Endgame, Part II

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Mission: ACCOMPLISHED!
"Endgame, Part II"
Season	3
No. in season	13
Production company	Cartoon Network Studios
Airdate	May 23, 2009
Written by	Marsha Griffin
Directed by	Kalvin Lee Yoshio Frank Chatani
Animation studio	Mook
Continuity	Animated cartoon continuity

The Autobots fight to defend Detroit from Megatron and his clones of Omega Supreme.

Synopsis

Outside the plant, the Autobots observe the Lugnut Supremes hovering above Detroit. Bumblebee wonders what they are, and Ratchet assumes that Megatron repurposed Starscream's cloning technology to make clones of Omega Supreme. Aboard the main Lugnut Supreme, Megatron decides to start the field test with Sumdac Tower. Lugnut pontificates on the greatness of Megatron rather than getting it done, leading the annoyed Decepticon leader to ask Shockwave if he can control the clones directly yet. However, Shockwave is still working on finding the necessary security patches from Arcee's memory banks, and tells Megatron in an amused tone that he'll have to filter all orders for the clones through Lugnut.

In Detroit, the Lugnuts turn and open fire on Sumdac Tower. Fortunately, the force field goes up and protects the building. Unfortunately, it will only last for so long. Ratchet says that they need to launch an aerial assault with the Magnus Hammer, but Optimus Prime is a little unsure. Prowl then reinforces his leader's faltering confidence by promising to accompany him. Sari then offers to join them, and cuts off Optimus's "No, Sari—" with a rant about how she's always being told it's "too dangerous" for her to help, leaving her embarrassed when Prime says he was going to tell her to help protect the humans. He orders the others to help Sari in this, while he and Prowl take to the skies. Megatron initially assumes that the figure bearing the Magnus Hammer is Ultra Magnus himself, and is quite relieved when he sees it's only Optimus. The two airborne Autobots manage to avoid the missiles sent in their direction, but Prime's opening shot with the Magnus Hammer misses the Lugnuts. Ratchet says that he's receiving Omega's signal from the moon, and suggests they transwarp to the moon and sever Megatron's connection. Optimus approves, and orders him to take Bumblebee and Bulkhead with him. Prowl says that they need to bring the Lugnuts down all at once, and Optimus uses the Magnus Hammer to cause a tornado which sends the Lugnuts crashing toward Dinobot Island. Megatron, livid, tells Lugnut to abort the field test, but Lugnut is forced to inform him that Prime's attack managed to damage the one Megatron was in and disable the flight mechanisms of the other two. Furious, Megatron tells him to have the clones destroy everything except Megatron himself, then leaves his clone and assumes his flight mode, intending to take a more direct role.

Arcee: "I'm still getting a toy, right?"
Ratchet: "We're making it a TRU exclusive!"
Arcee: "Beats what happened to Blackout!"

At Sumdac Tower, Ratchet fires up the space bridge, ready to take Bumblebee and Bulkhead to retrieve Arcee and Omega Supreme. Sari decides to go with them, telling Isaac Sumdac that she needs to go. Transforming to her full robot mode, she jumps through the portal with the Autobots. On the moon, Starscream reassembles himself and immediately takes off for Earth, saying he has a surprise for Megatron. The Autobots transwarp in mere moments after he leaves, as Sari is momentarily stunned just by being on the Moon, while the Autobots are more surprised by the lack of Decepticons around. Over by Omega Supreme, Ratchet sees Arcee and runs to her. Unfortunately, she's reverted to her fugue Teacher Bot state. Worse, she's bait: Shockwave fires at them, barely missing them. Bumblebee and Bulkhead take on Shockwave, while Ratchet and Sari take Arcee inside Omega Supreme. Both bots are taken down, but Bulkhead manages to recover and charge Shockwave, knocking off his cannon. Shockwave briefly assumes his Longarm form and pleads for mercy, but Bulkhead destroys his cannon with his wrecking ball. Inside Omega Supreme, Ratchet discovers the damage to Arcee's processor is quite extensive, and any attempts to repair her could take her offline. Sari scans the malfunctioning intelbot and gives Ratchet instructions on how to use his EMP generator to restore her memory from her internal backups.

