Home, Part 1

« Transformers: EarthSparkep 17 »
"Welcome to the Pits, Mutherfragger!"
"Home, Part 1"
Season	1
No. in season	17
Production company	Entertainment One Nickelodeon
Airdate	March 3,2023(Paramount+) August 26,2023(Nickelodeon)
Writers	Mae Catt,Nicole DubucandDale Malinowski
Story by	Mae Catt, Nicole Dubuc,Isabel Galupo,Dale Malinowski andMaasai Singleton
Director	Alex Kwan&Sebastian Montes
Animation studio	Icon Creative Studio
Watch this episode on Paramount+

The kids and Terrans sneak out for a night of fun in Philadelphia, but their dreams of visiting the big city transform into a nightmare.

Synopsis

At an underground fighting arena,Bumblebeedukes it out withBrawlfor the amusement of a crowd of humans. Emerging battered but victorious over the Decepticon brute, Bumblebee has little time to rest as his next hulking opponent is called into the arena.

At midnight inPhiladelphia,MoandRobbyare revealed to have snuck out to the big city to give theirTerransiblings a chance at experiencing more of the world. Overwhelmed by the new opportunities presented by city life, the Terrans and Malto children depart in three groups to experience as much of the city as they can, with Robby trying to remind everyone to meet back in two hours. Nightshade, having departed alone, follows a man who temporarily accosted the Terrans to discover him trying to commit a mugging. Going into flight-mode,Nightshaderescues the attempted mugging victim and flies off.

AsJawbreaker,Thrash,and Mo race off, they catch the attention of a woman, who eyes them up with interest. Approaching the Maltos to see if they're interested in seeing a "wrestling match", she lures the unsuspecting three to an underground fighting arena... and traps Jawbreaker in a caged elevator, intending to involuntarily enter the bulky bot into the brawl.

Meanwhile, at a skate park, Robby meets up with an old friend, Stevie, who he introduces toHashtagandTwitch.However, Stevie keeps saying some carelessly hurtful things about Transformers, souring Robby's mood. His two Terran sisters are none the wiser and enjoy themselves at the park, with Twitch playing as Robby's hoverboard and Hashtag partially transforming her legs so she can skate on her rear tires. When she gets a littletooenthusiastic and takes a ramp in van mode though, she picks herself up only to see some anti-Transformers graffiti prominently displayed in the park. Hurt by the message and by Stevie's attempts to downplay it as only meaning "Decepticons", the three Malto family members depart.

Back with Nightshade, they place their rescue victim down upon a building roof and observe on their purse a "she/they" pronouns badge. Introducing themself as Nightshade and stating their own pronouns, the young human introduces herself as Sam. Thanking Nightshade for saving her, Sam surveys the city with Nightshade, agreeing with them on its beauty but lamenting you can never tell who to trust. When Sam notes they feel safe around other non-binary people, Nightshade takes note of the word "non-binary" and decides it is a good word to describe themself.

Back at the fighting arena, Jawbreaker is shocked to find his "Bot Brawl" opponent is none other than Bumblebee. Shocked himself to see his former student there, the two decide to give their audience a staged wrestling match instead of a life-and-death brawl, narrated by Frenzy and Laserbeak. Following the short "match" however, Bumblebee is quickly scheduled to face off against the current reigning champion;Grimlock.Surprised to see the Dinobot, Bee is initially overjoyed to see his old friend as he's been working undercover to find him since he went missing months ago. The joy, however, quickly evaporates when Grimlock begins attacking him, seemingly unaware of who Bumblebee is. Rushing in to defend their mentor, Mo takes note of a mysterious badge under Grimlock's chin. Observing all of this from the rafters, the survivingDr. Meridian/Mandroidtakes glee at the available spare parts he now has from the losers of the Bot Brawl fights and gloats over how he's taken control of the mighty Grimlock. Back in the arena, Mo and the others quickly deduce the chip on Grimlock is what's controlling him. Bee and the Maltos work together to clear an opening for Thrash to disable Grimlock's control badge. Upon being freed from the badge, the infuriated Dinobot goes on a rampage in T-Rex mode, scaring off the spectators and tearing the arena apart. Deciding to let Grimlock cool off, Bee and the others flee the arena as well.

