[Plot Details] [Opinions] [Great Moments] [Caption Weirdness] [Rating]
A Better Mousetrap In a Nutshell...
See Rattrap run. Run, Rattrap, run! See Tigatron foil Blackarachnia's evil plan. Foil, Tigatron, foil!
All The Gruesome Details
Warning! Warning! Major spoilers ahead! Proceed at your own risk!
Don't want to read everything that happened in the episode? Well, fine then! Be that way! You can just darn well click here and skip to the next part, you spoilsport.
Our opening shot is one of the Maximal base, which quickly pans down below the base to a crevice in the rock beneath it. The camera follows the crevice back for a short distance, only to reveal, lo and behold, a handful of Predacons: Terrorsaur, Waspinator, and Blackarachnia. Waspinator is struggling mightily to shove what looks like a tuning fork on steroids into a small crack in the wall of the cavern. He complains that he's tired of doing that and declares that the "bomb fits hole, see?" Blackarachnia begs to differ about the "bomb" part. She informs Waspinator--and us--that it is actually a sonic emitter that will blow a hole in the bottom of the Maximal base. Which is a good thing, if you're a Predacon. Terrorsaur observes that they have to widen the crack for the emitter and Blackarachnia tells her companions to get to it, that she's "soiled enough just being around" Terrorsaur and Waspinator. Waspinator takes offense at this and flies off in a huff, leaving Terrorsaur to deal with Blackarachnia. Terrorsaur tells Blackarachnia to start digging...and Blackarachnia pulls her crossbow gun thingy on him and declares that she's the "brains of the operation, not the brawn." Terrorsaur, seeing the "wisdom" of her position, gets to work at the crack with his eye lasers while Blackarachnia laughs maniacally.
Next shot is a computer simulation of Megatron in beast mode with Rhinox giving a voiceover lecture about techie stuff like tanglers and stun guns and cyclotron fields. The sim mirrors his words, showing sim-Megs trussed up and then whupped. Rattrap and Optimus Primal both approve. Optimus asks how long it will be until "Sentinel" (Nice name for a security system. Are you paying attention, ADT?) is fully operational. Rhinox's reply is interrupted by an alarm and Cheetor reports that the scanners are picking up Waspinator in Sector 19, which, according to Optimus, has seen a lot of Predacon activity of late. Optimus has Cheetor arrange a meeting with Tigatron. He's off to go see for himself what's up in Sector 19.
Meanwhile, Waspinator is flying around, muttering to himself about Megatron and how sick he is of taking orders and how he "ruuulllzzz." Unbeknownst to him, though, Tigatron is watching him from the ground. Optimus sneaks up on Ol' Stripes (Which is not an easy thing to do, but Optimus has apparently learned well from the "Rattrap School of Sneakiness.") He asks how long Waspinator's been circling, to which Tigatron replies, "Long enough to make my head spin," and asks if he can pretty please bring Waspinator down. But Optimus has other ideas, the spoilsport, and with that he transforms and takes to the air after Waspinator...
Meanwhile, Waspy's still flying in circles and still muttering, this time having delusions of grandeur about leading the Predacons. In mid-mutter, though, he's plowed by the Optimus Express and the chase is on, with Tigatron following on the ground as best he can.
Meanwhile, back at the Axalon, Dinobot is scoffing at the new defense system. He asserts that it's not nearly lethal enough, that it won't deter Predacons in battle mode, and he walks away in disgust. Rattrap, to prove a point--with the added benefit of ticking off Dinobot--activates one of the tangler guns. It does its job, trussing up the cranky ex-Predacon in a trice. Unfortunately, that only makes Dinobot really ticked off. He breaks out of his bonds and, with a bloodthirsty roar, charges at Rattrap, sword-first. Rattrap knocks Rhinox aside and ducks aside himself at the last moment...and Dinobot ends up with a sword lodged in the computer console and a nice jolt of electricity for his trouble. It sends him flying back against the wall, insensate, his head literally spinning.
But that's not the real problem. No, the real problem is that Dinobot's sword has caused all kinds of havoc with the new defense system. It now thinks that the Maximals are intruders, and it's gonna take care of them as per its programming. Rhinox can't turn it off, and it won't recognize that the Maximals are not enemies because that was the program that Rhinox was in the midst of installing when Rattrap decided to play "Piss Off the Predacon." "Whoops!" Rattrap responds.
So the Maximals are, in a nutshell, in big-time trouble. Rhinox orders everyone out. And everyone obeys. Except for Rattrap, who runs in the opposite direction from the exit and pulls the cover off of a crawlspace. He deflects a shot from one of the guns with it and then announces that since he caused the problem, he's going to solve it. He transforms to beast mode and scurries into the crawlspace. Rhinox protests, but too late. Rattrap's gone, and Rhinox himself has to scoot before he's trapped inside the base. As Rattrap crawls in beast mode through the crawlspace, he notes that he's starting to act far too noble for his own good, just like "Optimus Pinhead."
