#except made pixelly and a gif

[non-plutonian-druid]

[ID: a pixel art gif of Five and Delores sitting on rotting lounge chairs by a pool in the apocalypse. Delores, made human by FIve's perspective, is swinging her legs, and Five is reading a book. There are four colors; yellow, hot pink, lime green, and blue. Music notes emerge from a radio. The sky is completely obscured by yellow, shifting clouds. End ID]

sometimes a guy has gotta have a vacation, even in the middle of the apocalypse.

[commentaryvorg]

Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 16 - Falcomon’s With Us?! Rage, Blossomon!

In this episode, Yoshino and Ikuto both fall ill with a digital virus. Falcomon knows where to find the cure but is scared to go alone, so he temporarily allies with Masaru and Tohma, and both sides begin to learn that the other may not be so bad.

The brief recap only mentions MetalPhantomon and MachGaogamon, rather than any of the more meaningful parts about Tohma’s mother. I get that those parts aren’t relevant to the plot, but it still feels backwards to me, because Tohma’s mother was the real point of last episode.

The actual episode opens with a close up of some digital weirdness in Yoshino’s eyes (so, yeah, this pixelly sort of pattern is not strictly limited to Digisoul and is for anything digital-related), followed by a much more dramatic-slow-motion version of her collapse at the end of last episode. Don’t know if that was entirely necessary, animators.

Lalamon’s tiny nub-hands can somehow work as precise thermometers and measure Yoshino’s temperature to .1 of a degree. She announces this in Celsius, because she’s Japanese, and then the subbers add a note converting this to Farenheit – but joke’s on them, I’m British and I use Celsius too. Point is, though, Yoshino’s got a bad fever and needs to rest.

Yoshino:  “I’m all right… We have to… get to Infinity Ice Ridge…”

No, Yoshino, you are clearly not all right! She still feels like she needs to diminish and hide her own struggles and keep obediently doing whatever’s expected of her.

(As I mentioned last episode, Mercurimon isn’t going anywhere and really the DATS crew has all the time in the world for their mission here. But from their perspective, they are kind of thinking of him as a ticking time bomb, so they don’t see it that way.)

As Yoshino passes out on them, we get an extremely early opening for once! One other thing of note about this sequence where the trio run through a field with their Adult-level partners is that they’re riding on their partners for transport, gasp. Alas, if only such an innovation happened more often in the actual series, they’d get places so much faster.

As we come back from the opening, the team has made their way into the forest on the other side of the gorge, and Masaru and Agumon are pacing impatiently in front of a cave entrance that Gaomon is standing guard by.

Masaru:  “Why am I the only one who’s forced to wait out here?”

Masaru is frustrated and restless at not being able to help while one of his comrades is in trouble, like he’s been declared a useless loose end.

Gaomon explains that, since Yoshino is a woman, they’re trying to give her some privacy, but Tohma is an exception because he has a medical license and therefore he’s there to examine her condition. So yes, along with his PhD, Tohma is also that kind of doctor as well. He has a degree, a medical license, and a PhD all at the tender age of fourteen. I promise you there is an actual point to all this that is relevant to his character arc and motivations. These traits are not just being mindlessly slapped onto him to make him seem cool, nor because the writers don’t understand the difference between a research and a medical doctorate. I promise. We will get to that in time.

Masaru:  “A medical license? How the hell did he get that when he’s the same age as me?”

Gaomon:  “He was a special exception.”

Masaru:  “Man, he pisses me off, that damn superhuman!”

In the meantime, though, while Masaru has mostly got over his jealousy of Tohma’s whole genius thing and largely sees him as an equal and a human being now, being reminded of this can still re-ignite that frustration of his.

Inside the cave, Tohma figures that Yoshino’s sickness is a result of stress that she’s accumulated since they came here. Said stress must have been exacerbated even more by the whole nightmares thing last episode. (Not that Tohma mentions that part, hm I wonder why.)

