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As the last two living Transformers on Cybertron, Optimus Primal and Megatron stage their final battle.
- Japanese title: The Whereabouts of the Future (未来の行方 Mirai no Yukue)
Summary
As Optimus lies defeated, Megatron stands gloating over his nemesis. To add insult to injury, Megatron has taken a new body...Primal's Optimal body, minus the beast mode. And, to make it just right, Megatron then adds the sparks of the Maximals to the spark containment chamber. Enraged, Optimus fights back, but Megatron punches him through the wall to the outside of the big floating head. Optimus manages to get in a few more shots, but stops as he sees the sparkless bodies of Silverbolt and Blackarachnia. Megatron takes a moment to rub it in, then attacks.
Primal flees through the city scape, flying a merry little chase, until he reaches a power generator storage area. As Megatron temporarily loses track of his prey, Optimus comes up from behind and destroys several generators. Optimus barely manages to escape the inferno, as Megatron's left arm is thrown out of the flames. After Primal makes a bad pun, Megatron emerges. As Primal jumps into a nearby river, he dives, only to have Megatron follow him in and shot a hole in the ground, causing them to sink into a whirlpool.
As Optimus wakes up, he realizes he is in the chamber of the Oracle. However, the technorganic orchard has been completely destroyed. Worse for Primal, he sees Rattrap and Botanica's sparkless bodies, lying on the ground, with their hands streched toward each other. Megatron then arrives, and takes him to the surface.
Heading toward the Council Citadel, Megatron activates a throne built into the Citadel to appear, then opens the spark chamber, absorbing the sparks and preparing to ascend to supplant the Matrix and achieve Godhood. As the sparks enter his body, Megatron grows in size. Primal tries to talk, saying that each spark is but a part of the Matrix and that together, they add to its totallity. Megatron then activates the Key to Vector Sigma, to be used against the organic core. However, Megatron cannot fully activate the Oracle, as he and Primal are linked. Megatron then severs the link, and Primal fears that he has failed.
So Megatron spends half the episode flying around the planet with Primal and he falls to his death?
However, the sparks of his comrades speak to him, inspiring him on. Shooting a beam at Megatron's throne, vines extend and grab Megatron's arms. Primal then tries to push him into the core. However, Megatron grabs hold of Optimus, who merely shoots off Megatron's fingers to sever the vine, allowing them both to fall into the core. As they plummet, Primal bids Megatron farewell. Upon impact with the core, both Optimus and Megatron die in a flash of light. From space, a bright light rises, then begins to cover the surface of Cybertron.
Isn't this show over yet?!?
Waking up, the Maximals find themselves on a technorganic world, which they realize is Cybertron. Rattrap is somewhat worried, then Botanica appears, and he jumps into her arms. As Silverbolt sweeps Blackarachnia off her feet, Waspinator appears as a tiny, technorganic wasp, pissed that he's been screwed over again. Then, the Oracle shows Cheetor a vision of Optimus Primal's spark, flying away, telling him to "transform, and transcend". As it fades, Cheetor mutters that he understands. In the distance, the freed Transformers, with their sparks once again in bodies, run over the horizon, ready to assume control of the newly technorganic Cybertron.
Quotes
"You and me, Primal. Or should I say, you and you."
- —Megatron notes the irony in fighting Optimus with a copy of his own previous body.
"My great ascension is finally complete! YEEEEESSSS!"
- -Megatron reveling in his apparent success.
"What are you doing?!"
"Planting the seeds of the future. We must seek the balance, Megatron. Not only between the organic and the technological, but the balance between eternal enemies. Between you and I!"
- —Megatron and Optimus Primal. One good thing about the last episode, no more Optimus speeches.
"The Great Transformation awaits, Megatron. Prepare to be... reformatted."
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"
- —Optimus Primal's and Megatron's last words. (Until Universe, that is.)
"The menace has passed. Now we can truly be together, dark venom of my heart."
"Oh, of all the corny..."
- —Silverbolt's attempt to woo Blackarachnia almost fails until she realizes that she doesn't care.
Still better than being possessed by Starscream.
"Waspinator want glory, Waspinator want power! And what does Waspinator get?! (Waspinator gets swatted away by Rattrap) Waspinator never gets what Waspinator wants!
- -Poor old Waspinator, who now is the size of a regular wasp and has Thrust's head.
"At long last. Transform your destiny. Transform and... transcend."
"I... understand."
- —The Oracle and Cheetor
Stats
Writer: Robert N. Skir
Original air date: May 3, 2000 (YTV); November 18, 2000 (FOX)
Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Vehicons | Predacons |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Notes
Technical/animation glitches
- The freed transformers that appear at the end of the episode have pretty weird running animations. They are running forward, but their legs are moving as if they're running sideways.
Continuity errors
- When Megatron blasts Optimus out of the Spark Chamber room, the deactivated body of Thrust is seen right next to those of Silverbolt and Blackarachnia. The problem with this is that Silverbolt and Blackarachnia were deactivated outside of the base, whereas Thrust was deactivated by Cheetor inside the anti-gravity engine room in the previous episode. Though that doesn't necessarily preclude the possibility that Megatron's drones moved the empty shells.
Transformers references
- When calling the sparks to him, Megatron says "let us all become one!"
Notes
- Optimus Primal and Megatron both die in this episode.
- In the end, Cheetor, Rattrap and Waspinator are the only original characters from the beginning of the Beast Era to survive all the way through. As such, they each speak the last lines of the series.
- Cybertron is reformatted in this episode, becoming Technorganic.
- Cheetor hears the voice of the Oracle at the end of the episode, implying that he will possibly takes Primal's place as its instrument, and effectively become leader of the Maximals.
- A redeco of the Optimal Optimus toy as "Optimal Megatron" seems like a sure-seller. Get on that, Hasbro.
- Depending on your point of view, this is the first instance of an Optimus killing a Megatron.
- "Transform and transcend"? Was that a hint at the transcendent technomorph idea that would have followed had it not been cancelled?
- As far as the cartoons go, Cheetor had the very last words.
- Both Waspinator and Thrust's lives suck.
- None of the characters from the first series appear with Optimus' spirit at the end of the series. Megatron didn't appear, either.
- So what happened to Strika and Obsidian?
- The series began and ended with a closeup of a flower.
- This is the final Beast Era episode, which wraps up the whole continuity and had started with "Beast Wars (Part 1)".