Orion Pax, Part 3
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "Orion Pax" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Orion Pax (disambiguation). |
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 Man, that must have been some party last night! | ||||||
| "Orion Pax, Part 3" | ||||||
| Season | 2 | |||||
| No. in season | 3 | |||||
| Production company | Hasbro Studios | |||||
| Airdate | March 3, 2012 | |||||
| Written by | Joseph Kuhr | |||||
| Directed by | Shaunt Nigoghossian | |||||
| Animation studio | Polygon Pictures | |||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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Jack and Arcee undertake a dangerous mission on Cybertron to access Vector Sigma, while Orion begins to rebel against Megatron.
Contents |
Synopsis
Jack and Arcee walk through Kaon, guided by the light of the Key to Vector Sigma. They come upon a circular clearing, and the key glows intensely, indicating that they must be close. Suddenly, the ground begins to shake, and cracks appear in the surface. The duo watch in awe as a passageway rises from the ground, its door illuminated the same as the Key. It opens, but just as the two are about to enter, an enormous creature rears up from atop the passage. Arcee's Autobot symbol catches its eye, and it charges her, Arcee's minute strength doing nothing to injure it. She is quickly incapacitated, and the creature notices Jack, giving temporary pursuit until distracted by Arcee. Jack radios Ratchet and is told that the creature is an Insecticon, one of many sentries left to guard the dead Cybertron. Arcee tells Jack to go, to his surprise, but he realizes the necessity. As he enters, the door closes behind him.
On the Nemesis, Megatron inquires as to Orion's progress on Project Iacon. Orion says it's tough work, but Megatron says otherwise, revealing to him that all of his unsanctioned research has been recorded. Orion takes the opportunity to ask about his reported affiliation with the Autobots, but Megatron merely tells him to get back to work. Orion decides that enough is enough, and erases his progress in the archives. Megatron laughs, and shows the clerk that he has been recorded and documented in his pursuits. Soundwave intrudes, to show Megatron that one of their sentries came online on Cybertron. Orion asks how anything is alive on the planet, but Megatron tells him to continue his work-or be terminated.
Back on Cybertron, Arcee tangles with the enormous bug, but is no match for its brute strength. Finished with her, the Insecticon turns its attention to the fleshling, and breaks its way into the tunnel.
In the depths of the tunnel, Jack hears a familiar noise, and uproots a metal bar for protection.
Back on the Nemesis, Megatron reviews the reports with Soundwave. He learns of the space bridge's activation, its endpoint, and the fact that it is still active. He quickly deduces the Autobots' plan.
In Cybertron's depths, Jack arrives at the chamber of Vector Sigma. He proceeds to the center of a circular platform, where he places the Key. The entire chamber begins to transform and glow with the Key's energy, and the enormous supercomputer reveals itself, and begins to transfer its energy to the Key.
On the Nemesis, Orion is hassled by the guards. He appeals to their "good nature", saying that he believes Megatron will use the information he is agglomerating for nefarious purposes. Good-old fashioned police brutality ensues as the helpless clerk is kicked and punched by his guards.
In the chamber, Jack is antsy about the speed of his download. His problems lie beyond his dial-up however, because behind him, a horde of Scraplets has just woken up. While they have no interest in harming Jack, they quickly notice the very alive metal before him, in the form of Vector Sigma (a spinning ball of blue light) and the Key. Jack is helpless to fend them off, and they begin to snack on the delicious download port. He reports frantically on his position to ground control.
In the space bridge chamber, however, the Autobots have problems of their own as Megatron steps out of a GroundBridge to them. Ratchet tells them that they must hold the Bridge at any cost, and the battle begins. Unsurprisingly, Megatron easily floors every Autobot twice.
On Cybertron, Arcee awakes to find a Scraplet chewing on her foot. She blasts it off, and notices the opened passage — and the absent Insecticon. Transforming, she speeds into the passageway.
Jack valiantly smashes the Scraplets as they feed, but is unable to stop their progress towards the Matrix. Another problem presents itself behind him in the form of the Insecticon. It charges towards him, but stops in its tracks, staring at the Key. Jack realizes why, and the Scraplets suddenly become a blessing. He formulates an idea, pulling a Scraplet off the Key and pointing it at the aggressor. The Insecticon turns tail as it realizes what's happening, but the Scraplets give chase and latch on, quickly chewing through the giant insect as it falls to its doom, limbs disconnected. The download completes, and Jack retrieves the key. Arcee finally arrives, and the two depart.