Lalamon:  “That’s what I thought. Yoshino always works herself too hard…”

She does, doesn’t she, Lalamon! Who’s always dealing with all the logistical concerns at DATS? Who’s the one who keeps getting put on gruelling night shifts after having been working for the whole past day? I love how Lalamon knows this, because as Yoshino’s closest friend she’s paying the most attention to the way Yoshino pushes herself too hard for the sake of doing what’s expected. She’s probably often tried to tell Yoshino to stop and take a break and just been brushed off.

Tohma:  “Drink lots of water and rest. We’ll stay here for tonight.”

Yoshino:  “You can’t… We still have… our mission…”

Tohma:  “It’s not just for you. That stamina freak and I need to rest as well.”

Tohma is being really good! He’s seen that Yoshino is being way too self-sacrificing here, so he’s making a point that her resting would be helpful not just for her but for everyone on the team. And, hey, we all know Masaru would never agree to stop and rest for himself and would benefit from that same excuse of needing to do it for someone else’s sake. Tohma as well, for that matter. All three of them are kind of alike in that regard, pushing themselves too hard without any concern for their own limits.

Also, pfft, “stamina freak”. That sure is one way to describe Masaru. Yoshino has a little chuckle about it too, and, perhaps thanks to the distraction given by that light-heartedness, finally falls asleep.

Tohma:  “Speaking of which, I can’t hear Masaru’s voice any more.”

Lalamon:  “Yeah. It’s suspiciously quiet.”

I am amused by their logic that if Masaru’s not making noise out there at the cave’s entrance, he must not be there any more. He is not one to sit and wait quietly, after all.

Gaomon informs them that Masaru and Agumon headed off towards the river. Tohma frustratedly laments that he told them not to wander off – but that actually isn’t what they’re doing! Regardless, he and Gaomon go to fetch them, leaving Lalamon at the cave to watch over Yoshino.

In the trees above the cave’s entrance, a hidden Falcomon watches Tohma and Gaomon leave. One of the humans has been left relatively unguarded, huh?

Agumon:  “This feels great, Aniki!”

Masaru:  “Hey, help me collect water! We can’t let Tohma take credit for everythi—”

At the river, Agumon is splashing about in the water for fun, but Masaru actually came here for a proper reason! After feeling frustratingly inferior next to Tohma’s hyper-competence again, he wanted to at least make himself useful in some way by fetching some water!

But then Agumon splashes him and teases him, and Masaru quickly forgets himself as he rises to the bait and turns this into a water-splashing fight. They are such adorable dorks. Masaru was being the somewhat more mature one at first, but he is not remotely immune to shenanigans.

(Hey, did you know, it is actually perfectly reasonable for Masaru to be fourteen years old. He acts older than that in certain ways, but those are for very specific reasons. In every other respect he is basically still just a huge dorky kid.)

Tohma:  “Well, these two don’t look like they need a break.”

Gaomon:  “Indeed…”

Tohma and Gaomon show up right in the middle of this water-fight, therefore completely missing the part where Masaru originally came here to try and contribute some sort of help. They are unimpressed. Masaru and Agumon have the grace to look rather sheepish about it.

Meanwhile, Falcomon and Ikuto swoop down and approach the cave’s entrance. Having seen that one of the humans has been left almost alone, they’re taking their chance to strike.

Lalamon gets immediately smacked to the ground by Ikuto – but in fairness to her, she thought he was Tohma at first and was caught off guard, and she’s also not instinctively used to attacking humans. Yoshino, woken by hearing Lalamon cry out, tries to sit up.

Ikuto:  “Are you alone?”

Based on this, it doesn’t seem like Ikuto wanted her to be alone. Falcomon was the only one shown noticing her being left alone earlier, and on Falcomon’s end, he’s not a fan of being outnumbered in fights, so it’s possible that he wouldn’t have actually told Ikuto he’d found the humans if all three of them were present. But on Ikuto’s end, apparently he was expecting to be able to fight all the humans and deal with everything right here.

Ikuto grabs Yoshino by the collar as she stares at him blearily.

Ikuto:  “Human enemy! Get out of Digital World!”

