Transformers: Robots in Disguise Episode Guide
Episode 15: Commandos
Original U.S. air date: September 24, 2001
Written by: Marc Handler
Testing the skills of his new Decepticons, Megatron dispatches Scourge, Mega-Octane, Movor, Ro-tor, Rollbar and Armorhide to a hydroelectric dam in an underpopulated area. After they destroy it successfully, Megatron sends them to the more important Sherman Dam, intending to intimidate the humans who use its electricity into surrendering to him. T-AI and Optimus Prime witnesses the first attack, however, and after deducing Megatron's intent dispatches each of the Autobots to guard different high-profile dams around the country. Meanwhile, a jealous Sky-Byte is conspiring with the remaining Predacons to foil Scourge's first mission and humiliate him in Megatron's eyes.
When the Decepticons arrive, they throw the Autobots they find into the lake and cover the dam with remote-controlled explosives. Sky-Byte secretly sends Dark Scream to attach an override to the detonator. When Megatron gives the order to blow the dam, Scourge's remote fails, and Sky-Byte offers to do the job for him. Before he can, however, Optimus Prime surprises him and kicks the remote into the lake.
The Decepticons blast a smaller hole in the dam themselves, emptying the lake, and attack the Autobots hand-to-hand. Team Bullet Train arrives via the space bridge and quickly merges into Rail Racer, but Scourge responds by ordering the other five Decepticons to merge into Ruination, who pounds Rail Racer into a wall before the car brothers help stop him. Defeated and humiliated before the humans, Megatron orders the Decepticons to retreat, and the dam is repaired and brought back on-line.
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Only two of the Decepticons were named in their earlier debut episode; the rest are named in this one. Don't worry about keeping track, though, since they're almost never treated as individuals except for Movor, who gets spotighted briefly in "Attack From Outer Space".
This is only the first of many episodes pitting Sky-Byte and the Predacons against Scourge and the Decepticons in their constant bid to regain Megatron's favor. As things progress, the Predacons are gradually reduced to doing manual labor while the Decepticons run all of Megatron's missions. If Sky-Byte weren't so determined to make them fail (and so unsuccessful at it), he might eventually succeed.
It's curious that in this episode, Megatron is more interested in conquering the humans by depriving them of energy than in stealing the energy for himself. It probably only means the firepower his new Decepticons bring to bear has made him a little drunk on power, but it also ties into the eventual truth that its the o-parts ("Hope for the Future"), not the Earth's energy, that he's ultimately after.
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