CONTAINS SPOILERS
The previous episode concluded with Megatron's great political speech, and to be fair, he seems to hold all the cards. After Ultra Magnus's misguided and deluded attempt at peaceful negotiations, he's become Megatron's prisoner and things are looking bleak.
Episode 4 starts with a similar bleak tone: pouring rain and a thunderstorm, as a shackled Magnus leads Megatron to the location of Autobot Command, Tarn Hauser Gate. Tarn Hauser was a tragic battleground from the original War. Megatron continues to spew his own political diatribe about unifying Cybertron (i.e. bringing them all under his command and control).
However, Magnus has not betrayed his fellow Autobots. Tarn Hauser Gate contains a portal where the wisdom of Alpha Trion (known as the Alpha Trion Protocols) can be transferred to another Autobot upon the death of their current host (Magnus). Megatron shoots Ultra Magnus in the chest, killing Magnus, and thereby triggering the Alpha Trion Protocol transferral process.
And the mysterious and ancient combined wisdom of generations of Autobots selects Bumblebee. Well, of course it does - why choose Optimus Prime, who clearly needs help, when you can instead select a non-Autobot who is massively over-used in the entirety of Transformers lore (apart from the movie Bumblebee, where he actually make sense as the main character). Bumblebee - annoying character with a chip on his shoulder the size of Iacon - has now become indispensable to the Autobots, which is going to make him even more annoying. We can now add precocious to Bumblebee's list of annoying characteristics (selfish, cute, screen-time hog... the list goes on). Bumblebee goes on a Protocol-induced vision quest to meet Holographic Alpha Trion who tells Bumblebee that he can be trusted with this great wisdom. This mellows Bumblebee slightly, but I'm not impressed with this decision at all.
Optimus senses the death of Ultra Magnus through the Matrix (or something similar). Megatron, on the other hand, has no idea what he's just witnessed. Jetfire is continuing to play the part of the loyal Decepticon, which would work out better if he hadn't killed Skywarp and been found out. Starscream appears by Megatron's side, exposes Jetfire's treachery and then pursues him across Cybertron's skies. Jetfire against the Seekers isn't going to end well for the treacherous Decepticon.
Bumblebee gets hit with the full force of the Alpha Trion Protocols, and as he recovers, he starts to see parts of The Matrix (no, not the Autobot Matrix - think Keanu Reaves) everywhere.
Optimus is continuing his mission to get the Spacebridge up and running, and sends Ratchet, Mirage and Impactor (Decepticon who will one day go on to lead the Wreckers, just don't tell him that yet) as part of a team to go and repair it, so that he can use it to take the Allspark off Cybertron. Elita-1 continues to question and criticise, while Optimus prepares to sieze the Allspark. His plan is coherent and makes sense, on paper at least. Taking two separate trips across occupied Cybertron is going to be dangerous.
First, though, Optimus goes to attempt to recruit the Guardians, who live in a wide expanse of cloudy, foggy Cybertonian plains. He wrongly assumes that one of them was given the Alpha Trion Protocols, and they remain mysterious in their cloudy atmosphere. Could Omega Supreme be one of the Guardians? Will they refuse to interfere in the affairs of the Autobots and Decepticons? To paraphrase Optimus: What use are they if they don't interfere?
The apparent demise of Jetfire leaves a vacancy for Head of the Seekers, and Megatron wishes to reward Starscream for exposing Jetfire and then eliminating him. (Is Jetfire really dead? Was Skywarp?). So, Starscream gets promoted to Commander of the Seekers - much to the bemusement of Soundwave ("most inferior") and Shockwave. I laughed out loud at Shockwave and Soundwave's reactions - and considering that Soundwave doesn't have a mouth, and Shockwave has only an eye, the animators have done a fantastic job in injecting expression into both of them.
Bumblebee knows where the Allspark is, but before the Autobots can start their journey, they have to help Jetfire complete his path from Decepticon to Autobot, and that's where we leave this episode.
Jetfire has defected from the Decepticons (we all knew this was going to happen).
Impactor, Mirage and team are fixing the Spacebridge.
Optimus and Bumblebee are preparing to retrieve the Allspark.
Megatron is playing catch-up: having held all the cards at the start, Megatron has now lost Ultra Magnus, doesn't understand the Alpha Trion Protocols and doesn't have the Allspark.
So, the pieces are all in play, and there's no obvious conclusion (except we have to assume the Autobots will succeed, because that's the way history's written). There are some fascinating twists here - some expected, some unexpected, and it'll be interesting to see how the writers straighten everything out.
