Japanese Title: The Dancing Ghosts! Bakemon
Devimon looks evilly over the landscape as he proclaims the Chosen Children to be doomed.
Jou has a mental breakdown as his bed floats in the middle of the sea, which is not helped by Gomamon eating the last of the emergency rations. Gomamon tries to encourage Jou to have a little more hope, but their day is quickly made worse when a crate floating towards them turns out to have Ogremon in it.
Gomamon feebly tries to summon fishes against Ogremon, hoping that Ogremon will be weak to the smell of fish from having grown up in the mountains... which works about as well as expected. Fortunately, the fact that Gomamon has just eaten all the emergency rations works in his favor, as he quickly evolves to Ikkakumon and helps Jou make a getaway. Unfortunately, he quckly runs out of energy and reverts to Gomamon, causing himself and Jou to sink into the water.
On their fragment of the island, Sora and Piyomon go fishing for food, although in the absence of bait Sora is forced to use a twig for bait and hope that a fish is stupid enough to think it’s a worm. Suddenly, she feels a violent tug on the pole and, determined to catch the big fish that’s stupid enough to think it’s a worm, pulls it out with Piyomon... and finds it to be Jou and Gomamon.
While resting by the fire, Gomamon asks Sora and Piyomon a favor: because Jou is starting to lose his nerve with all these crazy things happening around him, he wants them to treat Jou like the leader for a little bit to get back his self-esteem. As Jou wakes up, they do so, and Jou takes the role with gusto.
The four head towards the sound of a bell that they hear in the distance, with Jou, the designated leader, getting increasingly jumpier. They reach what looks like a church, which Jou is convinced must have humans in it. Sure enough, they find what looks like a bunch of humans wearing masks and dancing around — and are approached by a man in a priest's outfit who tells them that they are holding a festival to worship their lord Bakemon.
The priest leads them into the church, where Gomamon expresses concern because he knows Bakemon to be pranksters and mischievous Digimon. Sure enough, the "priests" around them promptly reveal themselves to actually be the Bakemon, and that they intend Sora, Jou, Piyomon, and Gomamon to be the offerings...
All of the “humans” around them turn into Bakemon, trapping them, and Piyomon and Gomamon are unable to evolve without energy. The resulting debacle has Piyomon and Gomamon locked in a dungeon and Sora and Jou strapped to a table as sacrifices to "Lord Bakemon". The Bakemon start sprinkling salt and pepper on them.
Gomamon and Piyomon see that the Bakemon guarding their cell is asleep (complete with Snot Bubble) and Gomamon decides to trick him into releasing them.
- Piyomon: How do you know he's easy to fool?
Gomamon: Digimon who sleep with a mucus bubble coming out of their noses are easy to fool.
He then pops the bubble by throwing a rock at it, and they tell the Bakemon that they want to be tortured. As a suggestion, they tell the Bakemon that they’re hungry and a good way to torture them would be to eat food in front of them. They then tell him to come closer, and closer and...promptly knock the lights out of him and eat the food.
The Bakemon dancing around Jou and Sora perform a Fusion Dance and become a giant Bakemon, the Lord Bakemon referred to earlier, and they’re about to be eaten until Ikkakumon and Birdamon intervene. As Ikkakumon and Birdramon fight off the giant Bakemon, Jou realizes that a good way to get rid of ghosts is to chant a sutra
. He begins chanting one that his grandmother taught him to do well on exams, and, deciding he needs a ritual drum, starts using Sora's hat and a stick. note
It works; the sutra starts to weaken the Lord Bakemon and cause him to become smaller, after which he is easily dispatched by Ikkakumon and Birdramon. The defeat of the Bakemon causes the ground to split open, revealing black gears, which stop. Spotting Infinitely Mountain in the distance, Jou and Sora figure that everyone else will be meeting there and set out towards the mountain on Ikkakumon and Birdramon...
Tropes
- A Day in the Limelight: For Jou, Gomamon, Sora and Piyomon, that have to free themselves from the Bakemons with no help.
- Didn't Want an Adventure: Many times over the course of episode Jou mentions that he never wanted to go to Summer camp to begin with and that he should have stayed home to study.
- Exact Words: In the dub, when Joe admonishes Gomamon for eating the rations, he mentions that he told Gomamon that they needed to save the food the until much later. Gomamon counters that it is later, since Joe told him 20 minutes before. Joe is understandably frustrated by this and says 20 minutes is not much later.
- Fusion Dance: Many regular Bakemon perform a small one to become a giant Bakemon.
- Killed Off for Real: Bakemon-sama becomes the first enemy to be killed by the heros.
- Kill It with Fire: How the giant Bakemon meets his end.
- Medium Awareness: Gomamon wises up to the Bakemon guard being dim-witted because he sleeps with a Snot Bubble coming from his nose, a common visual trope signifying that someone is less than bright.
- Mundane Utility: Played with. The sutra that Jou chants to diminish Bakemon's power was originally taught to him by his grandmother for him to pray to do better on his exams. While we never learn if it works when used for that purpose, it absolutely works on the Bakemon.
- Snot Bubble: The Bakemon guarding Gomamon and Piyomon falls asleep with a large snot bubble coming out of his nose. Gomamon wakes him up by popping it with a thrown pebble.
