[7.8/10] Honestly, this may be as satisfying a conclusion to any major arc in Beast Wars/Machines history. The franchise has done some better season finales, but they all involved cliffhangers that could coast on the notion of status quo-shifting explosions to come. Despite the tease at the end, this pays off the “Megatron steals the sparks” arc in a supremely satisfying way with excitement, twists, and sacrifice. That’s all I ask for from a show like Beast Machines.
The show provides our heroes with a clear mission -- a couple of the Maximals are providing a distraction so that the rest of the crew can sneak into Megatron’s head-ship without being detected by the Vehicon forces, in the hopes of freeing the sparks that Megatron has trapped there. Megatron himself is posing a new and greater threat, having turned into some kind of pure flaming spark entity that can seemingly consume other sparks. He announces that his goal has evolved into turning all of the Transformers into one unified and perfect being -- by absorbing and coopting all of them.
It’s a really creepy idea, and there’s an almost horror element to seeing Megatron basically eating souls in his energy being form. That adds a new urgency to the mission to stop him, to where even Thrust seems kind of aghast at what he’s witnessing.
I’ll say this much -- somebody behind the Beast Wars franchise has some sort of great ape bondage fetish, because if I had a nickel for every time Optimus Primal got splayed out and tied up somehow, I could fund a sequel series. That said, I like the ominous sense that Megatron’s won when, despite the misdirection with Cheetor and Nightscream, Megatron was aware of Optimus’s ploy and prepared for it. You don’t seriously believe that he’ll win the day, but it’s a good turn in the narrative.
That said, I like how Noble comes into play to turn the tide of victory. The show goes a little overboard in turning him into Nightscream’s stray dog, but I still like the setup and payoff of the Maximals trying to get Nightscream to shoo Noble away, only for the werewolf/gila monster to show up at the right time, strike a blow against Megatron, and lose his life in the process.
It’s a meaningful sacrifice given the bonds between him and Nightscream, and I like how it plays out, particularly with the grief giving Nightscream the force and fury to stop ol’ Megs, even in his Oracle-fueled form. Granted, it’s a little arbitrary from a logic standpoint, but I’m willing to go with the “his anger and mourning of Noble gave Nightscream the juice necessary to strike the final blow against Megatron.”
There’s also some nice twists with the use of Rattrap’s signal scrambling devices. The good guys initially using them to sneak past Megatron’s defenses, even using them to turn Obsidian and Strika’s goons against one another, only to have the Vehicon strategists turn the tables on them use the scramblers to expose the Maximals is some good nuts and bolts, back and forth writing. It shows the heroes and villains as evenly matched, which helps make the victory feel earned.
Overall, this one has a straightforward aim for the good guys, a chilling escalation for the bad guys, and a meaningful sacrifice and blow to give our heroes the win. I’m not sure what Beast Machines has planned for its final four episodes, but it’ll be hard to top this as a swan song for the Maximals.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-09-26T22:21:38Z
[7.8/10] Honestly, this may be as satisfying a conclusion to any major arc in Beast Wars/Machines history. The franchise has done some better season finales, but they all involved cliffhangers that could coast on the notion of status quo-shifting explosions to come. Despite the tease at the end, this pays off the “Megatron steals the sparks” arc in a supremely satisfying way with excitement, twists, and sacrifice. That’s all I ask for from a show like Beast Machines.
The show provides our heroes with a clear mission -- a couple of the Maximals are providing a distraction so that the rest of the crew can sneak into Megatron’s head-ship without being detected by the Vehicon forces, in the hopes of freeing the sparks that Megatron has trapped there. Megatron himself is posing a new and greater threat, having turned into some kind of pure flaming spark entity that can seemingly consume other sparks. He announces that his goal has evolved into turning all of the Transformers into one unified and perfect being -- by absorbing and coopting all of them.
It’s a really creepy idea, and there’s an almost horror element to seeing Megatron basically eating souls in his energy being form. That adds a new urgency to the mission to stop him, to where even Thrust seems kind of aghast at what he’s witnessing.
I’ll say this much -- somebody behind the Beast Wars franchise has some sort of great ape bondage fetish, because if I had a nickel for every time Optimus Primal got splayed out and tied up somehow, I could fund a sequel series. That said, I like the ominous sense that Megatron’s won when, despite the misdirection with Cheetor and Nightscream, Megatron was aware of Optimus’s ploy and prepared for it. You don’t seriously believe that he’ll win the day, but it’s a good turn in the narrative.
That said, I like how Noble comes into play to turn the tide of victory. The show goes a little overboard in turning him into Nightscream’s stray dog, but I still like the setup and payoff of the Maximals trying to get Nightscream to shoo Noble away, only for the werewolf/gila monster to show up at the right time, strike a blow against Megatron, and lose his life in the process.
It’s a meaningful sacrifice given the bonds between him and Nightscream, and I like how it plays out, particularly with the grief giving Nightscream the force and fury to stop ol’ Megs, even in his Oracle-fueled form. Granted, it’s a little arbitrary from a logic standpoint, but I’m willing to go with the “his anger and mourning of Noble gave Nightscream the juice necessary to strike the final blow against Megatron.”
There’s also some nice twists with the use of Rattrap’s signal scrambling devices. The good guys initially using them to sneak past Megatron’s defenses, even using them to turn Obsidian and Strika’s goons against one another, only to have the Vehicon strategists turn the tables on them use the scramblers to expose the Maximals is some good nuts and bolts, back and forth writing. It shows the heroes and villains as evenly matched, which helps make the victory feel earned.
Overall, this one has a straightforward aim for the good guys, a chilling escalation for the bad guys, and a meaningful sacrifice and blow to give our heroes the win. I’m not sure what Beast Machines has planned for its final four episodes, but it’ll be hard to top this as a swan song for the Maximals.