Japanese Title: Devimon, the Emissary of Darkness!
Taichi, Sora, and Jou are approached by Yamato and the others, who find Jou in a crisis because of this new revelation that File Island is, in fact, an island in every sense of the word.The black gears continue flying around. A nearby Digimon, Leomon, notices them and decides he needs to do something about this as soon as possible but is ambushed by yet another Digimon, Ogremon. Ogremon tells Leomon to get out, but Leomon says that he must do something about the black gears that are driving all of the Digimon crazy. While they fight, a demonic Digimon, Devimon, comes up behind them and tells them that they must now cooperate with each other. Ogremon is averse to the idea, but Devimon tells him that the "Chosen Children" note have arrived and that he wants both of them to cooperate to defeat them.
Leomon refuses to comply with Devimon, but Devimon avoids his attack and brainwashes him using his attack Death Clawnote .
Taichi attempts to survey the surroundings and make a map, but his chicken scratch is so poor that the map isn’t even readable. Jou’s already crossed the Despair Event Horizon with what he’s seen of the island and thinks the map will be useless. The kids soon see Leomon approach them, whom Patamon and Gabumon claim is a good Digimon who fights for justice... you can see where this is going.
- Leomon: Kill the children.
Yeah.
The kids attempt to run away but are cornered by Ogremon on the other side. Piyomon expresses surprise that two mortal enemies would be cooperating to kill them, and, when Ogremon and Leomon attack, the kids' Digimon all evolve to protect them. Devimon looks from afar, realizes that fighting two against six may not be a great idea, and creates a diversion, after which Leomon and Ogremon vanish. Jou proclaims that there’s no way they could have survived a fall from that height, while Taichi wonders who caused the diversion.
While walking, the kids find that they and the Digimon are exhausted, and find a conveniently located mansion, right when they need it! Tired and starved, the kids walk into it with few questions. Takeru and Patamon end up fascinated by an angel picture on the wall, while Jou insists that there’s no way a bad Digimon could be hanging around if there’s a picture of an angel on the wall.
The kids and Digimon find the dining room full of delicious-looking food for them to eat, and while the kids are suspicious that it’s a little too good to be true, the Digimon are so happy to find food that they quickly gorge themselves. Jou, completely at his breaking point, decides to take up this lucky chance and joins them, followed quickly by the other kids. After dinner, the kids take a nice bath in the mansion’s large bath rooms (making this into the Hot Springs Episode), and, well...
- Jou (wearing a towel around his waist): I’m coming in.
Yamato: ...I can’t stand that.
Taichi: Eh?
Yamato: Guys who guard themselves in an all-men’s bath.
Taichi: I agree.
(Taichi and Yamato run to grab the towel from Jou)
Jou: W-what are you doing?
Patamon: What are they doing?
Tentomon: Humans are hard to understand.
(Unsurprisingly, this part was cut from the American dub.)
Likewise, Gomamon runs into some trouble when he's caught on the girls' side of the baths and is promptly and unceremoniously tossed back into the boys' side.
The kids finally decide to turn in for the night and find the bedroom, which is full of warm beds for them to sleep in. When about to turn in, the kids think about home again and, having spent five days in the Digital World, wonder if their parents and other authorities are looking for them.
While the children are sleeping, Devimon muses how the children fell so easily for the trap and emerges from the picture of the angel. In the middle of the night, Taichi escorts Agumon to the bathroom, where Ogremon is hiding, but Ogremon is quickly driven out by the smell of Agumon’s farting. While running away, they run into Leomon and finally see Devimon, the one behind all of it. Devimon reveals the mansion to have all been an illusion, sending the kids and their partner Digimon inside their beds flying in separate directions, while the confused children can do nothing. Even worse, Devimon reveals that the food and the baths were all illusions, which means none of the Digimon have the energy to evolve.
Devimon reveals his ambition to Take Over the World, and that the kids, as the "Chosen Children", are getting in his way. He cracks open the landforms of File Island, revealing hundreds of gears within them, and then splits the island up into pieces. With that, Devimon sends Leomon to kill Taichi, until Taichi's bed falls next to him, dropping the mysterious blue device that caused Agumon to evolve. The light emitted from the device frees Leomon from Devimon’s brainwashing, and, upon seeing Devimon trying to kill the children flying around in their beds, stops them, with the side effect of scattering them to the pieces of the island.