You know you stood up and cheered when Megatron finally used his name.

Over Detroit, Prime orders Prowl to break off from their fight with Megatron, find Jazz and try to slow the clones down. As he grapples with the Decepticon leader, he snaps and loudly declares his name after being patronisingly called "Autobot" by Megatron yet again.

In Omega Supreme, Ratchet manages to bring Arcee fully online, her memory back at the time it was when Lockdown captured them. Ratchet promises that they'll catch up in time, but right now they need her activation codes to retake control of Omega Supreme. Bumblebee and Bulkhead enter and say they've found something Sari needs to see.

Back on Earth, on the ground, Prowl and Jazz try to get inside the Lugnut Supremes, but their armor is too strong to cut through, and Jazz radios Prime with news of their failure. Optimus tells them that the only thing powerful enough to shield the city is the AllSpark, but it's scattered everywhere. In return, flushed by his recent success in reconstituting a fragment, Prowl theorizes that they can use processor-over-matter to make the AllSpark whole again. Prime is doubtful, but Prowl is adamant, and flies his fellow ninjabot to Sumdac Tower.

As Ratchet and Arcee make their way to Omega Supreme's head, Sari is brought before the protoforms, and—believing this to be where she came from—gets a moment of closure from the experience. Outside, Ratchet uses his magnets to keep Arcee above Omega's face and the fembot uploads the codes, severing Lugnut's control over him. Omega Supreme ejects the massive Decepticon and heads for Earth once Sari and all the Autobots are aboard, with the three remaining protoforms.

On Earth, with Lugnut no longer guiding them, the clones briefly shut down... then reactivate with Starscream's face. The treacherous Decepticon tells Megatron that he planted bombs in the clones, aiming to destroy him and everything within a hundred-mile radius. Unable to remove the bombs inside, Megatron decides to instead destroy Optimus Prime, using the Autobot captain's name for the very first time. At Sumdac Tower, the force field fails much to Isaac Sumdac's distress, and Prowl and Jazz direct him to the building's bomb shelter, before they begin using processor-over-matter to collecting AllSpark fragments. Starscream arrives to observe the death of Megatron, but his AllSpark fragment suddenly begins pulling him toward the AllSpark being formed by Jazz and Prowl. Starscream panics and tries to destroy the two ninja-bots, but his AllSpark fragment is pulled from his head, and Starscream falls to the street, dead.

The rest...is silence.

Omega Supreme arrives and begins fighting the two clones. He is able to defeat one and disarm its bomb, but the other knocks him aside and forces him back to ship mode. At Sumdac Tower, Jazz says that they don't have enough Spark to shield the city, but neither he nor Prowl can pull in any more AllSpark fragments. Prowl recognizes that there is one other way to make the AllSpark chunk powerful enough, and levitates towards it. Jazz recognizes what he intends to do, and screams that they can find another way, but Prowl merely turns to give him a reassuring smile. Suddenly, the AllSpark releases a surge of energy, and Prowl falls back to the ground. Jazz catches his body, but it is too late: Prowl is dead. A field soon forms around the remaining clone, but Megatron and Optimus Prime are trapped within it. Megatron gloats that he will take Optimus with him, but a figure of light in Prowl's image removes Optimus from the force field. Megatron roars in anger as the clone detonates, and everything goes white...

Waking up, Optimus sees his fellow bots around him. They declare that they won, and begin to celebrate... until Jazz comes carrying Prowl's shell, revealing that the ninja-bot merged his spark with the AllSpark to give it the necessary energy. Optimus moves toward his fallen comrade, but is instead knocked backwards by a purple blast. Megatron still functions! Ratchet uses his magnets to throw the Magnus Hammer to Optimus. In a rage, Optimus beats Megatron down. Lying helpless, Megatron urges Optimus to finish him, and Optimus brings the Magnus Hammer down...on Megatron's fusion cannon. Optimus says that killing Megatron is the easy way out, and the Decepticon leader doesn't deserve that. Instead, he places stasis cuffs on him.

