Episode 53 - Optimus is here from the get go for a routine inspection.
This whole first sequence was shown in animatic storyboard form back at BotCon 2014.
Pterodactyl!
Shortened version of the theme song this time.
I love how the fact that there's a Pterodactyl of all things chasing Dani and Blades doesn't even phase Chief.
Blades is convinced that it's the same Pterodactyl from the underground cave that they found back in "What Rises Above". Dani suspects that it might have flown to the surface when the mining tunnels collapsed in the season 2 finale.
Optimus: "Much has happened in my absence."
Chase: "Definitely, sir! The humans gave thanks for the ritual stuff of a creature called a turkey. Then purchased goods at discount on the darkest day of the week."
Cody's trying to pick his Lad Pioneers merit project. It has to be both fun and educational. Heatwave's solution: Self-defense!
I do like seeing scenes shared between Optimus and Chief. Two leaders working together, and as a nice nod to their toy-based partnership.
They caught the dino, put a tracking device on its ankle, and released to let it lead them back to its nest, and to learn how it got here. It's leaving the island. The deep Earth passage might be on Wayward Island. Doc takes Trex with him to assist in his finding the creature.
WHAAAAAT?! Welcome to Jurassic Park! Or Dinobot Island. Either way, there are four dinosaurs on Wayward Island that weren't there last season! And all four of them happen to share the same altmodes as the non-Grimlock Dinobots.
Doc found the sinkhole he was looking for, but a rockslide nearly buried him, had it not been for Trex knocking him safely aside and taking his place in the rubble.
And now there's a... Is that a Carnotaurus?
Heatwave to the rescue! He's got what I think is a Carnotaurus under control with his water guns, but then the Triceratops gets him in the back. And then the Stegosaurus smacks him aside. Looks like the herbivores have teamed up with the carnivore to fight the energon-vore.
Heatwave grabs Doc and retreats back to Griffin Rock, but Trex was left behind.
For Cody's merit project, Boulder suggests Cody trying working on some unsolvable math equations Graham's working on from Gremsky Tech. Cody passes on that.
Chase's suggestion: Police Challenge! Law enforcement's favorite game! Cody's contestant #1, Blades and Optimus are the audience. Optimus gives a single clap.
On the news, Huxley interviews Mr. Alper about the mayor's tourist attraction plans for the Pterodactyl after it was spotted on Mount Griffin earlier.
After Doc's report, the Team has to go to the island to get those dinosaurs back to where they came from. Optimus declines the offer to join them on the mission.
Blades makes a reference to Jurassic Park.
Each Bot squares off against the dino that each of them will gain their altmodes from. Chase vs. the Stegosaurus, Heatwave vs. the Apatosaurus, and Boulder vs. the Triceratops. Though, except for Blades, who's trying to evade the Carnotaurus.
The Bots fall back, but the dinos stop chasing them. The Bots soon find out why when they crash into a huge tar pit, one that Graham suspects must have bubbled up from another underground rift.
Optimus and Cody do see the peril and decide to act.
Cody: "First we're going to have to find a boat."
Optimus: "Where we're going, we don't need boats."
Optimus just drives on the ocean floor. I guess it was too much to hope for a Groundbridge portal.
Optimus concludes that the dinos view anything that isn't one of them as a threat.
Optimus leaps on top of the pile of rocks that has buried Trex and... he's scanning Trex!
TYRANNOSAURUS PRIME!
Optimus: "Scanning a creature that is part biological and part machine can lead to unpredictable results. Is that... 'cool'?"
Blades is amazed to learn that Optimus is a Triple-Changer.
Cody suggests that maybe it would be wiser than fighting the dinos to instead ask what it is that they want. Optimus uses his new form to communicate with them.
Within the sinkhole is the dinosaurs' offspring in it. They were simply trying to protect their young.
Optimus uses a sonic blast roar to free Trex from the rubble and clear away the sinkhole. The dinos reunite with their babies and return back to the underground.
They seal up the sinkhole to keep the dinos from coming back to the surface, and off the mayor's tourist attraction list. Afterwards, Heatwave congradulates Optimus, who growls at Heatwave in a threatening manner with red eyes. Optimus gets his wits together and apologizes, as he's not yet accustomed to his primal form.
Optimus is staying a few days to get used to his primal form (yep, they're calling it that).
Cody's finally decided on a project. He built a realistic model of a dinosaur. Well, the head of one, at least.
Onward to the next episode (I'll give my thoughts on both after the next one).
Episode 54 - All five bots are having a race, while Frankie intervenes with Trex as her ride.
The other Bots don't find Frankie's using Trex as fair, while Optimus decides that two can play her game.
Optimus: "Primal Mode!"
Boulder makes a reference to The Little Engine That Could, which Optimus cites as one of his favorite Earth stories. Chase likewise brings up The Tortoise and the Hare.
Optimus is losing it in his Primal Mode. He's quit running and has turned to attacking his friends.
Short theme song again.
Trying to regain control, Optimus has run off on his own. He nearly runs Huxley off the road.
Optimus has come to town, Godzilla-style.
Huxley's following the Team trying to get the story. Unfortunately, one particular viewer is watching his live news broadcast. Said viewer is wanting to go after the bionic beast that's terrorizing downtown Griffin Rock.
What looks like an army-camoed space shuttle with dual helicopter rotors has just snatched up Optimus in a tractor beam.
The hunter who took Optimus has his own island domain and.. is he voiced by JIM CUMMINGS?!!!!!!
His domain is the Quarry Safari Land. It's been closed since the authorities kept it from stocking real animals. But it's now back in operation thanks to the owner's latest acquisition: The Dinobot (spelled like this in the closed captions).
