I get the impression that traveling back and forth to Cybertron isn’t that big a deal. People just keep showing up. Now it’s two at a time.
This time, two bounty hunters show up to take Bumblebee in for illegal use of a space bridge and a bunch of other shit related to that. Apparently the council of elders are impatient assholes, because Jazz said he’d talk to them a few episodes ago. Whatever. The first one we see is a Decepticon named Fracture. Why they’d let a Decepticon do anything for them is beyond me. He turns into a hover bike, and he’s got two Minicons to help him named Airazor and Divebomb. The other is an Autobot called Drift, whose entire gimmick is that he’s a robot samurai that turns into a car. He also has two Minicon partners named Jetstorm and Slipstream.
Drift and Fracture duke it out for the right to take Bumblebee in. At one point, it looks like Fracture has Drift on the ropes, but Bumblebee jumps in to help, remembering that he’d met Drift before. They chase Fracture off, with the knowledge that he’ll be back again. Drift informs Bumblebee that he has a price on his head, but that he won’t try to take him in, as he now owes Bumblebee a life debt. As they’re talking, Jetstorm brings him his sword, which he rejects due to the fact that Jetstorm forgot to clean it.
The life debt thing drives a lot of the episode. He absolutely refuses to leave Bumblebee’s side until the debt is repaid. This makes things even more frustrating when he sticks to his guns even when it might be a better idea to go elsewhere. And he can be a bit of an asshole. He does, however, consider honor to be of high value.
He flat out tells Bumblebee that his team can’t handle Fracture, insulting each of them in turn. Remember when I said he can be a bit of an asshole? Well, his companions tell Russell that They’re thankful for everything Drift has done for them, what with taking them on as students to save them from a life of crime and all, but they wish he could give them the occasional attaboy.
Fracture’s not an idiot; He draws them all around the junkyard with false energy signatures to split them up, then attacks at night. During the attack, he manages to subdue both Grimlock and Strongarm with obvious traps; in Strongarm’s case, with an obviously out of place Cybertronian tablet that he trapped. Grimlock’s not the brightest bulb in the box, but what the hell was Strongarm’s excuse? He systematically takes out Bumblebee’s team, and Drift doesn’t do shit about it, because the only person he owes a life debt to is Bumblebee.
It’s capped off when Fracture has everyone with the exception of Russell and Fixit. He gives Bumblebee an ultimatum; come to him and allow him to turn him in for the bounty, or say goodbye to his friends. Bumblebee’s not stupid enough to believe that Fracture will let any of them go, and turns down the offer. Bumblebee charges him, but Fracture’s playing dirty, and blinds him with a series of flashes. And that’s when Drift steps in.
Bee gets knocked out, and all of the Minicons launch.. Fracture pops out one of his wrist-mounted blades, and the two of them fight. It’s actually a pretty good fight; well, what we see of it is. At least twice they evoke the style of old samurai flicks, where they make a dashing pass at each other. The first time, neither seems to be hit. In reality, Fracture stuck a bomb on Drift’s back. The second, Fracture comes out with a clean hit to Drift’s leg.
Earlier in the fight, Drift commanded his pupils to follow his orders and ignore anything else. It’s actually a good thing they didn’t; they use Fracture’s distraction to sneak through the ground bridge (sort of a more local space bridge) and free everyone, taking his ship for personal use. He knows he’s beat, but Fracture threatens to blow up his ship with Jetstorm and Slipstream on board. Bumblebee decks him; Fracture flash bombs everyone, and escapes, sending his ship crashing into the junkyard. The Minicons escape just before it hits the ground.
The life debt repaid, Drift decides to head home. He declines the very idea of taking Bumblebee in, as he’s learned a valuable lesson from all of this. He’s apparently softening up a bit, too, since he actually complements his pupils on a job well done. Well in his own way, of course. Fracture’s ship is unsalvageable, but the ground bridge still works, so they came out ahead on that.
This was a pretty good episode of Transformers: Robots in Disguise. The action was good. The play off of Drift’s inherent hardassedness works. Fracture actually manages to be menacing, which is a good trait in a villain. I’m looking forward to the next time Drift shows up.
Final Thoughts:
- “Samurai robot that turns into a car” feels like something that should already exist separate of this franchise. Why doesn’t it already exist, Japan! You’re slacking!
- Ground bridge get!
- How the hell did Denny not get squished to death when he was tied up with the rest of them? Carrying on the proud tradition of Astoria Carlton-Ritz, eh?
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