He’s just threatening her for now rather than immediately attacking her, even though he definitely could attack her right now, and he was quite happy to immediately jump to attacking the humans the last time he met. Maybe on some level he can instinctively feel that there’d be something very off about attacking someone this sick and defenceless.

Falcomon:  “Get her, Ikuto!”

It’s honestly a little disturbing to hear Falcomon egging Ikuto on in attacking someone who can’t fight back. He really is kind of a cowardly person sometimes, only feeling safe attacking when he knows he outmatches his enemy in strength, still not being the one to attack Yoshino himself even though he could.

Because he’s not as single-minded about this as Ikuto, he ought to be a lot more consciously aware that attacking someone who’s vulnerable and defenceless is really not cool. But, well… she’s still a human, right? They’re the enemy. Falcomon can agree with Ikuto on that much in principle. This is what Ikuto’s always wanted.

Before Ikuto can actually do anything (whether he would have done or not), the others arrive back at the cave.

Masaru:  “Bastard, how dare you make a move on a sick person and call that being a man! Men don’t use their fists to attack those who are weaker than themselves!”

Of course Masaru wouldn’t stand for this! Of course this is part of his manly principles! His fight-loving nature isn’t about hurting people and exerting power over others – it’s about competition, a show of strength between like-minded spirits, and that competition needs to be fair. Attacking someone you already know is weaker than you and who doesn’t want to fight back is the complete antithesis of his entire philosophy and Not What A Man Does!

Masaru rushes at Ikuto with his fist raised, ready to defend his comrade, and Ikuto yells a battle cry as he reaches for his boomerang. (Look at Ikuto finally letting himself fight now that he’s against someone who actually wants to fight him. Seems he kinda gets those principles of Masaru’s on an instinctive level too, even if he wouldn’t quite admit it.)

But Yoshino grabs Ikuto’s arm, halting both combatants in their tracks.

Yoshino:  “Stop it.”

She’s not telling Ikuto to go away and leave them alone; she wants him to stop. It kinda reads like this isn’t about Ikuto specifically, and she just wants the fighting to stop. Maybe she’d just as well have grabbed Masaru’s arm if she could have, but Ikuto was the only one within reach. Sick as she is, her usual barriers and inhibitions from how she’s expected to act aren’t quite there so much, and she’s being driven more by how she really feels about things – and she doesn’t like all this fighting.

In that moment, with Yoshino touching Ikuto’s bare skin (he was only grabbing at her clothes a moment ago), the pixelly digital effect passes between the two of them, and Ikuto collapses, sick with the same condition as Yoshino.

(Not entirely sure how Masaru and Tohma managed to get Yoshino all the way here without ever touching her skin and getting infected themselves, but shhhh. Maybe it only happens sometimes and Ikuto just got unlucky.)

Falcomon catches Ikuto as he collapses, frantically calling his name and already beginning to tear up with worry. (Did you know, they are friends.) Lalamon, who’s just now managed to get up, is close enough to notice the tears in Falcomon’s eyes. The others probably don’t.

Falcomon:  “Damn it! You’ve given the virus to Ikuto!”

Tohma:  “Virus? Do you know something about this?”

Falcomon:  “Shut up!”

It would really be in Falcomon’s best interests to properly explain what he knows about the virus, in case they might be willing and able to help Ikuto somehow. But in this moment, he’s frantic and scared and angry, fearing for his friend who’s been put in serious peril, feeling like it’s these humans’ fault, and he just wants to run away and get Ikuto somewhere safe. So he does, creating a gust of air with his free wing to distract them so that he can flee the cave and fly away with the unconscious Ikuto on his back.

Masaru:  “What was he saying about an ‘eerus’?”

Tohma:  “Virus.”

It may seem a little bit of a stretch that Masaru doesn’t even know what a virus is, but I think this is probably a bit more reasonable in Japanese, given that the word “virus” is an English loanword, and, well, we know Masaru isn’t great with English.

The pixelly effect is now fully visible all over Yoshino’s body (even through her clothes and hair, because digital weirdness I guess), and her temperature’s gotten even worse.

