Friends and Family

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"Family and Friends"
Season	1
No. in season	7
Production company	Entertainment One Nickelodeon
Airdate	November 11, 2022 (Paramount+) February 24, 2023 (Nickelodeon)
Writer	Brian Hohlfeld
Director	J.J. Conway
Animation studio	Icon Creative Studio
Watch this episode on Paramount+

As Mo and Robby start their first day of school, Thrash and Twitch start to experience strange malfunctions.

Synopsis

Bumblebee has Twitch and Thrash running back and forth, however a malfunction with Thrash's foot causes the Terran to wheel into Twitch, resulting in the pair of them crashing to the ground. As Bumblebee expresses surprise that they're tired already, Twitch's right rotor also triggers randomly, sending her into the nearby wall. They decide it must be a side effect of the jitters Mo and Robby are feeling in anticipation of the first day of school. Bumblebee doesn't help their emotional states when he mentions the kids will be making new friends there.

As Mo gets ready for school, her mother tries to reassure her and she insists she's fine, though she and Robby engage in some good natured ribbing as the latter appears down the stairs. As they emerge from the house to where the Bots are training, Thrash loses control fully and they have to dive for cover as he barrels towards them in motorcycle mode. He manages to transform just in time to avoid crashing into Alex and apologizes for his inadvertent rampage. Twitch suggests she and Thrash could go to school with the humans, but as Dot reminds her, they're supposed to be staying secret.

Put your right foot in
Put your right foot out
Put your right foot in
And you shake it all about
You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around
That's what it's all about!

Robby and Mo arrive at school. As Mo's teacher, Ms. Landers, is out, Mr. Smelt has her join his class with Robby for the day. The class is seated alphabetically, so Smelt has the existing kids make a space which upsets Mischa. She attempts to switch seats with Mo so she can continue sitting next to Bruno, only for the teacher to spot the move and chastise Mo. The kids' frustration feeds back to Thrash and Twitch via their emotional link, distracting them from Bumblebee's scouting training. Bee decides instead to try taking the pair on a recon mission to the school, where they listen in on Mo and Robby's conversation with Bruno and Mischa, but when the kids mention having made new friends and Mischa doesn't believe them, Thrash's anger feeds back to Robby. In the car park, Bumblebee is forced to switch to vehicle mode when he's almost discovered by Mr. Smelt and decides it's time to can the mission, driving off as Smelt returns with the principal. Twitch struggles to transform, but eventually succeeds and flies up to the window where Mr. Smelt is having Robby and Mo audition for the school choir. Twitch's malfunctioning rotors cause her to bang repeatedly into the side of the building, resulting in Mo likewise throwing herself into the wall. Before long, both kids are flailing about while the rest of the class laughs. The pair eventually regain control and return to their seats where Bruno and Mischa are impressed with the way they annoyed Mr. Smelt. Their teacher calls for a break.

Heading outside with the other kids, Robby and Mo soon find the Terrans and tell them to go home as their feedback is interfering too much. Once the kids leave, Twitch begins absently drifting off in the wrong direction and, unable to transform, Thrash follows. Mo and Robby arrive home to find Bumblebee setting up _targets, and he tells them their Terran siblings missed them. When the two kids realize they can't feel anything through their links, Bumblebee takes them to find Twitch and Thrash. The pair in question are wandering lost in the wilderness somewhere. Bumblebee and the kids arrive at the school and start following the Terrans' footprints. Mo worries the Terrans are mad at them, but they stumble on a happy portrait made of sticks and rocks left by Thrash to mark the trail. After a brief struggle between Bumblebee and a raccoon, the three trackers stumble on a short cut. When the kids observe that that emotions they're getting through the link are almost zombie-like, Bumblebee posits it's because they're low on energon and is shocked when Robby and Mo reveal that the Terrans have never consumed the substance. The raccoon reappears, so they follow it to where Thrash is lying against a tree, having lost track of Twitch. Bumblebee gives him an energon patch, but it doesn't seem to do much and he wanders off in a zombie-like state, leading them to where a spot where Twitch is randomly blasting the ground. The trio attempt to talk to the Terrans, who turn around, Twitch aiming her blaster at them.

Bumblebee protects the two kids as Twitch's blasts almost bring a tree down on them, but more blasts cause the ground to cave in, and everyone falls in. Bumblebee scans the comatose Terrans, only to find to his shock that they barely have any energon. While Bumblebee looks for a way out, the kids plead with the Terrans to wake up. Noticing the shallow water they're in seems to be reacting with the Terrans, the kids splash them with it and the two Terrans spring back into life. Bumblebee returns and, after hugging Thrash and Twitch, shows them what he's found — ancient Cybertronian text on a cave wall. The group reasons out that since they're from Earth, Twitch and Thrash needed the water in the cave to run instead of energon, though why the water in the cave is special, they can't work out. They emerge from the cave and Bumblebee reveals that Robby and Mo had to skip a pool party with their new school friends to search for the Terrans, who realize that the kids do need time on their own. They head off to the pool party, leaving Bumblebee to make his way home with the raccoon.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Putting _targets in the yard, wow this rhyming sure gets hard."

—Bumblebee

"Hmm. Ms. Malto, Mo. Mo Malto. That's a good name for a TV character."

—Mr. Smelt gets a little too meta.

"Wow! Our teacher is a huge jerk!"
"What did you call me?!"
"Ohh, no, not you, Bee. It's feels from Mo and Robby. School is a lot."

—Thrash and Bumblebee

"Let's use those scouting skills! When tracking someone you have to be aware of everything around you, no matter how small."
"You mean like those Terran footprints you're kneeling on?"

—Bumblebee and Mo

Notes

Continuity notes

• The cave system and its unique water first appeared in the series premiere, "Secret Legacy, Part 1".
• First appearance of Witwicky Charter and the only episode it appears in the shows first season.

Transformers references

• The Cybertron textbook the kids are reading features illustrations of Cybertron as it appeared in the original The Transformers cartoon.
• Among the posters on the classroom wall is a somewhat out-of-place "Know Your Energon" poster, showing blue, yellow, red, purple and green varieties. These colours all correspond to known Energon variants—regular Energon (blue), Chronogon (yellow), Red Energon, Dark Energon (purple), and Tox-En (green)—and while the text on the poster is illegible, the length of the word-blocks mostly matches up with these names (except for Chronogon, which looks like it might just be labelled "Yellow Energon").

Real-world references

• Mo refers to the classic fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel".

Animation and technical errors

• Quintus Prime's insignia appears upside-down.

Trivia

• The text Bumblebee finds reads "IN TIMES OF NEED HELP SHALL RISE TO YOUR CALL" in Ancient Autobot script, with the insignia of Quintus Prime next to it.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "La famille et les amis" ("Family and Friends")
• Original airdate: December 6, 2022

German

• Title: "Freunde und Familie"
• Original airdate: December 6, 2022

Hungarian

• Title: "Egység és kétség" ("Unity and Doubt")
• Original airdate: December 6, 2022
  • The title is wordplay, "egység és kétség" can also mean "oneness and twoness"

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "Amigos e Família" ("Friends and Family")
• Original airdate: December 17, 2022

Italian

• Title: "Amici e Famiglia" ("Friends and Family")
• Original airdate: November 11, 2022

Home video releases

DVD

2023 — Transformers: EarthSpark - Season 1: Episodes 1-10 (Paramount)

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