Top 5 Unusually Heavy Episodes of 1980s Cartoons: #1

#1: Dark Awakening, The Transformers
Originally broadcast September 22, 1986
Written by Antoni Zalewski

Plot summary (from imdb.com):
…Several Autobots seek shelter to make repairs to their ship and find a mausoleum they built for causalities [from The Transformers: The Movie]. They discover that Optimus Prime is no longer in his tomb, they find him alive, trying to build an escape shuttle. Rodimus happily hands the matrix back to Optimus, but their former leader is not himself. Soon they’ll discover who brought Optimus back and why.

What made it so heavy (includes spoilers):
To really appreciate this episode, you need to step back in time a little bit and look at the context. The Transformers was one of the greatest cartoons ever, and the cartoon and toys captured the imaginations of millions of kids. This was in no small part, I am sure, thanks to Optimus Prime. Throughout the first two seasons, the writers did a great job of developing unique personalities for the growing roster of characters, both Autobot and Decepticon.

Then the movie came along. Hasbro needed to introduce a new line of toys, so the movie killed two birds — and a lot of characters — with one stone. The Autobots and Decepticons clashed in every episode, but the consequences were never elevated like they were in the movie. Within the first ten minutes or so, Megatron and the Decepticons slaughtered most of the popular Autobots from those first two seasons, including Ironhide, Prowl and Ratchet. And once the first half hour had passed, Optimus Prime was dead.

To this day, I still believe Transformers: The Movie is a great movie, and much of the credit has to be given to the casualties. Right away, you knew this wasn’t the typical threat. Things were as bad as they had ever been. It made the eventual victory seem that much more amazing. The deaths in the movie literally made me cry at the time, but the writers created an exciting new beginning to fill the void. Although it’s fairly textbook Joseph Campbell, Hot Rod’s rise from low-level Autobot screw-off to the savior who would light their darkest hour solidified him as a total cartoon hero. In 1986, I was probably a bigger fan of Rodimus Prime than I was of Hulk Hogan.

Season 3 began where the movie left off, with Rodimus Prime in charge of the Autobots. In a surprising move, both for the unusual display of character depth and for the level it immediately weakened their main character, the writers decided to make Rodimus Prime plagued with feelings of inadequacy as a leader.

So that brings us to this episode. It begins with the Autobots fleeing from the Decepticons, whose lethal power was still fresh in the mind after the movie. They pull a stunt they used in the movie — allowing the Decepticons to destroy their ship while they escape in a tiny shuttle — but it works. They see something floating nearby and decide to dock there. It turns out to be the tomb ship that was built to house the remains of those lost during the great war.

By the time I had gotten to this episode, I had just finally started getting over the fact that my favorite characters had died. It seems silly to me now to think it bothered me that much, but then I imagine how my seven-year-old niece would react if she were watching a Barbie cartoon and suddenly Barbie got killed or something. So anyway, having gotten over those deaths, I was now being reminded of them once again by way of a trip through their cemetery for what were to be some of the most upsetting televised moments I witnessed as a kid.

Daniel wanders through the graves, saying the names of the dead Autobots as he passes — “Ironhide, Ratchet, Prowl…” — again, some of my favorite cartoon characters ever. Then two disturbingly familiar legs step out behind him. Though we can’t see who they belong to, the frightening seed is already planted. Daniel hits something that makes the lights go out, and when they come back on, we see the broken-down, decomposed body of Optimus Prime standing behind him. Daniel freaks out and runs away, and in his panic, he bumps something that opens one of the graves, sending another battered and decayed Autobot corpse tumbling to the ground.

Daniel tells everyone what he saw, but they’re reluctant to believe. Rodimus defies Kup and Ultra Magnus and checks inside Optimus Prime’s casket, which, of course, is empty. The extra creepiness has little time to set in, as the Decepticons have tracked the Autobots and renew their attack inside the tomb. Just as it appears the Decepticons will destroy them, Optimus Prime steps out to save the day, blasting away at the Decepticons and driving them to retreat.

Rodimus immediately submits to Optimus’ leadership, although the others remain skeptical. Optimus is clearly not acting normal, which Rodimus chalks up to being dead for a while. Turns out, he had been building an escape ship since his awakening. That’s all the proof Rodimus needs, as he hands the Matrix back to Optimus and reverts back to Hot Rod. It just got worse, as Optimus immediately apologizes, saying “Forgive me.” Hot Rod turns and says “Huh? For what?”

Leaving very little time for viewers to be excited he’s back, Optimus fires on his friends. He sets the tomb ship on an auto-destruction course and takes off in his shuttle. Back on Cybertron, Optimus briefs the rest of the Autobots, claiming that the people he had just shot and left for dead were victims of a Quintesson attack, sacrificing themselves so that Prime could make it back to Cybertron. With all the troops properly angered, Optimus explains they will mobilize the entire fleet to attack the Quintessons, which we then realize was all part of the Quintessons’ plan.

The survivors escape on a makeshift shuttle and crash onto Cybertron, where they encounter the Dinobots, who tell them what Optimus is up to. Back in Optimus Prime’s ship, we see loyal Autobots like Perceptor and Blurr totally buying in to the lie that will lead to their destruction, doing whatever they can to help. When they receive news that Ultra Magnus, Hot Rod and the gang are alive, Optimus further manipulates them into believing that it’s just a trick.

