Hashtag: Oops

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'Cause we are living in a digital world And I am a digital girl
"Hashtag: Oops"
Season	1
No. in season	11
Production company	Entertainment One Nickelodeon
Airdate	March 3, 2023 (Paramount+) June 12, 2023 (Nickelodeon)
Writer	Bernard Badion
Director	Matthew Humphreys
Animation studio	Icon Creative Studio
Watch this episode on Paramount+

Hashtag's new altmode gets her and Twitch in trouble when they run afoul of G.H.O.S.T.

Synopsis

At G.H.O.S.T. headquarters, Agent Croft smugly observes Skullcruncher and Starscream in their prison cells as some form of experiment is performed on the former that leaves the imprisoned Decepticon in a weakened state, while Starscream can only glare defiantly at her through the camera. She’s soon joined by Agent Schloder, surprised at her presence. She informs him that she finds G.H.O.S.T.’s Decepticon quota to be low this month and orders him to get out there and, despite his protests, start finding Decepticons regardless if they’re currently a threat.

At the Malto farmstead, Bumblebee calls the new Terrans to attention as he begins the first lesson plan of the day; choosing their alt-modes. He finds his efforts interrupted, first by some sass from Nightshade and then by Hashtag being more interested in showing off photos she found online of him sporting his classic V.W-inspired alt-mode. Ignoring their laughter, Bumblebee offers to let Twitch and Thrash take the lead on explaining the significance and importance of one’s alt-mode. Nightshade thanks them for the advice but departs saying they’re happy with how they are and have a project that requires their attention. Jawbreaker shows more interest but wants to make sure his alt-mode is perfect and not rush it so he departs as well. Left with only Hashtag, Bee lets Twitch take the lead on finding her sister an alt-mode. Still more interested in watching videos on the internet, Twitch hijacks her sister’s phone and runs off saying they're going into town, Hashtag following after protesting the barn’s the only place she gets a good Wi-Fi signal.

Hiding out somewhere in a store's parking lot in Witwicky, Twitch tells her sister to gaze around and find the perfect alt-mode, only to find her sister more concerned with getting a good Wi-Fi connection set up. Seeing this is getting nowhere, Twitch entices Hashtag with the sooner she gets an alt-mode the sooner they can go back home and get back on the Wi-Fi. Taking the bait, Hashtag begins looking around and scans the first thing to her liking; a G.H.O.S.T. surveillance van. Twitch panics at Hashtag’s choice of alt-mode and tries to get her sister to scan something else, only to be interrupted as three G.H.O.S.T. agents appear, ice cream in-hand. Mistaking the disguised Terran for their own van, they get in and drive off, with Twitch following in hot pursuit.

Back at the Malto Farm, Thrash tries to bond with Nightshade and introduces his sibling to Fluffy Ears. Taken in by the small calf’s cuteness, Thrash offers if there’s anything else he can help Nightshade to which they only respond by asking if Thrash knows anything about load-bearing timbers...

Back with Twitch and the hijacked Hashtag, Twitch implores her sister to remain calm and that she’ll get them out of this. Hashtag suddenly swerves as she finds herself grossed out by the driver's sticky "ice cream fingers". Coming up on what seems to be the side of a mountain, Hashtag warns Twitch to get out of the way, only for Hashtag to drive through it with seemingly no incident. Perplexed, Twitch learns G.H.O.S.T’s mountain base is shielded by a hologram. Unable to get past its security, she radios Bumblebee and alerts him to the situation.

Meanwhile, within G.H.O.S.T.’s base, the three agents who were driving Hashtag hurriedly depart the Terran-disguised van, believing it to cursed and muttering they’ll get maintenance to look at it. Alone now, Hashtag finds herself panicking, unsure of how she’ll be able to escape without exposing herself. Alerted that she’s now hooked up to G.H.O.S.T.’s internal Wi-fi, Hashtag’s consciousness is taken to some empty void where she’s presented with what looks to be a holographic control panel. Unsure of what she’s even looking at, she starts pressing all the options randomly, hoping something will work. Back in the physical world, Hashtag has completely hacked G.H.O.S.T.’s systems and inadvertently deactivates the containment cells of the many Decepticon prisoners, starting a jailbreak that frees Soundwave, Hardtop and worse, the self-replicating Shrapnel and Bombshell!

Bumblebee arrives on the outskirts of G.H.O.S.T’s mountainside H.Q. and reassures the panicking Twitch that she made the right decision calling him. Seeing the hologram shielding deactivate, Bee scouts ahead and sees that the security systems and cameras have all been shut off. Sneaking in with Twitch, they find Hashtag and throw off the trail of GHOST security forces. With Bee and the Terran sisters reunited they deduce the cause of G.H.O.S.T.'s technical problems was Hashtag herself, thanks to the abilities granted by her new alt-mode. With some encouragement, Hashtag puts these newfound abilities to use to try and find a way for the trio to escape while the guards and Decepticon prisoners are busy distracted fighting one another. Taking temporary refuge in what turns out to be Skullcruncher’s cell, the bestial Decepticon goes into a berserker rampage upon seeing the G.H.O.S.T. agents, inadvertently providing cover the Maltobots' escape and knocking Soundwave out cold in his mad dash to freedom. After smashing through the mountainside walls, Skullcruncher finally notices who was following him and turns to smash Bumblebee, but ends up blasted from behind and incapacitated by Twitch. The trio makes a break for it before G.H.O.S.T. agents, lead by Agent Croft, arrive to survey the scene.

