Double Jeapordy
written by Jesse Winfield
on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGMxiM8nQJs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnn5_ArMq3s&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe7lO5t_bE0&feature=related
Hot, oily sex falls from the sky and her name is Blackarachnia! We all know who she is, so an introduction isn't really necessary. Good thing to, as this episode has almost nothing to do with her just like Tigatron's introductory episode had nearly nothing to do with him.
I do find it amusing to note that, as the only Transformer to have such an incredibly developed set of golden breasts, that she's shown to be clearly... ehhh.... flat while still a protoform. She's just one of those girls that bloomed overnight!
Interestingly enough, this episode begins in snow-covered region with Dinobot and Primal closing in on the fallen stasis pod. This time the Predacons get it and the Maximals limp home badly beaten. It almost seems as though they purposely recreated the final scene from "Fallen Comrades" and puntuated it with a Predacon victory this time out. Primal especially takes a nasty, nasty fall that I love. As if getting shot in the back and plummeting wasn't bad enough, he bounces off the side of a ledge and flails wildly the rest of the way down.
Later at the Axalon there's trouble brewing. Seeing as how their last few missions have all been ambushed and foiled by Predacons (the other incidents occuring off-screen before the episode began), Primal's suspicion points towards Rattrap. Rhinox pipes up right away in defense of the rat. Nice to see.
*thinks back to "Chain of Command"*
Yeah, Rhinox totally voted for Rattrap.

Primal's not so convinced though and orders Rattrap on a solo scouting mission into the dreaded... Sector 12!! I am so glad it's 12 and not 7. I can't tell you how sick I am already of seeing stupid little references and nods to Sector 7 from the 2007 movie. Enough already! It wasn't that cool! Sector 12 is much cooler. It's a lava field covered by one big energon storm! Rock your socks off! And it's in range of the Predacon base, so if Rattrap survives the ordeal, obviously he's a Predacon. If not, then it means he's a Maximal. Hm... the logic here is... bad. Of course, it's both Primal's and Rattrap's intention that he side with the Predacons, so no harm there.
The show's been over for 12 years! Spoilers be damned!
*ahem* Okay. Oh yeah! And over at the Predacon base Tarantulus has reprogrammed the Maximal protoform to be a Predacon. Introducing femme fatale, Blackarachnia! Immediately Megatron thinks something is up since Tarantulus chose a spider beast mode for her. Building his own arachnid army, I see. I'll bet she turns out to be a loyal recruit in the battles ahead... *snicker*
Meanwhile in Sector 12 there's all of nothing happening. Rattrap sounds convincingly put-out as he reports in, wheeeen... Terrorsaur goes on the attack! Funny bit back at the Axalon; they're still listening to everything that's happening and Rhinox tells Dinobot:
Rhinox: "Told you he was no Predacon clone."
It almost makes me wonder if "Double Dinobot" was supposed to air before this episode the way I always thought "Power Surge" was supposed to come after this one. Food for thought. I can't recall if Blackarachnia or Tigatron were in "Double Dinobot" but it's definitely something to look out for now.
So Terrorsaur is trashing Rattrap and just as he's about to deliver the finishing blow, Rattrap pleads for mercy. He says he'll do anything, even become a Predacon. The Maximals listening in over the open comm. line are in shock. And my favorite part; the camera closes in on the intercom as Terrorsaur lets out a psychotic laugh that lights the board up red. For some reason this always seemed more chilling than if they had just shown Terrorsaur himself.
Terrorsaur accepts Rattrap's terms and takes him back to the Predacon base. Once there, he demands leadership of the Predacons. Megatron is not pleased by this and tries to tell the fool that Rattrap is just a spy looking to work his way into their ranks. Before he can say much more, Rattrap nails him from behind with a taser of some sort that drops the big lizard to the floor. Incapacitated and unable to transform, he's thrown in the brig. Rattrap is imprisoned alongside him while the other Predacons discuss matters of leadership. It's almost a throw-away liine to allow Rattrap the chance to roam around on his own, but I like that Tarantulus feels that such things shouldn't be discussed in front of Maximals, or even Maximal defects.
At the Axalon the other Maximals are suffering a blow to their morale. First they lost Blackarachnia and now Rattrap too. Rhinox and Cheetor are most obviously affected, opting to just let Rattrap go (Rhinox' voice is so sullen!). Both Primal and Dinobot think he's too dangerous a tool in Predacon hands, so it's their job to capture the traitor and bring him in to face justice.
So Rattrap and Megatron are in the brig. And what a nice brig it is. Two cages suspended over a lava pit. Makes escape fun. Megatron scoffs at the laughable cage and simply opens the cell door by voice command. Silly Terrorsaur. You'll have to be a lot smarter than that to outwit Megatron. He calls a floating platform over and quickly vanishes to other parts of the base.
Rattrap has his own lockpick- literally. In moments he has the cage door open and leaps across the lava pit to a ventilation shaft. Oh, but how, oh how, is he supposed to find his way through this place? A rat! A real rat! Rattrap decides to follow it. I mean, it's practically a comrade in arms! It even waves him to follow, how cool is that?!
