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The Maccadams Family
"The Citizen"
Season	3
No. in season	8
Production company	Allspark Animation
Airdate	February 18, 2020 (UK) March 29, 2020 (USA)
Writer	Zac Atkinson
Director	Ehud Landsberg
Animation studio	Boulder Media Studio
Watch this episode on YouTube

The Cybertronian resistance make an unexpected discovery about Maccadam's.

Synopsis

In the very distant past, the Cybertronian who will one day be known as Maccadam leads a tribe of Cybertronians in battle against an alien race. As the battle rages, a Titan strides across the battlefield, sending the aliens running. In celebration, Maccadam begins chanting the Titan's name: Iaconus. Much later, Maccadam tends his bar, as Hot Rod leads a crowd of Cube fans in cheering for Iacon City, jubilantly telling the bartender they won. "Yes, we did." Maccadam responds.

In the present day, Perceptor reveals to the rest of the resistance that Maccadam's is a Titan. Learning that the Titan is not active, Hot Rod declares it cannot help them. Perceptor reveals that the Titan has a cloaking module, which is how the Quintessons have been kept at bay. If they can find that module, they can replicate it for themselves. Wondering how to get down into the Titan's main structure, they go into the backroom, where Perceptor finds a hidden elevator. Hot Rod advises caution, having dealt with Titan defences before. Unfortunately, Dead End, Whirl and Clobber all pile into the elevator anyway.

Hot Rod tries squeezing in, but between the four already there, there's no room. The situation is not helped when Whirl's nervousness with small spaces makes him transform, causing Clobber to push Dead End into one of the elevator's buttons. The elevator hurtles down before opening onto a dark corridor, where something growls from the dark. Dead End instantly presses a button again, sending the elevator further down to a larger, more well-lit space.

As soon as the group enter, the door closes behind them and weapons emerge from the wall. Before Hot Rod can finish suggesting no-one touch anything, the others race over to grab them. And despite his caution, Hot Rod is not immune to the weapons' allure. As soon as he does, a voice calls out, telling them to "prepare for the ultimate test". A multi-limbed warrior emerges from the walls, and Dead End decapitates it, revealing it was a drone. The voice declares training level one is finished. Clobber realizes they've walked into a training simulator (or "thingy", as she puts it). Hot Rod insists they don't have time to spare, but after a few seconds violence decides maybe they do.

In rapid succession, the group goes from level 2, to 184, to 352. By level 504, all of them are starting to get sluggish, but insist on continuing onward to keep their high score going. Level 504 begins with them being surrounded by drones. Hot Rod calls in Perceptor, who asks if everyone else is done having fun yet before disconnecting, leaving the four surrounded. The drones power up their weapons... only to suddenly power down. The voice declares training is over and failed. Perceptor enters from a side-door, carrying his severed right arm, and asks if they have learned something.

Making their way through the Titan's corridors, Clobber inquires if Perceptor is okay. He informs her he lost his arm to a monster, then fell down one hundred and eighty-two floors worth of elevator shaft, yet has managed to scan the Titan's workings and found a medical facility, an armory, and an energon depot. Taking another elevator down, the group enter a large stasis barracks, but their hopes of back-up are dashed when Hot Rod finds every pod is empty. According to Perceptor, there are ten thousand of those pods, and they are all empty. The Titan's been abandoned. Hot Rod wonders where the crew went, while Perceptor is concerned. The sheer scale of the Titan they have found means it can only be the last War Titan, Iaconus. Dead End is sceptical, not believing Iaconus was real. Hot Rod insists they keep going to the cloaking module, unaware a creature is following them.

As Clobber wonders whether Iacon City was named after the War Titan, a crocodile-like mechanoid attacks her. Using the techniques they honed in the training simulation, the group try freeing Clobber from the creature. Once they do, they run from it and head straight towards the cloaking module. As they approach, Maccadam makes his presence known, telling them they will not take the module now because it will end badly for them. Clarifying on the subject, he states that the Quintessons will find them and drag them back to their parade. Perceptor declares he knows who Maccadam is: a citizen of Iaconus. Maccadam confirms that he is the last citizen of Iaconus. Hot Rod calls him on knowing about the Titan's power and keeping it hidden, but Maccadam states he was protecting them from Iaconus. All the stasis pods they passed belonged to his friends, who died to stop him.

In the past, at the end of the Age of Expansion, Iaconus returned to Cybertron as the last War Titan. But because a War Titan without a war is dangerous, Iaconus went mad, beginning his own war. His own citizens fought against him, eventually defeating the Titan, but at the cost of Maccadam being the only one left.

His story finished, Maccadam tells the resistance Iaconus must never awaken, for while he may defeat their enemies, he will inevitably tear the world apart. Suddenly turning jovial again, the bartender suggests they go have a drink. As they go back through the barracks, the crocodile-bot reappears, only for Maccadam to smack the animal-bot and send it running off. He explains that the crocodile-bot, known as Skullcruncher, wandered into Iaconus millennia ago and Maccadam let it stay to keep out the "riff-raff". Once they are back on the surface, Perceptor asks Hot Rod what his plan is now. Hot Rod's answer is simple: they wake Iaconus.

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Notes

Continuity notes

• The mystery of Maccadam deepens. Already shown to have an unusual view of time, this episode seems to answer a few questions, showing he once led a tribe of physically identical 'bots in the Age of Expansion, as a citizen of Iaconus. His survival over the several aeons Cybertron has been abandoned evidently comes not from any supernatural ability like, say, being one of the Thirteen, but just from having access to Iaconus's energon depot for all that time.
  • Of course, he is shown to definitely have something going on, being able to not only see the future, but potential futures as well. And it might just be of note that in the short flashback of Mac leading his tribe, he is not addressed by name...
• Hot Rod mentions having ventured within a Titan before and their internal defenses, referencing his journey into Croaton in "Ghost Town."

Transformers references

• Maccadam name drops the Age of Expansion.
• Skullcruncher is modeled after his Generation 1 counterpart's Titans Return toy.

Real-world references

• TBA

Other trivia

• If Perceptor manages to reattach his arm when they got back, why the heck does he ignore his goddamn eyes?!
• While Maccadam refers to Skullcruncher as a "he", Mae Catt considers the character to be female.^[1]

Animation and technical errors

• TBA

Foreign localization

German

• Title: "Der letzte Bewohner"
• Original airdate: November 7, 2020

Portuguese

• Title: "O Cidadão" ("The Citizen")
• Original airdate: September 24, 2021

Home video releases

• TBA

References