Should you watch this, Wiki this, or wait for the next episode’s recap? Watch it.
A series of mysterious sinkholes betray the existence of another Decepticon – the burrowing Ped! Meanwhile, an old ally of Bumblebee’s reaches Earth and aids the Autobots in their battle – the veteran warrior Jazz! But can even Jazz’s help prove to be enough against the machinations of Ped?
“Can You Dig It” is the tenth 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 facing the Decepticon Ped, and also the first new Autobot character since the beginning of the series – Jazz.
“Can You Dig It” features good dialogue between the characters as they’re put into some interesting Earth situations. What has really paid off is how well they know each other, and it shows in their speech patterns and familiarity with each other. They’re really like the procedural police team now, with each member know his or her place when a new Decepticon appears. Then there’s Ped, who’s the first Decepticon so far to have given a throwback to the motivations of G1 Decepticons – to steal Energon!
Highlights
Jazz
Yay it’s Jazz! Not that he’s my favourite character or anything, but it’s fun to have a classic character appear in the series. I always enjoy seeing how they’ve been reimagined for whichever new series they’re in. So now that we’ve got Sideswipe, Cliffjumper, Ultra Magnus, Smokescreen, Wheeljack, and Jazz make an appearance, I wonder which classic Autobot will be appearing next?
Banter between characters
The dialogue has improved by leaps and bounds, with their lines coming from character rather than being forced by the plot to say random ridiculous things. No longer is their speech stilted and forced, now their lines sound like they’re really spoken by team mates, as opposed to walking commercials. Kudos on this!
Ensemble episode
The thing I like about is this episode is that none of the Autobots are wasting their time twiddling their thumbs (do they have thumbs?) as a Decepticon is being chased by the rest of the team. I think we’ve had too many episodes where the Autobots aren’t deployed to maximum capacity to account for whatever plot idea the episode centres around. Here, they’re really a team, and combined with the improved dialogue, you’re starting to see the camaraderie between them.
Thematic link between Ped and Sideswipe
I like how both of them had essentially the same issue, and how the episode tied everything up nicely by making a parallel between them. Ped’s downfall was his inability to conquer his own character flaw, while Sideswipe’s growth was his ability to overcome his flaw. It bookends the whole episode nicely, giving it a good sense of closure.
Energon
And we’re finally seeing Energon! I don’t think it’s made an appearance all season. It’s a MacGuffin, true, but it’s a classic MacGuffin.
Letdowns
Bumblebee seems ineffective
I know Jazz and Sideswipe were the stars for this episode, but did we really have to see Bumblebee get taken down so easily? It was almost… painful. Perhaps we didn’t have to let Bumblebee encounter Ped at all, if he was going to get such a thrashing (and hence changing our minds on Bumblebee’s skill level). It wasn’t a good way to treat the title character.
“Can You Dig It” is a fun episode, and continues the train of good episodes. Even though there’s no advancement of the series arc, the guest appearance of Jazz more than made up for it.
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