Spirit of Halloween
From Transformers Wiki
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 Dave gets ready for Anthrocon. | ||||||
| "Spirit of Halloween" | ||||||
| Production company | Entertainment One | |||||
| Airdate | March 25, 2022 | |||||
| Writer | Hanah Lee Cook | |||||
| Directors | Paul O'Flanagan | |||||
| Animation studio | Boulder Media Studio | |||||
 Watch this episode on Netflix
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Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange?
Contents |
Synopsis
In his office, Dave makes big plans for this year's mall employee Halloween party, having royally bombed out the prior year. This year, he will get an actual trophy of some form or another!
At the food court, Burgertron is introducing the Lost Bots to "Kiddie Menu Airlines", where they hang-glide from a paper airplane made from a children's menu. Dimlit, however, wants nothing to do with this, having a fear of heights (among many other things), and nothing the other bots say can seem to bolster his confidence. Kikmee gives him a gentle pat on the back... which sends him toppling from the mezzanine railing, and he grabs the airplane. Which does let him fly around, much to his absolute terror. Smacking into a store window on the first floor, he recovers only to see a hideous orange thing grinning at him. As the Lost Bots rush over to congratulate him on his flight, they too notice that an entire storefront has been taken over by a thing called "Spector Halloween", filled to the brim with terrifying sights! Burgertron tries to talk the Lost Bots down, but then a shrouded ghoul with glowing red eyes speaks up with a tinny voice...
"Nyahahahahahh! The end is near! A dreaded web we weave! The nightmare will never stooop!"
...which sends the five running and screaming for the safety of a bench. And because they aren't terrified enough, a horrifying furry beast (actually Dave in a lousy werewolf costume) wanders out, sending the Lost Bots fleeing further, praying that Spector Halloween will vanish overday just as it appeared.
It does not. The next night, Spector Halloween takes up three storefronts. As the Lost Bots look from the safe distance of the bench, Dave arrives, needing a new costume since the wolfman one gave him a full-body rash, and he willingly enters the store, much to their horror. Once again Burgertron tries to reason the bots into calmness, but they all freak when a horrible bandaged thing stumbles out! It is of course just Dave again, who heads back to his office to call his mom about his costume, for all the good it does.
In the food court, Sergeant Scrubforce briefs the other BotBots on the encroaching Spector Halloween problem. The growing store is freaking them all out... except for Frostferatu, who is quite pleased with the development. Everyone promptly ignores him and tries to think of some way to get rid of the store. The Lost Bots overhear this, and Burgertron decides that saving the mall from this scourge will definitely get them back in the BotBot's good books. Kikmee has a brainstorm, as hours of video-game-playing has taught her that if you defeat a boss, it destroys the whole level, so all they have to do is beat the store's boss! And recalling the cloaked figure's repeated chant of "Nyahahahahahh! The end is near! A dreaded web we weave!" is a clue: the boss must be the giant spider they spied in the very back of the store!
The five head to the dreaded store, but Dimlit backs out at the last minute. The other four enter, unaware that Dave has already arrived looking for a new costume. The security guard tries on a ghoul mask with a voice distorter, which proves way too small to for him to see out of or take off, sending him stumbling through the store. The terrified Lost Bots run, only to get caught in a web, giving them a front-row view of the ghoul flailing around, activating numerous monsters with flashing eyes and low-quality-speaker moans and shrieks. Their screams of terror carry out of the store, and Dimlit realizes he can't just leave his friends to a horrible fate. Taking Bonz-Eye's previous advice to face his fears, he enters, imagining the horrible sights within as things from his "happy place"... which only works for a few seconds before the reality of what he's seeing sets in and sends him screaming in a random direction. Speaking of random directions, Dave is still knocking over displays. Dimlit comes wailing in, tripping and activating his light, which shines directly into the tiny holes in Dave's mask. Thus the ghoul is sent backwards, knocking over the giant spider, defeating the boss! Dimlit quickly pulls the Lost Bots free, and they bolt for the door.
The next night, the Lost Bots head to the space where Spector Halloween stood, confidently approaching the waiting crowd of BotBots. Burgertron brags about their heroic accomplishment in banishing the spooky store, and that Dimlit has grown to face his fears, only for Dimlit, still terrified and quivering from the night before, to declare he absolutely has not. Spud Muffin isn't pleased, however, as while Spector Halloween might be gone, something else has taken its place... something cold, something frozen, guarded by huge scary bearded men in red outfits who chant in unsettling lack of coordination:
"Ho ho ho. Ho ho ho. Ho ho ho."
