Recap / Transformers: Animated, S1E3: Total Meltdown

As the Autobots continue to settle into their new home, a quick surfing through Earth's various tv networks leads them to discovery a wrestling match between a genetically altered human and Bumblebee himself. Said fight is being sponsored by geneticist Prometheus Black, who has a strong distaste for machines. Naturally, things go horribly wrong and Black finds himself fired shortly thereafter. One lab accident later, and Black, mutated and now calling himself "Meltdown", is out for revenge.

Tropes:

• Achilles' Heel: Colossus Rhodes' bio-tech enhancements can be disrupted by sonic frequencies, as shown when the enhancements start to malfunction in response to the loud noise produced by a car horn or church bell. Notably this weakness remains even after Meltdown reinforced the steroid pistons on Colossus Rhodes' back, though it's possible he may have overlooked it.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Ratchet bursts into laughter after Bulkhead makes a short joke about Bumblebee.
• Berserk Button: Bumblebee does not like being called short.
  Prowl: [to Bumblebee] Next time, use your head. Find your foe's weakness and strike there.
  Bulkhead: If you can reach it.
  Bumblebee: Oh, right. I get it. Cause I'm short.
  Bulkhead: What? I'm just bustin' your bumpers a little, buddy.
  Bumblebee: Why does it have to be 'little buddy?' Why can't it just be 'buddy'?
  Ratchet: What's with him?
  Bulkhead: Ah, he's just mad cause he came up a little short.
  [Ratchet, Bulkhead, and Sari burst into laughter, while Bumblebee gets incensed.]
  Bumblebee: Okay, now, you're doing it on purpose!
• Body Horror: Seeing Prometheus' body melt into acid is not a pretty sight. The rest of the transformation occurs offscreen mercifully, though considering that it must have taken Prometheus a certain amount of time and effort to create a suit that could support his body, the mutation must have been painful for him.
• Better the Devil You Know: In spite of his hatred for machines, Fanzone's more willing to put up with the Autobots than any of Prometheus' destructive, Ax-Crazy, cyborg monstrosities. As the fight between Rhodes and Bumblebee shows, the Autobots have self-control and want to help the city, while Black's work results in monsters with no restraint or regards for sentient life.
• Create Your Own Villain: Bumblebee is unintentionally and indirectly responsible for Prometheus Black's mutation into Meltdown, since Prometheus finding a part of Bumblebee that broke off during Colossus Rhodes' attack on the former, covered in his internal fluids, is what leads him to experiment on the fluid sample to create the acid that would mutate him.
• The Determinator: When Bumblebee gets into Sumdac systems and realizes that the elevator's been destroyed, he simply revs up his engines and uses his wheels to climb the shaft.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Prometheus Black turns himself into Meltdown by dramatically smacking aside his steroid chemicals mixed with Bumblebee's fluids after Porter C. Powell cuts his funding. As a scientist, he really should've known better.
  • Sumdac's tower creates a nigh-impenetrable forcefield when the tower is under attack. Unfortunately, it also activates when the threat is inside the building, trapping Sumdac with Meltdown and preventing anyone from getting into the building to save him. Bumblebee lampshades that it’s a dumb idea.
• Dramatic Irony: Meltdown accuses Sumdac of just getting lucky. Boy, if only he knew how right he is.
• Everyone Has Standards: Powell is easily one of the most despicable human characters in the show (his crimes include allowing the Headmaster back in Detroit, taking over Sumdac Systems, kicking an eight-year-old onto the streets, and eventually building the Soundwave toys that tried to enslave humanity), but he thinks that Black's revenge schemes (and his use of human test subjects) go too far, and he shuts down Black's funding.
• "Eureka!" Moment:
  • After getting overpowered by Colossus Rhodes in the second fight against him, the Autobots are at a loss of what to do since they can't exploit his weak spot like last time and everything they've tried doesn't work. Then Colossus Rhodes accidentally tosses Optimus at a nearby church bell and gets disoriented by the sound...
    Prowl: The bell... Hit it again!
    [Optimus continually strikes the bell with his ax, causing Colossus Rhodes to clutch his head in discomfort]
    Ratchet: The frequency must disrupt his techno-organic circuits!
    [Ratchet magnetically holds the bell over Colossus Rhodes, while Optimus continues to strike the bell until the former collapses and returns to his normal size]
  • When facing Meltdown directly, the Autobots ponder on how to subdue him due to his acid being able to melt through almost anything, when Optimus realizes they can use the one thing that stopped them: the Sumdac Tower Force Field.
• Fantastic Racism: Prometheus Black hates machines, believing organics to be far superior. It only gets worse when he becomes Meltdown.
• Foreshadowing: When the Autobots first fight Colossus Rhodes, the latter gets disoriented by the loud noise of a car horn and his bio-tech enhancements start to malfunction in response. While this did give Prowl the idea to directly attack the pistons on his back, the Autobots would come to realize that sonic frequencies are Colossus Rhodes' true weakness and are able to exploit it even after Meltdown reinforced the pistons.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Meltdown uses Sumdac System's security shield to keep the Autobots from getting into Sumdac Tower. They use it on him to keep him from melting anyone.
