‘CROSSING THE RUBICON’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

In this ‘Beast Wars’ episode, we continue with Blackarachnia’s story of becoming a Maximal, as she finds herself going on a journey where she becomes a Transmetal II. There is death along the way however, and Silverbolt’s romance feelings for her continue.

The episode begins with Blackarachnia attempting to modify her body by using the Transmetal driver, which she acquired from Depth Charge in ‘Feral Scream’. When Silverbolt comes across her, he interrupts the experiment in an attempt to save her life. 😐

However, in trying to use the Transmetal driver on herself, Blackarachnia ends up damaging parts of her programming in the process. According to Rhinox, after a scan, her life becomes in danger once the shell program to her core consciousness deteriorates. 😐

A thing I’ve noticed from watching this episode is that after Blackarachnia’s experiment ended in an explosion, she’s covered in all sorts of scratches and her body sports other kinds of damage. Later in the Maximal base, she appears completely ‘clean’, as if repaired.

Then when she goes outside to contemplate and be joined by Silverbolt, the damage marks reappear. Then when returning to the Maximal base after short-circuiting again, she’s clean once more. Clearly, the animators didn’t keep things consistent in terms of her body.

After Blackarachnia transfers the access codes of the Ark to Optimus Primal, Rhinox performs the procedure on her to remove the Predacon shell program from her core consciousness to save her life. 🙂 Unfortunately, the Predacons get wind of this happening.

Led by Tarantulas, the Predacons attack the Maximals’ base to disrupt their efforts. Optimus, Cheetor and Rattrap hold the fort whilst Rhinox and Silverbolt work to keep Blackarachnia alive. Sadly, the procedure fails. Blackarachnia dies, thanks to Tarantulas.

Silverbolt seeks revenge on Tarantulas, only to be attacked by Rampage. Thankfully, Blackarachnia is brought back to life and is a Transmetal II as well as a Maximal. I was very excited to see Blackarachnia back as a Transmetal II once I saw this episode on VHS.

‘Crossing the Rubicon’ rating – 9/10