Continuing from last episode's cliffhanger, the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring has emerged, taking over Ryou Bakura and trapping Yugi and his friends in their favorite Duel Monsters cards in a bid to steal the Millennium Puzzle. Luckily, Yami Yugi was unaffected and insists he duel him for it, with the added condition that Yugi and his friends be restored to their bodies if he wins. However, playing their favorite cards causes them to materialize on the playing field, and Yami Bakura quickly demonstrates that defeating one of them will send them to the Card Graveyard, where they will be lost forever.
Tristan is the spirit's first victim, though he's quickly revived with Monster Reborn. While Joey, as the Flame Swordsman, deals heavy damage to Bakura, his Morphing Jars and traps make him a dangerous opponent. Yugi plays his favorite card, the Dark Magician, and is shocked to find himself materialize on the playing field while a stronger, more confident Yugi is the one dueling.
As the duel continues, Yami Bakura's Man-Eater Bug is put into play, which can destroy any monster if flipped face-up. Joey heroically volunteers to stop it, and does so at the cost of his own life. Tea cries over his sacrifice, and her tears activate the Magician of Faith's effect, letting Yami Yugi bring back Monster Reborn and save Joey.
Thoroughly fed up, Yami Bakura decides to end the duel by playing the Lady of Faith in attack mode, then using Change of Heart on Yugi himself, forcing him to kill all of his friends. However, Ryou Bakura intervenes and possesses the Lady of Faith, intending to sacrifice himself so Yugi can win. The Millennium Puzzle swaps the Bakuras' souls at the last minute, letting Yami Bakura take the hit and get banished to the card graveyard. Once there, the Reaper of Cards quickly attacks him.
After the duel, Yugi checks if Ryou is okay and asks him where he got the Millennium Ring—his father picked it up as a gift while exploring Egypt, and he believes that's where all of the Items are from. Suddenly, everyone hears Mai screaming, and runs to face the new challenge together.
This episode contains examples of:
- Bowdlerise: As mentioned under the 'Drama Queen' entry, a shot of Yami Bakura clutching his chest in pain after Joey!Flame Swordsman destroys his White Magical Hat is replaced with a shot of him glaring at Yami Yugi, with his Life Point counter edited into the shot. The edit is noticeable in this case, since the substituted footage is repeated a few moments later in its original context.
- Chekhov's Gun: Yami Bakura introduces himself as a thief and a stealer of souls. This becomes very important in season 5.
- Compressed Adaptation: As Bakura's proper introduction, this episode takes elements of the Monster World arc where Bakura was first introduced in the manga, but alters the plot to involve Duel Monsters instead of a tabletop RPG. Besides Yugi, everyone's monster form even manages to be thematically similar to what their RPG class was.
- Confusion Fu: None of Yami Bakura's monsters are very strong, but their Flip effects, combined with his spells and traps, make him a dangerous and unpredictable opponent.
- Contrived Coincidence: The fact that everyone's favorite cards were A) humanoids and B) the same gender as them is very convinent, as this way none of them became monsters or unwilling cross-dressers.
- Drama King: In the Japanese version, after Joey destroys White Magical Hat, Yami Bakura clutches his chest and makes a pained expression. In the dub, this is changed to him frowning.
- Dream Deception: Once Yami Bakura is defeated, Tea, Tristan, and Joey conclude that it was all just a Shared Dream. Bakura and Yugi decide to humor them for the moment.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Bakura offers to make one so that Yugi can defeat Yami Bakura. Fortunately, Yami Yugi is able to Take a Third Option.Bakura: (in the Change of Heart card) I want to help, but we must act quickly, Yugi. (takes control of Lady of Faith) I've taken control of one of his monsters instead of yours. I'll control her while you attack me. We can win against the evil Bakura.
Yugi: I can't! I'd be destroying you! Sending you to the Graveyard!
Bakura: I don't care! It's better than being enslaved by an evil spirit! Do it!
Yami Bakura: BE QUIET!
