Darkness Rising, Part 3
From Transformers Wiki
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 "D'awwww, lookit the cute ickle human! Coochie coochie cooo!" | ||||||
| "Darkness Rising, Part 3" | ||||||
| Season | 1 | |||||
| No. in season | 3 | |||||
| Production company | Hasbro Studios | |||||
| Airdate | December 1, 2010 | |||||
| Written by | Marsha Griffin | |||||
| Directed by | Todd Waterman | |||||
| Animation studio | Polygon Pictures | |||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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Optimus and Ratchet head out to investigate Megatron's activities and Arcee and Bumblebee go on patrol, leaving Bulkhead in charge. But things start getting messy when Fowler is abducted.
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Synopsis
The three kids and their Autobot guardians head back to the Autobot base, where Ratchet is being attacked by a piece of animated equipment. Optimus Prime deals with it, but now suspects that both it and Cliffjumper were vivified by Dark Energon.
Megatron, now powered up by the Dark Energon, has decided his next move and leaves the Decepticon ship in Starscream's hands. Starscream thinks Megatron's gone a bit loopy, and he orders Soundwave to increase surveillance.
Optimus has realized Megatron's plan to create an undead army. As the rest of the Autobots arrive, Optimus announces he's going on a mission with Ratchet, who doesn't take kindly to Arcee's suggestion he may be a little rusty. Leaving Arcee in charge, the pair bridge out. Arcee immediately puts Bulkhead in charge and goes out on patrol with Bumblebee. Miko attempts to organize an impromptu band practice, but while she's belting out an electric guitar solo, the proximity alert goes off. The kids hide behind Bulkhead as Agent Fowler walks in to complain about the energon mine explosion. Unfortunately, Miko's guitar gives them away, and Fowler announces he's taking them into federal custody, but Bulkhead puts his foot down, and Fowler storms out.
In a remote region, Prime explains to Ratchet that they're looking for the remains of an old Transformer battlefield, from the period in the war when energon started being hidden on other planets.
As Fowler flies from the Autobot base in his copter, he radios in a report, which is intercepted by Soundwave. Starscream orders Fowler captured, so Soundwave sends out Laserbeak. The Deployer catches up with Fowler, who engages in some deft maneuvers to try and avoid it, and even gets some shots off before it slices the tail off his copter and abducts him.
Fowler's distress call is picked up at the Autobot base. Though Bulkhead is reluctant to help, the others point out Fowler knows the location of the base. Raf sets about hacking into a federal computer so they can locate Fowler. Bulkhead leaves Jack in charge and heads out. Bulkhead finds himself near the Decepticon ship, but is surprised when Miko pops up next to him. After dealing with a Decepticon sentry, he contacts Arcee. Back at base, Jack and Raf have realized Miko is gone, and they use the ground bridge to follow. Unfortunately, this leaves the base unmanned when Arcee rings in to get use of the ground bridge. Jack and Raf arrive at Bulkhead's location and immediately manage to attract the attention of the Decepticon drones on guard.
Starscream interrogates Fowler without much success, so he resorts to getting out the energon prod.
Meanwhile, Optimus and Ratchet reach the Transformer graveyard they've been seeking. Unfortunately, so does Megatron, who uses a chunk of Dark Energon to raise an army of Terrorcons.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"I fear that when our master reached for the stars, he came down with a touch of... space madness."
- —Starscream, ever ready to undermine Megatron.
"Besides, Ratchet hasn't been in the field since the war."
"My pistons may be rusty, but my hearing is sharp as ever!"
- —Arcee, on Ratchet's current military qualifications.
"Do I look like I do country? Just cover yourself in fake blood and jump around screaming."
- —Miko doesn't appreciate Jack's harmonica skills.
"Don't use that phone it's... [puts finger through phone cradle] ...out of order"
- —Bulkhead resorts to cheekiness to get Fowler to drop the matter of the Autobots harbouring civilians
Notes
Continuity notes
- This episode resolves some of the continuity issues with Dark Energon seemingly brought up in the previous episode. Both Optimus and Ratchet know of its existence and even the rumor that it brings the dead back to life. Supplies of it were just so scarce as to be non-existent, hence their inexperience with it.
- However, it does create another continuity problem, as Megatron (and Starscream, for that matter) have both had Dark Energon in their systems before. Not only that, once Cybertronians have had Dark Energon in their system, they will die without it (As proved by Shockwave's experiments in Exodus), so how did Megatron survive the withdrawal? Or perhaps he always had Dark Energon in his system, but then what was the point of inserting it into his Spark chamber? Regardless, Starscream's "worry" about Megatron not knowing what it would do was completely inaccurate.
