Farewell Inferno

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And now, the end is near. And so I face the final curtain.
"Farewell Inferno" さらば インフェルノ () (Saraba Inferno)
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS
Airdate	13 August 2004 (Japanese) November 5, 2004 (English)
Writer	Akira Okeya
Director	Naoki Ōhira
Animation studio	Actas, Studio A-CAT (3D)
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy

As the Autobots lower energon towers to defend three of the planets, Inferno must finally decide whether he is an Autobot or a Decepticon.

Synopsis

Optimus Prime receives report of readiness from his troops on Rock Planet, Blizzard Planet, and Ocean Planet. They prepare to lower the first energon tower from the warp gate. Alpha Q eagerly awaits his planets being safe from attack.

The tower lowers onto Rock Planet... and immediately Scorponok arrives with Terrorcons. The Blizzard Planet team finds themselves under attack as well. Megatron urges Inferno to join his side; Inferno refuses. Battle rages on Ocean Planet as well.

Isn't foreshadowing supposed to come after the event?

The grid goes online and chases the Decepticons off Rock Planet and Blizzard Planet. Megatron's troops converge onto Ocean Planet.

Mirage goes below the water to attack the energon tower from below, bringing it down. In the wake of its loss, the Autobots prepare to up their defenses. Inferno offers to distract Megatron while they prepare.

Soon, Inferno is sitting Buddha-style in space amid some floating rocks, as Optimus and Rodimus debate whether he needs any backup. Inferno flashes back once again to his torment at Megatron's hands... and his Autobot insignia begins changing color, and he groans in agony. Jetfire and Ironhide watch and worry.

Ommmm.... Ommmm

Inferno continues glowing and shouting, calling out to Megatron. Within Unicron, Megatron hears the call. Inferno's badge morphs to a Decepticon one, and he begins firing madly. The backup team begins to suspect something's wrong and pull back, but Inferno pursues and attacks. Kicker remains convinced it's an act.

Megatron and company fly to greet their new comrade. Inferno responds with more grunts, groans, shouts, and a wild barrage of firepower. Ironhide signals Optimus, but the Decepticons notice.

No, this isn't some ancient symbol from before the Great War.

Optimus's team prepares to bring down the new tower, while Megatron realizes he's been played. Megatron heads off to Ocean Planet, leaving Starscream, Demolishor, and Scorponok to deal with Inferno. Kicker has Signal Flare fire an energon star into Inferno to return him to normal, but Inferno's agonized reaction makes Kicker suspect that Inferno really has become a Decepticon.

Megatron and his goons arrive on Ocean Planet. Mirage goes to make a repeat of his earlier attack. Bulkhead beats up Shockblast while Megatron taunts Optimus. Optimus whips out the Energon Saber, and the two have at it. Terrorcons swarm onto the tower; Hot Shot and Cliffjumper Downshift move to defend it.

Surprisingly, this isn't hand-drawn.

Below the water, Mirage and Snow Cat prepare to attack, but Rodimus's troops are waiting for them. The tower activates, and Megatron orders his troops away.

Kicker receives word that the tower is online, but Inferno is still struggling. Starscream gloats that the change is complete, but Inferno stops Starscream from attacking Jetfire, and declares that he'll never be a Decepticon. He drags Starscream away and heads toward the Energon Orb. They fly into it together. Scorponok blasts Inferno, and Starscream gets free, saying that Inferno saved him.

Alpha Q senses Scorponok's presence, wondering if he's returned at last. Scorponok hears the voice, and recognizes it...but flees as the energon starts to damage him.

But this is.

Inferno vows that he is an Autobot as the sun begins to consume him. He promises Kicker that he'll be back, better than ever, an Autobot once again. His Decepticon symbol disappears, burned away by the energon. The sun consumes him.

On Ocean Planet, Jetfire reports that he was able to retrieve Inferno's spark. Kicker reflects that Inferno has faced the biggest challenge imaginable and won, and he's proud of him.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Hey, Jetfire! Where in the dickens did Mirage get to?"
"Are you serious?"

—Bulkhead and Jetfire make us suspect that the script was written by Babelfish.

"Yod—*glub*—le—*glub*—hoo~!"

