The past several episodes of RiD have had teamwork as the core value, so I was pleasantly surprised that this episode didn’t. Instead, it’s learning how to do what you’re commander tells you to do because it really pisses him off when you decide to skip work and listen to club music or whatever.
The episode begins with Fixit doing a job he’s hideously unsuited for: stacking huge-ass stasis pods somewhere out-of-the-way. After Bumblebee saves him from being squished, Fixit explains that Sideswipe made a lame excuse to swap duties with him, which Fixit bought because he’s a glitchy orange doormat. Also, both Sideswipe and Fixit are under the delusion that they have an elephant cage. That needs regular cleaning.
Bumblebee goes over to give Sideswipe a “stop being a manipulative dick to Fixit speech”, but stops midway through because he actually likes the horrible electro beats that Sideswipe was listening too. Remembering what he was supposed to be doing, however, he tells him to stop taking advantage of Fixit’s overly helpful nature.
All of a sudden, Denny and Russell show up to inform them that customers have shown up. Bumblebee and Sideswipe go into their alt forms, while Fixit poses like a statue. It’s nice to know that the series takes the whole “in disguise” thing somewhat seriously. As opposed to throwing parades for the alien robots whose war regularly causes millions in property damage.
The customers turn out to be a bunch of whacked out college kids in fake antlers. Apparently they’ve dedicated their once beer-addled lives to a local legendary beast named the Kospego. They want to get a large number of seemingly random supplies to please the wrathful Kospego, because they really don’t want to wind up like all of those trees he broke and set on fire to make his point.
Turns out the Kospego is reputed in local legend to be a bipedal elk or deer with huge antlers and the strength of a thousand humans. Anyway, crazy college kid convinced his friends to join him in the cult of Kospego. They brought a list of all the crap the Kospego wants, apparently taking the time to write it all out on an honest-to-God scroll. As they lay the entire list out, Bumblebee finds it to be highly suspicious. Bumblebee manages to get Russell’s attention, telling him to give them everything but the generator they wanted, saying that there’s a good reason why that he simply can’t explain right now. Probably because it looks like Russell is having a conversation with a car, and that looks weird no matter how much of a cultist you are.
Since the only other generator with the capacity they need is at the dam, the Autobots know where they need to go to catch what is obviously a Decepticon posing as the Kospego. Strongarm shows up, having just returned from scouting out the location that they thought held one of the containment pods. She found nothing but a totally bitchin’ energy weapon called a Decepticon hunter. Fixit explains that it’s standard issue on all prison transports, capable of transforming into any weapon, within reason, that its wielder thinks of. After Strongarm fails to get it to turn into what she wants it to several times, Sideswipe picks his usual fight with her.
Anyway, Bumblebee tells Denny that he didn’t want him to sell Kospego boy the generator as he thinks their Decepticon is going to use it to build a space bridge. Strongarm and Sideswipe get excited, because that would mean they wouldn’t be stranded on Earth anymore. Bumblebee pretty much tells them that it would be out of the question, as a space bridge made out of a bunch of random junk is dangerous, capable of opening up a black hole that would destroy the entire planet.
They rush off for the dam, Grimlock and Sideswipe drawing guard duty. Sideswipe quickly makes an excuse to go go off and dance to his music in the woods, because he desperately wants to be murdered by Jason Voorhees or something. Fortunately for him, Bumblebee and Strongarm find him first, and begin rake his ass over the coals for leaving his post. Just then, the com opens up for them to hear Grimlock getting his ass kicked.
By the time they reach him, Grimlock’s out cold and the generator is gone. Bumblebee lets Sideswipe have it, because that probably wouldn’t have happened if there had been two guards like he ordered. Grimlock gets up, clearly punchdrunk, and after a quick description of what he saw, Bumblebee orders him to go back to base and have Fixit check him out. Unfortunately, Grimlock is not good to make it back on his own, having been hit so hard that he has forgotten that he can’t fly. Bumblebee sends Strongarm to take him back, since he can’t trust Sideswipe to do it.
Bumblebee and Sideswipe eventually find the College kid cult assembling the space bridge in the forest. Sideswipe comes up with a plan to allow them to get down there without actually revealing themselves to the kids; by pretending to be other legendary beasts just like the Kospego, only no one ever hears about them.
They approach the kids covered in branches and run their story by the kids. It works because the kids are very stupid, and also Sideswipe jump kicks a tree in half. Head Kospego cultist kid wonders aloud why legendary creatures hate trees so much. The answer is that they’re friends with Mark Wahlberg, and they know nthose trees are up to no good. Or maybe it’s the wind. I don’t know, I never watched The Happening.
The Decepticon, named Thunderhoof, finally shows up, wondering where his cultists went. When Bumblebee tells him that he’s under arrest, he says that he pretty much ran a majority of the criminal underworld on Cybertron, and that many of Bumblebee’s fellow officers were on the take. And unstable as the space bridge may be, nothing’s gonna stand in his way to stop him from getting his turf back.
Bumblebee fails to make his arrest, and just as Thunderhoof is going to finish him, Sideswipe stops him. He argues that once they use the space bridge, Bumblebee will be stuck on Earth, so he’s not worth killing. Thunderhoof activates the space bridge and, surprise, a black hole starts to form.
Thunderhoof wasn’t tricked by Sideswipe’s ploy, and decides that he’d rather have Sideswipe test the safety of the bridge first. Sideswipe uses the Decepticon hunter to smack Thunderhoof upside the head with a morning star, knocking him close to the black hole. Bumblebee seals the deal, knocking him in with a pile of steel beams the black hole was attracting.
Sideswipe eventually manages to get behind the generator with Bumblebee. They manage to tip it into the black hole shutting the whole thing off. Sideswipe wonders if Thunderhoof is dead, but Bumblebee thinks it’s unlikely, because it looked more like a teleportation when he disappeared.
Turns out Thunderhoof got dumped somewhere else in the woods, where Steeljaw finds him, disabling the tracker in his Decepticon logo. Steeljaw convinces him to join up, and it cuts to the cultists marching through the forest, worshipping Bumblebee and Sideswipe’s legendary alter egos.
Transformers: Robots in Disguise “As the Kospego Demands” was a pretty good episode. It featured a Decepticon design that more than a few people seemed to like, it had a pretty good fight, and it also somehow shoehorned in teamwork.
Final Thoughts:
- Thunderhoof has one of those mob tough guy accents.
- There is no elephant cage.
- The space bridge implosion was pretty awesome.
- Grimlock is not Swoop.
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