The Vehicon guards continue to beat down Orion, and one of them lets slip that it's a privilege to beat the former leader of the Autobots. Orion pleads with them to stop, and in desperation, he accidentally activates his blasters. He is shocked to realise that he has been installed with any weapons, and the guards realise they are in trouble, firing upon him. He is further surprised by the ease with which he dispatches them.
Arcee and Jack arrive at the space bridge portal, and radio Ratchet about their position. Total silence on the comm tip them off that something is wrong, and, undetected on the other end of the portal, Megatron waits to end the lineage of the Primes. However, he is surprised by the sudden arrival of Orion Pax, who vows that, no matter what his heritage might be, his spark sympathises with the Autobots. He deploys his blades, and charges for Megatron, but is quickly defeated. Megatron says that he has much to learn, and prepares to kill him, but Arcee speeds through the bridge and collides with him, sending them both flying. In the light of the bridge, Jack presents the Key to Orion, who hesitates in his humility, but accepts his destiny.
The Key begins to upload the Matrix to its host. Megatron, preoccupied with fighting Arcee, notices this, and desperately runs at him. However, Orion Pax—now Optimus Prime once again—isn't ready to go down again, and trounces his enemy. A GroundBridge portal opens up, and the Autobots retreat.
At base, the Autobots and humans rejoice at their reunion. Noticing his Decepticon symbol, Optimus asks Ratchet what had happened. He replies that it was their darkest hour, but at every point along the way, Optimus was truly an Autobot at spark.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Why does history portray me siding with the Autobot aggressors? And why did Starscream call me a Prime? I must know...who am I?"
"You are my clerk."
- —"Orion Pax" questions his identity, while Megatron responds with a firm establishment of the pecking order.
"This is taking a while..."
"Of course it is! We are talking about the collective wisdom of the Primes!"
- —Jack is reminded by Ratchet that he's downloading a brain, not an MP3.
Vehicon: "You have to admit, it's a privilege to stomp a former leader of the Autobots."
"Orion Pax": "Arg! No! Please! Enough! I'm... I'm armed?"
- —"Orion" discovers he has blasters.
"That may be true, or yet another deception, but this much I do know: my sympathies lie with the Autobots, and you are not one of us!"
- —"Orion Pax" to Megatron, realizing the truth.
"Are you... certain I am worthy?"
"You have no idea."
- —"Orion Pax" and Jack.
"Megatron... begone!"
- —Optimus Prime returns.
"Optimus, it has truly been our darkest hour, but know this: from every indication your spark never ceased being that of an Autobot."
- —Ratchet
Notes
Continuity notes
- The scraplets seem a lot nastier in this episode, chewing so fast as to render a hulking robot limbless in a matter of seconds. This is not an error, as many factors could contribute, such as the scraplets' inability to find living metal on the barren Cybertron and the ancient state of the Insecticon.
- Optimus still has the broken sword from way back in "One Shall Fall". It would seem that the Decepticons neglected to repair it. Or rather, neglected to mention that he had weapons in the first place.
- The Insecticon is the first Cybertronian in Prime to have a beast mode.
Transformers references
- Ratchet references The Transformers: The Movie by referring an event as "our darkest hour", as he did before in "Darkness Rising, Part 5", and as Optimus did in "One Shall Rise, Part 3".
- Bulkhead calls Megatron "buckethead", a reference to the original Megatron.
- From the Scraplets' point-of-view, the sphere of Vector Sigma is seen in its faceted orb appearance common to many continuities.
Real-world references
- Bulkhead's line bemoaning the Scraplets on Cybertron is a paraphrase of the oft-referenced "Why did it have to be snakes?" line from the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Errors
- When Megatron is gloating after knocking Orion Pax to the floor, it appears that he has a sword embedded in his left arm, hanging by his side, but once the camera angle cuts from beside Megatron's feet to staring down his blade, we see that it is once again protruding from his right arm, just as it should be.
