Out of the Past

	; Arcee's partners are all dead.
	"Out of the Past"
Season	2
No. in season	17
Production company	Hasbro Studios
Airdate	August 31, 2012
Written by	Mike Johnson
Directed by	Todd Waterman
Animation studio	Polygon Pictures
	Watch this episode on YouTube

Arcee recalls the time she and Cliffjumper discovered Shockwave and Starscream were building a space bridge.

Synopsis

The Nemesis flies through space. On the bridge, Arcee is dragged before Starscream who's interested in decrypting an Autobot signal he's intercepted. While Arcee defies his "offer" by telling him where to go, Starscream reveals he has another prisoner—Cliffjumper.

In the present day, Bulkhead is struggling with his recovery, with Miko providing some "encouragement" in the form of ordering him around. Optimus Prime is similarly struggling to decode the recovered Iacon database. Ratchet says Bulkhead needs a break, despite Miko being annoyed at the slow progress her friend is making. She storms out of the base, but Arcee follows and finds her crying atop the plateau in which the base is located. The Autobot tries to talk to her friend about Bulkhead, and the conversation leads to Miko asking about Cliffjumper.

"Did it have anything to do with those sirens around noon?"
"I said I don't want to talk about it!"

Cliffjumper is dumped in the cell, having undergone torture but has resisted talking. He and Arcee discuss how they came to be back on Cybertron. Elsewhere Starscream complains about the failure of his interrogation, and Soundwave suggests taking them down on the planet's surface. Starscream and some Vehicons are soon leading the two prisoners through Kaon to a laboratory. Cliffjumper is concerned at the sight of the many tools lying ready to be used, even more so when Starscream introduces them to Shockwave himself. The two Autobots are strapped to tables, and Shockwave uses a cortical psychic patch to hook in to Arcee's mind. The process is successful and Starscream uses it to decode the transmission—which turns out to be Optimus Prime's message to bring the other Autobots to Earth.

Though the Decepticons have assumed Arcee is dead, she is very much alive and surreptitiously begins freeing herself. As Shockwave prepares to finish off Cliffjumper, Cliff suggests Starscream should be the one to do it. Shockwave leaves them to it, but as Starscream moves in, he's attacked by Arcee. She straps him to the free table and releases Cliffjumper. Starscream quickly folds under questioning and confesses Shockwave remained on the planet because he's building a space bridge. Knocking the 'Con out, Arcee goes to shut down the space bridge, and Cliffjumper insists on going along, despite her skepticism about his capacity for stealth. As they walk, Cliff suggests they should join Optimus's team, but Arcee isn't as keen, and rejects the idea that Cliff is her partner. Cliffjumper believes she shouldn't close herself off just because of Tailgate's death.

"Thumbs up if you think Shockwave is weird!"
"0_0"
"He's right behind me, isn't he?"

Miko recognizes the truth of this advice, but asks Arcee what happened next.

Arcee and Cliffjumper find the space bridge, with two Vehicons operating it. While Cliff provides a distraction, Arcee starts sabotaging the bridge to overload it. Unfortunately Shockwave arrives and attempts to fix the bridge. Cliffjumper dispatches the Vehicons before sparring with Shockwave, ultimately being defeated by the hulking Decepticon. Arcee lends a hand, bringing the roof down on the Decepticon, but the pair become pinned down by Starscream and some Vehicons. Starscream demands they reverse the damage to the space bridge, but they instead head through it. Halfway through the space bridge tunnel, Shockwave catches up with the two Autobots and they exchange fire until Arcee shoots him in the eye. The space bridge deposits Cliffjumper and Arcee on Earth seconds before exploding, and after declaring themselves partners, they go to find Optimus.

Arcee finishes her story as the sun goes down, saying she misses Cliffjumper. Miko rests her hand on Arcee's in a gesture of comfort as they watch the sunset.