Arriving back at the Malto farm, Hashtag covers for her big sister by saying Twitch brought her into town to get a new vehicle mode. Impressed at her choice of alt-mode, Dot inquires if that’s seriously all that happened, with Bumblebee replying it wasn't anything they couldn’t handle. Asking where Nightshade is, they emerge from the barn to showcase what they’ve been working on all day; a new subterranean base with enough space to accommodate the whole Malto family (Fluffy Ears included). With Hashtag saying she can provide the Wi-Fi for their new base, Twitch makes good on her promise to her sister as the two sit down with the rest of the family to watch videos of sneezing puppies.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Okay, focus up. I know it's a little tight in here with all the new members of our te—family, but while Robby and Mo are in human school, I thought we could talk about the most important part of being a Transformer."
"Having an adequate space in which to learn and live?"

—Bumblebee gets sassed by Nightshade.

"Come on, trust your big sister, you'll love having an alt-mode. The sooner you scan a vehicle, the sooner we can get you back home on the Wi-fi."
"Ooh, then you can watch videos of sneezy puppies with me! Plus the singing cantaloupe!"
"Deal."

—Twitch plays to Hashtag's weaknesses.

"Impossible! Our security is tighter than toe shoes on Bigfoot!"
"You don't need to be a dentist to know this is not a drill!"

—Agent Schloder has a way with words.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Following her minor appearance in "Age of Evolution, Part 1", we learn in this episode that Executive Agent Croft and Agent Schloder are siblings.
• G.H.O.S.T. cadets Kwan, Conway and Rosato previously made silent cameos in "Age of Evolution, Part 1" arriving at the G.H.O.S.T.-Autobot Alliance ceremony, while agent Bagheri previously made minor appearances in the same episode and "Classified". This is the first time any of them have been given proper names or dialogue. Agent Bala, last seen getting attacked by Swindle in "House Rules", also makes a return.
• Soundwave was captured by G.H.O.S.T. back in "Decoy", while Hardtop, Bombshell, Shrapnel, and Skullcruncher were all taken way back in "Secret Legacy, Part 2".
• Hardtop lost his right arm in "Secret Legacy, Part 1", which causes the guards' attempts to use a pair of Cybertronian-sized handcuffs on him to fail miserably.
• Also all the way back in episode one, Robby complained about the shoddy internet connection in Witwicky, thus his excitement when Hashtag announces her ability to be a mobile Wi-Fi spot.

Transformers references

• Bombshell and Shrapnel have a variation of the original Insecticons' self-cloning abilities that had not been previously shown... but then again, the only other time we saw them was when they were under Dr. Meridian's mind-control, which leaves the subjects very dull-witted and seemingly incapable of little more thought than "smash thing".

Real-world references

• The G.H.O.S.T. cadets are all named and modeled after storyboard directors on the show—specifically Alex Kwan, J.J. Conway, and Jordan Rosato.
• The sound made when Hashtag connects to Wi-Fi is the "handshaking" noise of a dial-up modem. Very anachronistic but still thematically appropriate.
• Hashtag does the "I'm in!" cliché hacker line when accessing G.H.O.S.T's systems during the jailbreak, then directly quotes the infamous line "All your base are belong to us" from Zero Wing when she successfully overtakes the security systems.

Errors

• Starscream's eyes are shown to be blue here rather than the red they were in "Decoy". As they're still blue in official character renders and later episodes (that include flashbacks set much earlier), it seems the earlier red may have actually been the error.

Trivia

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Hashtag : Oups"
• Original airdate: April 24, 2023

German

• Title: "Hashtag: Ups"
• Original airdate: March 4, 2023
  • The episode had an error on some German websites (also on the German Nick website), the episode name was misspelled, instead of Hashtag: Oops the episode was called Hashtap: Oops.

Hungarian

• Title: "Butus Botok" ("Foolish Bots")
• Original airdate: April 24, 2023
  • Nightshade now uses normal singular pronouns (Hungarian lacks gendered pronouns), contradicting the previous episode's dub in which they used plural pronouns.

Italian

• Title: "La trasformazione di Hashtag" ("Hashtag's transformation")
• Original airdate: March 6, 2023

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "Hashtag, Opa!" ("Hashtag: Oops!")
• Original airdate: March 4, 2023

Home video releases

DVD

2024 — Transformers: EarthSpark - Season 1: Episodes 11-26 (Paramount)