Japanese Title: Hikari's Memories
The Chosen Children start to fall in routine: wake up, go to school, destroy Dark Towers, which they begin to do more and more efficiently under Koushirou's direction. The elder Chosen end up busy, but have faith in the younger kids that they can take care of things when they’re not around.
In a familiar town, the kids work to take down an army of Guardromon in order to get to a Dark Tower. The kids are forced to retreat after their Digimon run out of energy and devolve, but a Guardromon destroys the Digital Gate TV and Hikari is left behind. Hikari sends them an email telling them that she's okay, and Tailmon tells Hikari that she'll armor evolve if anything happens.
As it becomes apparent they won't be able to return through that gate, Daisuke tries to blame Takeru for letting Hikari get stuck behind there when she was behind him, and, despite Iori's efforts to get Daisuke to not put the blame on Takeru, Takeru accepts responsibility and blames himself for not having been more careful. After they receive the mail from Hikari telling them that she's okay, Takeru decides to take the gate nearest to where she is and go help her, while Daisuke follows, not wanting to let Takeru steal his thunder. Miyako and Iori, knowing that the families will be worried, go out to inform Taichi and the others.
Still after Hikari's heart, Daisuke tries to get Takeru to go home, but Takeru shrugs it off, saying his mom is coming home late that day. After seeing through Daisuke’s attempt to appoint himself to go alone to save Hikari with a double-tailed coin flip, Takeru tells Daisuke that both of them will go to get Hikari. Patamon wonders why they didn't decide that in the first place, and V-mon says that Daisuke just wanted to look cool.
As Hikari and Tailmon look for a way out, the Kaiser watches over them. Wormmon worries over him, but the Kaiser yells at him for calling him by his real name, Ken, and decides to test out "him", whom Wormmon recognizes as a Perfect-levelnote Digimon.
Iori calls Taichi and tells him about the situation, and Taichi tells his mother that Hikari's at a friend's house and he's going to pick her up. He meets with Yamato outside, and Yamato decides to go inform Daisuke’s parents that he'll be late while Taichi goes to save Hikari.
Takeru and Daisuke see a Guardramon standing outside and, knowing that he might call his comrades, realize they need to take him out in one blow. Since the Dark Tower isn’t in the immediate area, Takeru has Patamon evolve to Angemon, who — after eliciting some shock from Daisuke — destroys the Guardramon's Evil Ring and gets them into the city's dome. As they enter, they get in range of the Dark Tower and Angemon regresses to Patamon. Daisuke asks if Hikari's Tailmon can evolve and, upon hearing that Tailmon's further evolved form is the Distaff Counterpart of Angemon, begins to shake V-mon and urge him to evolve into some kind of Angemon variant.
Yamato informs Daisuke's sister Jun that Daisuke will be late, but Jun sees that he's hiding something and, to Yamato’s horror, tells him that she'll tell her parents Yamato's story in exchange for a date before closing the door. Iori brings Taichi to the computer lab, and the Digimon Kaiser brings forth his Perfect-level warrior — none other than a controlled Andromon.
V-mon and Patamon armor evolve to Fladramon and Pegasmon and attack the city's Guardromon. They soon find Hikari and Nefertimon, but Nefertimon is incapacitated and reverts to Tailmon. Fladramon and Pegasmon, accompanied by Takeru and Daisuke, successfully keep Hikari and Tailmon from getting further attacked, but they're approached by Andromon.
Being a Perfect-level, Andromon quickly incapacitates Fladramon and Pegasmon and causes them to revert to V-mon and Patamon. Hikari tries to appeal to the ally they once had, despite Takeru's insistence that he's under the Evil Ring's control and won't hear them. Andromon sees Daisuke's goggles and recognizes them as Taichi's, causing him to stall and successfully get hit by an incoming attack from Holsmon. Holsmon and Digmon arrive, ready to fight, accompanied by Taichi, who also tries to get Andromon to recognize him.
Andromon does, indeed, recognize Taichi, causing the Evil Ring to begin fizzling. He walks over to Hikari and picks her up, also recognizing her as the Hikari from three years prior. Hikari reminds Andromon of the photo they took on their last day in the Digital World back then, and her Digivice falls onto Andromon, bathing him in pink light and causing him to remember the picture in full. Andromon snaps back to normal, destroys the Evil Ring around his neck, and turns around and blows up the Dark Tower.
Andromon takes charge of protecting the city from the Kaiser, and the kids return to the human world. Koushirou yells at them for having left the Digital Gate open on the computer without supervision, and then tells them that he had a friend in America analyze the new Chosen's Digivices. Since the words "Digital", "Detect", and "Discover" had been found associated with the data, Koushirou dubs them "D-3s". Before Koushirou can go further, however, they realize they're all hungry and head for home. At the Ishida household, a very irritated Yamato cooks for his father, knowing that he's stuck on a date with Jun.
Ken Ichijouji, sitting at his computer, thinks about how the Evil Ring won't be enough in order to control a Perfect level Digimon...
Tropes
- Achilles' Heel: The Evil Rings are revealed to not have a very good control on Perfect/Ultimate (dub) level Digimon, even with the aid of a tower.
- Badass in Distress: Andromon, an immensely powerful Digimon, needs to be rescued from the Emperor's control.
- Continuity Nod: Once again, Andromon gets brainwashed.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Andromon throws this on all of the armor evolutions.
- "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: Against Andromon, as Hikari tries to remind him of their friendship to snap him out of the Emperor's control; it succeeds.
- Loophole Abuse: T.K. notices that the dome keeping the city as it is can allow Patamon access to his normal Champion form, and uses it as a way to sneak in.
- Non Sequitur, *Thud*: In the dub, when Andromon's attack hits Patamon and de-digivolves him, he lands in T.K.'s arms and mumbles "I'll have two cheeseburgers and a large order of fries."
- Ship Tease: Literally. After Angemon is revealed, T.K. mentions that Gatomon can evolve into Angewomon, to which Patamon claims makes the two of them a perfect pair. Daisuke is livid to hear that his crush and Unknown Rival already have such compatibility.
- Spoiler Opening: In the American dub, although a bit past the opening. While pretty much everyone watching the show knows that Ken and the villain are the same person by this point, Wormmon accidentally refers to him in Emperor persona by name one episode before this is properly revealed to the Chosens.Wormmon: Shouldn't you be going home soon, Ken?
Digimon Emperor: Never call me ANYTHING but "Master"! - Trapped in Another World: Kari, although only for this episode.
- Two-Headed Coin: Davis tries to use this against T.K.; the latter sees through it, as he used to use to same trick to win bets with Matt.
