Hard Knocks

As the race grows more desperate, Smokescreen's boasts about his destiny turn out to be more than meets the eye.

Synopsis

Soundwave is still hard at work decoding coordinates, while Megatron boasts about his defeat of Optimus. Soundwave soon comes up with another set of coordinates, and Knock Out insists on going. Though Megatron is skeptical, recalling the last time the doctor tried to obtain a relic, Knock Out insists he won't fail this time, and borrows Soundwave's Resonance Blaster.

In the Autobot base, Optimus Prime is likewise decoding coordinates. Smokescreen annoys everyone by boasting it is his destiny to be a great warrior and being generally exuberant. To his disappointment, when Optimus decodes a set of coordinates, Arcee and Bumblebee are the ones selected to go on the mission, and he is left at base. Arcee and Bumblebee arrive at a lakeside and spy the second Omega Key sitting out in the open, but Knock Out is already there, waiting. Using the Resonance Blaster, both Autobots are sent flying and when they try to flank the Decepticon, he shoots it at the ground, raising a cloud of dust so he can use it as cover to zap them. By the time Arcee and Bumblebee recover, Knock Out is long gone with the key.

Back on the Nemesis, Megatron inspects the relic and wonders if it is a decoy, though Knock Out protests the Autobots fought too desperately for it. Soundwave decodes more coordinates which Megatron believes will provide them with more answers, but when Knock Out declares to investigate, Megatron instead gives him the task of analyzing the key and its purpose. Meanwhile, Bumblebee undergoes repairs, and Smokescreen's swagger continues to get on Arcee's nerves so she goes to find some peace and quiet. Bulkhead reminds Smokescreen that the war has been going on a long time and he needs to have patience to work as a team player.

Starscream has finished refining his Red Energon, but finding it slow work and with only a small yield of a one-time use. Luckily the Harbinger computer picks up more Decepticon activity, and Starscream decides he can use the Red Energon to obtain a more valuable artifact.

The Autobots gain a new set of coordinates, and Bulkhead and Smokescreen roll out, though Arcee reminds Bulkhead to keep an eye on their eager comrade. The pair arrive on a forested mountainside where Dreadwing is waiting. The Decepticon knocks them flat before flying off, and the two Autobots realize that Dreadwing has mined the trees... all of the trees. They manage to outrun the explosions, and Bulkhead sends Smokescreen after the relic while he goads Dreadwing into a fight. As they exchange blows, Dreadwing plants a bomb on Bulkhead's back, and after Bulkhead manages to knock him flat, sets it to explode. Unfortunately for Dreadwing, Bulkhead already noticed the bomb and transferred it to his back during the fight, and though Dreadwing throws the bomb away, it goes off close enough to knock him out.

Smokescreen meanwhile uncovers the Omega Key, only to be rendered unconscious by a blow from behind. When Bulkhead wakes him, the key is already gone. Smokescreen is deflated by his failure, but as they return through the GroundBridge, Bulkhead reminds him that they need all four keys to revive Cybertron. Starscream, hiding nearby with the key he grabbed, overhears them talking, and regards the key he holds with new respect and ambition.

Back at base, Smokescreen exclaims his inability of securing the key and Arcee lectures him on realistic expectations and tells him he needs to be a team player. Upset, Smokescreen leaves the base and Optimus, saying the young Autobot needs to clear his head, returns to decoding coordinates. On the Nemesis, Megatron is unhappy at Dreadwing's failure, and checks with Soundwave regarding the project to find where the Autobot base is located. Soundwave reports that he has Laserbeak scouting around Jasper. As both sides complete their decoding work, the final set of coordinates resolve into an image—a picture of Smokescreen himself, to both sides' surprise. Unfortunately when Optimus tries to call in Smokescreen, the rookie does not answer due to deactivating his comlink, and has instead fallen into Laserbeak's sights. Laserbeak fires on Smokescreen, who transforms to confront the drone, only to be knocked flat by Soundwave's Resonance Blaster. When the Autobots arrive at the location, they are just in time to see Soundwave dragging their unconscious friend back to the Nemesis through the Decepticon GroundBridge.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Last one to the Omega Key has to scrub the Energon tanks for a week."
"Didn't know we were keeping score."

—Smokescreen and Arcee

"Who knew that sound waves could be such a knock out?"

