Spellbound
From Transformers Wiki
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 "At first glance, everything looked the same. It wasn't. Something evil had taken possession of the town." | ||||||
| "Spellbound" | ||||||
| Season | 2 | |||||
| No. in season | 6 | |||||
| Production company | Hasbro Studios | |||||
| Airdate | March 22, 2014 | |||||
| Writer | Mairghread Scott | |||||
| Director | Nathan Chew | |||||
| Animation studio | Vision Animation | |||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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The Bots and Burnses are in mind-controlled stupors; Cody scrambles to snap them out of it before he's sucked in.
Contents |
Synopsis
The rescue team relaxes in picturesque Blossom Vale. Blades and Dani are using the waterfall as a slide, Kade and Heatwave are skipping stones, Boulder is painting, and the Chief is doing a spot of fishing. As they admire the beauty of the place, Graham notes that they almost lost the area to a housing development, but the place was kept because the Mayor and his wife like snorkeling there. Their enjoyment is interrupted by an emergency — someone's fallen into the Old Hawkins Well. The team races there to find a crowd gathered around the well, and plaintive cries of "mommy!" coming from within. After an attempt to lower Cody down results in the sides of the well crumbling, they instead dig a hole alongside the well. The rescue is a success! Priscilla Pynch's limited-edition Cathy doll is retrieved from the bottom of the well, though it's so dirty Priscilla demands her mother buy her a new one. Impressed by the bots, Madeline offers to purchase them, but Chief, already unimpressed by the callout over a doll, tells her they're not for sale.
Some time later, Cody and the Chief are getting ice cream and Cody complain the Pynchs act like they own the whole island. Chief notices an abandoned cellphone lying on a bench and answers it, only for his demeanor to abruptly change. Dropping his ice cream, he tells Cody he needs to take care of something and takes off in Chase, who is concerned by the fact that Chief didn't dispose of his ice cream in the correct manner. Soon, Chief and Chase are evacuating Blossom Vale, and the Chief pulls a bag of similar-looking cellphones from under a bush. The other three Bots and Cody welcome Chief when he returns to the firehouse, but claiming to be tired, the Chief goes right to bed. Chase says they were evacuating the Vale due to sulfur contamination, though neither he nor Boulder detected any.
Early in the morning, Chief plants cellphones near Graham and Kade, and the pair are soon hypnotized by the devices. Cody finds the three of them in the hall, and notices the new cellphones they're all carrying. As they head out in their Bots, Cody takes a call back at the station reporting a car ablaze, but Kade doesn't answer his com link. Heatwave is puzzled by this and starts to become frustrated, until the Chief tells him their current mission is more important. Dani and Blades return to the station from their night shift, only to be persuaded by Cody to go help put out the vehicle fire. By the time they reach it, it's set a building alight too, and Blades's scoop claw is ineffective. At the Vale, the bots are pulling up trees, but the new emergency call from Cody causes them to stop work and demand answers from the Chief. Chief instructs Graham to get out the cellphones. Meanwhile, forced to deal with the fire themselves, Cody has Blades take the top off a hydrant and fan the water over the blaze, putting it out.
At the Vale, the other three Bots, now under the control of cellphones, have dug a huge hole and are pushing a large boulder out of it. The boulder meets the approval of the humans, who instruct them to find more the same. By the time Blades, Dani and Cody arrive, they find the mining underway. Explaining that it's ground contamination, Chief hands Dani a cellphone, but Cody knocks it from her hands before she can be hypnotized. The pair flee and jump into Blades, but as soon as Dani puts her headset on, it hypnotizes her, and Blades is already under thanks to a cellphone planted by Graham. Cody jumps out and flees. He contacts Doc Greene, who organizes to meet him at town hall with Frankie. When he does so, he quickly realizes that the hypnotism is more widespread than just his family, and has to flee from the townspeople. Even hiding in a storm drain fails because Frankie points him out.
At the Vale, Blades is airlifting boulders out to a waiting ship. When Heatwave slips, the chunk of rock he's carrying falls falls, hitting Boulder and making his cellphone break. Released from the spell, he overhears that Cody is at the marina and heads there. He's able to help Cody elude the searching townspeople, and the pair return to the Vale planning to free the others. Unfortunately the others have been warned by Frankie, and are ready for them. With that plan a bust, Cody quickly realizes they're near the cell tower, and they head for that to disable it. The other bots reach it first, but Boulder vaults them and knocks the tower down. Freed from the control of the cellphones, the others have no memory of what they've been doing.
A quick scan of one of the boulders they've been digging up reveals it's rich in gold. As the Bots discuss putting the Vale back together, a large number of townspeople arrive with shovels and new trees to plant. A limo pulls up nearby, and Madeline Pynch observes the Vale from within. Her daughter finds a cellphone under the seat, but Madeline notes that it's been recalled as the signal needs to be stronger.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Humans |
|---|---|
|
Quotes
"One, two, three, four, five skips!"
"Pft, I can beat that!" [picks up huge rock]
- —Kade and Heatwave, skipping stones.
"Is it time for graffiti removal? Or crossing guard duty? Or—dare I dream—disbanding unruly loiterers?"
- —Chase
"Perhaps I should have phrased that differently?"
- —Chase, after scaring a crowd into mass panic.
"I wish my knuckles could spray water like Heatwave's! Actually, no I don't. That's kind of weird."
- —Blades
Notes
Continuity notes
- Madeline Pynch will be a recurring antagonist from here on.
Transformers references
- (tbd)
Real-world references
- The mass hypnotism, the calm demeanor under the influence, and atmosphere of paranoia evoke Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Stephen King's novel Cell likewise deals with mind-altering sounds being sent via cellphone.
Animation and technical errors
- (tbd)
Trivia
- How underwater is the town after that fire hydrant was left gushing water?
- This and the previous episode were switched in order when they were first screened on Hub Network.
Foreign localization
French
- Title: "Ruée vers l'or" ("Gold Rush")
- Original airdate: ?
Hungarian
- Title: "Hipnotizálva" ("Hypnotized")
- Original airdate: 14 November 2014
Italian
Portuguese
Home video releases
2014 — Rescue Bots — "Mystery Rescue" (Shout! Factory)
2015 — Rescue Bots — "Serve and Protect" (Beyond Home Entertainment)
