G1 Re-Watch: The Dweller in the Depths
So, this is an episode that actually got kind of scary, which wasn’t very typical for Transformers G1 content:
The villain of the episode is actually a bunch of nightmarish reject Quintesson-made creatures that live below Cybertron’s surface and siphon the power out of Cybertronians, causing them to essentially become aggressive energon-hungry vampire zombies.
The sub-surface dweller pictured above is vaguely reminiscent of some of the weird creatures that sometimes got featured in The Real Ghostbusters cartoon around the same time as this episode came out, which absolutely is not a complaint.
I like the swamp gator vibe of this particular nightmare creature, and not having a head makes it seem weirdly sinister when you see it moving around on screen.
But the above isn’t even getting into the really creepy stuff in this episode...
Putting this below a cut, because there are a lot of screenshots!
So I’m going to breeze through the setup here a little bit to get to the good stuff:
Perceptor sets up a self-renewing power source to help restore Cybertron and improve their energon supplies. This is good news, and everyone is feeling fairly upbeat about it.
Smash cut to the Quintessons, who are talking about failed proto-Cybertronians that they couldn’t fix, so they left them in their thrown-together and incomplete forms underneath the planet’s surface.
Another smash cut, now Cyclonus and his group of Decepticons are stalking out the lower levels of the city, and the Autobots are soon to follow suit as they hope to interrupt any shenanigans.
Both teams get down there, where they discover-- Oh shit!
This thing, and a bunch of other similar things, which attack with tentacles and electricity draining nets to siphon the life sustaining energy out of the Cybertronians.
This sequence is actually effectively threatening; The Autobot exploration team here includes Wreck-Gar and Arcee.
We see Ultra Magnus get taken out, in a good example of the Worf Effect, where the strongest character present getting beaten first sets up real anxiety about how the rest of the characters might fare here.
It’s a real struggle, and Wreck-Gar goes down.
His pop culture referential quips make this very unsettling; He’s just as upbeat as ever, while his lifeforce is ripped away.
Springer makes a run for it, to see if Wreck-Gar is okay, and....
...Wreck-Gar looks up, totally grey and with glowing red eyes, and growls out “FEED ME!” before immediately siphoning the lifeforce out of Springer. Yikes.
Arcee is slowly getting backed into a corner...
...And we see that Ultra Magnus has managed to avoid getting drained, as he and Kup are confronted by the Decepticons in a surprise attack.
They shoot overhead, collapsing some of the underground cave ceiling on top of both Kup and Ultra Magnus, while a terrified Arcee watches.
She tries to run away by switching to alt-mode, but she gets caught up in the creature’s electrical netting.
Meanwhile, the Cybertronians who were zombified slowly approach her...
Before fading to a commercial cut, all we hear is Arcee screaming “No, no! Stay back!” while it zooms in on the zombie’s faces as they growl at her.
Very bad vibes, and possibly some very dark implications, especially as it cuts to black right at this point.
After the commercial break, Arcee calls for Kup, trying to wake him out of his concussed state, and he responds-- By immediately switching to alt-mode and ramming the shit out of the creature that has her caught in the net.
We love a good Kup scene, but unfortunately, he’s a bit slow due to being injured (and older than hell), and he’s turned into an energon zombie.
Ultra Magnus grabs Arcee, and tells her that they just have to get the hell out of here so that Perceptor might be able to fix this somehow.
We smash cut to the Quintessons, continuing to be weird conniving micro-managing nerds.
We then see the Decepticons, who apparently do not have GPS, lost underground.
They run into the energon zombies, who they fire at-- And it seems as though they’re dead.
But then...
In running away from the approaching zombies, they accidentally wind up right back where the power siphoning creatures live, and Cyclonus gets got.
Meanwhile, Ultra Mags and Arcee are navigating their way through, but run into one of the Decepticons who broke off from the main group while running away.
One of the creatures appears again, and Ultra Magnus gets caught in a net after knocking the laser bazooka out of the Decepticon’s grip.
In a rare example of some sense of scale being adhered to, Arcee then grabs the bazooka and fires at the creature-- We can see how big the bazooka is compared to Arcee:
This is successful after a few rapid fire blasts, and while Ultra Magnus is weakened, he’s still capable of carrying on.
The two of them leave the Decepticon, who is probably straight up just dead.
They actually manage to get back to base, where Rodimus is discussing the energy drain with Perceptor, who has detected it on his monitors.
But unfortunately, they were followed!
Rodimus: “Wreck-Gar! Springer!”
Arcee: “They can’t hear you, Rodimus..”
It’s pretty effectively frightening to see the zombified Autobots particularly, as they’re now above ground and in the usual friendly pastel/primary coloured environment and lightning, which emphasises how grim they look.
We get a close-up shot of Kup, Springer, and Wreck-Gar -- Characters who are usually fairly light hearted or funny-- Looking at their fellow Autobots with genuine aggression and hunger.
I like that they used these characters, for that exact reason. It makes it feel way creepier and weirder, because these are typically fun characters who are now growling and shouting for fresh energon straight from the fuel lines of their friends.
Perceptor, thinking fast, says a power surge should shock their systems into levelling out again by providing an abundance of energy for them to consume in one burst.
They create an energy surge by touching a power console and holding hands with one another to create a circuit for the energy to cycle between each of them, which somehow works.
Yes, the power of holding hands is what resolves this whole episode. I love G1.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), this also snaps the Decepticons out of it, so they’re just stuck in their base surrounded by the enemy.
In one of the funniest smash cuts ever, there is literally no fight.
Instantly, Cyclonus turns around, says “Let’s get out of here!” and it doesn’t even show them leaving, it just smashes straight to the Autobot logo.
They lure the creatures into space by using their energy surge idea to make themselves into appealing bait, then ditch the creatures off Cybertron, the end.
Overall Episode Rating: Enjoyable!
Not a super genius ending or resolution, but it didn’t need to be.
This was a pretty solid episode, with some pretty cool and creepy moments, and several interesting creature designs.
It’s good to see Arcee getting a chance to shine, despite the very unsettling vibes in the scene with her where the creatures are initially encountered.
The initial encounter scene is actually very effective all around, and establishes the creatures as a real threat.
The decision to make the typically humorous or jokey characters turn into the energon zombies was extremely effective, and set up a very “oh shit” vibe from the second Wreck-Gar is the first to go down.
This is a pretty good episode, although if someone isn’t familiar with the characters or the surrounding overarching storyline set up for the show at this point in the run, it wouldn’t be as effective.
Definitely not an episode to jump in and start watching the series with, but for familiar viewers, this is absolutely a solid Halloween show.
