Japanese Title: Memories of Mother – Howl, MachGaogamon
The DATS agents find their path to the Infinite Ice Ridge blocked by a deep gorge. It's too wide to jump across or walk around, so they have no choice but to climb down into its depths and hope they can climb back up the other side.
Unbeknownst to them, Gotsumon, Falcomon, and Ikuto are using a Kuramon to snoop on their progress. Ikuto is furious that these evil humans are tromping around the Digital World as they please, but Gotsumon isn't worried. The gorge they're about to enter has a bad reputation: those who go in don't come out.
As the protagonists rappel down the many office buildings sticking out of the gorge's walls, they suddenly come under attack. A swarm of Dokugumon leap from the shadows, ensnare everyone in webs, and drag them down to the deepest depths of the chasm. There, they are introduced to the lord and master of the gorge: MetalPhantomon, an infamous Digimon who plunges his victims into magical nightmares so he can feast on their souls.
He quickly puts Masaru, Tohma and Yoshino to sleep with his magic, and soon the three humans are plagued by nightmares. Masaru finds himself powerless to save his sister from a Digimon, thanks to an endlessly spawning horde of Numemon slowing him down. Yoshino finds herself in a room from her childhood, where her younger self is sobbing and declaring that she hates her mother and sisters. And Tohma finds himself back in his childhood hometown, where he is shocked to see his mother praying at a shrine with his younger self.
His awe at the sight of her is short-lived, for the dream suddenly shifts to a hospital room. Tohma's mother is bedridden and hooked up to an EKG, which flatlines as she breathes her last.
The dream changes once again. Tohma is back on the street in the middle of the day. He sees two girls walk by him in yukatas, and he comes to the horrified realization that this is the day of the summer festival: the day he lost his mother. He runs back to his childhood house as the specter of MetalPhantomon looms over him, taunting him for trying to change the inevitable.
At his home Tohma pounds on the front door, begging his mother not to go. But when the door opens, neither she nor his younger self acknowledge his presence, and when he reaches out to grab her shoulder, his hand passes through her like a ghost. Desperate, he walks with them, urging his mother to listen to him and stop before she loses her life, but again his words go unacknowledged. Soon they find themselves at a crosswalk, and a horrified Tohma recognizes that this is the place.
He steps into the street and screams at an oncoming truck, trying to warn them that there are people about to cross. But once again, his words have no effect.
The driver loses control just as the younger Tohma and his mother are about to step off the sidewalk. She sees it coming and pushes her son out of the way just before the truck smashes into her. Both Tohmas can only stare in horror at the aftermath.
In the waking world, Agumon, Lalamon, and Gaomon watch as their partners suffer in the grip of their respective nightmares. All three are worried, but Gaomon has faith in Tohma.
That faith turns out to be well-placed. For as terrible as this memory of his mother's death may be, he has plenty of positive memories of her too. Drawing strength from these, Tohma manages to break free of MetalPhantomon's spell and awaken himself. As he declares that MetalPhantomon will pay for his unforgivable actions, his DigiSoul flares to life, and Gaomon warp digivolves into his Ultimate level form: MachGaogamon!
With a single blast of his Howling Cannon, MachGaogamon breaks MetalPhantomon's hold over Masaru and Yoshino, and he frees them from the webs. Their Digimon digivolve to their Champion forms and go to town on the Dokugumon, while MachGaogamon squares off against MetalPhantomon, who quickly begins to flail around in a panic. At Tohma's command, MachGaogamon finishes off the other Digimon with a Winning Knuckle right to the chest.
After the battle, the DATS agents have made it out of the gorge. They're ready to continue on their journey to Merukimon's lair in the Infinite Ice Ridge, but before they can set off, Lalamon cries out in alarm. Yoshino has collapsed!
Tropes
- Animal Eye Spy: An inconspicuous Kuramon is following the protagonists. Everything it sees is beamed to a scrying pool in Merukimon's palace.
- Bizarrchitecture: The office buildings in the gorge are oriented perpendicular to its walls but parallel to the ground above.
- Bowdlerise: The English dub removes a scene of Tohma's mother flatlining in the hospital. This has the effect of making it seem like she was killed instantly when the truck hit her.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Yoshino collapsing from a sudden illness, the curing of which will be the focus of the next episode.
- Dead Hat Shot: The show makes it clear that Tohma's mother died when she got hit by the truck by lingering on a shot of one of her broken sandals.
- Forced Sleep: MetalPhantomon casts a spell on the humans to put them to sleep, so that he can then plunge them into a nightmare.
- Foreshadowing: The brief glimpse into Yoshino's nightmare foreshadows her complicated relationship with her mother and sisters, which will be explored in more depth two episodes down the line.
- Hydra Problem: Masaru's nightmare in a nutshell. A single Numemon stands between him and his sister, but every time he punches it out, two more Numemon appear and take its place. He soon finds himself buried under a pile of the things.
- I Know What You Fear: MetalPhantomon uses his powers to plunge the sleeping protagonists into nightmares shaped by their worst fears.
- In a Single Bound: GeoGreymon is able to leap great distances and jump from building to building during the episode's climax.
- Lone Wolf Boss: MetalPhantomon has no affiliation with Merukimon. He simply terrorizes anyone unfortunate enough to wander into his gorge.
- Look Both Ways: How Tohma's mother died. She was just starting to cross the street with her son when the driver of an oncoming truck lost control of his vehicle and ran into her.
- Mind over Matter: MetalPhantomon telekinetically rips the buildings out of the gorge walls and throws them at MachGaogamon, to little effect.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: MetalPhantomon is an undead robotic skeleton with magical powers and a Laser Blade scythe.
- Past Experience Nightmare: Tohma is forced to relive the worst day of his life thanks to MetalPhantomon's magic spell. He gets to relive the day that his mother died right in front of him, fully aware of what's going to happen and powerless to affect the outcome.
- Projectile Webbing: The Dokugumon spit out strands of webbing to ensnare the protagonists and their Digimon.
- Spiders Are Scary: The Dokugumon are monstrous spiders who kidnap people to hand them over to MetalPhantomon's tender mercies.
- Sweeping Laser Explosion: Sunflowmon takes out a bunch of Dokugumon at once with a single sweeping shot of her Sunshine Beam.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Tohma declares that he cannot forgive MetalPhantomon for forcing him to relive his mother's death, triggering Gaomon's evolution into MachGaogamon.
- Villainous Breakdown: MetalPhantomon starts to freak out once Tohma breaks free of his spell, and he really loses it after Gaogmon digivolves into MachGaogamon and frees the others. He starts flailing around with his Soul Predator attack, blindly attacking everything in sight and hitting his own Dokugumon minions more often than not.
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: This episode explores the fears of the main characters through MetalPhantomon's nightmare-inducing magic.
