Japanese Title: Adventure! Patamon and I
Takeru and Patamon crash-land into an island fragment. In the morning, Takeru recoups, but quickly breaks down and cries once he realizes he's separated from Yamato and the others and is homesick. Patamon wonders what he would do if he were Piyomon, but the first thing he can think of is "evolve into Birdramon and fly out of here".
Patamon starts crying because he can't evolve, and a curious Takeru asks what Patamon would evolve into. Patamon doesn't know, and Takeru starts coming up with two potential evolutions for Patamon, both of which involve pigs (which irritates Patamon). After wandering around for a bit, they find themselves in a village reminiscent of a large nursery, where they proceed to bounce around, have fun, and bond a little with each other.
They come across a large amount of cradles, all containing baby Digimon. They also find a bunch of eggs, which Patamon identifies as DigiEggs and explains that Digimon hatch from them. After finding a note underneath that says "rub me", Takeru rubs the egg, which hatches into a Digimon.
Takeru asks if Patamon knew if this is how it works, since Patamon was a baby once. Patamon says that he doesn't remember all the things from when he was a baby, and asks Takeru if he remembers his babyhood. Takeru tries to remember but can only come up with a vague memory of falling over, hurting himself, and a young Yamato telling him it'll be okay...
The nursery's caretaker, Elecmon, catches Takeru and Patamon playing around and the babies running around everywhere, and attacks the two of them. Accusing the two of them of bullying the babies and doing unnecessary things to them, he starts a brawl with Patamon (who comes dangerously close to evolving) until Takeru interrupts and screams at them to stop. They stop their fight, but Elecmon continues to call Patamon a brat and Patamon insinuates that Elecmon is more of a brat for pretending to be an adult.
Because the two are so insistent on fighting, Takeru has an idea... and sets up a tug-of-war match between the two, sumo-style, with himself as the referee. Patamon wins, chucking Elecmon all the way over and slamming him into a soft block. Elecmon apologizes for his attitude towards Patamon and properly welcomes him to the Village of Beginningsnote .
Takeru muses that fighting between friends is okay as long as they make up with each other — unlike fighting between adults...
Once everything is said and done, Takeru asks Elecmon how he can get to Infinity Mountain. Elecmon tries to stop him, saying that Devimon is there, but Takeru is insistent, because he needs to find out where his brother and the others are, confident that there's a way to settle things without fighting. Takeru says that he believes something will happen "when hearts become one", and Elecmon decides to go back to the Pyocomon village to see if they know a way to get the island together.
On Infinity Mountain, Devimon looks at Takeru and Patamon and declares that he only needs to stop the one Digimon who hasn't evolved yet...
Meanwhile, at the Village of Beginnings, a Botamon evolves to a Koromon, and Patamon wonders, if he evolves, will he be able to remain friends with Takeru? Takeru asks Patamon if he wants to evolve, and Patamon says that he won't mind evolving if it means he can stay with Takeru. With that, they make a promise to be friends forever...while Leomon looks menacingly over them.
Tropes
- A Day in the Limelight: For Takeru and Patamon.
- Breather Episode: After more high-stakes episode featuring characters trying to survive in hostile environments and against hostile Digimon, and before the final showdown with Devimon, "Patamon and I" focuses on an encounter with an overzealous nursery guard that's resolved with a simple tug-o-war.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Elecmon befriends Patamon and Takeru when Patamom defeats him in a tug-o-war.
- Foreshadowing: A lot to what's going to happen to Patamon in the very next episode.
- Imagine Spot:
- Patamon wishes he could be able to evolve into a Digimon like Birdramon to get himself and Takeru out of the place they were in.
- Takeru tries to imagine into which Digimon Patamon would evolve and his first imagine spot pictures Patamon's evolution as a pig-like Digimon, and the second one pictures it as a hippo-like Digimon. Patamon isn't amused.
- Mundane Utility: Elecmon is seen using his electric attacks to fish in the river for food for him and the babies in Primary Village.
- No Infantile Amnesia: Discussed and averted. Takeru asks how Patamon doesn't know that the Digiegg's shells will turn into a crib for the baby Digimon if he is a Digimon himself, and Patamon answers that he doesn't remember being a baby, and asks Takeru if he remembers being a baby himself. After a brief flashback of Takeru being comforted by Yamato, he answers that he isn't sure, implying that he also doesn't remember his time as a baby and as a toddler better than most regular humans do. Downplayed in the dub, where T.K. narrates over the flashback and indicates that he remembers the events only vaguely (for example, he's not sure if it was Matt who comforted him).
- Shock and Awe: Elecmon's powers are electricity based.
- Too Long; Didn't Dub: The note telling Takeru and Patamon to rub the egg is prominently shown, yet the American dub does not have the text of the note (which is clearly written in hiragana) edited. While not editing Japanese text happens every so often in Digimon dubs, this example merits mentioning because the dub has Patamon attempt to explain the kana off as "DigiCode" (especially odd when the franchise already has something called DigiCode
, which is very visibly not hiragana). - Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Since the Village of Beginnings is where every Digimon is born (barring exceptional circumstances), TK asks if this means Devimon himself started off as another adorable Baby Digimon. Patamon replies that yes, it does.