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Arcee (2) Cliffjumper (5) Bulkhead (6) Optimus Prime (8) Ratchet (9) Bumblebee (10) Tailgate (13)	Vehicons (1) Starscream (3) Soundwave (4) Shockwave (11) Airachnid (12)	Miko Nakadai (7)

Quotes

"After I lost my first partner—Tailgate—I pushed everyone away, until Cliffjumper came along."
"What was he like?"
"Cliff was... quite the conversationalist."

—Arcee tells Miko about her late partner

"So this is Kaon, huh? Love what you Decepticons have done with the place. The ruins are especially picturesque."

—Cliffjumper

"Erm... Shockwave, are you certain you can extract the decryption code without first nullifying our subject's neural net?"
"I invented the cortical psychic patch! I am familiar with its idiosyncrasies."

—Starscream doesn't need to explain to Shockwave how his own tools work.

"While it often pains me, I try to be a team player."

—Starscream lies, big surprise

"Only Starscream could fail to dispose of a helpless captive."

—Shockwave

"They should really stop shooting at us if they want our help."

—Cliffjumper

"Funny. At first I didn't think I'd ever get used to Cliff's constant chatter. Now, there's nothing louder to me than the silence."

—Arcee

Notes

Continuity notes

This episode retells the prequel story told in the IDW graphic novel (also written by Mike Johnson). The story's still about Arcee and Cliffjumper learning about Optimus Prime on Earth, uncovering a Decepticon plot to reestablish forgotten space bridge technology, Cliffjumper pretending to forfeit to the Decepticons as a cover for Arcee's hijinks, and them running for the space bridge portal to Earth while being blasted at by Decepticons. However, each of these stories occur in an incompatible way, and the episode gives responsibility for the space bridge project to Shockwave instead of Starscream. A notable change to the timeline see the episodes contradict the graphic novel's statement that Starscream had been on Earth with Megatron during the initial clash between the Autobots and Decepticons there (three years prior to the start of the cartoon), and only returned to Cybertron to set up the space bridge; on-screen, it is clear he has not been to the planet before, given that he requires Prime's signal to locate it (which in the comic only served to provide Cliffjumper and Arcee with knowledge of Prime's location).
Optimus Prime’s message is prooooobably meant to be the same one that brought the Rescue Bots to Earth, but its composition is different. But hey, squint test.
Bulkhead has regained consciousness since the events of "Hurt", but he can barely walk.
Optimus tries to decode the rest of the Iacon database gained in "Triage".
Shockwave is revealed to have forcibly used the cortical psychic patch on Arcee, explaining her later reluctance to willingly undergo the procedure during "Sick Mind".
As a nod to Cliffjumper's eventual fate, Starscream decides to eliminate Cliffjumper "the old-fashioned way": by eviscerating him with his claws.
Arcee's declaration that space bridge technology was lost for a long time was true in the novel Transformers: Exodus.
Cliffjumper mentions getting lost in the Sea of Rust, which did sort of happen in Fall of Cybertron, and he was, kind of, separated from his unit (if you count two bots as a unit). However, Cliff did have Jazz to talk to. (Talk "at")

Transformers references

Shockwave stayed behind on Cybertron after Megatron departed, much like how his G1-counterpart - and several other counterparts - remained on the planet.
Throughout several continuities, Shockwave has kept to logic as his sense for reason.
This isn't the first time that Shockwave has attempted to extract codes from Arcee. The same happened towards the end of Animated.
Cliffjumper pretends to be an Autobot traitor. In another life, Cliffjumper accused other Autobots of being traitors. In yet another life, Cliffjumper sent an innocent Autobot to prison for being framed as a traitor, ironically by Shockwave.

Real-world references

The episode shares a title with the 1947 film noir Out of the Past, directed by Jacques Tourneur.

