A Wolf in the Fold

Far beneath the abandoned underground civilizations of Cybertron, the Maximals are hanging out, enjoying a breather, happy to have Silverbolt back. Even in their victory, they can't forget the lost Rhinox, however. Silverbolt can't share in the joy; for him, things are not the same. Blackarachnia assures him he'll adjust, now that they've got a moment to relax. Naturally, the entire planet begins shaking just then.

DO NOT WANT

On the surface, a number of gigantic claw-ended tentacles are coming out of the Grand Mal, and smashing their way into the planet's surface. The Maximals head for the surface, as green pulses of energy pass from the tentacles and along the corridors. One passes through Silverbolt's foot as he runs, and activates some sort of spider-disk-device thing that seems to burrow out of his back. The device immediately shoots him full of some nasty-looking red stuff, causing his eyes to twitch and glow red. Cheetor stops to check on him, resting a hand on his shoulder, and promptly receives a dose of the same red stuff.

As the Maximals arrive at the base of one of the tentacles, the red stuff is quickly passed along: Cheetor steps on Rattrap's tail; Rattrap high-fives Nightscream with a suggestion to attack the big floating head; Silverbolt puts his arm around Blackarachnia.

Optimus hands out attack orders to the group, only to be met with increasingly argumentative comments in response. Within seconds a furious, senseless argument is underway. Optimus's attempts to calm the group are met with rebukes; unable to reason with the group, Primal finally rockets off alone.

A laser blast scatters the Maximals, as Thrust arrives with Cycle Drones. Optimus sees the battle below, and turns to help — but one of Cheetor's reflected bolts severs a tentacle. Optimus takes the flailing thing head-on and falls, till another of the gigantic tentacle scoops him up.

Thrust and company, meanwhile, head underground. Cheetor says they have to stop them before they find their base; the others disagree, of course, but Cheetor shouts them all down.

I don't think this is what Optimus meant when he said, "Soon, I shall be one with the Matrix," Megatron.

Inside the Grand Mal, the disembodied Megatron greets Optimus. He's invited him here for a little chat, with the ground attack merely a way to get Primal's attention. Megatron materializes as a ghost data head, telling Primal that they both want the same thing: harmony.

The Maximals, meanwhile, run down the Cycle Drones and trash them, then quickly resume arguing. During a brief lapse, Silverbolt soberly concludes that he should never have returned. He flies off, and Blackarachnia mocks him for running away from his problems. And the arguing resumes, as does the fighting: Thrust arrives with more drones.

Optimus and Megatron continue to argue the merits of free will versus chaos, harmony versus individuality. Primal is distracted by the image of the Maximals fighting, however, and leaves.

Grumpy cat.

The Maximals, meanwhile, are fighting the drones less and less, and increasingly fighting each other. Cheetor has a moment of clarity, realizing something's amiss. But it's for naught, as the infighting continues and sucks him back in as well. Thrust sits back to enjoy the show.

On the surface, Silverbolt approaches one of the giant tentacles, and discovers the spider-thing on his back, which he plucks off with fury.

Primal arrives, and knocks out Thrust with one punch. He orders his troops to stop, but they attack instead, and in short order Primal is infected with the red stuff as well. He joins in the fighting, till Silverbolt arrives. He tells them they're infected with a virus, and somehow manages to calm the group.

Rattrap examines one of the giant tentacles, and finds they're sending an activation signal to trigger a pre-planted virus hidden in Silverbolt. It has "an adrenalin booster, a neocortex suppressor, and a shut-off on the self-diagnostic! And it's contagious." It's apparently a variant on the old Hate Plague, and it can't be counteracted.

Admitting defeat.

Megatron makes his move. Waves of energy pour down the tentacles, rattling the ground and alarming the Maximals. Primal has an epiphany, that they can somehow "work together" to rebuild their neural pathways. Megatron's energies, meanwhile, are sending huge seismic disruptions through the tunnels, collapsing the ground out from under the Maximals. Falling, the group manages to latch onto one another, and one after the next they cured. Optimus lifts the oddball chain to the surface, where they land.

Rattrap's happy to be a team again, but Silverbolt is more angsty than ever over his role in the whole affair. The Maximals hold no grudges, however. The tentacles retract into the Grand Mal just then, the immediate threat concluded. Blackarachnia laments that they were turned against each other. Primal muses that Megatron didn't create the conflicts, only magnified them, and wonders disbelievingly if Megatron might be right. Far above, Megatron has a good chuckle at this thought.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Vehicons
Rattrap (1) Optimus Primal (2) Cheetor (3) Blackarachnia (4) Silverbolt (5) Nightscream (6)	Megatron (7) Thrust (8) Cycle Drones (9)

Quotes

Optimus Primal: "Silverbolt, Nightscream, aerial recon. Rattrap, Cheetor, ground survey. Blackarachnia, you're base com and backup."
Blackarachnia: "Oh yeah? And what are you going to do, monkey?"
Cheetor: "Yeah! Who died and made you King Kong?"

