee is immediately attacked by Laserbeak!
Spike tells Bumblebee to take refuge in an underground parking garage, which he does. But since Laserbeak has failed, Megatron fears that Optimus Prime might have determined that the Decepticons are going after the antimatter laboratory. Megatron calls for an immediate strike rather than wait for Starscream and his team.
Bumblebee gets Chip home, with Chip hoping to contact the lab and let them know that the Decepticons might be targeting them. As Bumblebee tries to meet with the other Autobots, he calls Prowl and Bluestreak for backup, only to have them say they can’t join him. When Bumblebee points out that he’s dealing with an emergency, they reply that they are as well.
Prowl and Bluestreak are stuck at Ace Aircraft Factory, taking on Starscream’s gang. So they can’t leave to help.
Megatron and his forces arrive at the lab. Reflector enters the code and the Decepticons enter. Thankfully, Doctor Alcazar got Chip’s warning just in the nick of time and manages to erase the formula from the lab’s computer, which he tells Megatron. However, Megatron doesn’t believe him and finds that the formula has been sent somewhere else. Megatron releases the doctor in order to find the formula.
Things aren’t going well for Prowl and Bluestreak; Prowl takes a blast from Soundwave and loses his battle computer, which goes offline. He needs to patch into another online computer, so he begins scanning the nearby telephone lines and his signal manages to find Chip’s computer, which now holds the information for the antimatter formula. Chip takes control of Prowl’s movements, helping him to dodge attacks as well as taking the controls of one of one of the nearby aircraft. Prowl, with Chip’s assistance, fires the jet’s rockets at the Decepticons, which turns the tide and causes them to flee.
When Megatron discovers where the antimatter formula has been sent, he alerts Starscream, who sends Soundwave to deal with Chip. Soundwave dispatches Ravage to retrieve the human along with the formula, but Chip has it memorized and destroys the floppy disk. But that doesn’t discourage Ravage, who basically kidnaps Chip and brings him to the Decepticons.
The Decepticons take their captive to the laboratory, where the Autobots are also starting to arrive. But Optimus Prime notices that the Decepticons have a hostage–Chip–and decides to send in Hound and Mirage. The pair use a combination of stealth and trickery to get themselves along with Bumblebee past the Decepticon guard, Rumble.
Inside the lab, Soundwave uses his scanning ability to pull the formula from Chip’s memory. Once the formula has been acquired, Megatron orders the Decepticons to get rid of Chip and proceeds to begin creating antimatter. Just as Thundercracker steps up to carry out Megatron’s order, the Autobots who slipped inside the lab attack!
While the others are holding back the Decepticons, Bumblebee and Spike rescue Chip and get him out of the lab safely. Since there’s no more human hostages in the laboratory, Optimus makes his move, driving through the lab’s wall and letting out the other Autobots. But it seems like too little, too late, as Megatron throws an antimatter energon cube at the Autobots.
The Autobots are helpless as the laboratory erupts in a massive explosion.
In the aftermath of the blast, the Autobots, wounded but still functional, manage to emerge from the devastated building. Prime orders everyone back to headquarters so they can get the repairs they desperately need. The group manages to get back to the Ark, and Ratchet and Sparkplug,who greet them by saying that they look like the guests of honor at a fifty car pile-up but start repairs immediately. Chip can’t help but feel at fault for what happened; he memorized the formula, and Soundwave was able to glean the information directly from him. But Wheeljack reassures him that he’s not at fault and asks for Chip’s help. Wheeljack has an idea that involves the formula, but he needs both Chip and Spike’s help to get it done.
The following day, as the Autobots are recovering, the Decepticons, powered up by their antimatter energon, attack. Megatron transforms into his weapon mode, and Starscream begins firing into the Autobots ranks. However, Prime manages to knock Megatron out of Starscream’s grip! Starscream shouts to Skywarp to grab Megatron, but as he does, Chip is able to attach a device on the Decepticon’s ankle. Skywarp threatens Chip, but then, the device springs to life.
Teletraan I now has control over Skywarp, and the Autobots’ mainframe forces the Seeker to randomly fire Megatron into the empty countryside, which causes Megatron’s antimatter energon to reach critical temperature. He jumps from Skywarp’s hand, throws himself skyward, and ejects the overheating energon, only to have it go critical and explode over his forces. The Decepticons are in no shape to continue battle. They retreat.
The Autobots are victorious, thanks to Chip. They congratulate their ally for his heroics, with Bumblebee saying, “You may not be an Autobot, but when you rolled for broke back there you sure could’ve fooled me.”
Meanwhile, as the Decepticons return to their headquarters, Megatron bewails the loss of his certain victory, that loss coming because of one small human boy.
My Thoughts: This is where we first meet Chip Chase and honestly? I liked him from the start. The guy was smart, which I could appreciate, and he worked well with the Autobots, so I immediately liked him.
As for the obvious: I really didn’t think about it. Yes, Chip was in a wheelchair. When I was a kid, I just didn’t ask questions about it. First off, it wasn’t polite, and second, it really wasn’t my business. He couldn’t walk, true, but I really didn’t focus on that.
Can someone please tell me who was paying those security guards? Because if Decepticons walked into my place of employment, I’m chucking my keys at them and saying, “Here. Place is yours. I ain’t paid enough to get vaporized by the likes of you!”
One of the things I really enjoyed about this episode happened towards the epilogue: As the Autobots are recovering in their headquarters, they’re all just basically, for lack of a better term, hanging out. You had some chitchatting, others engaged in some arm wrestling, etc. They basically felt like a family, and scenes like that really brought that home. No, they weren’t perfect–there were squabbles–but they were more harmonious than the Decepticons.
We also had Bumblebee involved in this episode, and you can see he’s fine hanging around humans. Also, his “No kind words for me?” made my heart melt a little; I said aloud “I love you, Bumblebee” the first time I saw that scene. Can’t help it, little guy is just too adorable. 💛
Soundwave pulling the formula from Chip’s memory is absolutely horrifying. The idea of telepathy is one thing, but Chip did not give his consent to have his mind probed. Soundwave just went in there and took what he wanted, which is absolutely disgusting. But boundaries and consent never mattered to the Decepticons. That scene bothered me as a kid, but now, as an adult, I find it extremely problematic. The poor guy was quite literally assaulted!
Also, just how creepy is Soundwave, anyway? I mean, the dude can just waltz right into your mind, steal whatever secrets you might have, and use them to blackmail you later. Or just find out something truly humiliating about you and use that against you. There’s so much shady crap he could pull, if given the chance.
Needless to say, I don’t trust a lot of those Decepticons. For obvious reasons.
One quick observation: Prowl and Chip were communicating via computer through the telephone lines. Did the Autobots just inadvertently create the internet…?
Overall, while this episode might not rank as an absolute favorite, I still enjoy it. We’re seeing the cast expand a bit, seeing more interactions between humans and Cybertronians, and seeing more interactions between the two factions. It’s not an earth-shattering episode but fairly entertaining.
Next time, we’ll be taking on the next episode: Divide and Conquer! Til all are one!
Iacon East 