Bumblebee meets an old friend from the other side of the war as GHOST close in on them both and the Maltos learn no one wins all the time.

Earthspark goes full Dominic Toretto this week and it’s a blast. Again, the show does three things at once, combining a bad day for the Maltos with a progression of the GHOST plot and another great guest appearance by a legacy character.

Let’s work backwards and start with Breakdown. Voiced by video game voice acting legend Roger Craig Smith, Breakdown is a stunticon and reformed decepticon. Where Tarantulas has never stopped hiding, Breakdown has never stopped running. But he’s also never been able to resist pushing his luck and travels the world entering races. Bee is training for the local race in the hopes his friend is there and when he is, we get another friendship that crosses loyalties and another exploration of life after wartime. Craig Smith’s warm, smooth voice tells you everything you need to know about the Cybertronian adrenalin junkie and he and Danny Pudi bounce off each other brilliantly. You instantly buy that these two are old friends and also understand the rift between them straight away. Bee is every inch the racer Breakdown is, but he’s also emotionally mature. Breakdown is a toddler with a V8 engine, the living embodiment of no impulse control. Neither is fully right but neither are fully wrong and, just like Nightshade and Tarantulas last episode, they give us a different perspective on the conflict at the core of the show. Also like Tarantulas, Breakdown feels less like a guest star and more like a new addition and I’d love to see more of them both.

The GHOST plot is the closest thing the episode has to a weak spot. The ‘the autoboots work with GHOST but can’t come clean about everyone on Earth’ element of the show has always been a little bit of a stretch and seeing Bee in so much jeopardy this episode throws that into the spotlight. There’s not, quite, an endgame here yet although there is very real threat and the end of the episode does land really well. The slow motion sequences and the increasingly frantic nature of the fight give this the darkest tone the show has had yet and makes the sacrifices the two racers make all the more meaningful.

That brings us to the Maltos, and Twitch and Thrash bickering constantly. This is arguably the smartest thing the show does, setting up a comedic sibling rivalry plot and then turning it into an exploration of pressure and anxiety. Twitch is terrified she’s not going to be ready to protect her family and while the ending isn’t her fault she clearly takes it that way. Despite their best efforts, arguably because of them in Bee’s case, the Maltos are split for the first time and the show has taken a noticeably darker turn heading into the final third of the season.

Verdict: It’s smartly handled, emotionally honest and another strong entry in the season. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart