| abstract | - Along Came a Spider is the fortieth episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3. It is also the one hundred and fifty-second of the series as a whole. The 30th Zeo Serial Short aired before a later airing of the episode.
- Along Came a Spider is the sixth episode of Red vs. Blue: Season 13. It aired on May 10th, 2015 for sponsors and May 11th, 2015 for the general public, and is the 271st episode overall.
- Sari introduces Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Optimus Prime to the concept of Halloween, starting with selecting pumpkins. As she explains the idea of choosing just the right costume, Optimus's attention is distracted by a large black widow spider decoration. He remembers back to his academy days... On an organic world, Optimus and his friend Elita-1 admire the strange webbing stretching across the high rocks, not knowing what it is, until Sentinel calls to them to hurry up. Optimus cautions that such worlds are normally considered off-limits to Autobots, but there's supposedly a real Decepticon ship somewhere in the area. Elita's there for the historical value, but Sentinel just wants to get his hands on the energon cache that must be in it. Optimus is still wary of potential punishment should they get caught, but figures he has to keep the other two from getting in over their heads. Sentinel insists that never happens—right before the ground crumbles under their feet, sending all three plunging into a deep cavern. Strange, skittering noises echo from its dark reaches. Optimus activates his shoulder-light to see... Bulkhead snaps Optimus's attention back to the present by donning a bedsheet (which just covers his head) and going "Boo," startling his leader. Optimus claims a ghost from his past just has him jumpy, then stalks off. Back at the Autobot base, Sari critiques Bumblebee and Bulkhead's costumes, but says her own costume is only one surprise planned for the night. Noticing Optimus lost in thought, she uses the Key to activate one of the car plant's cranes, swinging another spider decoration in his face. The unexpected sight of it gives Optimus a bad flashback, and he quickly hacks the fake spider to bits. He admonishes Sari for making frivolous use of the Key, and she counters about him needlessly using his axe. Optimus stares down at the remains of the decoration, and his thoughts travel back again... Optimus suddenly becomes aware of Sari calling his name to show off her costume—a costume of him. He doesn't appreciate her vocal impersonation of him, and declines to join the trio on their trick-or-treat outing. As Sari and the two Autobots progress though a local neighborhood, Bumblebee is a bit spooked by the atmosphere. Sari reminds him it's all pretend...unaware they're being tracked by an enormous spider traveling over the rooftops. As she coaches them through their first actual "trick or treat," Bumblebee spots the spider watching them and freaks out, but it's gone before anyone else sees it. Sari teases him for being more timid than Optimus, but 'Bee protests he knows the difference between a fake decoration and a real giant spider. Listening in from headquarters, Optimus has Bumblebee clarify what he saw, then heads out to meet them, advising them to stay put. As Optimus rolls out, his thoughts roll back... In the present, still en route to Sari and company's location, Optimus swears he won't let it happen again. Meanwhile, Bumblebee stresses that they have to stay vigilant until Optimus arrives—even as Sari is yanked out from under them by the giant spider. Bumblebee quickly cuts Sari free, but as he and Bulkhead surround the spider, it transforms into a female robot who calls herself Blackarachnia. Sari's not too surprised or impressed by her femininity, but it makes a much bigger impression on Bulkhead—right up to the point Blackarachnia stabs him with two of her spider legs, knocking him out. She quickly gives Bumblebee the same treatment, then tells Sari they should go, now that Sari's safe. Sari protests the two Autobots are her friends, and Blackarachnia apologizes, pretending she can't tell which robots are good or bad on Earth. As Sari futilely tries to revive Bulkhead with her Key, Blackarachnia notes that the organic nature of her venom precludes that solution, since the All Spark doesn't affect organics. She offers to try helping the Autobots if Sari will just hand her the Key, but her ruse is interrupted when Optimus lassos her legs out from under her. Blackarachnia appears shocked to see him, but quickly frees herself and starts fighting back—using Bumblebee's stingers and Bulkhead's strength. Instead of borrowing any of Optimus's powers, though, she judo-throws him across the street, then kidnaps Sari. Optimus desperately pursues the pair across the rooftops. He catches up, stuns BA with a faceful of foam, then grapples Sari free. Despite this respite and Sari's warning, Blackarachnia still catches Optimus half-unaware. He fights back, but she dodges him constantly, claiming to know all his textbook Autobot Academy moves. Optimus wonders if he knows her, and she berates him for forgetting his friends—even if he remembered Sentinel. Optimus is horrified to realize he's facing Elita-1. She finally relates what really happened that day: Trapped in the ship and surrounded by the spiders, Elita tries desperately to download their abilities. Instead, she is infected with their venom, and it mutates her into a freak, a half-organic, half-robotic being. Optimus realizes that her half-organic nature is what masked her energy signature from his scans. BA sneers that if he'd known and saved her, she'd just have been dismantled and examined on some lab table on Cybertron. Optimus reproves her for joining the Decepticons, but she counters that at least she knows where she stands with them. She webs up Optimus and snatches the Key, certain that if anything can purge her organic half, it can. She plugs it into herself, but the unleashed energies begin causing all organic life in range, including Sari, to wither and sicken. Optimus breaks free, but before he can stop Blackarachnia, she grabs up Sari and throws her off the roof. Sari snags a flagpole long enough for Bumblebee and Bulkhead to save her, leaving Optimus free to deal with Blackarachnia. However, Blackarachnia collapses on her own, though. Optimus surmises her spark can't survive without her organic half, but she's too weak to pull out the Key and stop the reaction. Optimus forces through the energy barrier around her and removes it for her, restoring the organic life in the area to normal. As he helps her up, Blackarachnia asks him to go, not wanting to be seen like that. Still calling her Elita, Optimus asks her to come with them, promising his group will find a cure, and allow him to earn back her trust. She seems to respond positively, but it's another sham. Blackarachnia stabs him unconscious and leaves, vowing it will be a long time before she trusts another Autobot, especially him. Later, Optimus returns Sari the Key. She thanks him and admits he was right—maybe it's time she gave the Key a rest. Bumblebee trundles in painfully, still damaged from his fall after catching Sari, and asks if she could use it once more. Bulkhead asks who the bug-bot lady was, and Optimus responds it was someone he should never have left behind. Elsewhere, Blackarachnia stands on a rooftop, gazing at the moon and sobbing over her fate.