Yami Yugi: I have a better idea. (Millennium Puzzle glows as Yami Bakura screams) If the evil power of the Millennium Ring can pull souls from people, perhaps my Millennium Puzzle can put them back.
(Bakura reawakens in his own body)
Joey: It's Bakura!
Téa: The real Bakura!
Tristan: But where's the evil one?
Yami Bakura: (awakening in the Lady of Faith) THIS CAN'T BE!
Yami Yugi: Listen closely, Yugi: use the power of the Dark Magician! Send him to the Graveyard, now!
Yugi: You got it! Dark Magic Attack! (destroys Lady of Faith) - Leeroy Jenkins: Yugi, surprisingly enough, after Joey calls him "puny." Unfortunately, his target is Electric Lizard, which paralyzes him.
- Mythology Gag:
- Yami Bakura's shadow game takes the form of tabletop Duel Monsters brought to life by dark magic. This is both reminiscent of the first duel between Yugi and Kaiba in the manga and is also the dueling experience that is being replicated by holographic boxes instead of arenas in the manga's version of this arc.
- Joey, Tristan and Téa all picked monsters that correspond to their characters in the manga's Monster World arc: Flame Swordsman for the warrior, Cyber Commander for the magic gunman, and Magician of Faith for the magician. In addition, when Change of Heart!Bakura possesses Lady of Faith, he vaguely resembles his white wizard character. Yugi is the only one who doesn't directly reference his Monster World character, due to picking the Dark Magician instead of anything resembling a beast tamer.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: In contrast to the equivalent original arc where the process of winning the game weakens Yami Bakura and allows Bakura more and more control of his body until he manages to save himself, this adaptation instead resolves with Yugi simply using an entirely new power of the puzzle to swap the two Bakuras' souls, which isn't a power the puzzle has and is an exclusive power of the Ring.
- Never Say "Die": Averted in the dub where Tristan says "According to this, I'm dead!" when he winds up in the card graveyard.
- No Name Given: The spirit doesn't give his name when asked, leading the heroes to call him 'the evil/other Bakura' or just 'the evil spirit'.
- Number of the Beast: In the Japanese version of Bakura's flashback at the end of the episode, the Seven-Armed Fiend has 666 ATK and DEF points. In the dub, it has 1000 ATK and DEF points instead.
- Percussive Prevention: Joey gut-checks Tristan to keep him from sacrificing himself against the Man-Eater Bug.
- Previously on…: Notably, the recap of the previous episode skips to the part where Bakura first shows up.
- Scream Discretion Shot: The camera cuts away from Yami Bakura in the Graveyard right as the Reaper prepares to swing its scythe, leaving only his screaming to be heard.
- Serious Business: More so than any duel before it, Yami Bakura's Shadow Game interprets all the rules of Duel Monsters literally, including the aptly named "Graveyard" for discarded cards being a literal graveyard with a Reaper that will permanently kill any soul sent there for too long.
- Shout-Out: When Joey attacks the Morphing Jar, he yells “Hassan chop!”
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Special Effect Failure: Dub example - when Yugi plays Monster Reborn for the first time, the ankh from the OCG artwork can be seen very briefly as the card starts glowing.- Another example happens later on in the dubbed episode - when Tea!Magician of Faith's effect activates, she is seen standing on the Dark Magician's card instead of her own, as the dub used the wrong card template for that scene.
- This Cannot Be!: Yami Bakura says this when he finds himself trapped inside the Lady of Faith, while good Bakura is back in his own body.
- Villain Ball: Yami Bakura's Just Desserts card would have wiped Yugi out if he'd waited a turn for him to summon Tea.
- Wham Episode: The introduction of the series' overarching villain and a Shadow Game with all the main characters' souls on the line. This is also the first time Yugi fully realizes that Yami is a separate person rather than just a voice that guides him during duels.
- Wham Shot: Yami Yugi summoning Cyber Commander...only to get a miniature Tristan dressed in Cyber Commander's clothes and holding his gun! This continues for each "spirit monster" Yami Yugi summons.