Back with Robby, Twitch, and Hashtag, Robby assures his Terran sisters not to feel guilty about his disappointment with Stevie and Philadelphia's anti-Transformers bigotry. Soon rejoined by an exuberant Nightshade, they're all surprised to see Bumblebee returning in tow with Mo, Thrash, and Jawbreaker. Bumblebee informs them he has to go back to help Grimlock, but realizing he needs backup and that he can't wait forOptimus,he asks the Terrans if they're ready for their first real Autobot mission.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Non-binary?"
"People who aren't male or female. Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed."
"I always knew my pronouns felt right, but...what a wonderful word for a wonderful experience."

—Nightshadegets a lesson in terminology fromSam.

"How can wrestling betray me like this?!"

—Jawbreaker

Frenzy:Heeeheheheheh! Looks likesomeone'sgoing extinct!
Laserbeak:And it ain't the dino! Heheheh heh heh, aheh, aahhhno seriously, he's in trouble.

"Finally, a weapon worthy of me. When all your pickings are from the losers, it's hard to be choosy."

—Mandroidlaments his options of Transformers.eBaycustomers can sympathize.

Notes

Continuity notes

• One of the attendees of "Bot Brawl" appears to bePrincipal Dan,the head of Robby and Mo's school inWitwicky.Whether it's supposed to be him or just re-using a model to fill up the crowd remains to be seen.
• Humans seem to be completely unafraid of Frenzy and Laserbeak, despite them being Decepticons.

Transformers references

• Deactivated Transformers hanging helplessly from the ceiling at the Bot Brawls brings to mind whatShockwaveinfamously did to the Autobots in the Marvel comics issue, "The New Order".
• Laserbeak talking isn't unheard of in the franchise but his smarmy wrestling style commentary duo with Frenzy seems to reference his "Statler and Waldorf" -type act withBuzzsawinJohn Barber'sOptimus Primecomic series.

Real-world references

After careful consideration, I've decided not to endorse your park.

• Bumblebee is billed as from "Parts Unknown" when entering the Bot Brawl arena, "Parts Unknown" being a popular billing for wrestlers who have some sort of mystique to them, associated mainly withThe Ultimate Warrior.
• When Jawbreaker enters the Bot Brawl arena, Nova Storm's unconscious body is in what's popularly known as the "Family GuyDeath Pose, "a stock pose used by many characters on the television series (generally after being knocked unconscious, despite its name); the most famous example is from the Season 10 episode"The Blind Side",in which family patriarch,Peter Griffinrepeatedly falls down the stairs, landing in the pose each time.
• One of the moves Bumblebee performs on Jawbreaker in their wrestling match is "The People's Elbow", the signature cocky move ofDwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
• As the Autobots leave Grimlock behind in the arena, he roars as a "Hail 2 The King!" cardboard sign falls across him in the foreground, which is a reference to theTyrannosaurus's final scene (and a falling "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth" banner) inJurassic Park.
• Grimlock shooting off his fire into the air as he roars triumphantly also referencesGodzilla.

Errors

• While under Mandroid's control Grimlock's eyes are blue. This is different from the effect of mind control seen in "Secret Legacy, Part 2"and the next episode, where the victim's eyes turn white.