We shall not forget them. Nor fail to reward that which is given. Courage with love, valour with honour, evil... with vengeance.

On Cybertron, the Autobots return is hailed by a cheering crowd (except for Sentinel Prime, who glowers), with Optimus carrying the Magnus Hammer, the large piece of the AllSpark around his neck, and Ratchet, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Jazz bearing Prowl's body. In addition, they bring with them the three rescued protoforms, and Megatron, Lugnut, and Shockwave as prisoners. Finally, to top it off, Omega Supreme transforms from ship mode, and this sends the crowd into another round of cheering, hailing Optimus Prime and his crew as the heroes they have proven themselves to be.

'Til all are one.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Shockwave! Is there anyway to bypass this endless pontificating and command these clones directly?"
"Still working on the data patch, my liege. Until then, you'll just have to relay all. Orders. Through. Lugnut."

—Megatron desperately seeks to cut out the middleman, while Shockwave demonstrates how to smirk without a face.

Sari: I'm going too! I have a jetpack.
Optimus: No, Sari, it's—
Sari: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's "too dangerous", I know. It's always "too dangerous"!
Optimus: I was going to say, "It's more important for you to protect your father and your fellow organics."
Sari: Oh. Right. Sorry.

—Sari isn't used to being treated as an equal.

"Get away from my weapons of mass destruction."

—Megatron.

"You're a persistent little Autobot."
"My name is OPTIMUS PRIME!"

—Megatron and Optimus Prime

"If I cannot save my clones, at least I'll have the satisfaction of destroying you, Optimus Prime."
"So, you can remember my name!"

—Took you long enough, Megatron.

"You have interfered with me for the last time, Optimus Prime!"

-- Megatron remembering Optimus' name one more time.

"What are you waiting for, Autobot? Finish me." (Optimus raises the Magnus Hammer and smashes Megatron's cannon)
"That would be the easy way out, Megatron. You don't deserve it."

—Optimus finally gives Megatron exactly what he deserves.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Even at this late stage, a new face still appears in the crowd scene on Cybertron: Hubcap. Dai Atlas and Sky Garry make their first in-person appearances (though Dai Atlas only appears from behind), and Lickety-Split, whose arm could juuuuuust be seen poking in from offscreen back in "Decepticon Air"'s fullscreen crop, also gets to appear in full. The crowd also includes a crazy amount of miscolored-slash-generic robots, including such gems as a Hot Shot-colored robot wearing the 65356-9292-346 body type, a blue-and-green Sky Garry and a yellow Warpath.
• Yoketron's dying words in "Five Servos of Doom" (where he tells Prowl that he will understand when his time comes) finally come to pass.
• This is the first episode since "Megatron Rising - Part 2" to feature Prime's faceplate.

Transformers references

This is awesome and you love it.

• At the very end, Optimus Prime is shown with the large piece of AllSpark which Jazz and Prowl pulled together, in a container strongly resembling the Matrix of Leadership—and he's wearing it on a chain around his neck.
• This is not the first time Marty Isenberg worked on a series finale of a Transformers series called Endgame Part II.

Real-world references

• Ratchet refers to the Lugnut Supremes as "knockoffs".

Animation or technical errors

• When Omega Supreme runs towards one of the Lugnut Supremes, the clone has a purple Autobot symbol on its midsection as it gets up.
• Megatron's helicopter cockpit kibble (usually seen behind his head on his back) briefly vanishes for a second as he kicks Optimus Prime towards the AllSpark-powered force field.
• Just as Bulkhead punches Shockwave, for a split second, Shockwave's colors are those of his Autobot counterpart, Longarm (with the noticeable teal coloring on his chassis).
• Prowl's ghost appears with his armour on, but when it reaches out to save Optimus, the armour has vanished.
• When Megatron makes one last attempt to destroy Optimus Prime, his right shoulder guard is drawn rather small. As he's knocked down to Earth and insists Optimus finishes him, it reverts to its proper size.