—The Maximals start squabbling

"Did the little sheep get caught without their shepherd?"

—Thrust's first one-liner in the series.

"Your version of harmony is nothing more than slavery. How can you have harmony without free will?"
"How can you have harmony amidst the chaos of disagreeing minds?"
"True harmony only prevails when all voices are heard. You only want to stifle them."
"Your way only leads to chaos, or are these the voices of harmony?"

—Optimus and Megatron's philosophical debate

"You want a piece of me?!"
"I want a lot of pieces!"

—Cheetor and Rattrap scrap.

"Yep, that's him! Bawk-bawk-baaaaaawk!"
"When I get my hands on you, there won't be enough to barbecue!"

—Nightscream unleashes his best Tommy Wiseau impression, and Blackarachnia isn't happy about it.

"Forget the seeds of the future; I'M BURYING YOU IN THE PAST!"

—Optimus Primal, upon being infected with the hate plague-like virus.

"So how do we counteract it?"
"In two words: im-possible."

—Cheetor and Rattrap, who can't count.

"That's it! We've got to work together to reform our neural pathways! That's the only way to destroy the virus and cure us!"

—Optimus Primal pulls a solution out of his monkey butt.

"-He didn't create the conflicts; he only magnified them. The fundamental disharmony, we provided that ourselves. Could it be that Megatron is right after all?"

—Optimus Primal

Notes

Animation and technical errors

As Optimus walks out of the tunnel, judging by his shadow, he's floating a few inches above the ground.
When we pan up towards Megatron's floating head, a strange black line flashes up twice on the side of the tentacle that's closest to view.
Rattrap's right arm clips into Nightscream as they start squabbling.
After the first commercial break, as Primal's falling down, his left arm is weirdly deformed and slowly starts to twist back into shape before the shot cuts.
When the Maximals start arguing inside the building, Blackarachnia's shoulder pads keep disappearing between shots.
At one point, while Blackarachnia is dangling from Nightscream, her head clips through her webbing.

Continuity errors

At the beginning of the episode, the Oracle's portal-like structure is active, filled with a starry background. Yet, as of "Fallout", the structure is supposed to be inactive, with the Oracle later revealed to have hidden itself inside Optimus Primal's body.

Continuity notes

Optimus Primal taps Thrust on the shoulder and decks him when he turns around, which might be a reference to his fight with Waspinator in "A Better Mousetrap".

Transformers references

Nightscream compares the infection they're suffering to the Hate Plague.

Real-world references

Cheetor refers to Optimus Primal as "King Kong" when he's infected by the Hate Plague.
Rattrap berates Cheetor with an irritated "Another fine mess you've gotten us into", quoting Oliver Hardy's catchphrase.

Trivia

Don't worry too much about Optimus's moral question about Megatron's ideology at the end of the episode, as the subject is never addressed in the series again.
This episode was lampooned in MSTF fashion along with "Forbidden Fruit".
Interestingly, Silverbolt is presented as the titular 'Wolf in the Fold' (being the first carrier of Megatron's virus) despite losing the wolf-like attributes of his Fuzor form. Though, Silverbolt could be considered a lone wolf, a person who prefers to be alone despite being in a group or society, at this point.
The infected Maximals are utter assholes to one another, to the point of hilarity.

Foreign localization

French

Title: "Un Loup dans la Bergerie" ("A Wolf in the Sheep-Fold")

German

Title: "Jeder gegen jeden" ("All Against All")
Original airdate: December 19, 2000

Italian

Title: "Amici nemici" ("Enemies friends")

Japanese

Title: "Nikushimi no Rasen" (憎しみの螺旋, "The Spiral of Hatred")
Original airdate: January 2, 2005

Mandarin

Title: "Tiǎobō Líjiàn" (挑拨离间, "Sowing Dissension")

Brazilian Portuguese

Title: "Um Lobo no Rebanho" ("A Wolf in the Fold")

Spanish

Title: "Un Lobo en el Redil" ("A Wolf in the Fold")

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

DVD

2005 — Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Returns — Volume 5 (Geneon Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2006 — Beast Machines: Transformers — The Complete Series (Rhinomation)
2014 — Transformers: Beast Machines — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2007 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Season Two: Volume One (Sony)
2007 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Complete Season Two (Sony)
2009 — Transformers: Beast Machines — Intégrale Saison 2 (Sony) — French audio only.