Tohma:  “Why didn’t I notice this before?”

Tohma, as ever, is subtly beating himself up for not being perfect. The pixelation was never visible to him earlier, and this virus is literally digital, meaning it probably works quite differently from the biological viruses he knows how to spot. This isn’t your fault, Tohma, you’ve been doing the best you could.

Masaru:  “What do you mean by that? Make yourself clear!”

Masaru, meanwhile, is being subtly but delightfully impatient to understand what’s wrong so that he can feel like he can do something about it to help.

Tohma explains that Yoshino’s sickness isn’t due to stress like he thought, and she’s actually been infected by a Digital World illness. Though, I should note, the fact that Yoshino is the one who happened to get infected out of the three of them is probably not a coincidence and probably was due to her having the highest stress levels of the group. That, as well as especially her nightmares from last episode, could have weakened her immune system (or whatever digital equivalent thereof she has in the Digital World) to make her susceptible to infection.

Tohma reached a point of strength and resolution as a result of his nightmare last episode. Masaru would have known upon waking up that he wasn’t actually going to get overpowered by Numemon and been able to reassure himself that he’s already doing everything he can to get stronger and protect his family. But Yoshino’s issues brought up by her nightmare? They’re still unresolved. Last episode’s ordeal got to her more than either of the others, even though she’s not talking about it. (Of course she isn’t; her problems are irrelevant and they need to focus on their mission.)

Elsewhere in the forest, Falcomon’s found a place for Ikuto to rest.

Ikuto:  “Falcomon… how’s enemy?”

Falcomon:  “Never mind that. Have a good sleep.”

Ikuto:  “I’m okay…” [he tries to sit up, but collapses]

Looks like someone else is trying to push his own wellbeing aside out of a determination to focus on his “mission”, huh.

Falcomon:  “You’ll get better, right? You’ll definitely get better, right? After all, we were able to save you back then…”

Falcomon worriedly watches his friend suffer, flashing back to a time when a much younger Ikuto suffered in the same way once before. He’s got such a childlike way of trying to reassure himself – he’s just a kid whose best friend has fallen ill, and he doesn’t properly understand what’s wrong or how bad it is at all.

Masaru:  “Hey, Tohma. Aren’t you a doctor? Hurry up and cure her!”

I don’t think Masaru actually believes it’s that simple – after all, if it were, Tohma would have already done it by now. He just wants things to be as easy as Tohma snapping his fingers and magicking Yoshino better, because he can’t bear to think about what’d happen if it isn’t.

Tohma:  “If I want to cure her, I’ll need the correct vaccine that counters the virus. In other words, I need a medicine made specifically for the disease…”

That’s, uh, not what a vaccine does. They prevent infections; they don’t cure infections that are already there. But, um, let’s move aside from the writers’ extreme bodging of basic medical science and just focus on the actual point here: for the purposes of the rest of this episode, the word “vaccine” will refer to what’s essentially really a medicine for the illness.

(You know why this might be? Because of a Digimon thing. There’s three “types” of Digimon: Data, Virus and Vaccine, which in at least some Digimon media have a rock-paper-scissors relationship, with Vaccine being strong against Virus. Maybe that’s why the writers jumped on that word without thinking it through in actual medical terms.)

(No, I’m not ever going to bring up which Digimon appearing in this series are which of these three types, because it is never relevant in this narrative, and because I don’t even know most of the types anyway. The stereotypically “evil” ones are usually Virus; that’s all I got.)

Masaru:  “So… if that ‘buncine’ thing…”

Tohma:  “Vaccine.”

Again with how it makes more sense than it seems for Masaru to not know this word, because it’s an English loanword and he’s Japanese.

Masaru:  “If you don’t make a vaccine, what’ll happen?”

Tohma:  “W-Well…”

[there’s a long pause]

Lalamon:  “The worst-case scenario is… we won’t be able to save Yoshino. Right?”