Blink and you'll miss it.

• Quite a number of animation errors can be seen immediately after Optimus Prime stasis cuffs Megatron (right before a kneeling Omega Supreme gets up.) The Magnus Hammer has disappeared, Prowl's body is drawn like a boxy black mannequin in Jazz's arms with very little detail, Jazz himself (as well as Bulkhead) are missing their Autobot insignias, Bumblebee appears rather tiny compared to the other Autobots, and Sari appears to be either hovering off of the ground or standing on Bulkhead's foot. Oh, and Arcee is missing from the shot as well. Dandy.
• When Optimus Prime first disembarks from Omega Supreme at the end of the episode, he is shown to be almost as tall as Megatron and Lugnut, who, by all rights, should be towering over him in height. They are drawn at their proper scale once they stand before the cheering crowd, though.
• When the Autobots hold up Prowl's coffin before the cheering crowd (as seen in the picture on this page), Prowl's body is drawn rather short. If one compared the height of his body to Bumblebee at his left, Bumblebee would actually be a head taller.
• After Bulkhead knocks over Shockwave and he converts into Longarm, Shockwave's cannon is on the ground behind Longarm, yet when we see Longarm from the back he has the crane piece attached to his back. Whoops.
• The Magnus Hammer's handle again changes length from shot to shot.
• When Sari activates her "robot face" before entering the space bridge, part of her hair is still visible beneath it and doesn't even move, but as soon as she starts moving, the hair immediately disappears.

Continuity errors

• Due to the incomplete activation code, the Lugnut Supremes only worked when Lugnut consciously directed them from Omega Supreme. Yet after Omega tossed him out, not only did Starscream take them over, they continued to function autonomously after he was dead.

Unresolved plots

• As of this episode, there's a lot of remaining uncaptured Decepticons!
  • Thundercracker and Skywarp are still floating out somewhere in space.
  • Blackarachnia and a bleeding, shattered Waspinator are still in that mysterious jungle, precise whereabouts (and even whenabouts) unknown.
  • Laserbeak fled the scene with the sentient part of Soundwave in "Human Error, Part II".
  • Scrapper's whereabouts are presumably still known to the Autobots; he may have returned to Dinobot Island with Snarl after "Human Error". Mixmaster and Dirt Boss, however, remain unaccounted for.
  • Swindle leaves for parts unknown in "Decepticon Air". Although he did mention something about retiring to an island on Nebulos (where the energon is as smooth as a protoform's bottom).
  • Lockdown, Slipstream, Team Chaar, and any unseen Decepticons all remain at large.
• Several other plot points have yet to have been resolved by the end of this episode:
  • Sari's origin has yet to be completely explained. It still hasn't been revealed how or why a protoform showed up on Earth years ago, or why it looked so different compared to other protoforms seen during the course of the series. Since it has been shown that all the protoforms Lockdown stole were blanks, it's unlikely she came from that batch.
  • Meltdown was last shown apparently reconstituting himself at the end of "Black Friday", and has not been seen since.
  • Wreck-Gar and all three Dinobots are not present at the end of the episode, and presumably are still on Earth. Although it could be speculated that they stayed there by choice, one must wonder what kind of measures that Optimus and company took to prevent said bots from any more disastrous encounters with the populace of Earth.
  • Ultra Magnus was last seen being repaired, but his fate isn't revealed in-show. The AllSpark Almanac would later confirm that he would die of his injuries in the unproduced fourth season.
  • Blurr was last seen crushed into a cube and tossed into an incinerator. We don't see him get incinerated, though we also don't see any evidence he survived being cubified. "The Return of Blurr" would later depict his survival and restoration.

