Japanese Title: The Bond of Destiny! Tailmon
Jou calls Taichi with bad news: none of the other children who lived in Hikarigaoka seem to have actually moved. Jou urges Taichi to find his phone book, as it's the only lead remaining. Taichi goes into his room to look for it, while Hikari plays with her cat in the living room.
Outside, Tailmon spies on Hikari and reminisces how she tried to kill her but couldn't. Tailmon wonders why she wasn't able to kill Hikari and expresses envy at Hikari's pet cat for being pampered by the Yagami family all day, comparing it to her own traumatic treatment at the hands of her own master, Vamdemon. Tailmon reminisces how Vamdemon would beat her up for no reason other than the fact that he disliked the expression of her eyes, and that she has no memory of where she came from or where she was born, knowing only working for and being abused by Vamdemon.
Tailmon is approached by a fellow minion of Vamdemon, Wizarmonnote , but she orders him to hurry and find the eighth child. Wizarmon ends up finding the eighth Digivice in the bird's nest, but, when approached by PicoDevimon and asked about what it is, quickly shrugs PicoDevimon off with an excuse and flies away, instinctively feeling that it'd be a bad idea to let Vamdemon have the Digivice.
Yamato calls Taichi and tells him of the battle in Shibuya and how Vamdemon killed two of his own minions. He urges Taichi that they need to find the eighth child before Vamdemon finds them and kills them.
Wizarmon reports to Tailmon and presents her with the Digivice, and Tailmon reasons that the eighth child must be nearby, but Wizarmon surprises Tailmon with the idea that the location of the eighth child might be inside her heart, and that they may lie within the memories of her past that Tailmon locked away. Tailmon demands to know if Wizarmon was sent by Vamdemon to ask her this, but Wizarmon reveals that his loyalty is not to Vamdemon but to Tailmon, due to an incident long ago when she saved his life.
Wizarmon relates his past as someone who always travelled alone without friends until he collapsed in the desert, and Tailmon had saved him not only from death but from living forever alone and with a cold heart. He also reveals that Tailmon had told him, during that time, that she was continually searching and waiting for a person — but couldn't remember who it was. Tailmon professes that she recalls neither this incident nor having waited for anyone.
Hikari goes to her balcony to fetch the cat, and Wizarmon approaches Hikari with Tailmon in tow. Hikari recognizes Tailmon as the "friend of Agumon", and when Tailmon brings the Digivice to Hikari, it begins to glow, revealing to both of them that Hikari is indeed the eighth Chosen Child. This leaves the question of who is Hikari's partner Digimon, but Wizarmon urges Tailmon to remember what she had forgotten, and Tailmon recalls a distant memory: being in her Babynote form, Nyaromon... waiting for someone who would never come...evolving to her Child form, Plotmonnote and going out to look for the person herself... running into Vamdemon and becoming his minion.
Agumon catches Tailmon and Wizarmon talking to Hikari and alerts Taichi, who tells Hikari to keep away from them. Agumon attacks Tailmon, Hikari tries to Take the Bullet for Tailmon by standing in front of her, but Tailmon pushes Hikari aside and takes the attack intended for her. Although the attack doesn't do much, Taichi is shocked to see Tailmon having protected Hikari, and with this Tailmon remembers and acknowledges that she is the partner to the eighth Chosen Child, Hikari Yagami.
Taichi has a hard time believing this turn of events, but Wizarmon gives Taichi Hikari's Digivice and tells him to keep it so that Vamdemon will not find out that Hikari is the eighth child. Tailmon and Wizarmon tell Taichi that their next plan is to get Hikari's real Crest of Light, since Tailmon's copy is a fake used only to find the eighth child, and promptly depart to do so.
