Transformers: Robots in Disguise Episode Guide
Episode 28: Power to Burn!
Original air date: October 19, 2001
Written by: Tom Wyner
Side Burn is patrolling the highway when he unexpectedly becomes supercharged, and then sees Ultra Magnus nearby. Side Burn thanks him for providing the supercharged modes, but Magnus rebuffs him. He's still not sure how he tapped into Optimus Prime's Matrix of Leadership to supercharge the other Autobots. Just then Scourge drives past and signals that Magnus should follow him. He does, to an empty park, where Scourge proposes the two of them join forces to conquer the earth together. When Magnus declines, the other Decepticons appear to fight him. Side Burn and Prowl jump in to help fight, but Magnus wants them to leave him alone, so he flies away and leaves them to fight the Decepticons alone.
Using their supercharged modes, the two Autobots are able to hold their own against Scourge and Ruination until they unexpectedly power down and return to normal, so exhausted they can barely stand. A supercharged X-Brawn and Optimus Prime arrive to help, but Magnus watches the battle from afar, no more able to understand how the car brothers lost their strength than they are. X-Brawn takes his brothers to Optimus' trailer to recharge while Optimus fights the Decepticons, and then Megatron when he arrives, but he doesn't last long and X-Brawn's supercharge soon fades as well. Before the Decepticons finish them off, Magnus returns and offers to join with Optimus willingly to form Omega Prime. Omega repels Megatron and the Deceptions easily, and Magnus leaves, still not ready to join Optimus but no longer holding any ill will against the other Autobots.
Previous episode
||
Next episode
Nobody seems to know how Ultra Magnus is able to access Optimus Prime's Matrix of Leadership, or how the Autobots lost their supercharge in this episode -- and we never do find out. It's implied that Magnus' presense triggered Side Burn's supercharge at the start of the episode, and that its loss is related to Magnus' withdrawal from the battle. But that's as close as we get.
More interesting than this, though, is the brief revelation that Scourge is interested in taking Megatron's place as the eventual conqueror of Earth. Until now he's been seen as a loyal and determined lieutenant, hiding his ambitions even from his teammates. It's not just a story he gave to Ultra Magnus, either, as we see in later episodes.
When Side Burn first supercharges, his license plate is highlighted as changing from C-002 to C-026. Those license plates don't appear on the toys; rather, they're the unseen identification numbers used by Takara for each toy (Optimus Prime is C-001, Prowl is C-003, and so on). Since Super Side Burn was a completely different toy with a different ID number, the plate had to change when Side Burn did. It was more of an in-joke than anything else.