Trivia

• Jazz states that they can't find all the AllSpark fragments; at the very least, this makes sense because Skywarp, Thundercracker, Sunstorm, and Ramjet aren't on Earth anymore. There is no indication that any other Earthbound characters animated by AllSpark fragments were defragmented and killed like Starscream, and they don't seem to be kept alive the same way he is. At BotCon 2009, the writers revealed that they had intended to show Wreck-Gar and at least one of the Constructicons to confirm their survival, but that this scene was cut for time.
• Shockwave claimed in "This Is Why I Hate Machines" that using Omega Supreme's original activation codes on him once more would wipe his memories, morals and personality, allowing a new mentor-con to turn him into a model Decepticon—a fact which Ratchet and Perceptor apparently both agreed was true. Since Arcee uses the codes on Omega in this episode, did this cause a reset to factory settings? If not, why not? Could it perhaps have something to do with that patch they were talking about?
• There seems to be a scene missing involving Lugnut - when Omega Supreme discards him onto the lunar surface and flies to Earth, he is neither captured nor incapacitated, and it's been shown repeatedly that Decepticons (including Starscream in this episode and Lugnut himself in "Lost and Found") are capable of making at least the Moon-Earth trip under their own power, where Slipstream has apparently evaded detection for the whole of S3. His off-screen capture is therefore noteworthy.
• Arcee didn't join the other Autobots on their victory/funeral parade at the end.
• It is revealed during the events of this episode that, while in her robot mode, Sari doesn't need an external oxygen supply.
• Slipstream was originally intended to have a small role in this episode, in which she would resurrect Starscream after the Autobots left Earth. This scene was ultimately cut for time.
• This is the final episode to feature Optimus, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream, Prowl, and every other character in the series. We remind you so we may see you weep...we hate to cry alone. But... there is hope. IDW might continue the series in comic form. Join us as we get down on our hands and knees and beg IDW to do this for us.
  • After being cruelly teased twice, we finally get an answer!

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Fin de partie, 2ème partie" ("Endgame, 2nd Part")
• Original airdate: ???

Brazilian

• Title: "Fim de Jogo Parte 2" ("Game Over Part 2")
• Original airdate: ???

Spanish (Latin America)

• Title: "Fin del Juego, parte 2" ("Game over, part 2")
• Original airdate: 29 December 2009

Japanese

• Title: "Saishū Kessen! Megatron o Seiatsu-seyo" (最終決戦! メガトロンを制圧せよ, "The Final Decisive Battle! Suppress Megatron")
• Original airdate: 25 December 2010

• Megatron delivers the warning
• To celebrate this being the last episode to air in Japan, the Japanese dubbing cast sang the opening "TRANSFORMERS EVO." over JAM Project's original track.
• Throughout the Japanese dub of the series, the running gag about Megatron being unable to remember Optimus Prime's name was consistently omitted. This was done so as to maintain the franchise status quo of Optimus and Megatron being rivals, completely losing the point of the running gag (Optimus being out of his depth against a superior foe who has no regard for him). As such, the big scene where Optimus declares his name to Megatron loses pretty much all of its narrative impact and is reduced to vacuous burning spirit at best.
• For the Otoboto family segment, "Santa Claus" delivers several toys: Optimus Light & Sound to Tatsuya, Megatron Light & Sound to Yūka, and United Optimus to Hiroyuki. After some bantering, "Santa" reveals himself to be actually Udo! He later gets conned into drinking a suspiciously-looking green health drink and reacts badly to it comically. The segment closes with a photo of the family and Udo holding flower bouquets—in Japan, it's tradition to give flower bouquets to major staff and cast members after a production is wrapped up, be it a movie, TV series, or a music video.
• Optimus thanks the audience for watching and promises that they'll meet again one day.

Home video releases

DVD

2011 — Transformers Animated — Vol. 10 (Paramount) — Japanese audio only.
2014 — Transformers Animated — Season Three (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers Animated — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers Animated — Season Three (Madman Entertainment)