—Snow Cat wasn't built for underwater operations, but it doesn't stop him from having a good time.

"Mirage loves his job."

—Mirage has high job satisfaction.

Notes

Lost in translation

Nothing too major until the end:

• The dub strangely removes Signal Flare's comment about how Ocean Planet has the best energon sun exposure, which was timed to coincide with his generation of an energon star, and replaces it with a nonsense comment about how Ocean Planet had the best early warning detection system.
• In Super Link, Kicker and Jetfire are quite sure from the start that Inferno is putting on an act. In the dub, Kicker immediately says that he's trying with everything he's got not to become a Decepticon, only to later change his mind and declare it an act...just about the time Inferno starts shooting at him.
• The dub fails to mention that the floating space rubble is the remains of Iron Planet.
• As the Decepticons arrive in space, Kicker's supposed to order Ironhide to send the signal. The dub has Kicker saying that he will send the signal, which makes it pretty weird when Ironhide transforms and flies off.
• Sadly, the dub omits a hilarious bit with Bulkhead taunting Shockblast, beating him on the head and asking where his mouth is.
• In Super Link, Inferno says that Signal Flare's energon wasn't enough; the dub skews this into him ordering Signal Flare to send more energon, which of course doesn't happen.
• The dub mangles Inferno and Starscream's dialog as Inferno drives them both into the sun, making it sound like they've been caught by gravity and can't stop. The dub then has Starscream and Scorponok both saying that Inferno saved Starscream—when it's quite clear from the animation that Scorponok saved Starscream, by blasting Inferno and forcing him to let go.
• As the sun drags him in, Inferno keeps promising to come back. In Super Link, it's subtly but significantly different; he says he'll be back as soon as the Decepticon evil is burned away. After his symbol returns to normal, he says that he has returned at last, and then vaporizes. It's easy to rag on Energon for ruining the drama of the moment...but Super Link likewise obliterates the whole point of the scene by having Inferno pop up alive and well again in a new body, just a few episodes later. (Jetfire's comment about salvaging his Spark is not a dub insert.)
• Kicker's entire closing monologue is a dub creation; in Super Link, he's commenting with amazement and frustration about how (with the new tower and city in place) it's like they're back on Ocean City on Earth.

Pain count

• "Uh?": 6
• Stock footage: 2
• We've gotta: 1
• Let's just hope: 1
• "You can't be serious": 2

Super Link:

• Eat this: 1

Continuity errors

• Downshift is referred to as Cliffjumper, but really, aren't you used to that by now?
• Couldn't the Autobots have used a radio signal? Or had Ironhide fly away a little further? Or something that wouldn't make the whole plan useless?

Trivia

• Shockblast is super-powerful and has killed troops with a single shot before, but Bulkhead totally takes him to school, smacking him around with his sword and trash-talking him the whole time. Bulkhead is awesome.
• Early in this episode, Alpha Q's angry face winks. At the end, its sinister face's eyes widen slightly. This is the first time any of the faces have showed any emotion.
• Similarly, while Inferno is firing insanely, Ironhide gives a rather cock-eyed look—and for once, it's not hand-drawn.
• Unfortunately, Inferno's scream of pain when he receives the energon star is drawn by hand.
• The animators really take advantage of the CGI in this episode, with numerous shots panning around groups of characters to show the battles in all their glory. In addition, the fight between Bulkhead and Shockblast is absolutely gorgeously rendered.

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title: "Addio, Inferno" ("Farewell, Inferno")

• When Inferno goes berserk, Ironhide says that he looks like a "wereautobot" (Autorobot mannaro in Italian, a pun on "werewolf", or lupo mannaro in Italian). The problem is that, in the word "werewolf", "were" (as well as "mannaro" in Italian) stands for "man", so, if a werewolf is a man that transforms into a wolf, a "wereautobot" is... a man that transforms into an autobot... He probably meant to say "autobotwolf" (an autobot that transforms into a wolf)...
• The mistake in the English dub about Kicker saying that he has to send the signal instead of Ironhide is solved because here the boy says that "we" have to send it.
• At the end of the episode, Starscream didn't says that Inferno saved him, but simply that he is safe.

Home video releases

DVD

2004 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 008 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)