Leomon tells Taichi to leave it to him and breaks off the piece of land that Taichi is standing on, telling him that the children are the "Chosen Children" and that they are this world's last hope, only to be re-corrupted by Devimon.
As the children float away, Devimon decides he’ll have to kill the children one by one.
Tropes
- The Bad Guy Wins: The episode ends with Devimon breaking apart File Island and scattering the Chosen Children over the area, leaving their fates up in the air. Leomon manages to break free from Devimon for a short time to ensure that Taichi and Agumon are safe from Devimon for the time being, only for him to be brainwashed again by the end. While his intention was to kill the children, he still managed to forestall their reunion for a good period.
- Bowdlerize: While the majority of the bath scene was kept in the American version, a section showing a nude Taichi, Yamato, and Jou was edited out. As was the scene of seeing Jou and Gomamon passed out from the impact of Palmon's throw.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Leomon will sadly remain under Devimon's control for most of the rest of the arc via the latter's Death Claw. He is compelled to kill the Chosen Children for his "master" alongside the naturally evil Ogremon.
- Downer Ending: Devimon pretty much played his enemies like a fiddle and ran off with the money by the end. See The Bad Guy Wins for details.
- Foreshadowing: Takeru and Patamon become fascinated by a painting of an angel in the decoy mansion, foreshadowing Patamon eventually evolving into a powerful angelic being.
- Also, there are eight beds in the decoy mansion, despite there only being seven Chosen Children...at the moment, at least.
- Devimon announces that he intends to spread his dark influence across the oceans via his Black Gears when he splits File Island in all directions. Taichi is curious about this but the evil digimon doesn't tip his hand any further.
- Taichi's digivice purifying Leomon of the Death Claw's power will come back into play in the arc's conclusion.
- Knight of Cerebus: Devimon's appearance causes the series to go in an arc-focused direction and places greater obstacles for the children and their digimon to overcome for the rest of the show. He brainwashes the benevolent Leomon into attacking his allies and lures the children into an illusionary mansion to strike at their most vulnerable. It culminates in him successfully splitting apart File Island and scattering all the kids across the islets. And that's essentially how the episode ends.
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Macekre: Agumon let out some wet-sounding farts on the toilet when he was in the bathroom originally, which nearly caused Ogremon, who was lurking in the next stall over, to faint. The American dub changed it so that he (seemingly) didn't even need to go and some lines were added about not knowing where Ogremon was at the moment. The "ugly green guy" in question's gagging was altered to make it seem like he was barely containing his laughter at Agumon's ignorance before revealing himself. - Master of Illusion: Devimon reveals himself to be this; his illusion of the hotel was so realistic none of the kids or their digimon realized the deception until it was too late.
- Moment Killer: Jou’s realist attitude strikes yet again when he brings up the fact that their "camping trip" on File Island was just supposed to be them at summer camp. Unlike last time, he at least apologizes before Taichi absolves him. It's not helped by when Yamato brings up that with the group missing for almost a full week, the school and PTA would be in an uproar about it. Sora once again comforts the group and tells them to sleep on it.
- Naked Freakout: Sora and Mimi are seen covering their chests when Devimon ends his illusion, as their robes were part of the deception. At least the boys still have their undies on which is more than the girls can say.
- The Scream: Leomon when Devimon brings him back into his fold, much to Taichi's anguish.
- Shower Shy: Jou is really sensitive about joining the other boys in the bath. Gabumon also doesn't join the others in the bath since he's ashamed of taking his pelt off.
- Wham Episode: Devimon, the series' first Big Bad, debuts here as a sign of things to come. The term Chosen Children (or DigiDestined) is mentioned for the first time as well. The episode also ends with the kids losing and it not being resolved, showing that not every battle is going to go their way.
- Wrong Bathroom Incident: The girls are relaxing in a hot tub in their shower room until they realize Gomamon is floating in the water with them. A pissed-off Palmon then throws him over the wall where the guys' hot tub is.
