Revelations Part III: Apocalypse

« Beast Machines: Transformers ep 9 »
"*cue Villain Song*"
"Revelations Part III: Apocalypse"
Season	1
No. in season	9
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	November 13, 1999
Written by	Steven Melching
Directed by	George Samilski
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment

Nightscream pursues Jetstorm, who has captured Blackarachnia's spark; meanwhile, Optimus and Rhinox have a heart to heart.

Synopsis

He's a spark-breaker, he's a spark-taker...

Jetstorm stands over Blackarachnia's body, holding her spark, as Nightscream looks on in anguish. Gloating, the Vehicon transforms and flies off with the spark, and Nightscream sets off in pursuit. Watching them go, Thrust then eyes Blackarachnia's body.

Meanwhile, Cheetor is skeptical of Rattrap's theory that Tankor is Rhinox, due to the vast difference in intellect. The pair resolve to try to reach Rhinox's consciousness.

Below ground, Optimus Primal tells the Oracle that he doesn't understand the visions he's had... and is promptly granted another vision. Walking in a field, he sees plants with his fellow Maximals' faces on them, and is attacked by metal tentacles. The tentacles turn the plants to metal, and Optimus Primal's friends cry that he has failed them.

Tankor tries to cut 3 episodes of padding to find 15 minutes of story.

Tankor regains consciousness and Cheetor cautiously inquires whether Rhinox is in control. Although for a moment it seems as though Tankor's Maximal side is reasserting itself, he writhes in pain and reverts to his "TANKOR DESTROY!" persona. Cheetor is tossed aside, and Tankor advances on Rattrap, firing. After a brief attempt to reason with the Vehicon, Rattrap jumps on some large pipes, releasing them from their bonds so that they fall on Tankor. He recovers quickly, and the two Maximals turn to flee. Unfortunately they're cut off by oncoming tank drones, and race down a narrow gap between the stacked containers. Tankor begins smashing the containers aside, so the pair run up one of the arched structures they've found. On reaching the arch, Tankor merely begins cutting into the side of it, and the Maximals look at each other in alarm. It doesn't take long for Tankor to cut through enough to push the arch over, and Rattrap and Cheetor are forced to jump to the next arch which comes under attack from tank drones.

Nightscream snatches Blackarachnia's spark back from Jetstorm (who seems to have stopped to have a chat with it). The enraged Vehicon chases him but clips a freeway and slams into the side of a building. Recovering quickly, Jetstorm continues the pursuit and follows Nightscream until the Maximal drops an elevator on him.

Well, the spark sure isn't going to go towards his face...

Thrust carries Blackarachnia's lifeless body through the city until he's intercepted by Nightscream. The pair fight until Nightscream is able to disable Thrust by draining his Energon. Floating in a white void, Blackarachnia encounters Optimus and he tells her that her spark must have left her body. Elsewhere, Nightscream liberates Blackarachnia's spark from its container and tries to force it back into her body. In the void, she panics and flees from Optimus, just as her spark does from Nightscream. Optimus is able to calm her, and her spark returns to her body. Nightscream suggests they find the others, as he has a feeling they'll need help.

Indeed, Tankor has just knocked over one of the arches in the row, and the rest of them begin to fall like dominoes. Rattrap and Cheetor fall from the final arch, and Cheetor finds himself trapped under some containers with Tankor towering over him. He pleads with the Vehicon to remember who he is and, after a great mental struggle, Tankor unleashes a cry which Optimus hears on his higher plane. Optimus marches through the field of his vision, pushing through the plants until he comes face-to-face with... Rhinox. Optimus talks with his old friend, who it seems sides with Megatron, favoring technology over organic nature. Optimus is jerked back to reality with a cry of "NO!"

"Damn it Tankor, The Phantom Menace was over two decades ago!"
"It still hurts, Cheetor, alright?!"

Blackarachnia pulls Cheetor out of the way of Tankor's descending fist, and Nightscream takes out a row of tank drones. Cheetor warns Blackarachnia not to harm Tankor, surprising her with the information that he's Rhinox. She's tossed aside by the Vehicon, disturbing a pile of containers and revealing Rattrap's hiding place. The four Maximals offer Tankor their help, but he replies in Rhinox's voice that he doesn't need their help. He reveals that he's been conscious but unable to do anything, suppressed by the Tankor personality the whole time. To their alarm, he also announces that Megatron is Cybertron's only hope for technological perfection. The Maximals wonder if Rhinox's spark has been corrupted, and attack their friend, pinning him to the ground. Cheetor tells Rattrap to use his tail interface to reprogram Rhinox, but they're interrupted by Optimus who says Rhinox has made his choice and they have to respect that. The Maximals sadly watch Rhinox leave, with Rhinox looking back and saying that the next time him and Optimus meet, it will not be as allies.

Back at base, the Maximals mourn over their lost friend, and Optimus gives a speech about how the Matrix sent them to prehistoric Earth for a reason—to restore nature to Cybertron.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Lookee here, ma! I caught me a lightning bug! Yeeha!"

—Are we sure Jetstorm isn't Quickstrike?

"Gee, good thing Tankor turned out to be a friend. Imagine if he was recycled from a Predacon."

—Rattrap getting tetchy at how the plan's going.

"C sharp... or B flat, music to my ears."

—Nightscream, as Jetstorm is flattened.