- It also establishes the first two of a series of recurring links between Earth and Cybertron. Beyond Energon and war-time battles on Earth, a significant number of additional Cybertronian influences and objects on Earth would present throughout the series.
Transformers references
- Bulkhead has a compartment similar to his Animated incarnation, but higher up on his chest. Objects end up there when he transforms from vehicle mode.
- The concepts of the Transformers seeding energon on Earth and having had wars there in the distant past before have turned up in recent fiction, IDW's comics and Revenge of the Fallen. The latter was also in an '80s Ladybird Book, "Galvatron's Air Attack".
- When Megatron arrives at the graveyard, his transformation uses a sound more like the classic G1 cartoon than the updated Prime sound.
Errors
- When Megatron turns around and orders Starscream to await his command, his fusion cannon disappears.
- The speakers for Miko's band practice appear spontaneously without any indication of their existence.
- Raf fixes the Nemesis at latitude 39.5 and longitude 116.9, which corresponds to a location roughly halfway between Beijing and the Chinese coast. Perhaps he meant longitude -116.9, which would put the Nemesis somewhere near the center of Nevada, which works out with Arcee and Bumblebee being able to drive to the ship in the next episode.
- While on their way back to the base, Jack had his helmet on while riding Arcee. Upon their arrival at the base, his helmet is nowhere to be seen.
Trivia
- The IDW adaptation of the story, Transformers Prime: Darkness Falls, specifies that the Terrorcon battle takes place in the Grand Canyon, as does Titan's Transformers: Prime comic. Meanwhile, Bantam Books' prose adaption Megatron Returns dubs the area the Lost Valley, while LB Kids' storybook version Autobots versus Zombies doesn't give it a name at all.
- In an amusing show of cultural differences, Bulkhead tries to order Miko to look away before tearing out a Vehicon's internals (presumably to spare her the sight of the carnage). Miko has no problem with it, only seeing a hunk of metal and a bunch of wires.
- No, really, Bulkhead was going to leave Fowler in Decepticon hands because he didn't like him. What a jerk!
- Twelve-year-old Raf can hack into the United States government's computer network and track down federal agents. What national security?
- Check out where Starscream sticks Fowler with the energon prod. Ouch!
Foreign localization
French
- Title: "L'Enlèvement" ("The Kidnapping")
- Original airdate: 6 November 2011
German
Hungarian
- Title: "Közeleg a sötétség, 3. rész" ("The Darkness Is Nearing, Part 3")
- Original airdate: 11 January 2012
Indonesian
- Title: "Kegelapan Bangkit, Bagian 3" ("Darkness Rising, Part 3")
- Original airdate: 5 September 2012
Italian
- Title: "La rimonta delle tenebre, terza parte" ("Darkness Rising, Third Part"), "L'Ascesa dell'Oscurità, Parte 3" ("The Arisal of Darkness, Part 3", 2017 airing)
- Original airdate: 24 September 2011
Japanese
Korean
- Title: "Ak ui Buhwal 3" (악의 부활 3, "Return of the Evil, Part 3")
- Original airdate: 5 September 2011
Polish
- Title: ?
- Original airdate: 7 December 2011
Portuguese
- Title: "A Ascenção do Mal - Parte 3" ("The Rise of Evil - Part 3")
- Original airdate: 7 November 2011
Spanish
- Title: "El regreso del mal, Parte 3" ("The Return of Evil, Part 3")
- Original airdate: 7 November 2011
Home video releases
- DVD
2011 — Transformers Prime — Darkness Rising (Shout! Factory)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season One (Shout! Factory)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Folge 1: Die dunkle Macht erhebt sich (EDEL:kids) — English and German audio.
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season One Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Volume 1: Darkness Rising (Madman Entertainment)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Vol. 2 (Avex Trax) — Japanese audio only.
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season One: Darkness Rising (Universal Pictures UK)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Saison 1 Vol. 1: Le retour des Decepticons (Universal Pictures France) — English, French, Italian, Dutch and Spanish audio.
2012 — Transformers Prime — Staffel 1 - Das Bündnis (EDEL:kids) — English and German audio.
2012 — Transformers Prime — Stagione 1 Vol. 1: La rimonta delle tenebre (Universal Pictures IT) — English, Italian, Dutch, French and Spanish audio.
2014 — Transformers Prime — Saison 1: L'intégrale (Universal Pictures France) — English, French, Italian, Dutch and Spanish audio.
2015 — Transformers Prime — Season One (Universal Pictures UK)
- Blu-ray
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season One (Shout! Factory)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season One Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Staffel 1 - Das Bündnis (EDEL:kids) — English and German audio.