Meanwhile, Optimus Pinhead--I mean, Primal--is still chasing Waspinator, who's decided that he has to warn the other Predacons. He heads for the cavern, Optimus follows...and then mysteriously loses Waspy altogether and nearly flies head-on into a cliff for his pains. He pulls up precipitously, but he still clips an outcropping on the edge of the cliff and falls out of control for a bit. But he manages to regain control and surveys the surroundings, wondering where Waspinator went. But then he gets the old energon surge treatment, forcing him to land on an outcropping. Tigatron catches up and joins him there. Optimus asks if Tigatron saw where Waspinator went. He didn't, but he can still smell him. Just then, Optimus gets a communique from Sentinel, telling him that there are intruders in the base and that the defense grid is at "level one." Optimus wonders what the heck is going on and Tigatron suggests that he go back to the base and find out while he hunts down Waspinator. Optimus says he'll send along back-up to help him as soon as he can, to which Tigatron huffily replies that he doesn't need help and prefers to prowl alone.
Well, lah-dee-dah!
Tigatron takes off and Optimus high-tails it back to base, jets at maximum burn.
Back at the base, Rhinox, Cheetor, and Dinobot scurry outside just as the external shields snap on. Cheetor notes with dismay that they're locked out while Rhinox tries to contact Rattrap on his comm. No luck. The shields jam the frequencies. Dinobot dryly notes that Rhinox has built "a better mousetrap." (Hence the title of the episode... :) )
Inside the base, we get a Sentinel's-eye-view of things as it searches for Rattrap, who is still hiding in the crawlspace in the ceiling, still in beast mode. He's peering out into the corridor below him just as Sentinel sends out a flow of "zero friction fluid" into it. Rattrap impugns the stuff as "strictly for amateurs" and proceeds to go surfing down the corridor on the crawlspace cover. Some kind of energy netting appears before him and he leaps and somersaults in mid-air over it. Upon landing, he declares that Sentinel is "not a security grid. It's a gym, just for spy guys like me." Next the security system hurls blobs of energy at him, which Rattrap dodges, getting a good aerobic workout in the process. And then he takes off down the corridor and rounds a corner, giving Sentinel's camera a wave good-bye for good measure.
Meanwhile, Tigatron's prowling. He had been following Waspinator's scent, but it led him to what appears to be a dead end--a wall of rock on one side, a precipitous drop on two others, and the trail he came in on on the fourth. Getting an idea, Tigatron tentatively sticks out a paw and it goes right through the wall of rock. So then he walks right through it. On the other side, he finds a holographic projector, declares it "clever," and then proceeds on his merry way. A little ways down the cavern, a light is approaching from the other end...but it's only a couple of those flashlight spider-bot thingies, a mama-sized one followed by a baby-sized one struggling to keep up (How cute! :) ). Tigatron proceeds on.
Back at the Maximal base, Cheetor, Rhinox, and Dinobot are pounding the living daylights out of the shields with their weapons--to no effect. They stop, realizing that it's not doing them any good. Then they get the energon surges and go to beast mode just as Optimus Primal arrives back on the scene. He lands, converts to beast mode, and asks what the heck's going on. They explain what happened and Cheetor adds that if they don't get Rattrap out of the base or get Sentinel to stand down, "he's toast."
Inside the base, Rattrap's arrived at what would appear to be a very looooong elevator shaft, with a ladder running up one side of it. He leaps onto the ladder, just barely managing to grab onto a rung...and comes face to face with a disruptor gun above him, with a "cryofield" below him. Sentinel's voice tells him that he is "required to stand down." Rattrap replies with a flip comment about being a "stealth fighter, a master marksman, and a demolitions expert." To prove it, he chucks one of his explosive charges as the gun. The charge explodes and destroys the gun...but Sentinel responds with three more guns above Rattrap and the cryofield is moving up below him. Rattrap realizes that he's in deep doo-doo. The guns fire, Rattrap falls a short distance, taking out one of Sentinel's guns as he falls...and he manages to grab onto the lip of the hatch to another crawlspace with one hand. With the other hand--the one holding the gun--he shoots at the control panel for the crawlspace hatch. Luckily for him the hatch opens and he somersaults into it just as the cryofield passes by the open hatch behind him. Rattrap's off again, headed for the computer core...
