Shopping Brawl
From Transformers Wiki
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 Skynet has finally met its match. | ||||||
| "Shopping Brawl" | ||||||
| Production company | Entertainment One | |||||
| Airdate | March 25, 2022 | |||||
| Writers | Kevin Burke & Chris Wyatt | |||||
| Directors | Paul O'Flanagan | |||||
| Animation studio | Boulder Media Studio | |||||
 Watch this episode on Netflix
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Better the devil you know.
Contents |
Synopsis
The Lost Bots are getting a start on their lamest attempt yet to get back in with the other squads: disguising themselves with clothes and props from the doll store and pretending they're not the Lost Bots. They hide as Dave walks by, talking to his mom over the phone about how he's lost his job... a job at the only place he's ever felt like he actually belonged. Feeling pangs of guilt, the Lost Bots follow Dave through the mall as he continues to explain to his mom it's all over and maybe he'll move on to some other life goals, like being a living statue performer. He retreats to his office to clean out his locker, and even sings a dramatic, soul-rending song of sadness over the lemons life keeps throwing at him. And while the Lost Bots feel weirdly sad as Dave leaves the mall for the last time, Burgertron has a sudden revelation... no Dave means no reason to hide at night. The mall belongs to the BotBots!
The BotBots waste no time going absolutely buck wild. The Hunger Hubs make a mess of the food court, the Custodial Crew clog the toilets, and the Jock Squad engage in churro-jousting. Even the Lost Bots are having a ball piling ice cream onto Clogstopper when something new arrives: a trio of treaded security bots. Burgertron's initial excitement at the arrival of some fellow bots turns to blind panic as the security robots register the BotBots as "rodents" and fire deadly lasers to eliminate them! The security bots spread out, and BotBots everywhere flee for their lives. Fortunately for the BotBots, the security bots have bad aim... but unfortunately for the mall, the lasers do major damage to everything they actually hit.
Soon the mall is a blasted wasteland, with small pockets of BotBots hiding from the killer robots. The Lost Bots find themselves with a small group that includes Spud Muffin, who, even in mortal peril, can't resist getting a dig in at their expense. Burgertron Spud Muffin comes up with the idea that each squad needs to try and come up with a plan to stop the bots, and they all get to work. However, nothing seems to stop the security force. The Jock Squad knock them down but they get back up again, and the Gamer Geeks try rewiring them but are zapped by internal security systems. Bonz-Eye figures they must have a weakness to exploit, but what?
Burgertron takes them to Dave's office to show them a rare tome: an "instruction manual". Within its pages, they find that by plugging the mall's master security code into one of the security bots, all three units will shut down. But only flesh creatures know the code, and the BotBots only know one flesh creature, and he was just fired. To save the BotBots and the mall, they must get Dave back! The Lost Bots meet up with Ring-A-Ling, the company phone Dave was forced to leave behind, who tells them the only number Dave ever added to her was his mom. After getting past Dave's mom, Burgertron poses as "Mr. Mallworker Fleshguy, Esquire" to tell Dave that he needs to come back to the mall tonight to pick up his "donut of service", a reward for all his time working at the mall. Dave immediately hangs up.
Returning to the main hall, the Lost Bots spy Spud Muffin's attempt to stop the security bots: a massive battering ram made up of joined-together shopping carts suspended from the ceiling. As the killer bots arrive, the other Hunger Hubs untie one end, sending the carts smashing into the bots and knocking them into the (rebuilt) fountain, where they shut down. The other BotBots cheer, Spud Muffin starts a rather presumptive speech... and of course the security bots emerge from the water, now in even creepier, deadlier spider-like modes, and once again the BotBots make a mad dash for their lives. Nothing's worked, and they need a hero now more than ever...
...at which point Dave returns, the lure of a small piece of free fried dough more than enough to get him back. Enraged at the carnage the security bots are unleashing on his beloved mall, he charges at them only to hide when the lasers start. The bots scan the area, but despite him being right next to them, they can't find him, as Dave's living statue practice and general inactivity has given him the ability to be completely motionless, confusing the security bots' motion detectors. He sneaks up on them until he's close enough to leap on one, where he's able to input the master security code and shut them down. And as he searches for Mr. Mallworker Fleshguy, Esquire, still wanting that donut, he doesn't notice that the entire scene has been caught on camera by Fomo.
