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You know some villainy, that is like, double villainy, you know?
"Double Villainy"
Season	2
No. in season	25
Production company	Hasbro Studios
Airdate	July 26,2014
Writer	Nicole Dubuc
Director	Kevin Altieri
Animation studio	Vision Animation

A plan is hatched by Griffin Rock's most evil villains to kidnap the Bots and put them to work.

Synopsis

Mr. Bunty is enjoying a picnic when he's interrupted by first a soccer ball and thenCody Burns appearing out of thin air. Cloaked behind a gianthologram, theRescue Bots, Burns and Greene families are playing "Rescue Ball", a sport which has no rules, other than to score by hitting the other team's net.Frankie, riding onTrex and sporting thePhase Bit, manages to score the first goal forHeatwave's team. She confesses she was allowed to keep the prototype after the production model was delivered to the company that ordered it. One of the production models is currently in the hands ofMadeline Pynch, aboardDoctor Morocco's submarine HQ. He has a proposal for her, believing he can get hold of the Rescue Bots. She's shocked when he suddenly ages mid-negotiations, however after a quick round in hisChamber of Youth he's back to normal. He removes a component from the device and fits it to a helmet. The helmet is delivered toMayor Luskey labeled as a "hair-regrowing device", but when he tries it out, he collapses and suddenly can't recognize his own wife. Satisfied, Madeline tells Morocco he's hired.

Blades encounters his mortal enemy for this week.

The game of Rescue Ball continues, with Heatwave using his boat form to block the goal soBlades can't score. An interruption soon comes with an emergency call from Mayor Luskey, who's tried to drive acrossFranklin Bridge. The team finds Luskey's car dangling over the wrecked bridge, but once they rescue him, he doesn't remember the Bots, and mistakes Cody for Graham.Chief Burns opts to get him to a doctor. Blades arrives back at thefire station and heads down to the bunker to watchCupcake Hoarders, however his viewing is put on hold when he hears Heatwave's voice coming from the tunnels. Running in to help, he instead finds Doctor Morocco, who incapacitates him with a green spray. The rest of the Bots arrive at the station to find the TV on and Blades missing, but moments later Blades walks out of the tunnel, acting strangely.

The real Blades is towed back to Morocco's HQ where Morocco slaps on some antidote. Blades does his best to feign being a robot, but it soon becomes clear that Morocco knows everything. Before Blades can act, he's pinned to a wall by an electromagnet, and Morocco revealsthe duplicates he has created of the other three Rescue Bots. Though Blades is pleased he's gotten Morocco to reveal his evil plan, Morocco zaps him with the memory-erasing device. When Blades recovers, he's forgotten everything that's happened since landing on Earth, and Morocco spins him a yarn. Back at the fire house, Cody tries to interest the fake Blades in a pirate movie marathon and is surprised by the Bot's lack of enthusiasm.Doc Greene reports thatDoctor McSwain has checked out Mayor Luskey, who appears to be suffering from amnesia. Fake Blades meanwhile reports he's received an emergency call from two spelunkers trapped in a cave underMount Griffin. They arrive at the cavern in question, but Blades claims it's dangerous inside for humans, so the four Bots go in alone. Naturally all they find is Morocco and his gun full of virus gas, and the fake Blades prevents them from escaping. Moments later, Morocco's four fake Bots emerge from the cave and tell the rest of the team that the call was just a prank.

On Morocco's undersea HQ, the three Bots manage to escape the magnetic wall and crash through a door, only to be zapped by Morocco's memory-erasing ray. Back inGriffin Rock, Chief and Chase finish their patrol, and Chief's taken by surprise by Chase's fast driving, while Boulder hands Graham a plunger instead of the requested Allen wrench. Becoming suspicious, the Burns family have a meeting to discuss the strange behavior of their partners. Cody attempts to question Heatwave about an event from when they first met, and realizes he can't see Heatwave's eyes behind the visor. On the sub, Morocco "fills in" the amnesiac Bots about howOptimus Prime has assigned him as the Rescue Bots' liaison on Earth and tells them the Burns family are dangerous criminals. Heatwave's perturbed by Blades being placed in charge. Meanwhile, the Burns family orders the fake Bots to walk into the EMP zone onGriffin Crest, and when they do, the four Bots are revealed as clever fakes.

