Episode 51 (season 2 finale, Part 1) -
Ah, so the season 2 preview clip we saw at BotCon this year was the beginning of this episode.
Mr. Bunty is eating his lunch when Cody appears out of nowhere through a portal to grab a misplaced soccer ball. He retrieves it and brings it back through the portal to continue their game of Rescue Ball, in which there are no rules. Everyone, Bots, Burnses, Greenes, even Trex are playing. Chief gets a call. Mayor Luskey tried to drive over the destroyed Franklin Bridge. The team saves him, but he seems to be suffering from some long term memory loss.
Though, it looks like that clip was an edited version since the events of the actual episode play out a bit differently here.
Heh, in the Rescue Ball game, Chief's in Rolling Thunder as the goalie, Kade's on a hoverboard, Dani has a Collision Foam Cannon, Doc has a force-field wristwatch (Doc: "Ha! May the force-field be with you, Dani."), Cody's got anti-gravity sneakers, and Frankie's riding Trex and using a prototype Phase Bit.
Madeline Pynch remains unconvinced she should do business with Dr. Morocco since she own plenty of corporations that can get her whatever she wants. He, however, can offer her some "specialty robots" she had a previous interest in.
Morocco has a MorBot (or maybe a statue of one) in his submarine headquarters.
Pynch is still interested in mining the gold beneath Griffin Rock.
Morocco's rapid aging is still in affect. Good thing he still has his Chamber of Youth, which he claims to have "liberated from a rival". Pynch is very interested in this machine, but Morocco isn't selling. Though, it sounds like Morocco calls it "the Verne device" (the Hubworld closed captions say "that device"), possibly giving the name of the rival he stole it from.
Morocco extracts a pair of lenses from the Chamber and attaches them to a helmet, which he claims can turn back time on the body
or the mind.
They test it on the mayor with a tag informing him that it's a hair-regrowing device from the Hair Recovery Lab. Putting it on has already made him lose his memories of his own wife.
"Power Up and Energize!" Blade is using his toy's hook to play the game. but Heatwave uses his Boat Mode to block the goal (no rules, remember).
And now Chief gets a call about the mayor trying to drive across the destroyed Franklin Bridge.
Morocco uses a voice changing device to imitate Heatwave's voice and lure Blades into being hit by some kind of gas.
And now Blades is acting like an emotionless mind-controlled puppet.
Aha, so that zombie Blades is instead an impostor, since Morocco has the real Blades taken back to his sub base.
Morocco: 'When I broke into the firehouse, I stole your data files. They're quite educational. I learned about Optimus Prime, your missions, and how to capture you with a meteor's virus." -- likely the same virus from Bumblebee's first episode.
And now he's magnetized Blades to a wall just like he did back in 1939.
And using the memory erasing device (note, my own term), he erased Blades' memories.
When he wakes up, he doesn't remember anything from after their going into stasis on their ship, and Morocco pretends to be a friend ordered by Optimus Prime to guide their team.
Impostor Blades is doing push-ups, and does what he's told.
The doctor examining the mayor is named Dr. McSwain. According to Doc's report from the doctor, the mayor has forgotten the last ten years of his life. The mayor also has a rosebud tattoo.
Fake Blades told Chase who told Chief about a distress call over the police radio from two spelunkers trapped in a cave-in on Mount Griffin. Chief asks why they didn't just call them directly, and Chase says that Blades said the radio signal was very faint.
There is a sealed cave on Mount Griffin that has been to people for years due to it being far too unstable. The team figures that must be it.
The fake Blades insists that the cave is too dangerous for the humans and that they should stay outside while the Bots go in alone. There's no time for the humans to protest, so they agree.
Naturally, it's a trap set by Morocco lying in wait for them. With the help of the fake Blades, he captures the other three as well, replacing them with their own copies who claim to the Burnses that the emergency was a prank.
Graham had kept a sample of the meteor, which Boulder figures was stolen by Morocco and used to capture them now.
Heatwave breaks the other free from the magnetic wall by forcing his arm away from it and blasting the controls with water.
And Boulder breaks down the door, only to find Morocco waiting for them on the other side with his memory device prepped and ready. and with a push of a button, the Bots are zapped out of their minds.
Burns family meeting. The Bots aren't acting like themselves, though Kade likes the new Heatwave who doesn't argue or complain.
After questioning the fake Heatwave, Cody is given a mild threat by the fake and he points out that Heatwave won't show his eyes.
Morocco claims to have been appointed liaison to the Bots on their mission by Optimus.
He also shows them an image of the Burnses (a rather happy-looking image, at that), whom he claims to be a group of dangerous criminal who will stop at nothing to thwart the Bots' work, and are not to be trusted.
Morocco claims that Blades is the Bots' mission leader, which Heatwave has some concern with since he's usually the leader. Blades says that Optimus chose him this time.
Meanwhile, to test the authenticity of the bots who are with the Burnses, the Burnses order them into the EMP zone at Griffin Crest, knowing that the real Bots would refuse such orders. The fakes comply and are quickly shorted out.
Graham examines them and finds wires and electronics inside the fakes.
Pynch is impatient about when the Bots can start mining the gold for her, to which Morocco says will take for them to complete the task. Revealing that she bought the Phase Bit from Doc Greene, which should speed up the process, she and him have a back and forth about trust.
Adorning the Bots with Phase Bits, Morocco prepares them for their mining mission. Heatwave asks if there's any rescuing involved in this, to which Morocco explains that the humans of Earth are most assuredly relying upon their success.
Phasing into an underground cavern, they are to start digging there. Heatwave asks Blades about how strange it is that their first mission on a new planet is mining. Chase supposes that gold might be like energon to the humans, but Boulder analyzed Morocco and found only traces of gold in his system. Blades assures them that it doesn't matter why they're doing this because it's what Optimus ordered. Heatwave asks how Blades knows, if he actually spoke to Optimus. Blades says no, but feels they can trust Dr. Morocco since he's a doctor.
"Power Up and Energize!" Blades is using some sort of cube-shaped tool. But before he can even use it, Boulder stops him due to detecting methane in this chamber. One spark could cause an explosion. Blades decides that they should instead proceed carefully, and places his Energize tool down. However, it falls over onto a rock, sparking and blowing up the cave.
Pynch decides to turn on Morocco and vacate to join up with her daughter in Paris, stealing the lenses from the memory device, as well as the whole base itself. Unfortunately, there's a breech in the hull and water begins to pour in.
A massive crater has formed at the harbor. The Bots emerge from the crater, much to the Burnses' delight. However, they see the Burnses as a threat and Heatwave threatens them with his cannons.
To be continued...
Okay, a little slow in the action, a bit of a cliche story, and not very eventful, but it did feel like an important part of a larger story that is to be paid off in the next episode. It kinda felt like the TF: Prime episode called "Persuasion", in which there was very little action and relied mostly on the dialogue of the character interaction scenes. And that's a lot like what happens here. The action is given a backseat to the dialogue scenes, through which this episode must show its strength. It's actually not a bad episode since it does leave us in suspense about what's going to happen in Part 2, which should be a goal of any first-parter. But as far as eventful and really exciting episodes go, this isn't one of them. It's like, if one were expecting Star Wars but got Star Trek instead, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just not what was hoped for. Still, I've no regrets about this episode and eagerly await to see the resolution next week in Part 2, called "Rise of the Heroes".
And then finally get to see the two skipped episodes afterward.