Using Huxley's footage of the capture, Dani ran an Internet search for a match to the ship that took Prime away. She got a hit for a Colonel Quint Quarry, a big game hunter who hosts illegal safari hunts on his island. Sounds like a cross between General Zaroff from The Most Dangerous Game, Quint from Jaws, and Crocodile Dundee.
Quarry is known to hunt and release his prey if it proves too valuable to replace, but the risk is still to high to just let him go after Optimus.
Reduced energon levels are suspected to be the cause of Optimus's malfunctioning. From scanning Trex, that is, which lowered his resistance to foreign bodies in his system. In this case, possibly the real dinosaur DNA that was used in Trex's construction. They never knew that scanning techno-organics could cause something like this. Boulders working on a equation to test their theory of restoring Optimus's energon levels being a possible solution.
Quarry froze Optimus solid while some extreme cooling gas. Tired of sitting by idly, Cody breaks out of Optimus by smashing threw Prime's windshield with his feet. He plans to stall Quarry to give Optimus time to thaw.
Boy, Optimus sure did thaw quick.
Cody manages to ward off Optimus from harming Quarry.
One of Quarry's tiki-based drones alerts him to intruders. The Darby Ava is arriving.
Boulder's completed an energon patch that should theoretically return Optimus to normal, but there is a chance that could make Optimus worse. Before they take Doc's sea lab to Quarry's island, Boulder wants to run one more test. "Slow and steady".
At the museum, Boulder plans to scan one of the dinosaurs on display and test the energon patch on himself. All of the dinosaurs there are made from real DNA, like Trex, so it should make Boulder run feral as well. However, he has to undergo the same training that Heatwave did when he scanned his boat mode. But Boulder's probably going to do the cliffnotes version since they're pressed for time.
Boulder's scanned the Triceratops. As a precaution, Doc clamps Boulder's feet down to the base of the display. Now they wait and see if he goes wild, and when he does, the humans are to put the patch on and run. This is a pretty risky test.
Quarry's drone hogties Blades, who now has to be carried over Chase's shoulder like a sack.
Boulder finally goes wild, but the patch was left behind him, away from the humans' reach. So Doc's gotta distract Boulder while Graham makes a break for the patch and applies it. But Boulder knocks the patch away with his tail, sending it flying... right at Frankie. She catches it and slaps it on Boulder.
The patch take a moment to kick in, but it eventually does seem to work.
Quarry uses his camouflage mode to witness the Bots releasing their human operators.
Quarry refers to his drones as "Q Drones".
The Q Drones capture the humans, while the Bots show their being alive in front of the camouflaged Quarry, who fires capture nets at them. Heatwave and Chase dodge the nets, but Blades isn't so lucky.
Quarry successfully captures the Bots with an impenetrable metal & energy cage.
Quarry uses his Q Drones to contain Optimus, but Graham arrives to sic Boulder on the hunter.
Boulder frees Optimus and smashes Quarry's jeep. Quarry calls for a tactical retreat.
Graham slaps the energon patch on Optimus and, like with Boulder, it takes a while to work but it does cure Optimus.
Quarry orders his drones that the robots be loaded into the Hellijet and the humans caged.
As Boulder and Optimus fight throw Quarry's Q Drones, Quarry attempts to take off, but the Hellijet's maximum weight has been exceeded.
"Power Up and Energize!" Chase uses his toy's claw to break himself and the others out of the cage.
Boulder uses Optimus to give himself a boost up to grab hold of the Hellijet and orders quarry to land. Heatwave breaks open the door to the cockpit and seconds the order. Quarry lands and is arrested, jailed in his own cage. He offers to buy the bots off of his captors, but the "Commissioner" denies him an answer.
Unbeknownst to our heroes, one Q Drone is still in working condition.
Blades reassures Dani that he will NOT be scanning a dinosaur should he ever scan a third mode. He says he'll scan something safe, like a moped.
Optimus thanks the team for coming to his aid, and thanks Cody for his own help. He could indeed hear Cody's common sense and compassion through the whole ordeal, and says that those words kept things from becoming worse than it could have.
Quarry's gone. Escaped. But he'll be back.
Jeff Bennett -- Heli-Jet Computer (the above spelling of "Hellijet" came from the Closed Captioning, but this is probably more official)
JIM CUMMINGS!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!! -- Colonel Quint Quarry and a Q-Drone ("Q Drone" was the CC spelling).
These episode were awesome. Plain and simple fun all throughout. The first one had a really tight continuity with the previous season's events greatly influencing it, and the gentle giant Optimus as a rampaging reptile T-Rex is just pure awesome in and of itself. I'd go as far as to say that I found Optimus's Primal Mode to be more appealing than Grimlock's was in AOE. The second episode was cool for it giving us a brand new villain to play around with, and for bringing that awesome that is JIM CUMMINGS back to the Transformers. Colonel Quint Quarry may not be that new of a character type, but there is no comparison to Lord Chumley. Quarry is definitely more sinister whilst Chumley was quite the jovial chap. What's more is that the animation in these episodes has significantly improved from the last two seasons. Everything moves so much more fluidly and looks a lot more crisp. The CGI on the Bots shot WAY up from last season, making them almost look like the CGI bots from the upcoming RID cartoon. Though, these episodes ended with Optimus still having his Primal Mode, so it remains up in the air if and when he'll get rid of it for the sake of keeping in continuity with TF: Prime. But overall, this show continues to be fantastic and I can't wait to see more of it.
and 
in season 3 Of TF PRIME ? Or... he gets rid of it near the end of S2 of Prime before he temporarily goes offline
Thanks!
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