While Frankie assures Cody that they'll find their missing friends, Morocco is briefing the missing Rescue Bots on their mining mission. Using the phasing tech supplied by Pynch, the Rescue Bots are able to reach a cavern under Griffin Rock, though they immediately begin to discuss how unusual their mission is. Blades is determined to start mining, but when Boulder detects methane, he puts down his energize tool, which promptly topples over, causing a spark. One humongous explosion later, and there's a huge hole in the Griffin Rock docks. Madeline Pynch opts to cut and run, heading forParis with the piece of Morocco's rejuvenation chamber. The Burns family arrives at the hole in time to see the Rescue Bots clambering out, but they still believe the Burnses are criminals, and Heatwave promptly points the business end of his knuckles at them.

To be continued...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Aw, no fair! I don't have a third form."
"Sure you do! Helicopter, Bot, and whiner."

—Blades andHeatwave

"I am a rescue robot."
"And I'm the Duchess of Kent."
"Greetings, Duchess."

—Blades andMorocco

"Heatwave's been great! No complaining, no arguing."[beat] "Gasp! What's wrong with him?!"

—Kade on the Bots' odd behavior.

"Look, it doesn't matter why we're doing this. It's what Optimus Prime ordered."
"How do you know? Did you actually speak to him?"
"Well, no, but... I think we can trust Doctor Morocco. Hello, he's a doctor!"

—Blades andHeatwave

Notes

Continuity notes

• The picture of the rescue team which Morocco shows Pynch is from "Family of Heroes" when the Rescue Bots were first revealed.
• AMorBot can be seen aboard Morocco's HQ.
• Blades uses an energize tool, a grappling hook, during the game of Rescue Ball.
• The meteor virus was previously seen in "Bumblebee to the Rescue". Morocco appears to have stolen a sample of it when he visited the fire station in "Changes", which is also the episode in which he learned the Bots were aliens.
• Luskey suggests building a library out of recyclables, which happened back in "Walk on the Wild Side".
• The incident with the drive-in Cody mentions occurred in "Family of Heroes".
• When Doctor Morocco was interrogating Blades and when he was informing the Rescue Bots about their "New Mission", there are images that are visible of Optimus Prime: one in robot mode, one in vehicle mode and one that is cut off in the zoom in but visible from the earlier shot but looks like it took place in "Bot to the Future".

Transformers references

• Heatwave mentionsScraplets.

Real-world references

• Doc Greene's line "May the force-field be with you" is a clear nod to theStar Wars franchise.
• TheVerne device is named forJules Verne, and Morocco's undersea lab, which will be revealed to be named theNemo in the following episode, takes inspiration from theNautilus fromTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
• Luskey has atattoo which says "Rosebud", a reference toCitizen Kane.

Animation and technical errors

• Shouldn't what remains of Franklin Bridge have been barricaded off, rather than simply left as an inevitable public hazard?
• Morocco says that "tunneling to the gold deposit will take weeks." However, using thePhase Bits, the Bots simply walk through one wall. Inthe immediately preceding episode, the Bots were shown tunneling through rock wall in mere minutes. Perhaps he was planning on stringing her along? He also mentions that the gold deposit is "completely landlocked." But it clearly isn't, given their trivial access from the sea. Besides which, the entirety of Griffin Rockis an island.

Trivia

• Couldn't Morocco have simply sold Madeline Pynch the Rescue Bot clones? As far as she knows, they're robots, not aliens, and the clones already transform and act like the real bots do when they're in their public "robot" behavior/mode.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Des Rescue Bots très étranges" ("Some very strange Rescue Bots")
• Original airdate: ?

Hungarian

• Title: "A nagy átverés" ("The Big Scam")
• Original airdate:3 December2014
  • Aired out of order, following the 3rd season episodeBig Game.

Italian

• Title: "Doppia malvagità" ("Double villainy")
• Original airdate:17 July2017

Portuguese

• Title: "Vilões Unidos" ("Villains United")
• Original airdate:1 April2015 (Netflix)