Japanese Title: Lightning! Kabuterimon!
The kids continue their exploration, and eventually take a break after exhausting themselves. Koushirou pulls out his laptop and tries to get it to work; Taichi suggests using Percussive Maintenance, but this only annoys him. Taichi ends up being quickly distracted by seeing three plumes of smoke in the distance.
Koushirou’s laptop eventually starts working again, though he notices that it’s working even though the batteries are dead. His confusion is interrupted by the discovery of a factory - the plumes of smoke that Taichi saw earlier. Upon entering it, they see a conveyor line that seems to be putting together something they can’t identify.
The group splits up. Further exploration leads Yamato, Takeru, Mimi, and Koushirou to the power supply room, where Koushirou sees a huge battery and motor. Koushirou ends up so fascinated by the battery that he tells the others to check out the rest of the factory without him.
Taichi, Sora, and Jou find a robot - which Gomamon reveals to be Andromon, a “really good Digimon” - inactive and trapped between machine parts. Feeling sorry for him, they start to pull him out. Taichi, Sora, and Kou have difficulty pulling Andromon out, causing Taichi to fall backwards and fall on a lever...which inserts a black gear into Andromon. As soon as they pull him out, they find he’s still inactive, to which Taichi resorts to using Percussive Maintenance again. Surprisingly, it works...but the awoken Andromon promptly proceeds to attack them and label them as intruders. Gomamon expresses confusion, saying that he should be a good Digimon, and the group runs for it.
Yamato, Takeru, and Mimi return to the conveyor belt and wonder what it’s making. Koushirou continues to inspect the large battery and finds a door into it, which he enters with Tentomon. He finds the battery to actually be a large room with strange symbols written all over it, and identifies it as a computer program; as soon as he wipes a little off the markings, the power of the entire factory shuts down, startling everyone. The power is restored as soon as Koushirou replaces the section he erased. Koushirou is understandably confused how power can be generated from a written program, and decides to use his laptop to analyze the program.
Taichi, Sora, and Jou continue to run from Andromon, with poor success as they eventually end up dangling over a bridge.
Tentomon notices that Koushirou is more interested than usual now that he’s using his laptop, and Koushirou says that he enjoys doing things like deciphering, as he may be able to solve the mysteries around him - like what this world they are in is, and what the Digimon are. Tentomon is confused, saying that he himself generally doesn’t have an interest in that kind of thing, and asks Koushirou if he has interest in who he is himself.
This startles Koushirou, who begins to have a flashback of himself overhearing a conversation between his parents. “When are we going to tell him the truth?” His parents are hiding something from him...
Koushirou is quickly snapped out of his reverie by Tentomon, who points out that the computer code he’s typing is now floating around his screen. The mysterious blue device that he’s wearing begins to react. Mysterious shapes appear on Koushirou’s computer, and Tentomon starts to suddenly begin glowing and complain of burning up. Fearing for Tentomon’s safety, Koushirou turns off his computer, and the device stops glowing.
Taichi uses some ingenuity to temporarily trap Andromon and he, Sora, and Jou run away to inform the others of the danger. Takeru, Mimi, and Yamato, who have watched the conveyor belt assemble things and disassemble the things that it just made, conclude that the factory is actually making nothing at all. Koushirou meets up with them and informs them that since a program is providing power to a factory, this means that a world like this is causing things that are normally just information to be real. They are promptly met up with Taichi, Sora, and Jou...and an incoming Andromon.
Takeru is left vulnerable to Andromon’s attacks, but Gabumon evolves to Garurumon and staves off the attack. Agumon in turn evolves to Greymon, but Garurumon and Greymon’s attacks are ineffective against Andromon. Tentomon comes to a realization and tells Koushirou to load up the program from earlier, which he does; the result causes Tentomon to evolve to Kabuterimon and assist in the fighting. Koushirou realizes that Andromon has a weak spot, and orders Kabuterimon to Attack Its Weak Point: Andromon’s right leg. The attack removes the black gear embedded in it, and Andromon becomes docile.
Andromon, wanting to do something to make up for having attacked the group, advises them to find a way out via the Absurdly Spacious Sewer. The kids thank Andromon and promptly do so.
Takeru asks Koushirou if he can make Patamon evolve with the program; Koushirou attempts to do so, but his computer only blacks out. To everyone’s irritation, Taichi suggests using Percussive Maintenance...again.
The narrator then cuts in, saying that Koushirou’s laptop may have stopped working, but it would soon become the key to finding out more about this world...
Tropes
- Abandoned Warehouse: With the exception of Andromon, there are no workers manning the machinery.
- A Day in the Limelight: This episode focuses on Koushirou and his theories about the Digital World.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In the dub, Izzy refers to his digivice by name, several episodes before the team learns what they’re called.
- Early-Bird Boss: Non-videogame example, Andromon is the very first Ultimate level enemy that the Children face while their digimon have just obtained their Champion forms.
- Everything Is Online: Koushiro abandons his Alien Abduction theories for the digital world really being digital from his experiments with a giant battery.
- Koushiro removes a line from the battery and ends up turning the power off. Redrawing the line turns it back on, explaining to Koushiro that this is a special type of computer program for the digital world.
- He manages to further hack into the battery triggering Tentomon to digivolve. However, we later find that he is unable to get Patamon to digivolve in the same way, suggesting the Digivolution only happened due to Koushirou's link with Tentomon or the present danger of a BrainwashedAndCrazy Andromon.
- Foreshadowing: Koushiro has a brief flashback to overhearing his parents discussing something about him. He snaps back to the present before we hear exactly what they say, but it's an early hint of his issues stemming from the knowledge that he is adopted.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: During their "fight", at one point Andromon grabs Greymon and slams him right into Garurumon.
- Monster of the Week: A brainwashed Andromon.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Taichi accidentally triggers the lever which releases a black gear into Andromon.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Joe in the dub while he's fleeing from Andromon:"This. is. not. good. I. don't. like. this. at. all!"
- The Watson: Tentomon to Koushirou.
