Japanese Title: Oh Wind! Oh Light! SaberLeomon
The mysterious lion Digimon comes closer, assures the Chosen he will not hurt them, and tells them to hurry up. With MetalEtemon tearing down the forest, Mimi and Jou take on his offer and they make a run for it, ending up at Digitamamon's restaurant, now abandoned.
This Digimon reveals himself to be Leomon, who explains that after being exposed to the Digivices, he was granted the ability to warp-evolve to SaberLeomon, but is unable to control it. Ogremon attempts to rekindle the old rivalry and fight him but is quickly defeated due to his injuries, while Palmon finds Gekomon and Otamamon hiding under the floor, who recognize Mimi as their princess.
Pinnochimon returns to his house while the rather overenthusiastic Floramon and Deramon continue to shoot, venting all their frustration towards him. Pinnochimon recognizes them as the shooters and Floramon and Deramon make a run for it while Taichi's group of Chosen confronts Pinnochimon. Pinnochimon laughs and claims that he does have friends after all, sending an army of RedVeggiemonnote after the Chosen.
Otamamon explains the demise of the Gekomon and Otamamon palace at the hands of the Dark Masters, to which Ogremon reacts with disgust. When Leomon tells Mimi and Jou that he's fought with them in order to stop things like this, Mimi wonders why they hadn't fought with the Dark Masters to begin with rather than on File Island, to which Ogremon responds that they would have been dead had they fought them head-on initially and Leomon. Mimi expresses concern that so many Digimon wouldn't have died in their place if it weren't for that, but Leomon believes that them starting out on File Island was a part of destiny, as a kind of test to the abilities of the Chosen to see if they could save the Digital World. Jou realizes that the Chosen splitting up is another kind of test, but instead, they are struggling with themselves.
The Chosen Children easily defeat the RedVeggiemon, and Taichi warp-evolves Agumon to WarGreymon. Pinnochimon uses his puppet master abilities to control WarGreymon, but the timely intervention of Angewomon, Angemon, Garudamon, and AtlurKabuterimon stops him. Pinnochimon remembers Jureimon's warning that he will lose if he underestimates the Chosen due to his lack of The Power of Friendship and, lashing in anger, turns his house into a giant mechanical robot to take on the Chosen.
MetalEtemon successfully arrives at the restaurant to get revenge, and Leomon successfully warp-evolves to SaberLeomon to take on MetalEtemon despite Mimi's efforts to stop him. Gomamon evolves to Ikkakumon, but Mimi is unable to bring herself to get Palmon to evolve, and Jou orders Ikkakumon to help them escape instead of fight MetalEtemon. Right as they are about to leave, Mimi further finds herself unable to leave Leomon, and when Ogremon tries to intervene, Mimi stops him.
MetalEtemon prepares a death blow, but SaberLeomon takes the attack. Ikkakumon evolves to Zudomon to help the now mortally wounded SaberLeomon defeat MetalEtemon. MetalEtemon reveals that his body is made out of Chrome Digizoid, to which Zudomon responds by cracking him with his own hammer made of the same material. Soon enough MetalEtemon is severely damaged, he asks what could've done this to which Zudomon replies that his hammer is made of the same material and can thus harm him. SaberLeomon gets up and delivers the final blow, thus defeating MetalEtemon. He then regresses to Leomon and faints, with Mimi rushing over to help.
Taichi's group of Chosen struggles against Pinnochimon's roboticized house while Pinnochimon offs the RedVeggiemon for only slowing him down when he tries to escape. However, the resulting explosion exposes MetalGarurumon, who can't be controlled by Pinnochimon's puppet powers because, as Yamato explains, he won't allow himself to kill the people he calls friends. With that, he defeats Pinnochimon in one attack, and the dying Pinnochimon continues to blindly be unaware of his lack of friends making him unable to defeat the Chosen. With Pinnochimon's death, the house collapses, and Sora sees Yamato, but Yamato still cannot bear to face the others and walks off before the forest portion disappears from Spiral Mountain.
Leomon regains consciousness for a moment to notice the forest disappearing and realizes the Chosen have defeated Pinnochimon. Mimi despairs, but Leomon assures her that he will be back once he rejuvenates at the Village of Beginnings. Ogremon wonders what will happen, but Leomon assures that they will meet again and dies, starting the series-wide tradition of killing off a Leomon Once a Season.
Jou insists on going to the Village of Beginnings to get some help and meet the Digimon who had died for them, to which Ogremon replies that the Dark Masters had destroyed the place and until the Chosen defeat the Dark Masters, the Digimon won't be reborn. This restores Mimi's Heroic Resolve, and with that, Mimi, Jou, Palmon, Gomamon, Gekomon, Otamamon, and Ogremon set off to gather any Digimon who will help them.
Tropes
- Antagonist in Mourning: Ogremon is visibly devastated by Leomon's demise, weeping and saying that he was a good rival.
- Big Damn Heroes: Matt and MetalGarurumon arrive just in time to strike Puppetmon down, before leaving again.
- Bittersweet Ending: Puppetmon and MetalEtemon are both destroyed, but Leomon dies, Matt still hasn't rejoined the others, and it's revealed that the Village of Beginnings has been destroyed and none of the Digimon that have died will be reborn until the Dark Masters are all destroyed.
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: MetalEtemon's ultimate attack comes in the form of a bolt of black energy coming down from the sky. Mimi was the intended target, but SaberLeomon jumps in the way.
- Fuuma Shuriken: After losing his hammer, Puppetmon uses the wooden cross on his back as one. He kills one RedVegiemon with it, but is unable to defeat MetalGarurumon.
- Hero Killer: MetalEtemon kills SaberLeomon.
- Heroic Resolve: Learning that all their Digimon friends will be reborn in the Village of Beginnings once the Dark Masters have been defeated restores Mimi's will to fight.
- Horse of a Different Color: When fleeing from MetalEtemon at the beginning of the episode, Jou, Mimi, Gomamon and Palmon ride SaberLeomon like a giant horse.
- Humongous Mecha: After his hammer is destroyed, Puppetmon uses is powers to make his house come to life and attack the Chosen Children's entourage, so he can escape, and it proves itself to be a very powerful enemy that is only stopped when Puppetmon is killed.
- I Warned You: A variation. Puppetmon brushed off Cherrymon's concerns about taking the Digidestined seriously, but, when the tide of the battle starts to turn against him, Cherrymon's words come back to haunt him.
- Kill It with Ice: How Puppetmon meets his end, courtesy of MetalGarurumon.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: This is basically MetalEtemon's reaction to being destroyed again, his last words being "You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!".
- One-Hit Kill: For all his power, Puppetmon is killed in just one hit by MetalGarurumon.
- Power Incontinence: Leomon has gained the ability to shift into an immensely powerful Mega form, but cannot control how and why he shifts from one form to the other.
- Taking the Bullet: SaberLeomon jumps between Mimi and the energy bolt sent against her, remaining mortally wounded in the process.
- This Cannot Be!: MetalEtemon has this reaction after his chest is cracked open by Zudomon's hammer, which allows the fatally wounded SaberLeomon to inflict a fatal wound on him.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Hammer rather than sword, but Zudomon manages to crack open MetalEtemon's Chrome Digizoid skin with his Hammer Boomerang attack.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In the dub, Floramon and Deramon are last seen fleeing deeper into Puppetmon's mansion to avoid their master, and it's not made clear if they managed to exit it before its transformation into a Giant Mecha and ensuing destruction or, if they did, whether they got out of the forest zone before it disintegrated after Puppetmon's death. Averted in the original where Puppetmon explicitly pulls out a magnum to kill them all.