- He cautiously made his way through the ruins. He had a name, but it had long since been forgotten. His name was now a word that had been written under a drawing in the margin of a journal he didn’t remember keeping. His life had become one of service to the Foundation. Now the Foundation was no more, and he had returned to the site of his greatest failure. Just what was the agent’s greatest failure, he wasn’t entirely sure. Perhaps it had been leaving the site without making sure everyone understood his instructions. Perhaps it had been failing to ensure that the robots had all of their moving parts protected. Perhaps it had been allowing his paranoia that the containment procedures on 359 weren’t sufficient, and he had to see for himself, to get the better of him, which had been his reason for leaving in the first place. But whatever it was, within a day of his leaving the site, there was no longer a site to return to. The news had come from one of the Level 1 personnel who arrived at 359’s roost. The vine had somehow hitched a ride on one of the robots, he claimed, and had killed anyone who saw it. People had been sent to the lab with flamethrowers to attempt to contain it with minimal collateral damage, but to no avail. The more people it killed, the faster it spread. By the time the situation had reached the point where activating the on-site warhead would have been a viable option, anyone who had the security clearance to do so was already dead. The agent had called in an airstrike on the former site, but the vine had already spread far beyond the site by the time it was cleared. Within a week, the entire American Midwest was overgrown. He and the remaining survivors had erected a shelter, a massive steel dome with a glass roof to let sunlight in. He knew the plant couldn’t put down roots in metal or glass, and the glass was too high for any vine to reach without roots for support. He had thought they would be safe in there. He had forgotten the ingenuity of the plant. He had lost track of the time the survivors had spent inside the dome when the attack came. The vines had crept over the glass window and smashed it with the rocks held in their roots. Next had come the Great Rain of Mice. Dead mice began to fall through the broken skylight, erupting with vines the instant they hit the ground. The survivors had been caught completely off-guard. Within hours, the dome had been completely overrun. So now, dressed in a thermal insulation suit specifically designed to shield his heat signature from the plant, he returned to where it all began. He wanted to understand where everything had gone wrong. He had already seen that the plant had stacked various porous objects against the dome to reach the skylight. As he climbed over the numerous skeletons, humans and otherwise, entwined in the mass of vines, he saw something sitting in the middle of the room. It was one of the robots that had been used to maintain the plant after Incident 307 had killed a D-class personnel. One of its arms had long since rusted and fallen off. As he approached, he could see a plant growing out of it, with its roots set into the rubber casing on one of its hydraulic tubes. He prepared to turn back, when something at the other end of the room caught his eye. It appeared to be a light, but the sun had set hours ago. Against his better judgment, he made his way through the vine-strewn door. He immediately recognized the room he was in. It was the plant’s containment cell, and the light, which was somehow still lit, was the hydroponic chamber where the original specimen had been contained. But now, there was something different underneath it. The hydroponic station had been replaced by a table, with several glass terrariums on it. Inside each terrarium was a sizable colony of mice. As he watched, a vine snaked forward, lifted the lid off of one of the terrariums, and touched one of the mice, which froze on the spot. The vine wrapped around the mouse and removed it from the terrarium. So that’s how it’s survived all this time, he thought. The damn thing is farming hosts! He turned to leave, but felt something tug at his leg. One of the seams on his suit had become caught on a thorn. Before he could decide the best way to disengage himself, the vine began to move towards the mice, pulling the seam out of the suit completely. Instantly, the vines homed in on his heat signature and grabbed the suit with their thorns. He could hear them tearing at his clothes, as a particularly large vine wrapped around each limb and forced him to his knees. As he looked up, a single vine crept up to his face. It was a plant. It didn’t have a mouth. It didn’t have a face. It didn’t even have a head. And yet, for just a second, he almost swore it was grinning at him.
- Along Came a Spider is a tiered achievement that requires the player to defeat Araxxi several times depending on the tier.
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