Sneaking, sneaking... sneaks under some grates and overhears the other Predacons still bickering about who should be leader. Scorponok refuses to follow Terrorsaur. Blackarachnia thinks he's a stubborn idiot, and Tarantulus absolutely loves how direct and forceful she is. Whoa, there, Tarry!
Rattrap keeps navigating the maze and comes to a communications room where he observes Waspinator checking for activity on all Maximal frequencies. Nothing happening. Waspy leaves and Rattrap leaps from his high perch down to the console. And no one heard that?! Dude, Waspy couldn't be more than 15 feet away! Thick doors, I guess. Anyway, he rips open the console and discovers a Maximal decoder chip inside. So now he's discovered how the Predacons have been able to intercept their transmissions and ambush their last few missions. Nifty. He pockets the decoder chip and signals Primal, who's waiting nearby outside the Predacon base with the other Maximals.
They all want to know what the blinking red light on Primal's (monkey) chest was all about, but he brushes it off. No time for that now, it's time to fight! They start blasting holes in the hull of the crashed ship!
Inside, the whole place is rocking and Terrorsaur is a frazzled wreck with no clear ideas on what to do. Just then Megatron hovers into view behind him. He screeches in terror, but Megs is in a happy mood. He decides to let Terrorsaur handle the problem and lets him know right away what a screw-up he thinks he is.
Terrorsaur: "Megatron?!?! You... you will allow me to lead?"
Megatron: "A wise tyrant always allows a fool to take the lead in a crisis."
One of my favorite bits in early Beast Wars. So what's the fools' orders? Rush the enemy! Frontal assault! Let's rock this joint! The Preds all come running out the front door, guns blazing, and I love that even though Megatron thinks it's a horrible plan concocted by a horrible leader, he's out there fighting anyway.
OMG, Waspy gets blasted to hell by Rhinox's chainguns of doom again!
Primal takes to the air and as a proof of loyalty, Rattrap is ordered to shoot him down. He fires several times, each time missing, but one last shot nails him. The Maximals are in shock! And so am I. For the first time ever I noticed that Terrorsaur grabbed Rattrap by the shoulder and corrected his aim, so that he'd actually hit Primal. It's so quick that it's easy to miss. And then you have the Maximals all shouting, "Rattrap?! So it's true!" and it's easy to think that he really did shoot Primal intentionally.
Cool bit! Primal hits the ground and Blackarachnia's right there to finish him off, when her weapon is shot out of her hand by Cheetor. With calm rage she focuses her attention on Cheetor and walks towards him. The cat charges in firing, blasting off the spider legs on her right arm, then her left arm. She continues walking forward unphased. He keeps running and at the last possible second she brings her boot up into his face! That cat is DOWN! She has a perfect opportunity to finish him off just like she was about to do to Primal, but chooses to... run away from the battlefield? Huh?
Battle, battle, battle! In a final test of loyalty Rattrap is forced to shoot Dinobot or reveal he's a Maximal spy. The jig is pretty well up, so he blows off Terrorsaur's head and Dinobot then proceeds to beat the scrap out of Megs. The Maximals drag Rattrap back to base to face his punishment!!!
And Terrorsaur's already suffering his defeat.
Megatron: "A lost battle. A missing Blackarachnia. And who knows what damage done to the base!"
Yeah, no one's going to follow him anymore. Back at the Axalon Dinobot is ready to kill Rattrap on the spot when Primal reveals the whole ruse. It was just a big trick to fool the Preds into letting Rattrap into their base. Of course, they couldn't tell anyone about it, because they wanted it to be as realistic as possible. Uh huh... for dramatic purposes it works, but during the battle you'd think the game's over and he might as well drop the act. Dramatic story-telling versus logic. Eh... it's a trade-off. Maybe he just had to keep up the ruse until he could get back over to the Maximal side of the battlefield. I don't know. But it's okay, because this episode is OV-AH!
Good ep. I really like the whole sequence where Rattrap sneaks around the Predacon base and through the ventilation shafts, evading traps and Tarantulus and... I forgot to mention that during the review, didn't I? Damn.
Blackarachnia, female robots, and boobs. Large, golden boobs. While some people may prefer to debate the logistics of even having female robots, I'm more interested in social norms. Her protoform started out as a standard, flat-chested blank slate. Could mean something. Maybe nothing. Don't know. As a Predacon, Blackarachnia has prominent boobs. When she becomes a Transmetal 2 Maximal much later in the show, she undergoes a dramatic breast reduction. And again as a Technorganic Maximal in Beast Machines her bust line shrinks even further. So what's going on? Is it Maximal programming that gives her a more conservative figure? Is Predacon programming more prone to endowing their women, thus painting Predacons as more pig-headed? I have no idea, but there it is.
Oh! And where did Blackarachnia disappear to? I've had a long-time theory that she accidentally discovered the entrance (or one of many entrances) to Tarantulus' secret underground lair during the battle. Remember in "The Web" that one of the entrances was right under a large boulder. And then the very next time we see Blackarachnia it's sneaking up on Tarantulus in his lair. Possible, possible, yes. And since it's never ever mentioned again in the rest of the series, that's the theory I'm sticking with.
NEXT UP: "Power Surge" (finally!)
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