Meanwhile, in his office, Dave is congratulating himself on a successful night, despite the visit to the emergency room to have the mask removed: the judges at the mall's Halloween party definitely saw him this time, and awarded him a participation trophy! Good job, Dave!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| BotBots | Humans | ||
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"My whole life is my happy place! Because my policy is to avoid things that scare me, or even make me the tiniest little bit uneasy in any way!"
- —Dimlit explains his life philosophy
"Is it a store?! Or the physical manifestation of our most terrifying supernatural nightmares?! ...because, I might be kinda into that."
- —Clogstopper knows what he's about
"Okay, what about 'vampire mall guard'? Or 'mad scientist who moonlights as a mall guard to fund his evil unlawful experiments'? No wait, I got it! 'Sultry mad scientist who moonlights as a mall guard to fund his evil unlawful experiments'!"
- —Dave runs a few bad costume ideas past his mom
Dinger: Will we all one day wake up to find our own stores infected by... Halloween?!
(crowd murmurs worriedly)
Sprinkleberry D'uhnut: ...BotBots.
(crowd murmurs positively)
- —Sprinkleberry always knows what to say
"Dimlit! Did your happy place work?"
"No! My happy place tried to eat me!! Now let's get out of here!!!"
- —Bonz-Eye and Dimlit
"You hear that, world? Dave participated!! And next year I'll do it again! ...probably, don't wanna get cocky, stay humble, Dave. Staaaaay humble."
- —Dave is a man who knows how to set realistic expectations
Notes
Continuity notes
- If both "Halloween" and "Christmas" are new concepts to the BotBots, then the energon storm had to have hit in very late December the prior year at the earliest. Which means that there's not a lot of time between the BotBots' creation and the start of the series, since Dave "celebrates" his February 29th birthday in "Escape from Snackatraz".
Real-world references
- The title and store name are references to Spirit Halloween, a store chain infamous for temporarily taking over empty storefronts everywhere in the months leading up to Halloween. These are often replaced by similar-ish short-lived Christmas-themed stores, particularly in malls.
- Frostferatu does the "nails on chalkboard" bit from Jaws to get the crowd's attention. He's even drawn himself in chalk like the shark illustration from that scene. He's a lot less successful in keeping everyone's attention than Quint was, though.
BotBots cypher translations
- The Halloween contest poster reads "HALLOWEEN" up top, followed by "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor", the ol' reliable placeholder text.
- The kids menu top side has "Burge" then "rs" under the watermelon, top-left, then "ickenTend" coming out of the center crease, with the "ers" weirdly below it on what would be a very different part of the paper when unfolded.
- The menu underside, very briefly visible, has "Salad" and "eroni P izza" on the left side, and "i and M" on the right.
- There are several "SPECTOR HALLOWEEN" posters adorning said store; the first is seen through the window that Dimlit hits face-first.
- The second-floor store signage over Spector Halloween at the end of the mall reads "Suits for hire".
- In Kikmee's envisioning of her store-killing plan, the clothing store that replaces Spector Halloween has "AL" printed on its glass panels, "Af" on the white window sign to the right, and an exterior "SALE" sign (flipped 90 degrees counterclockwise). The posters in the furniture store above ir all read "Furntiture[sic] sale now on".
- Numerous shelf tags inside Spector Halloween read "SALE" and % OFF".
- The shelf tags in the Christmas store read "present boxes" (left) and "bows" (right).
Animation and technical errors
- TBD
Trivia
- In a nice touch, the pillbot shot of Kikmee carrying Burgertron in his alt mode uses a round version instead of the normal rectangular one for him.
- While at first thought this would seem like the perfect place to include the Seasons Greeters, which features some Halloween and Christmas-themed BotBots, Spector Halloween and the Christmas store obviously weren't around for the energon surge that gave life to the BotBots. Also, it's just funnier this way.
Foreign localization
French
- Title: "L'esprit d'Halloween" ("The spirit of Halloween")
Portuguese
- Title: "Espírito de Halloween" ("Spirit of Halloween")
Arabic
- Title: "أجواء عيد الهالوين" ("Spirits of Halloween")
