Should you watch this, Wiki this, or wait for the next episode’s recap? Watch this.
While battling a new escaped Decepticon convict, Quillfire, Bumblebee gets poisoned and regressed to an immature young bot. Can the Autobots deal with an infantile Bumblebee and recapture Quillfire at the same time, especially when the chase leads them to an abandoned carnival?
“Adventures in Bumblebee-Sitting” is the eleventh episode of the first season of Transformers: Robots in Disguise. It’s the sequel series to Transformers: Prime, and revolves around Bumblebee and his group of cadets on Earth, with a subplot involving Optimus Prime pursuing a mystical mission in the afterlife. This episode sees the Autobots squaring off against Quillfire.
“Adventures in Bumblebee-Sitting” confirms the upswing in the quality of episodes, and it’s good to see that Robots in Disguise has finally hit its stride in balancing humour, action, and story. Well, there’s not so much story in terms of the overall series arc (where has it gone?) as there is in terms of characterisation and relationship building between our bots. It’s also funny to see them put in uncomfortable situations, and I don’t think there’s been a “hero gets turned into child” type plot in Transformers so far.
Highlights
A happier Bumblebee
It’s cute to see Bumblebee go back to a little more of his previous self. This series has Bumblebee being all serious, and also showing that this seriousness takes a severe toll on him, since that’s not his default personality. Here we see Bumblebee breaking loose and being happy again. He’s being angsting way too much, and I’m just glad that he gets a break in this episode.
Strongarm as the leader
On the flipside we have super serious Strongarm becoming the team leader while Bumblebee is incapacitated. It’s a big jump from a few episodes ago, where she was bemoaning her rank and her inability to be given any real power and authority (or independece). Here we have her finally getting her wish, so to speak, and watching her regret it is another moment of character development that makes this new bunch of Autobots more likeable to us.
Quillfire is funny crazy
Over the past few epiodes, we’ve seen Decepticons that range from a crazy cultist, an insane archaeologist, a petty inept criminal, and now a strange anarchist in the form of Quillfire. I had thought that all the Decepticons would be the destructive Underbite type (and for awhile, they mostly were, building spaceships and space bridges and all), but his new bunch of quirky funny Decepticons really make the show more interesting and varied. Hope to see more random loonatic Decepticons squaring off against the Autobots!
Finally being robots in disguise
In a rare moment of “remembering the premise of transforming robots,” Strongarm actually uses her disguise to scatter the police. It may not be rife with giant explosions but it’s still a pretty cool moment of awesome for Strongarm, and it’s fun to see them actually using their alternate modes for infiltration.
Letdowns
Babysitting Bumblebee
I know it’s supposed to be a more humour-focused show and all that, but the whole “babysitting Bumblebee” plot wears thin very, very fast. It’s the exact same beat but in a few different situations, and they’re not exacting comic gold moments either. Just one or two examples would have been fine – moving on to the Decepticon battle is what we all want to see.
“Adventures in Bumblebee-Sitting!” is a fine example of how good Robots in Disguise can be when they’ve gotten everything sorted out and balanced. It’s not something to write home about, but it’s definitely worth watching if you’re a Transformers fan.
Leave a Reply