At this point, it’s like we’re back in Transformers: The Movie, because the Quintesson trap springs into action. Known Autobots, like Powerglide and the Aerialbots, are destroyed by Quintesson missiles. “This won’t even be a war,” one of the observing Quintessons remarks. “Merely an exercise in extermination.”

So by this point, we’ve had reminders of the fallen Autobots, an on-screen Autobot corpse, Optimus Prime returning from the dead only to be secretly evil and leading the Autobots to their destruction, and dozens more on-screen Autobot deaths. The Autobots fire on their own under Prime’s orders, still believing the surviving crew to be a Quintesson trick. It’s not until their shuttle is destroyed and they float helplessly in space that Perceptor realizes what’s going on — it really is Ultra Magnus and Hot Rod and Kup, and Optimus Prime has been lying to them. The Quintessons aren’t concerned — they’re convinced this discovery will only cause more confusion, and their missile defenses have been leading the surviving ships toward a detonator that will destroy all of the Autobots.

In a moment of strength, possibly completing an arc that we thought concluded in the movie, Hot Rod arrives on the main ship and yells “I don’t care how — turn this ship around. I’m going Optimus hunting.” He finally finds Optimus, who doesn’t know what’s going on — some of his personality lingers in his mind, growing aware of what he’s doing to his friends. Optimus Prime literally begs Hot Rod to defeat him. Hot Rod tosses him across the room, knocking one of Prime’s decayed arms off, but it’s not enough. Optimus stands before a beaten Hot Rod with a gun to his head, and just as he is about to deliver the killing shot, when the Matrix flares up. Optimus pauses, says “‘Til all are one,” and drops to the ground to hand the Matrix back to Hot Rod.

At this point, Optimus Prime’s true personality overcomes his programming. “Monsters … they made me a weapon … to destroy the very ones I loved in life,” he says, placing the Matrix back in Hot Rod’s chest. “But you must save them … Rodimus Prime.” The Autobots scramble to evacuate the damaged ship and escape back to Cybertron, but Optimus Prime stays behind. He still knows where the detonator is, and so he flies the ship toward it to draw the Quintesson fire so his friends can escape.

As he flies toward the detonator, the ship crumbles around him, taking hits from Quintesson missiles. He keeps his hand steady so the ship doesn’t waver from the course. As he does this, his body suffers more damage and half his face is blow off. It was a scene as gruesome as it was selfless and heroic, with his last words “Until all are one” followed by the total destruction of his ship.

I am being totally honest when I say this, but I was sick that day at school from this. I watched Transformers each morning at 7:00 before getting on the bus, and I could not get that final image of his body falling apart out of my head. As if watching Optimus Prime die once wasn’t enough, here he was getting killed all over again, along with plenty of other Autobots. But the thing about his character is that he can’t help but be totally awesome in his sacrifice.

Key scenes:

As the Autobots narrowly escape the Decepticon attack:

RODIMUS: “Maybe we can dock at that … whatever … up ahead.
DANIEL: “What is it?”
RODIMUS: “We’ll know when we get there, kid. Let’s just hope it’s friendly.”
…
DANIEL: “It’s awesome!”
SPIKE: “It’s the size of Manhattan!”
RODIMUS: “I’d hoped to never see it again.”
DANIEL: “What’s wrong? What is that thing?”
ARCEE: “A tomb.”
ULTRA MAGNUS: “We built it.”
KUP: “As a final resting place for the Autobots we lost in the great war.”
DANIEL: “Like … Optimus Prime?”
(nods yes)
DANIEL: “Do we have to go inside?”
RODIMUS: “Nothing in there can hurt us, Daniel.”

Upon escaping the tomb ship and arriving back at Cybertron:
ARCEE: Sludge! Snarl! Are we glad to see you!
SLUDGE: Me Sludge not glad to see you!
SNARL: You dead!
SLUDGE: Maybe we dead…
ULTRA MAGNUS: What are you yammering about?
KUP: Nevermind that, where is everybody?
SLUDGE: All go smash Quintessons!
ULTRA MAGNUS: Quintessons? What have Quintessons got to do with any of this?
SNARL: They kill you! Optimus Prime say so! Uh oh, something not right!
ARCEE: He’s taken the whole fleet!

As the Autobots are attempting to escape the Quintesson slaughter

OPTIMUS PRIME: “Optimus Prime to Autubot fleet. Return to Cybertron. That is my final command.”
QUINTESSON: “What? The autobot fleet is escaping!”
OTHER QUINTESSON: “And their flagship is on a collision trajectory toward the detonator!”
OTHER QUINTESSON: “Direct all firepower to the flagship! Obliterate it!”
(The ship explodes around him, taking chunks of his body with each blast)
QUINTESSON: “It’s not stopping!”
OTHER QUINTESSON: “No Autobot could survive that!”
OPTIMUS PRIME: “Until all are one.”

The user who uploaded these videos disabled embedding, so here are the links to view the episode:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3