Japanese Title: Invincible Union! Paildramon
Paildramon manages to hold off Ookuwamon off, and the kids run into the Kaiser’s base in order to use the Crest of Kindness and stop the explosion. Within the base, Ken sees a slot with the Crest of Kindness’s marking above it, and inserts the Crest into the slot. However, even though Koushirou confirms that the distortions have stopped thanks to the Crest of Kindness, the base still threatens to explode, the dark power having gone too far out of control.
Ken finds pipes that transfer energy throughout the base, and the kids follow the pipes in the hopes of finding a way to stop the reactor. They follow the pipes to a large structure swarming with dark energy, which Patamon recognizes as similar to that of the whirlpool and Hikari feeling the same feeling as that of the dark ocean. Ken realizes that the base is connected to the “Dark World”, and that it’s flowing into and controlling the base.
Seeing that the base is about to explode, Paildramon quickly finishes off Ookuwamon and approaches the base in the hopes of saving Daisuke and Ken. When dark energy begins to flow in large amounts up the structure and the base is right about to explode, Paildramon arrives in the nick of time to attack it and stop the flow. The kids evacuate the base while Paildramon destroys it, with Ken asking them to destroy it without leaving a trace.
Wormmon and V-mon return to Ken and Daisuke, now in their Baby forms of Leafmon and Chicomonnote . Daisuke thanks Ken for his help and tells him that the feeling of unity that came with hearing each other’s heartbeats means that Ken is now the group’s partner, but Ken still has trouble coming to terms with the idea as he feels himself not good enough to be their partner. He asks Daisuke to give him some time to think it over and goes off.
The kids inform Koushirou of what had happened, and Koushirou invites them to his house for the next day in order to tell them some things he knows about it. At night, Daisuke tells Chicomon that he could feel that Ken is their partner, and Chicomon tells Daisuke that Jogress evolving with Stingmon allowed XV-mon to understand him perfectly. At his own home, Ken is still uncertain about how it seems the Digital World still needs him after all of the things he’d done as the Kaiser.
The next day, the kids meet up at Koushirou’s place, and Koushirou presents his theory that “Jogress” is a portmanteau of the English words “joint” and “progress”, and also tells them that the process of two Digimon combining had happened before. With that, he tells the others about what had happened shortly after that: the 1999 Chosen Children had been summoned back to the Digital World to use the power of their Crests in order to release the forces that keep the Digital World in balance. Using the Crests’s power had caused the distortion in the Digital World to disappear, but also sacrificed the 1999 Chosen’s ability to super-evolve their Digimon to Perfect level - although Patamon says that the power of the Crests is not fully lost, since the power of the Crests is in their hearts, and thus someday they may be able to regain the ability to super-evolve again.
Koushirou theorizes that XV-mon and Stingmon may have used Jogress evolution in order to use the power of a Perfect-level Digimon, and the kids realize that this must mean that they’re meant to fight against the mysterious woman. They’re about to charge into the Digital World when Koushirou’s mother comes in, offers them donuts and drinks...and asks where Tentomon is.
Tropes
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: The franchise establishes that Omegamonnote of the Our War Game! movie is not a Jogress evolution (DNA digivolution) but an actual fusion, and in this episode Koushirou is careful not to refer to Omegamon as having come from Jogress evolution. The dubbed version of this episode and the Revenge of Diaboromon movie, however, refers to Omnimon as a DNA digivolution, which creates inconsistency with the franchise. What makes this the most problematic is that DNA Digivolution is what happens when the resulting Digimon is a level above at least one of the two components, which is what Paildramon is described as in this episode. Fusion, the process which formed Omegamon, is when two Digimon combine but don't see an increase to their overall Level; only in later games such as Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth would Omegamon qualify as a DNA Digivolution, as Omegamon's standard method of fusion has him still being considered a Mega Level; assuming Omegamon is created by DNA Digivolution, it would outright be Ultra Level as per the rules of what describes a DNA Digivolution.
- Embarrassing Nickname: While we don’t get to see how Tentomon himself would react to it, the kids (especially Koushirou) react accordingly to Koushirou’s mother calling Tentomon “Tento-san”.