—See what Knock Out did there?

"Grrrrr...! Hurry up, already! How is it possible that speed-enhancing Energon takes longer to process than regular Energon?!"

—Starscream

"Make sure you keep an eye on 'destiny's child', okay?"
"Compared to watching Miko? Piece of cake!"

—Arcee giving Bulkhead some advice on handling the rookie

"You love doing your dirty work from a distance, don't ya? Too bad you don't have the ball bearings to fight up close and personal!"
"In this particular case, I would be all too happy to make an exception."

—Bulkhead gives Dreadwing some smack talk.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Megatron brags about his accomplishments in the previous episode to Soundwave.
• Megatron loosely refers to the events of "Tunnel Vision" while expressing surprise at Knock Out's willingness to get his hands dirty in light of what happened the last time, as well as more directly in his failure to obtain the phase shifter.
• Optimus still has the improvised sword-holder Ratchet made for him in the previous episode.
• Knock Out and Soundwave both use the Resonance Blaster, which Soundwave retrieved in "Triage".
• Starscream has refined the Red Energon he obtained in "New Recruit", though it's only enough to last for one use or two. He also remembers the loss of the Apex Armor in the same episode.
• Dreadwing reminds Bulkhead of their previous battle in "Loose Cannons".
• Megatron mentions that recent events have allowed them to narrow down the location of the Autobots' human allies, most likely referring to their discovery of Raf's house in "The Human Factor".

Transformers references

• Knock Out hopes that the new relic is an electro-disrupter cannon.
• The concept of an Autobot being the Omega Key comes from the War for Cybertron game, only with Omega Supreme being the Autobot instead of Smokescreen.

Real-world references

• "Slow and steady wins the race," is the moral in Aesop's story, "The Tortoise and the Hare".
• Arcee sarcastically refers to Smokescreen as "destiny's child," the name of a 1990s/2000s girl group.

Trivia

• Knock Out and Dreadwing both had the opportunity to take their assigned relics and leave, but stuck around to fight the Autobots. Dreadwing in particular must have spent hours placing bombs on all those trees.
• Unlike the other energon variants, no side-effects are seen with the use of refined Red Energon.
• Megatron sends three different Decepticons to do his dirty work in one episode. They must be taking shifts.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Coup bas" ("Low Blow")
• Original airdate: ?

German

• Title: "Harte Schule" ("Hard School")
• Original airdate: 21 February 2013

Japanese

• Title: "Bakuen Henkei! Omega Key Soudatsusen" (爆炎変形!オメガ・キー争奪戦, "Combustible Transformation! Struggle over the Omega Key")
• Original airdate: 2 March 2013

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "Achados e Perdidos" ("Lost and Found")
• Original airdate: 16 August 2013

Italian

• Title: "Colpi duri" ("Hard knocks")
• Original airdate: 14 February 2013

Home video releases

DVD

👁 United States of America
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season Two (Shout! Factory)
👁 Japan
2013 — Transformers Prime — Vol. 24 (Avex Trax) — Japanese audio only.
👁 Australia
2014 — Transformers Prime — Volume 5: Advance on Cybertron (Madman Entertainment)
👁 Germany
2014 — Transformers Prime — Folge 12: Die Entscheidung (EDEL:kids) — English and German audio.
👁 Australia
2014 — Transformers Prime — Season Two Collection (Madman Entertainment)
👁 France
2014 — Transformers Prime — Saison 2 Vol. 4: Bataille épiques (Primal Screen)
👁 United Kingdom
2015 — Transformers Prime — Season 2 Vol. 4: Darkest Hour (Primal Screen)
👁 France
2015 — Transformers Prime — Intégrale Saison 2 (Primal Screen)
👁 Italy
2015 — Transformers Prime — Stagione 2 Vol. 4: L'ora più buia (Primal Screen) — English, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian audio.
👁 United Kingdom
2015 — Transformers Prime — The Complete Season 2 (Primal Screen)
👁 Italy
2015 — Transformers Prime — La Seconda Stagione Completa (Primal Screen) — English, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian audio.

Blu-ray

👁 United States of America
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season Two (Shout! Factory)
👁 Australia
2015 — Transformers Prime — Season Two Collection (Madman Entertainment)