• Hypocrite: Prometheus Black constantly states that humans/organics are superior to machines, and uses science to try and better humanity to outclass robots. However, he uses cybernetic implants on his flunkies (namely Colossus Rhodes, who's more or less a cyborg), and uses a piece of Bumblebee's plating to create the acid that mutates him.
• It Only Works Once: Colossus Rhodes is taken out when Prowl directly strikes the steroid pistons on his back with his shurikens. When they encounter him again, Meltdown had already reinforced said pistons so the Autobots wouldn't exploit that weakness a second time. Fortunately, the Autobots were able to find another weakness by using loud noise to disrupt the enhancements.
• Irony: Meltdown rants to Sumdac that he deserves the latter's fame partly because he's better-looking than him. By the time he has said this, he has reduced himself to a hideous, toxic blob person, something that is not lost on him.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Downplayed, since this took place long before Powell was established to be a Corrupt Corporate Executive, but Powell is still in the right to cut off Black's funding because he failed to deliver a product and brought legal action on himself. Even if this did contribute to Black's Start of Darkness and transformation into Meltdown, Black still isn't a sympathetic character to begin with.
• Logical Weakness: Meltdown's acid may be able to melt through solid matter, but a force field is an entirely different story. The Autobots are able to trap Meltdown in a Containment Field made from the Sumdac System's security shield, with Meltdown's acid unable to get through the barrier. Ratchet puts it best.
  Ratchet: You can't melt what you can't touch!
• Mundane Utility: Bulkhead uses his back kibble as a chair, something he'd do in later episodes as well.
• Never My Fault: Meltdown blames Sumdac for his transformation, not giving mind to the fact that he chose to experiment on Bumblebee's fluid sample, and it was his chemicals in his lab that he carelessly mishandled that did the job.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: How Black describes the fight between Colossus Rhodes and Bumblebee. 'Bee quickly gets cocky and might have been killed if the other Autobots hadn't arrived in time.
• Noodle Incident: When demonstrating the newest model of the Sumdac Police Force Drone, Professor Sumdac mentions that it has improved recognition software so it will avoid repeating an unfortunate incident with Captain Fanzone's wife. No details are given about this incident other than the fact that Fanzone is still crossed with it.
• Not So Above It All: Ratchet can't help but chuckle when Bulkhead cracks a short joke at Bumblebee. Even Prowl gets in on the act, which Ratchet is surprised at.
  Ratchet: I'd like to run some more tests. It should only take a few hours.
  Bumblebee: That long?
  Bulkhead: His attention span is short, too.
  Bumblebee: I heard that!
  Prowl: Apparently, so is his fuse.
  Bulkhead: Ooh, the ninjabot gets in a good one! [He and Prowl high-five]
  Ratchet: [smiling] Who knew he had it in him?
  Bumblebee: Yeah, aren't you supposed to be the strong, silent type? Emphasis on the silent?
• Police Are Useless: While Fanzone and most of the human cops are fairly good at their jobs, the police robots are this trope full force. Sumdac is constantly trying to improve them, as they have numerous bugs, such as mistaking one person for another.
• Running Gag: Everybody poking fun at Bumblebee's size, intentionally or not, with Bumblebee getting annoyed and exasperated every time.
• Shout-Out: Colossus Rhodes' name is one to one of the Seven Wonders of the World, while his abilities are not unlike that of Bane.
• Spit Take: Bulkhead's reaction to seeing Bumblebee take part in a wrestling match, combined with a Big "WHAT?!".
• Taking the Bullet: Bumblebee takes a shot of Meltdown's acid to save Bulkhead. Thanks to Sari's key, it's not fatal.
• Tempting Fate: After Bumblebee is thrown out the ring (and the building itself) by Colossus Rhodes, Prometheus believes that he's proven that his biotech is superior to Sumdac's robots. Then Colossus Rhodes leaps after Bumblebee and goes on a rampage...
  Fanzone: Uh, you were saying?
• Transformation Sequence: Seeing as how this is still early in the series, the episode features a more detailed animation sequence of Prime, Bumblebee and Bulkhead transforming from robot to vehicle mode before they go to Sumdac Systems.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The human audience at the man-versus-machine wrestling match between Bumblebee and Colossus Rhodes want their own species to win and root against Bumblebee, despite the fact that Bumblebee has helped save those city a couple times.
• Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: When Prometheus Black announces a wrestling match between man and machine, Ratchet wonders out loud "What RAM-damaged, programming-impaired bot would agree to be in such a degrading spectacle?". Cue Black announcing Bumblebee as one of the contestants.

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