Recap / Transformers: Animated, S3E1: TransWarped

"If anyone needs me, I'll be in the corner rusting with the other obsolete junk."

— Ratchet

Transwarped, Part 1 is the opener for Season 3 of Transformers: Animated.

Plot Synopsis: Sari is mad at her dad for always hiding the fact that she was a cyborg. Optimus tries to cheer her up and mend the father-daughter relationship. Megatron and Starscream enter the body of Omega Supreme. Ratchet is haunted by his past of when he was first recruited by Ultra Magnus to build Omega Supreme.

Tropes:

• An Aesop: In part 2, Sari learns the hard way that it's wiser to be patient and take things at one's own pace.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Optimus, using an open commlink to Sumdac, tries to get Sari to go to Burgerbot so they can get some food for her. It works, but his performance is quite... wooden, to put it lightly.
• Batman Gambit: Masterson is too tough so long as he controls Starscream's body, so Optimus goads him into transforming into vehicle mode, even saying it'd be difficult for a noob. As expected, the Headmaster unit is too big for where Starscream's head would go and gets ripped clean off during the transforming.
• Berserk Button: On his way out, Powell pushes this one when he brings back up the fact that there is no proof of Sari's existence or relation to Issac.
• Big "NO!": The final scene, as Starscream realizes he can't control Omega Supreme's transwarping.
• Blood Knight: Strika is delighted to see the Elite Guard incoming, saying this will be fun. She is deeply disappointed when Megatron orders her to retreat.
• Bring It:
  Megatron: It appears you and I are destined to battle aboard this ship once more, Autobot.
  Optimus: Bring it on, Decepticon.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Sari to her father when confronting him with the fact that he hid her otherworldly origins from her. While he did hide it, it was mostly because he himself didn't know where she actually came from.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Ironhide returns after his previous appearance in "Autoboot Camp". He's a member of Rodimus's team and not an Elite Guard trooper.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Blurr is crushed into a cube by closing-in walls thanks to Shockwave, then incinerated unknowingly by Cliffjumper. Subverted in that All There in the Manual states that he was still alive the whole time, and then it turns out Cliffjumper figured out something was up with the cube at some point later.
• Darker and Edgier: The more violent and grimmer mood of this episode sets the tone for the rest of Season 3.
• Dramatic Irony: Shockwave spends the story worrying about Team Optimus exposing his cover identity, but he's thinking in terms of "at any moment" rather than just in general. Without their ship, the Autobots lack the communications equipment to contact anyone on Cybertron and warn them about Shockwave.
• Enemy Mine: When we first see them, Starscream is trying to free Megatron from the stasis cuffs. He finally succeeds with a mouth laser cannon he didn't even know about by screaming out of frustration when Megatron wouldn't stop rebuking him.
• Easily Forgiven: Averted, then Played Straight. Sari didn't forgive her dad immediately, since he hid her origins from her. This changes after he tries to save her, expressing his love as a parent.
• Family of Choice: Played with. Sumdac's story implies that he genetically is Sari's father, her conflict is more to do with how she's not his human daughter. But later, when Sumdac is willing to sacrifice himself to protect Sari from Headmaster and declares her as his daughter, this in turn causes her to come to his aid and call him her father. When the dust has settled, the two reconcile over how their bond as father and daughter, knowing it's as real as ever before.
• Food as Bribe: Played with. Sumdac isn't trying to bribe his daughter with food as much as use it as a peace offering to mend fences. He even offers that he got her favorite flavor of milkshake, vanilla. To this, Sari's reaction has mixed results.
  Sari: (To Optimus, crossly) If he thinks he can win me over with a vanilla milkshake, he's got another thing coming! (snatches the milkshake) But I'll take it just to prove I'm still mad!
• Foreshadowing:
  • "Five Servos of Doom" will explain Prowl's familiarity with protoforms.
  • Optimus casually remarks he needs to learn to fly, which he does in the "Endgame" two-parter.
  • Ultra Magnus orders Sentinel and Jazz to track down Wasp, which sets up their stay on Earth for a few upcoming episodes.
• Godzilla Threshold: Discussed. The other Autbots consider using an uncontrollable Sari on a Megatron-controlled Omega Supreme, but Optimus Prime hopes that it doesn't have to come to that.
  • The same episode reveals a similar circumstance occurred when Ratchet witnessed the birth of Omega Supreme, as he briefly questions the need for the Autobots to create a living weapon. Ultra Magnus is quick to point out they need something to win the war.
• Have You Told Anyone Else?: After learning from Blurr that he has information that may reveal the identity of the spy, Longarm asks him this to make sure he didn't tell anyone else before attempting to kill him.
• He Knows Too Much: Shockwave dreads his cover identity being blown. He personally takes care of Blurr to cover his tracks and later expresses to Megatron his concerns about Optimus and his team. In control of Omega Supreme, Megatron opts for both revenge and keeping his spy's cover intact.