"Trapped... Abandoned!"
"This is Megatron's doing, but I can help you."
"Stay away from me! Megatron isn't the problem - YOU are!"
"You... you don't know what you're saying! Megatron has started a war between the organic and the technological, but we can overcome the destructive force of his rampant technology."
"Don't you see, Optimus? Nature is the destructive force! Megatron's right. As long as sparks remain individualistic, the wars will only continue!"
"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

—What's left of Rhinox is unrecognizable to Optimus Primal

"Ever since Megatron abducted my spark and changed me, I've been conscious inside Tankor. I couldn't reach the surface, couldn't communicate, but the whole time I was watching. Learning."
"We've recovered you! And together we can finally defeat Megatron!"
"...'defeat' him? Open your eyes like mine finally are! Megatron is the only hope this planet has for achieving technological perfection!"

—...and to Cheetor

"Rattrap! Use your tail interface...if Rhinox won't change his mind, we'll change it for him!"

—Cheetor, ironically issuing a command that Megatron would have given.

"Rhinox has made his choice. If we tamper with his mind, then we're no better than Megatron. Let him go. Megatron wants this planet to run harmoniously, but harmony without free will isn't harmony at all."

—Optimus about to break out into a speech.

"Goodbye, Optimus. When we meet again, it will not be as allies."

—Rhinox's parting words to Optimus.

"Was this planet ever natural to begin with?"

—A humble question from Cheetor. To this day, the fandom is still divided over the answer.

Notes

Animation and technical errors

Continuity errors

• Optimus mentions that the Beast Wars on prehistoric Earth were, in fact, the Oracle's way of bringing the organic matter incorporated in beast modes back to Cybertron. Of course, the Beast Wars were started by Megatron, who stole a ship in an attempt to change history. We could be generous and assume that Primal's newfound religious zeal is blinding him to the truth, or maybe the Oracle was also manipulating Megatron, who knows? In any event, time travelling to the past to visit a planet extremely important to the history of the Transformers race seems a really roundabout way of getting organic matter. There's no indication whatsoever in Beast Wars that organic beast forms are in any way unusual. The only way any of this makes sense is if there are no planets with organic races still talking to Cybertron in the present day (something that later episodes seem to disprove).

Continuity notes

• Cheetor's line "I am seriously missing my old turbo-jets right now," is a reference to his old Transmetal capability in Beast Wars.
• Rattrap sardonically remarks that it's a good thing that Tankor doesn't have a Predacon spark. This is the only time that Predacons are mentioned in the series, although the producers did confirm that Maximals and Predacons were both targeted by Megatron's attack.
• Optimus refers to the tree in Nightscream's cavern, seen in "Forbidden Fruit", as an example of Cybertron's organic past.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Thrust's hand can detach as part of a grappling hook-like setup.

Transformers references

Real-world references

• After destroying several Tank Drones, Nightscream refers to them as "Tonka toys".

Trivia

• Bob Skir's original intention was that Rhinox had "seen all sides of the argument, and chose to go more in Megatron's direction", so after a quiet chat he and Optimus would part company. As Richard Newman played that scene with growling and shouting, Rhinox instead sounded not quite in his right mind after his experiences. (That said, animating Rhinox growing into a towering and menacing Tankor while backlit by storm clouds and lightning didn't quite say "quiet chat", either, although the scene may have been altered to fit Newman's unhinged performance). [1]
• Although Nightscream's jocular one-liner put's Jetstorm's scream at a C♯ or a B♭, Jetstorm's scream is actually an F♮.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Révélations, Partie III" ("Revelations, Part III")

German

• Title: "Apokalypse" ("Apocalypse")
• Original airdate: December 10, 2000

Italian

• Title: "Rivelazioni (terza parte) - L'apocalisse" ("Revelations (third part) - The apocalypse")

• Cheetor's line: «Tankor is who?!» becomes: «Who is Tankor?», which, also because of how he pronounces it, makes it look like he was simply curious to know who he is instead of being shocked about the discovery.
• Rattrap's line: «You could think Tankor turned out to be a friend. Imagine if he was recycled from a Predacon!» becomes: «It's a good thing that Tankor turned out to be a friend. Imagine if he was reused as a Vehicon!» which... is actually what really happened!
• In Jetstorm's line: «Why you little...», "little" is cut out, while "why you" is literally translated, despite it not being a sentence used in Italian in this case.
• Nightscream's line: «Here go!» oddly becomes: «Take this, guys!»(?).

Japanese

• Title: "Hoshi no Shimei" (星の使命, "The Mission in the Stars")
• Original airdate: December 4, 2004

Mandarin

• Title: "Qǐshìlù " (启示录, "The Revelation")

Polish

• Title: "Rewelacje, Część Trzecia: Apokalipsa" ("Revelations, Part Three: Apocalypse")

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "Revelações Parte 3: Apocalipse" ("Revelations Part 3: Apocalypse")

Spanish

• Title: "Revelaciones, Tercera Parte: Apocalipsis" ("Revelations, Third Part: Apocalypse")

Home video releases

DVD

2005 — Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Returns — Volume 3 (Geneon Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2006 — Beast Machines: Transformers — The Complete Series (Rhinomation)
2014 — Transformers: Beast Machines — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2007 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Season One: Volume Two (Sony)
2007 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Season One: Volume Two — Revelations (Sony)
2007 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Complete Season One (Sony)
2009 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Intégrale Saison 1 (Sony) — French audio only.