Trivia

• As with "Secret Legacy, Part 1"and"Age of Evolution, Part 1",most online distribution platforms do not list this episode separately from Part 2, instead choosing to combine both parts into a single 44-minute video.
• This is the first two part episode that gets separated in its initial airing on it'sCanadianYTVbroadcast.
• On theBBC's streaming service, iPlayer, Nightshade and Sam's conversation is abruptly ended just before Sam mentions "nonbinary". The edit was seemingly made in June 2024, as the uncut episode was previously available on the service. In an email, the BBC claimed they excised the exchange "because it didn't provide the accuracy of language we need for our young audience, specifically a definition of the meaning of 'non-binary' which was given by one of the characters". The corporation defended themselves by noting, "We left in [other] dialogue [in the show] where characters discuss their pronouns which makes clear that they don’t identify themselves according to binary gender beliefs."

Foreign localization

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title:"Casa, Parte 1"(" Home, Part 1 ")
• Original airdate:?, 2024

• For unknown reasons, both parts of "Home" were skipped by Paramount+ in Brazil and are currently available only on Netflix.
• Nightshade's use of they/them pronouns when introducing themselves to Sam is replaced by them saying "I can see you have a good taste", referring to her pins. Sam's use of she/they pronouns is also replaced by Sam saying they're non-binary, to which Nightshade doesn't react. Since the rest of the scene is more faithfully translated, it causes confusion as to why Sam presumes Nightshade to also be non-binary and why Nightshade only reacts to the second time they hear that word.

French

• Title:"Chez soi, partie 1"(" At home, part 1 ")
• Original airdate:September 10,2023

German

• Title:"Heimat, Teil 1"
• Original airdate:March 10,2023

Hungarian

• Title:"Hazai pálya, 1. rész"(" Home Turf, part 1 ")
• Original airdate:September 3,2023

Indonesian

• Title:"Rumah, Bagian 1"(" Home, Part 1 ")
• Original airdate:TBA

Mandarin

• Title:"Jiā (Shàng)"( gia ( thượng )," Home (Part 1) ")
• Original airdate:December 2,2023
  • On the good side, Nightshade's non-binary identity isn't censored at all! On the dark side, Sam's identity is mistranslated, making the conversation very confusing:
  • Nightshade: Ta rất thích ngươi huy chương, tên của ta kêu đêm ảnh, ta giới tính hẳn là bọn họ. (I like your pins! My name is Nightshade. I think my gender is they/them.)

Sam: Cảm ơn, ta là sơn mỗ, ta là nữ sinh, ta tưởng ngươi đã nhìn ra đi? ( Thanks. I'm Sam. I am a girl. I think you can tell, right? )

Nightshade: Thành phố này cũng thật xinh đẹp! ( What a wonderful city! )

Sam: Thực xin lỗi, vừa rồi đem ngươi đương thành người xấu. Có đôi khi, thế giới là một cái thực đáng sợ địa phương, vô pháp phán đoán thiện ác, căn bản không biết ai mới là nguy hiểm người. (I'm sorry that I took you as a bad guy earlier. Sometimes, the world can be a scary place. It's hard to tell who's kind, who's dangerous.)

Nightshade: Ngươi nói như vậy…… Xác thật rất thất vọng. ( What you said is... disappointing. )

Sam: Hắc, không có quan hệ, ta biết cùng bằng hữu hoặc là phi hai nguyên tố giới tính người ở bên nhau là thực an toàn. ( Hey, it's OK. I know I'm safe with my friends or non-binary people. )

Nightshade: Phi hai nguyên tố giới tính? ( Non-binary? )

Sam: Vừa không là nam sinh cũng không phải nữ sinh? A, thật sự thực xin lỗi, ta không nên nói như vậy ngươi. ( Neither male nor female? Oh! I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called you that. )

Nightshade: Ta sử dụng nhân xưng đại từ là bọn họ, cho nên, đối, đây là một cái rất mỹ diệu từ, làm ta từng có mỹ diệu trải qua. ( I use they/them pronouns. So, yes, this is a wonderful word, and has given me wonderful experiences before. )

Home video releases

DVD

2024 —Transformers: EarthSpark- Season 1: Episodes 11-26 (Paramount)