It’s so sad that Lalamon is the one to break the painful silence and come out and say it. It must take a lot of courage for her to be able to be that pragmatic and acknowledge this as a possibility they need to prepare for.

Masaru:  “Damn it!” [he grabs Tohma’s collar and pulls him to eye level] “Don’t you even dare to think that!”

I enjoy Masaru instinctively reacting with violence when he’s feeling powerless. It’s not even Tohma who said that in the first place – but it’d be even worse to try and take this out on Lalamon.

Tohma:  “Judging by the severity of her condition and the rate it’s spreading…”

Tohma looks pained, not even looking Masaru in the eye as he continues to only indirectly imply the fact that, yeah, Yoshino really is probably gonna die if they don’t find a cure.

After a pause of staring angrily at him, Masaru pushes Tohma back and turns away. (It’s not really Tohma he’s angry at, after all.)

Masaru:  “Damn it! What are we supposed to do?”

He can’t bear the thought that there’s not even anything he can do about this. Masaru’s all about taking action, and he’s really bad at dealing when there’s none to take.

Meanwhile, Falcomon’s still worriedly watching over Ikuto.

Falcomon:  “It’s okay… You’ll be fine soon…”

[flashback to a younger Falcomon]

Falcomon:  “It’s okay, he’ll be fine soon!”

We move into a fuller flashback about the last time Ikuto got sick. Back then, unlike now, Falcomon didn’t sound particularly worried about Ikuto at all – he mostly seems kind of annoyed that Ikuto had to even go and get sick in the first place.

Past-Falcomon isn’t saying this to Ikuto himself; he’s talking to another Digimon, Yukidarumon. She’s about to leave their snow-house to head to a place called Wanderer’s Cape to go help Ikuto.

Falcomon:  “Why are you always so concerned with Ikuto anyway? He always gets sick and he can’t do anything!”

I’m not sure whether this is supposed to be taken as Falcomon not caring about Ikuto that much at this point in their relationship, and that it was only because he liked being around Yukidarumon that he also gradually became friends with Ikuto. Maybe that’s it, and he’s mostly acting bitter here because he’s more worried about Yukidarumon leaving on a journey for Ikuto’s sake when he doesn’t feel like Ikuto is worth her risking herself for.

But it’s also possible that this is just Falcomon being especially childish – he doesn’t look any younger here because Digimon don’t age physically, but he would have been emotionally younger and even more of a kid. Perhaps he liked being around Ikuto, but mostly in a superficial playmate sort of sense. He might feel frustrated at Ikuto getting sick because it means they can’t play together as much as if he were a… a normal Digimon who doesn’t do this weird “getting sick” thing that only Ikuto seems to do. There’s also the fact that illness isn’t usually a thing for Digimon; this much younger Falcomon might not quite get what it means to be sick and how unpleasant and possibly life-threatening it is.

Yukidarumon: “You’re a good boy, this much I’m sure of.”

Yukidarumon’s line here is a bit vague, but I’m going to assume what she means is that she can tell Falcomon is someone who does care about Ikuto and will continue to be a good loyal friend to him, even if he’s acting like a bratty kid who doesn’t care right now. And she’s right, of course!

Falcomon:  “If you don’t come back, I’ll… I’ll go to Wanderer’s Cape myself!”

Regardless of how he currently feels about Ikuto, though, Falcomon clearly also cares a lot about Yukidarumon and is afraid of the thought of something happening to her. What a cute little sort-of-family we’re seeing here.

Yukidarumon: “No! That place is desecrated.”

It’s a bit of a weird word she’s using that may not be entirely the right English word for the subbers to use here, but we’ll learn what the actual point of calling it that is in a bit.

For now, back in the present, despite knowing that this place is Bad and having been previously told by his sort-of-mother-figure not to go there, Falcomon decides that he’ll have to go to this Wanderer’s Cape place after all.

Outside the humans’ cave, Agumon and Gaomon are having a chat.

Agumon:  “Hey, Gaomon, what does ‘sick’ mean? Is it as bad as being hungry?”

