With the Christmas season upon them, the Autobots are not quite themselves following a run-in with Porter C. Powell's new mass-produced Soundwave action figures.
Tropes:
- Alien Invasion: The Decepticons launch a full-scale one of Detroit. Thankfully, this is merely a hologram projected by Soundwave.
- Badass Boast: "Escape is impossible. Autobots inferior. Soundwave superior!"
- Be Careful What You Wish For:
- Megatron mocks Prowl and tells him to do his worst. Prowl immediately breaks free and slices off his arm.
- A more subtle example: Prowl has expressed his desire to experience life as a human. He gets his wish (even though his instincts tell him that something is amiss) and has to watch helplessly along with the other human-turned Autobots as the Decepticons lay waste to Earth.
- Binge Montage: There's one of Bulkhead finally realizing what do Burger Bot's cheeseburgers taste like. He absolutely loves it, but then has to use the bathroom.
- The Bus Came Back: Soundwave returns at last after his lengthy disappearance since Season 1.
- Sari also returns after last being seen in TransWarped, Part 3.
- Christmas Episode: The first half of one, which, bizarrely, premiered in April.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Automen vs the holographic Decepticons. Surprisingly, the Decepticons lose.
- Forced to Watch: Megatron orders the Automen to be spared for now so they can be forced to watch the destruction of Earth.
- Improbable Weapon User: Human!Optimus smacks Megatron around with Megatron's severed arm.
- Ink-Suit Actor: The Autobots' human forms all resemble their voice actors to various degrees. Special mention goes to Bumblebee.
- Light Is Not Good: Soundwave's first avatar in the virtual world is a life-size white recoloring of his normal color scheme.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The Autobots' reactions to becoming Automen (except for Prowl, though).
- Multi-Part Episode: The first half of one.
- Mythology Gag:
- The paraphrasing of Soundwave's most famous line from Transformers: The Movie.
- The episode's plot is a partial reference to the episode Only Human of the original Transformers Cartoon, in which 4 Autobots are temporarily transformed into humans, notably Optimus' hypothesis as to how they are transformed into humans (their minds extracted and placed in human bodies) is how the transformation takes place in that episode.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Decepticons as usual, but also the final shot of Optimus, as Soundwave's reprogramming begins to take hold.
- Shout-Out:
- After the Automen defeat the holographic Decepticons, Bumblebee says, "I don't think we're in Detroit anymore."
- The scene of Cybertron destroying Sumdac Tower brings to mind Independence Day.
- At one point, Sari quotes from the Christmas poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ("Twas the Night Before Christmas"), replacing the word "mouse" with "creepy robot bird" (Laserbeak).
- Prowl running into a burning building to save a child despite having no powers is taken out of Spider-Man 2.
- This Cannot Be!:
- Bulkhead, as the Decepticon invasion begins. Optimus realizes he's right; it isn't actually happening.
- Blitzwing and then Starscream's reaction to the Automen demonstrating special abilities.
- To Be Continued: "Soon, the Autobots will unite with us. Soon, they will call themselves... Decepticons!"
- Unexplained Recovery: It's not exactly clear how Soundwave did recover, nor is it explained how he acquired Laserbeak and Ratbat (one can infer he built them).
- Wham Shot: Three times, no less:
- In the holographic reality, the Automen are shocked to see the Decepticon-controlled Cybertron approach the Sumdac Tower.
- Then, when they realize they're a virtual reality, the giant white Soundwave rises up and proclaims their impossibilty of escape while saying, "Autobots inferior, Soundwave superior."
- Finally, we are treated to a lovely shot of Optimus Prime's optics turning Decepticon red in the final seconds of the episode.