• Irony: Through the first two seasons, Sumdac was worried that if anyone (especially the autobots) learned he secretly used Megatron's head in his technology, they would never trust him. As it turns out, it's another secret that leads to Sari being angry at him, the one about how her origins aren't technically a human one.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: After getting away with his actions twice before, Masterson is finally arrested.
• Liar Revealed: Played with. Sumdac never lied about Sari being a techno-organic, he just.. withheld information about it. Nonetheless, Sari is really miffed at the beginning of the episode, given this news shatters her trust in her father.
• Little "No": Ratchet after having to use the EMP generator on Sari.
• Logical Fallacies: Lampshaded.
  Professor Sumdac: Vanilla shake? It is your favorite?
  Sari: If he thinks he can win me over with a vanilla shake, he can forget it, but I'll take it just to prove I'm still mad!
  Optimus Prime: I'm afraid I don't follow the logic.
• Meaningful Echo: "We do what me must, even if it sometimes doesn't make sense."
• My God, What Have I Done?: In Part II, Sari using the key to upgrade herself leads to her losing control of her new-found strength and capabilities. What follows is Bumblebee trying to stop her, only for her to accidentally stab him. And it doesn't help matters when the ensuing explosion from her blade exacerbates his already critical injuries. Fortunately, Ratchet was able to repair them both, saving Bumblebee, & disabling the part of Sari that made her lose control. Afterwards, Sari comes out of the experience acknowledging the Autobots were right about her needing to take things slow.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Hot Shot is based off of his Cybertron appearance, and has pyrotech powers, referencing his flame decos in ''Robots In Disguise (2001).
  • Red Alert is based off of her appearance in the original series, but is a medic like her Unicron Trilogy incarnation.
  • Blurr runs on the rings of Saturn, like in one of the intros to the original series.
• One-Man Army: Rodimus Prime ends up taking on much of Team Chaar by himself. He's only finally stopped by Oil Slick hitting him with a vial of Cosmic Rust.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: When Powell once again brings up that she's not legally Sumdac's daughter, this Berserk Button leads to Sari using her autobot abilities for the first time and blasting him and Masterson (if to a nonlethal degree) with plasma beams. After usurping her home and family business the previous season, there's no objections that those two got what was coming to them.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Sari using the key on herself causes her to become a teenager. Given the Key's abilities since the start of the series, and her being the equivalent of a space robot, this is a literal Mid-Season Upgrade.
• Production Foreshadowing: Rodimus is taken out by weaponized cosmic rust. Transformers: Dark of the Moon would put the film series' version of Ironhide on the receiving end of it as well, though unlike Roddy, he's not so lucky.
• Properly Paranoid: After Longarm angrily demands that all communication with Earth be filtered through him, Alpha Trion glances at him suspiciously.
• Put on a Bus:
  • Megatron, Starscream, and Omega Supreme will be stuck transwarping randomly around the galaxy for most of the season.
  • Sari is still recovering from her ordeal at the end of the three-parter. She won't return until the "Human Error" two-parter.^note Hasbro wouldn't allow the show's creators to use her as often for Season 3.
• Right Behind Me: In part one, Henry Masterson at one point speaks ill of the Autobots and then turns around to see Optimus Prime standing behind him.
• Sadistic Choice: Ratchet having to use the EMP generator on an overloading Sari. He fears the blast could adversely harm a techno-organism like her, but Optimus says her overload could take out all of Detroit. He only fires, after she gives her blessing.
• The Scapegoat: With Ultra Magnus saying it's obvious the recent Decepticon attack was coordinated and had inside help, Longarm is quick to blame all this on Wasp.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Blurr manages to run all the way to Cybertron from unknown space in the span of at least a few hours to a couple of days, only to be subject to Have You Told Anyone Else? by his boss who is actually the spy he was reporting about.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Megatron and Starscream are forced to work together to escape their current predicament. Starscream, of course, betrays him at the first opportunity.
• Understatement: By the time he reestablishes contact in Part 3, Megatron tells Shockwave that the overall plan has hit a setback. Shockwave retorts it's even worse than he thinks it is.
• Unknown Rival:
  Optimus: Megatron?!
  Megatron: Ah, then you do remember my name. Pity I can't remember yours.
• Wham Episode: Part of the three-parter focuses on Sari learning of her origins, revealing that she is a robot that took form after acquiring Issac's DNA, similar to a Cybertronian Protoform, which in itself is a lot to process for someone her age. It takes her a while to forgive her dad for hiding this after he risks his life to save her. Then, in hopes of playing a more active role with the Autobots, uses the Allspark key on herself to upgrade into a teenager.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Skywarp and Thundercracker are stranded in the middle of space-nowhere after Blurr runs away from them. The fates of Team Chaar are also unknown. The Allspark Almanac implies that Skywarp became Cyclonus (so presumably Thundercracker became Scourge), and Team Chaar were meant to reappear in Season 4.