Tailmon and Wizarmon successfully infiltrate Vamdemon's base, but are caught by Vamdemon. Vamdemon ejects them from his base; Taichi and Agumon see signs of a fight in the distance, and decide to go off to help Tailmon and Wizarmon. Vamdemon incapacitates Wizarmon and tells Tailmon the reason that he hates her eyes are that they still hold signs of her having hope in her dreams; when Tailmon announces that her belief is what helped her live this long and will help her regain her true self, Vamdemon is smart enough to pick up that Tailmon's sudden change in behavior indicates her to be the eighth child's Digimon.
Vamdemon changes his plans, tosses Wizarmon into the river, and, despite Taichi and MetalGreymon's interference, kidnaps Tailmon, intending to use her as bait for the eighth child.
Tropes:
- Audience Surrogate: Vamdemon acts as one when he displays his shock that Tailmon is the Eighth Digimon.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Despite Taichi and Agumon's best efforts, Vamdemon escapes with Tailmon held hostage.
- Bowdlerise: Some of the attacks against Plotmon/Tailmon, both in the flashbacks and on the terrace, are toned down in the dub.
- Didn't See That Coming: Hikari being the eighth child was something the audience had known for some time, but the fact Tailmon was the eighth Digimon took everyone in and out of universe by surprise.
- Disney Death: Vamdemon gets rid of Wizarmon by weakening him, followed by having his bats drop him into the river so he'd drown.
- Exposition Dump: Early in the episode, Tailmon soliloquizes at some length about her backstory, her relationship with Vamdemon and her motivations, even though there's no one around to say these things to and she already knows all this perfectly well.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: When Yamato informs Taichi of the events of last episode, he refers to Pumpmon and Gotsumon as "two of Vamdemon's minions" (in the dub, he describes it by saying that Myotismon "got rid of two of his own flunkies"), apparently forgetting that he considered them friends and that he and Takaru
were left despondent over it. - Frothy Mugs of Water: In the original Japanese version, Wizarmon diverts PicoDevimon's attention from Hikari's Digivice by claiming that he found, rather than a Digivice, a bottle of alcohol, which he pulls out as his proof. The dub has Wizardmon claim this to be "a bottle of green chili sauce", which, while somewhat out of the blue, is not an entirely implausible thing to come from the green bottle he holds up.
- Idiot Ball: Neither Vamdemon, Wizarmon, or Tailmon act at all logically during their battle.
- There was no reason in context for Tailmon to go to Vamdemon's lair with Wizarmon to get the crest. It was incredibly risky, didn't help him at all, and led to disaster.
- Wizarmon can fly and easily carry Tailmon, but makes no attempt to fly them both to safety after the bats first drop them but simply gets injured when he hits the ground. This is repeated when they drop him in the water, with him making no attempt to fly away as soon as they let go of him.
- Vamdemon's bats carry Wizarmon and Tailmon out of his lair up to the surface. Now they're no longer cornered and could easily get away, so this was a pointless, self-sabotaging move for him. Good thing it apparently never occurs to Wizarmon or Tailmon that they should try to leave instead of standing there and fighting when they don't have to!
- Vamdemon makes no attempt to get the Crest of Light back from Wizarmon, including after he believes he killed him.
- Tailmon ranting about her dreams quickly causes Vamdemon to realize she's the eighth Digimon, something there was no way he would have learned if she'd just kept her mouth shut.
- Taichi shows up to help, but it somehow never occurs to Vamdemon that he must have a connection to the eighth child.
- Even though there's no way for Taichi and a de-powered Agumon to defend themselves, Vamdemon just leaves them alone for no reason when he kidnaps Tailmon.
- Internal Reveal: Taichi and Agumon learn, to their surprise, what the audience already knew for some time — that Hikari is the eighth child.
- Rewatch Bonus: Vamdemon's hatred of dreams repeatedly comes up in Tailmon's flashbacks and during the climactic battle. Three years later, we see why.
- Worf Had the Flu: Due to still being exhausted from his battle with DeathMeramon, MetalGreymon ends up reverting back to Agumon very quickly.