The next night, Dave is back in his office on his company phone, thanking his boss for re-hiring him. It seems someone emailed the video of Dave's heroic rescue of the mall to corporate. As Dave settles in for another night, he spots a fresh(!) donut on his desk, alongside a Costa Pasta collector's cup... the last cup he needed for his collection of mall cups! And it's filled with lemonade! And spotting some sesame seeds by these prizes, Dave has a flash of realization: did that little burger-bot get him his job back?
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| BotBots | Humans | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"No, mom, I can't just grow a moustache and re-apply for the job with a new name!"
- —For once, Dave is smarter than Burgertron
"I really should get my own backing singers."
- —Is Clogstopper breaking the laws of diegesis or merely being random? Who can tell, really?
"I always thought we needed personal boundaries to have fun! So! Foolish!"
- —Batsby
Burgertron: Is he our enemy? Maybe in his own fleshy and gross way he loves the mall as much as we do! And he should be as free to be here as we BotBots are! In fact, maybe freedom is the right of all sentient beings!
Dimlit: What's "sentient"?
Kikmee: Like a snake.
Bonz-Eye: No, that's a serpent.
Clogstopper: Dave's a serpent?!
"Hello. Is this the Dave's Mom? Is Dave there?... I'm uh... human friends with Dave!... Why is that funny? Dave has friends!"
- —Burgertron, aka Mr. Mallworker Fleshguy, Esquire makes an important call
"No, I wouldn't call me brave. I just learned that passion, and the promise of fried dough, can make a man do incredible things."
- —Never change, Dave
Notes
Continuity notes
- Dave lost his job at the end of the prior episode, "Agent Smartlit", after destroying the main hall's fountain and a chunk of the food court.
- Batsby and Dinger use the same fake-horsie setup that Clogstopper rode in Burgertron's The Real I, Cheeseburger, from the episode "I, Cheeseburger".
- Speaking of, a flier for The Real I, Cheeseburger floats through the ruined main hall.
- The mall's master security code of "111111" was the code Clogstopper tried to unlock Dave's phone in "Phoning It In". It wasn't the right code there, but here? Vindication!
- Burgertron obtained the rare Costa Pasta collector's cup way back in "The Lost Bots and the Claw Crusade". He was convinced it was useless, but Kikmee told him to keep it as it might be useful some day.
- The donut Burgertron left for Dave has blue frosting on it; definitely don't want a repeat of that "did Burgertron murder Sprinkleberry D'uhnut?" "misunderstanding" from a little while back.
Transformers references
- Yes, Burgertron spouts the catchphrase of many an Optimus Prime. Which, given the original toy's similarities to the standard Optimus in the head region, makes sense.
Real-world references
- The killer security bots are a deliberate homage to the 1986 horror film Chopping Mall (aka Killbots), in which a trio of black, treaded, laser-visor-having, malfunctioning experimental security robots hunt down a group of teenagers who've snuck into a mall after hours to have a party. They even share the "Have a nice day" phrase. And yes, even the episode title is a play on the movie title.
- One of the security bots exclaims "Exterminate!" as it fires, in reference to the Daleks from Doctor Who.
BotBots cypher translations
- The soda fountain serves, from left to right, "Cget" (no we don't know either), "Fizzy", "Coke" and "Fanta", the last two being real soda brands.
- Dave's mom is actually listed as "Grandma" on his phone! Say whaaaaaaaa?
Animation and technical errors
- Despite having happened almost assuredly a very short time ago, like possibly within hours, the fountain and food court have been rebuilt and are in perfect working order by the time Dave goes to clean out his locker. Of course, a similar situation happened in "Rage Against the Karaoke Machine", and also, it's funnier this way, so hey.
- In the map segment of the security bots' rampage, the Custodial Crew is represented not by their plunger-shaped insignia, but the toilet-shaped icon of their original incarnation, the Toilet Troop.
Trivia
- The music playing over the credits is the second chorus from Dave's lemons song, because of course.
Foreign localization
Arabic
- Title: " فوضى التسوق" ("Shopping chaos")
French
- Title: "Chaos au centre commercial" ("Chaos at the mall")
Indonesian
- Title: "Keributan di Tempat Belanja" ("Chaos in the Shopping Area")
Brazilian Portuguese
- Title: "Caos no shopping" ("Chaos at the mall")
European Portuguese
- Title: "Caos no centro comercial" ("Chaos at the shopping mall")
