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Season One, Episode 18: Spider's Game
Reviewed by Blackjack

Episode Review

Oh, this is great. Inferno isn't the star of this episode, although the plot centers around him, and he's a wonderful and unique character. Where else, other in the context of BW, could you get a fanatically loyal troop who thinks Megatron is his 'queen'? Tarantulas, however, steals the spotlight, with Blackarachnia being a decent sidekick. Tarantulas' scheming, as well as the fact that this would tie into the overall plot of Season One, with hints of the aliens again and escaping the planet, is well done. This is a self-standing episode, yet ties heavily into the overall plot. I like that.

Blackarachnia's treacherous and female-fatale nature is shown yet again in this episode, and it seems that she's avoiding Megatron for a while after the events of 'The Trigger'. Tigatron and Airazor are not potrayed as strong as before, but it's okay since the Maximals are not shown much. After all, it's a Predacon-centric episode. And I'm a sucker for the bad guys. They're so much interesting than the good guys.

Notes

This episode is the debut of Inferno. It's also the only Season One episode without Terrorsaur.

At one point, when Tigatron hits his head, a Looney Tunes-esque cuckoo bird sound effect is played.

Tarantulas wants to use the stasis pod as an escape pod in case the aliens come back. He apparently have been planning this for quite some time, as he seems delighted when he detected Blackarachnia's stasis pod crashing. He's probably anxious because of the Floating Island incident in the previous episode.

Tigatron's beast mode face bleeds at the end of the episode. It's kind of weird, since Cheetor said Transformers don't have blood back in 'The Web'. This might mean that the Beast Mode parts do have some sort of organic matter in it (thereby explaining the bestial instincts overtaking personalities for some transformers), or that mech fluid is red in colour.

Inferno is blown into lots of little bits, with his head still able to talk after it's decapitated. It's a curious coincidence that only the insect-mode transformers' heads could still function when they're blown off (Waspinator's head functions everytime it's blown off, and that's a lot of times) but Terrorsaur and Megatron's heads never speak during the times they were blown apart. Curiously, some insects (like cockroaches) could live for some time with their heads chopped off.

Goofs

Inferno's Beast Mode is too big compared to his stasis pod. It's very obvious at the scene where he crawls out of it.

The pattern on Tarantulas' spider abdomen changes when he transforms after Inferno catches up with him.

When Inferno spins his abdomen-jet after he breaks free from the web, it clips through his leg.