Errors

Within the space bridge, Cliffjumper is by Arcee's side while shooting at Shockwave, but disappears when it's just Arcee facing the Decepticon. He reappears as Arcee shoots Shockwave's eye.
When Starscream and Shockwave are listening to Optimus Prime's transmission, Shockwave is seen on the left of Starscream. When it ends, he's on the right. Of course, he might have changed position while the camera was focused on the Autobots.
The bottom part of Arcee's head crest is red, but turns silver when she and Cliffjumper are interrogating Starscream. This happens again when they are in the space bridge vortex.
In this episode, a point is made of the fact the space bridge controls are essential to its correct operation, with Arcee going after the nearby command console, and "Orion Pax, Part 3" depicting the Earth-based bridge as having operators and maintenance staff. However, in "Darkness Rising, Part 1", "Darkness Rising, Part 5" and "Alpha/Omega", the bridges are simply remotely controlled from the warship. If the ones in space don't have this as a dependency, why do the Earth-based ones?

Trivia

Cliffjumper is voiced by Billy Brown, whose imitation of Dwayne Johnson generally sounds quite convincing.
Shockwave is revealed to be the inventor of the illegal cortical psychic patch. Not surprising, considering he's also responsible for some "certain" changes made to some "certain" Autobots.
As in "Predatory", the primary characters use the same models, meaning they all have Earth-mode kibble well before ever visiting Earth.
Starscream gloats about how he captured the uncaptureable Arcee. Apparently he never heard of her encounter with Airachnid. This is consistent with comments he makes in the episode "Partners", in which he asks "Who's Tailgate?", accidentally revealing to Arcee that it was he who killed Cliffjumper.
- In general, Starscream's interrogation of Arcee at the beginning of the episode is very similar to Airachnid's attempts to extract information from her, although Arcee takes the former's threats better than the latter's.
Arcee's flashback of Tailgate's death happens during the flashback of her adventure with Cliffjumper. A flashback within a flashback. Flashbackception. BWAMMMM.
The show's writers, not knowing what to do with the character, intended to kill Shockwave off by the end of this episode (à la Skyquake, Makeshift, and Cliffjumper himself), before coming up with a way to incorporate him into the show's third season.
Perhaps unsurprisingly due to most of the featured characters using Earth-mode models before visiting Earth, this episode features a solitary instance of transformation: Bumblebee's, upon returning to base. Not even Shockwave, who has no Earth-based-vehicle-bits on his model, transforms.

Foreign localization

French

Title: "Coéquipiers" ("Teammates")
Original airdate: ?

German

Title: "Schatten der Vergangenheit" ("Shadows from the Past")
Original airdate: 2 February 2013

Japanese

Title: "Tsuioku Henkei! Arcee no Kako" (追憶変形!アーシーの過去, "Reminiscent Transformation! Arcee's Past")
Original airdate: 26 January 2013
Shockwave is given a speech quirk, spouting the word "shock" every other time he does something and weaving it into many of his lines, causing him to describe much of what happens as "shocking". For example, when Cliffjumper's blasts don't harm him, he responds with "Shocking, isn't it? That doesn't work on me." This is similar to how Armada Tidal Wave, who was named Shockwave in Japan, talked. This is also his only appearance in the Japanese broadcast.

Brazilian Portuguese

Title: "No Passado" ("In The Past")
Original airdate: 25 June 2013

Italian

Title: "Un salto nel passato" ("A Jump in the Past"), "Dal Passato" (2017 airing, "From the Past")
Original airdate: 7 February 2013

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

DVD

2012 — Transformers Prime — Season Two (Shout! Factory)
2013 — Transformers Prime — Vol. 22 (Avex Trax) — Japanese audio only.
2013 — Transformers Prime — Folge 10: Bulkheads Mission (EDEL:kids) — English and German audio.
2014 — Transformers Prime — Volume 4: Unclear Objectives (Madman Entertainment)
2014 — Transformers Prime — Season Two Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2014 — Transformers Prime — Season 2 Vol. 3: Toxicity (Primal Screen)
2014 — Transformers Prime — Saison 2 Vol. 3: La course aux reliques (Primal Screen)
2015 — Transformers Prime — Stagione 2 Vol. 3: Il Tox-En (Primal Screen) — English, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian audio.
2015 — Transformers Prime — Intégrale Saison 2 (Primal Screen)
2015 — Transformers Prime — The Complete Season 2 (Primal Screen)
2015 — Transformers Prime — La Seconda Stagione Completa (Primal Screen) — English, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian audio.