- As Megatron notices Jack recharging Optimus's Matrix and lets go of Arcee, his shoulder armour goes through the wall.
- Before the restored Optimus jumps through the Groundbridge while firing at Megatron, his right shoulder can be (very briefly) seen bearing the Autobot symbol, but it should still be Decepticon.
- In the episode "Shadowzone", when the two Ground Bridge portals opened in close proximity to each other, the energy from both fed back on each other (as stated by Ratchet), and there was an explosion. Here, the Decepticons', and a bit later the Autobots' Ground Bridge portal opened right next to the still open Space Bridge, yet nothing happened. It’s possible that their “streams” simply didn’t “cross” this time, but it’s still odd.
- Optimus can hear what Megatron is whispering before coming through a Ground Bridge to face him.
- While Megatron is charging at him, Optimus catches the levitating Key to Vector Sigma between his fingers. In the next shot he's blocking Megatron's blade with both hands. How the key didn't get destroyed in this is anyone's guess.
- When Optimus leaps through the ground bridge, his feet are still outside of the vortex when it closes.
Trivia
- Look closely at the arena in Kaon: it's the same arena as seen in "One Shall Rise, Part 3". Ironic that the entrance to Vector Sigma lay beneath Megatron's feet at that moment.
- When the Scraplets look at Vector Sigma, most of the room is boring old dead metal, but the spinning blue light comes up in their vision as living metal. The download area is clearly even more delicious.
- When Jack coaxes the Scraplets into attacking the Insecticon, he calls it "the main course", echoing what Bulkhead said while using himself as bait in "Scrapheap".
- The way Optimus catches Megatron's sword just after he regains his memory is exactly the same as when Megatron caught Optimus' sword in "One Shall Fall". It even makes the same thundering noise.
- Jack never picked up a souvenir for Raf, which Raf asked for in the previous episode. No one ever brings souvenirs for Raf. Aww...
- You'd think that despite knowing that Orion was not as good a warrior as Optimus, Megatron would have ordered that he be disarmed.
- This is the last live appearance of the Scraplets (they'd later appear in a flashback during "Toxicity").
- Adaptations of this episode include a screen-capture-style comic version as part of The Orion Pax Saga.
Foreign localization
French
- Title: "Orion Pax, Partie 3" ("Orion Pax, Part 3")
- Original airdate: ?
German
- Title: "Orion Pax, Teil 3" ("Orion Pax, Part 3")
- Original airdate: 24 October 2012
Japanese
- Title: "Kidō Henkei! Vector Sigma no Kagi" (起動変形!ベクターシグマの鍵, "Activated Transformation! The Key to Vector Sigma")
- Original airdate: 20 October 2012
- The talking Insecticon continues to call back to the Japanese-dubbed version of Beast Wars Waspinator by saying "buzz buzz" when it flies around.
Brazilian Portuguese
Italian
- Title: "Orion Pax, Parte 3" ("Orion Pax, Part 3")
- Original airdate: 10 October 2012
Home video releases
- DVD
2012 — Transformers Prime — One Shall Stand (Shout! Factory)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season Two (Shout! Factory)
2013 — Transformers Prime — Vol. 15 (Avex Trax) — Japanese audio only.
2013 — Transformers Prime — Folge 7: Orion Pax (EDEL:kids) — English and German audio.
2013 — Transformers Prime — Season 2 Volume 1: Orion Pax (Madman Entertainment)
2014 — Transformers Prime — Season Two Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2014 — Transformers Prime — Season 2 Vol. 1: Orion Pax (Primal Screen)
2014 — Transformers Prime — Saison 2 Vol. 1: Orion Pax (Primal Screen)
2014 — Transformers Prime — Stagione 2 Vol. 1: Orion Pax (Primal Screen) — English, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian audio.
2015 — Transformers Prime — Intégrale Saison 2 (Primal Screen)
2015 — Transformers Prime — The Complete Season 2 (Primal Screen)
2015 — Transformers Prime — La Seconda Stagione Completa (Primal Screen) — English, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian audio.
- Blu-ray
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season Two (Shout! Factory)
2015 — Transformers Prime — Season Two Collection (Madman Entertainment)