Back at the cavern, Tigatron's still prowling, finally finding the three Predacons and their sonic emitter. He transforms in "stealth mode" (Whatever that means...) and spies on the Predacons for a bit, seeing what they're up to. Blackarachnia's futzing with the sonic emitter and reports that it'll blow in fifteen cycles, at which time they can get inside the Maximal base. Tigatron, however, begs to differ. He holds his gun on the Preds and says that that the only place they're going is the "slag heap." A brief fight ensues, the Predacons fall back, and Tigatron leaps up, yanks the emitter out of its crack, and runs for it. The Predacons give chase, but Tigatron, having wedged himself into a crack in the ceiling of the cavern, gets the drop on them. He throws the emitter, which is just about ready to blow, back at Blackarachnia. She and her two Predacon buddies flee. So does Tigatron. The emitter explodes, collapsing a section of the ground near the Maximal base. The other Maximals run to investigate, arriving at the scene just as Tigatron climbs out from under the rubble. Optimus wants to hear all about what happened...after they take care of the Rattrap problem...
Back inside the base, Rattrap has arrived at the computer core. Sentinel hits him with its best shots, but Rattrap dodges nimbly. At one point, he very nearly falls into the disintegration field that surrounds the core, but he catches himself on a railing with his (suddenly and conveniently prehensile :) ) tail. He's just about to deactivate Sentinel...when it unleashes its ultimate weapon at him, which is apparently a "shatter field." It fires the thing at Rattrap, who hits the deck to dodge the blast. But the blast sends debris flying everywhere, and one of the larger pieces falls on Rattrap, pinning him to the floor. He's stuck...and the button that will stop Sentinel is apparently just out of his reach. The weapon charges up, whining and glowing menacingly...
Outside, the shields suddenly snap off. Rhinox reacts with dismay. He explains that Sentinel would never lower the shield if an intruder was still active. The other Maximals catch on to Rhinox's meaning...and they begin to offer eulogies for their departed friend. Cheetor just can't believe he's gone. Optimus, in a slightly choked-up voice, says that Rattrap was a difficult, sometimes impossible, guy to deal with, but that he will "remember him with honor." Dinobot won't "disgrace his memory with lies." He declares that Rattrap was a "stinking omnivorous pestilence" but that in a perverse way, he will miss him. Rhinox acknowledges that Rattrap smelled bad, but he was still his best friend.
The scene starts to fade down to black...only to fade abruptly back up again. The outer lift thingy on the base descends with Rattrap in beast mode--and in one piece--aboard. He's sobbing mockingly, using his tail as a Kleenex and he implores them all not to stop singing his praises. The others react with shock, wondering how Rattrap managed to survive. Rattrap shrugs cavalierly and says that you just have to know how to talk to a security system. And Sentinel agrees. We finally fade out--for real this time--with the sound of Optimus Primal's relieved laughter.
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Nightwind's Unsolicited Opinions
This is an episode that's fun to watch, that has all of the escapist elements of a "Die Hard" movie, except that instead of "Bruce Willis vs. Terrorists in a High Rise," we have "Rattrap vs. Computer-with-Identity-Crisis in the Bowels of the Base" and we have Tigatron vs...well, terrorists, of a sort. :) And there's no blood, of course. (Dang... :) )
Overall, "A Better Mousetrap" is your basic A Plot/B Plot episode, the kind of plot structure that the later, post-Classic incarnations of Star Trek are/were very fond of doing. But unlike what often happens with many a Star Trek episode with this plot structure, the two plots here in "A Better Mousetrap" mesh fairly well. And both of them have a sufficient sense of danger about them, enough to make them both interesting. I could quibble that I'd like to have seen more of Tigatron and less of Rattrap, but that would have less to do with the episode itself and its plot than with my...*ahem*...attachment to Tigatron... :)
In any event, let's deal with each plot in turn here.
The Rattrap plot is entertaining, if a little repetitive at times. I find it a little hard to believe that Sentinel would have all of these various methods of defense scattered throughout the entirety of the base instead of just near sensitive areas, mainly because I doubt that a marooned group of individuals would have the resources to constuct such a security grid. But I'll give the writer the benefit of the doubt. Beyond that, the episode, like "Chain of Command," gives Rattrap a chance to shine without being reduced to spouting one-liners and hurling insults at Dinobot. It's the first hint of a bit of nobility, of a sort, in Rattrap: We learn that he's at least willing to right what he does wrong.
The scene in the computer core is a little overdone, a little overwrought, especially with the "push the button, dammit!" bit of "tension" at the end. But the one thing I like about it is that many episodes later--in "Changing of the Guard" in Season 3--we see the computer core and the controls for Sentinel again. It's kinda nice that the creators of the series remembered this scene from "A Better Mousetrap" when they did "Changing of the Guard" because, so far as I can tell, everything matches between the two episodes, as far apart as they are. I love little trivial bits of continuity like that.
