Our episode opens the Maximals fixing holes in their front doors. The Predacons have been relentlessly attacking, and without any shields, the doors made out of the rest of the Axalon's hull suffer damage. It's a war of attrition and it's not going well for the Maximals, on top of that it forces them on a purely defensive position. Furthermore Rhinox' attempt to link Teletraan's (Which he pronounces Teletron) shields with the doors blows up in his face - it seems Maximals aren't big on backwards compatibility and liking with Autobot tech is proving difficult. There's only one way out of this: They need to recover Sentinel. The problem is that Sentinel is sort of under water. Remember the rear of the ship fell in the water, while the front broke off and landed on rocks, hence why it was salvaged. And we know from Possession and A Better Mousetrap that Sentinel is housed in the computer core, in the rear of the ship.
The first idea is to ask Depth Charge to pick it up, but they can't reach him. Silverbolt, who was sent to look for it, guesses he must be in Megatron's jamming zone.
Blackarachnia offers an alternative. A small sub big enough for her, powered by crank. Mostly stealthy. However Optimus vetoes her using it, sending Rattrap instead. Blackarachnia wouldn't know what to look for in the wreck, and no one else but Rattrap can fit in the sub, Rattrap refuses, but Optimus mentions that without Sentinel to tip the scales and let them win the war, they will never go back to Cybertron. The C word convinces Rattrap to go ahead.
Silverbolt delivers the Rat in a Ball to the location of the Maximal's former base, dropping him past the waterfall. This leads
to one of my favorite joke on the show. The look on Silverbolt's face is priceless. The Maximals are however spied on by a Predacon Spy Camera. Megatron dispatches Inferno, Waspinator and Quickstrike to stop the Maximals, figuring they are after Sentinel.
Rattrap soons finds the Axalon's rear section in the lakebed. By a large cliff (The Axalon seems magnetically drawn to cliffs it can then fall off from). Rattrap enters the submerged wreck, and we get some nice shots. The familiar corridors (Including the pods where Dinobot expelled Terrorsaur in Equal Measure) are a familiar background, but the darkness, the moving fishes and shadow make it appear sinister. Rattrap finds the computer core, and sets to retrieving Sentinel from it. However an alarm blares, warning him of an approaching Predacon. Rattrap retreats... into Rampage's claw, who sets to being crushing the pod, causing it to leak. Silverbolt loses contact with Rattrap, and all looks dire for the small Maximal, until Depth Charge arrives, firing on the Predacon who releases his prey and falls off a cliff.
- Rattrap: Woohoo! Depth Charge! Oh Man, I'd never thought I'd be glad to see him again!Depth Charge: Better clear out mouse, me and X play rough.Rattrap: No can't do captain minnow. I'm on a mission. But you keep that crab out of my way for a few cycles and I will be out of your way.Depth Charge: Deal but make it quick.
Rattrap grabs Sentinel even as gunfire exchange between the two aquatic warriors causes and explosion that rocks the Axalon and send it plummeting on top of Depth Charge and Rampage. Rattrap surfaces, to a confused Silverbolt. Rattrap fills him in on the underwater battle he last saw raging below the water. Silverbolt hauls out Rattrap, but is shot by Waspinator. The two crash. Quickstrike has Waspinator return sentinel to Megatron. He decides to finish off the Maximals...
At the bottom of the Lake, Rampage transforms, and sets out to finish Depth Charge off, thinking him trapped under debris, but instead finds himself in a trap. He's disabled, and Depth Charge decides to finish this off on land, hammer tossing the crab... Right on top of Quickstrike. This begins a theme running through next episode where Depth Charge is most dangerous Maximal ever. Lets see, he's at the bottom of a lake, down a cliff from where the Axalon's wreck was, so fairly deep. And from there he can toss Rampage (Who isn't exactly light) not only clear out of the water but almost a hundred feet OVER the water and 200 feet horizontally. This would be an achievement and easily make him the physically strongest Maximal on dry land, but he did it in WATER. And I shouldn't need to explain that throwing things underwater is harder than in air. The dude must benchpress Autobots for a workout or something.
Quickstrike passes out from the impact, Silverbolt recovering as Depth Charge surfaces. Silverbolt asks Depth Charge to pursue Waspinator, but the fishbot refuses. He's got his own agenda which irks Silverbolt, but Rattrap convinces the Dogbot to stop wasting time. Rattrap and Silverbolt take off after Waspinator. Depth Charge pulls out an energon knife like the one Megatron used to cut out Rampage's spark, only to turn around and find him gone. Second episode Rampage does this. I didn't know Rampage was a student of the Batman school of Stealth Hi/Bye.
Meanwhile, Waspinator is Tempting Fate.
He's immediately shot by Rattrap and they dive and catch the module, only to lose it when Inferno drops a tree in front of them. Rattrap steals it from him, and a chase begins. Back on the beach, Depth Charge can't find Rampage, and hears the explosions, figuring Rattrap and Silverbolt need help. He transforms to flight mode and goes after them. Eventually Inferno blows up a bridge in front of Rattrap, and the rat falls. He's caught by Silverbolt, who then collides head first with Depth Charge. Inferno catches the module and escapes with it.
Back at the Maximal Base, Optimus chews out Depth Charge, his refusal to help having cost them a huge advantage. Rattrap is all to happy to see Depth Charge brought down a peg, till Depth Charge lets it dropped he saved Rattrap's life, which Rattrap conveniently forgot to mention. Depth Charge eventually agrees to at least collaborate with the rest of the Maximals - if sarcastically.
- Depth Charge: I'll think about it... This crew sure needs something.
At the Predacon Base, Megatron brings Sentinel online, covering the Darksyde with a shield.
Good episode overall. The fact that Sentinel is an established plot item, and we know how powerful it is makes the stakes all the higher. We know how much of a game changer it can be so we know why both sides want it. And the Predacons getting it, with the final scene being Sentinel turning online on the Predacon base puts emphasis on how bad that loss was for the Maximals. The action's pretty good too.
- Depth Charge and Rampage can both fire their weapons in beast mode (Rampage does it from his butt). Depth Charge can fire both his energy disks and his gun.
- The episode hints that the Predacon stealing Sentinel was not a "grab the opportunity" thing, but a well thought out plan. Megatron tells his troop to head to their positions, implying said positions were pre-determined. Quickstrike mentions Megatron knew the Maximals would fetch Sentinel for them. I'd wager that Megatron's constant streams of attack on the Maximal's doorstep were meant to coax them into trying to recover Sentinel, so he might steal it. Especially that with Rampage AWOL (Quickstrike's reaction to seeing him confirms he's been AWOL since Deep Metal) they had no way to fish it out themselves.
- Sentinel being used by the Predacons never really amounts to anything for the rest of the show. The next time we see it, it might as well not be there.
- This is the only episode where Rampage actually says "Rampage Terrorize!" to transform.
- So Inferno, Quickstrike and Waspinators play cards together during their free time.
- Thus ends Depth Charge's very short run as a rogue Maximal. While he won't be chilling at the Maximal base any time soon, he'll now be far more cooperative and responsive to the rest of the team. Good bye subplot, we hardly knew ye.
Comments