And I've seen varying reactions to the very end of this episode, when the Maximals briefly believe that Rattrap is dead and they begin to "eulogize" him. I actually think the whole thing is rather cute, a cute capper for a largely cute episode. And I also think that the whole scene is something that's very believable for Rattrap to do, big show-off that he is... It could be said that it's kind of a cop-out in the sense that we don't get to see exactly how Rattrap defeated Sentinel, but honestly, I think that it's better this way, for two reasons. One is that anything they could have shown would probably have been unbelievable. The other is that, if they'd done any more with the Rattrap plot, then it would have taken away more time from the Tigatron story...
And, that, fellow TransFans, would have been a crying shame, in my opinion. I mean, the Tigatron plot is not particularly strong, but it gets the job done. Taking away time from it would have lessened the impact of the threat of the Predacons. Sure, Rattrap was in mortal danger inside the Axalon, but if the Predacons' plan had succeeded, then perhaps all of the Maximals would have been in mortal danger. So which plot holds more overall importance? Tigatron's. It would have been a shame to take more time away from it.
Besides that, the Tigatron plot establishes him (again) as the type who works best alone, when he's free to solve problems in the manner that he sees fit when the moment is at hand.
And boy, does he solve this problem! :) There he is...my man :)...facing down three Predacons with no backup and an unknown technobabble device that's about to blow. Everyone yells about Dinobot single-handledly taking on multiple Predacons in "Code of Hero," but Tigatron does the same thing here. Oh sure, he doesn't face as many Predacons as Dinobot takes on later and maybe there's not quite so much at stake, but then, Tigatron isn't suicidal here and if he hadn't done his job here, then the Maximals would perhaps have been in seriously deep doo-doo (again :) ). Tig's a man with a mission in this episode, and he does it well, with panache and aplomb and bravery.
And he does it with lots of sexy growls, too. :)~ Mmmm mmmm mmmmmmmmm... :) (Who, me? Lust after Tigatron? Whatever gave you that idea...? :) )
There's one other thing I like about this episode, too. And it's rather ironic to me, actually. This is the first episode in which we learn anything useful about Blackarachnia. We learn that she's intelligent, that she's witty, that she's a tech-head like Tarantulas (Not surprising, I suppose.). We learn far more about her here than we do in her intro episode, that's for sure... It gives me a sense that, yeah, the creators are taking their sweet old time filling in her character, but it shows that they are going to give her more depth. Which is a relief. :) Being a female myself, I appreciate the fact that Beast Wars isn't a gentlemen-only club. While I quibble about how Blackarachnia's character is portrayed (A subject for a later rant... :) ), it's nice that she (and later Airazor) is along for the ride and that she gets to do some non-traditionally female things. Like keister-kicking, f'rinstance... :)
And Waspinator, as usual, is amusing... I love that guy. :) And Terrorsaur isn't being an idiot in this episode. That's always a plus... :)
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Great Moments
I don't know why, but I kind of like the Waspinator/Optimus aerial chase scene, right down to Optimus nearly plowing into the cliff. :)
This is also the episode where, I think, Rattrap came closest to dying. But not at the hands of Sentinel, however. No, I'm talking Dinobot here. I honestly think Dinobot wanted to kill Rattrap after Rattrap sicced the tangler guns on him, and I don't get that feeling very often. It's kind of a chilling moment, but it's also kind of nice to see Dinobot lose his cool without it feeling like an act, which is how it usually seems. To me, at any rate.
I love Rattrap's first bit of tangoing with Sentinel, with the "surfing" (complete with appropriate music) and the somersaults and the aerobics and the cheerful waving. Most people would probably find it silly, but...Well, I like it. So there! :)
Best line?
Tigatron: "He's here somewhere..." in reference to finding Waspinator.
Why is this my favorite line, you may be asking? Why, because there's a very long, low, sexy growl right after it, of course... :) Yummy. :) Gives me goosebumps every time Tigatron does that...
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Closed Captioning Weirdness
(Or, Sometimes What You Think They Say Is Not Really What They Say...)
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Totally Arbitrary Overall Rating, Just For the Heck of It
This is a fun episode, the kind of episode that Beast Wars sadly doesn't do enough of for my tastes, especially once it goes on its epic kick in Season 2. This is the episode I turn on when I want to watch something brainless and/or when I want to watch Tigatron be all sexy/macho. :) There are no glaringly obvious plot pitfalls here, mainly because there's not much plot. Truth is, the episode doesn't need one. It just needs lots of escapist action, which it has. I certainly wouldn't tolerate this all the time...but for a single episode, I kinda like it. A lot. So I give it an 8.5, if only for the "fun factor."