Agumon is adorable. He’s so new to the world that he’s genuinely not encountered this concept of “illness” before. But the others are talking like it’s something really bad, so in an attempt to understand it, he’s trying to compare it to the worst possible feeling he can imagine – which is, of course, being hungry, what else?

Gaomon:  “It’s something that threatens the life of a living thing.”

Agumon:  “Living? Oh! So you’re not able to eat fried eggs any more!”

It also seems like he hasn’t entirely wrapped his head around the concept of death yet, either. (And why would he have? The Digimon he’s defeated have been turned back into eggs, not killed.) But he’s just about able to grasp that “living” means you’re able to do good things that make you happy, such as, most importantly, eating fried eggs, of course – and that not living means you can’t do that.

Gaomon:  “It’s not just fried eggs.”

Agumon:  “That’s really bad! What can we do so she can eat fried eggs again?”

And I love how he doesn’t even listen to Gaomon trying to explain that it’s about more than fried eggs, because not being able to eat fried eggs is already more than enough of a reason to get worked up and worried about Yoshino! He’s such an adorable dork.

Falcomon:  “In order to cure this illness, you need to go to Wanderer’s Cape!”

Falcomon suddenly intrudes on their conversation with the unconscious Ikuto on his back. Agumon initially reacts with hostility, but it seems that Falcomon offering this information gets the group to trust him enough to bring Ikuto into the cave and examine him next to Yoshino, confirming that he has the same virus.

Masaru:  “Is it true what you said? That we’ll get the vaccine from this Wanderer’s Cape place?”

Falcomon:  “I want to save Ikuto, too! Why would I lie?”

Despite Falcomon reacting to this defensively, I don’t think Masaru is accusing him of trying to deceive them. Based on his tone, I think this is Masaru being surprised and relieved that there’s a solution, and he wants to be sure that they really can just go to this place to get the cure and things will be okay.

Tohma:  “Desecrated?”

Falcomon:  “Humans used to live there. That’s why Digimon are uncomfortable going there and no-one dares to approach it.”

That’s what the “desecrated” is actually referring to. It’s fair enough, with humans being such an alien species that’s almost never seen in this world, and especially given, uh, certain events somewhat more recent than when Yukidarumon went there in the flashback, that Digimon would feel that a place where humans had been living was creepy and dangerous. Kinda like the equivalent of a place that’s thought to be haunted or something.

Masaru:  “Hang on, you said humans…!”

Tohma:  “Like Professor Daimon?”

I love how, at the first mention of previous human activity in the Digital World, Masaru is immediately jumping on it with wait does that mean my dad?!?! Despite their mission, his dad has not stopped being on his mind this whole time. Of course not.

Falcomon:  “How would I know?”

But of course Falcomon has no idea of the significance of this one specific human and sounds vaguely annoyed that they’re acting like he should know or care. He doesn’t care about human stuff. He’s just here for Ikuto.

Falcomon:  “Everyone always told me not to go there, so I never have. But if humans like you went, it should be all right.”

That’s why Falcomon’s feeling the need to call a truce and ask for their help here: he doesn’t feel safe going to a human-related place without humans coming with him for protection. If he were braver or more fearless, he’d have gone alone… so, hey, good thing for Yoshino that he happens to be a bit of a scaredy-cat.

There’s a long awkward pause as Tohma mumbles that he’s not sure how far to trust Falcomon.

Lalamon:  “I trust him. I don’t think he’s lying.”

But Lalamon gets it! She saw the tears in Falcomon’s eyes when Ikuto fell ill earlier – she can see that Falcomon cares about Ikuto just as much as she cares about Yoshino and really is doing this out of nothing but that genuine desire to save his best friend. She’d do the same thing if she had to, I’m sure.

(It’s also relevant to note that Falcomon has already decided to trust them to some extent just by coming here and expecting them to be willing to help him. He knows that they’re just as desperate to save Yoshino as he is to save Ikuto.)

Lalamon’s words are good enough for Masaru and Tohma, and they agree to let Falcomon lead them there.

Despite having trusted that they’d agree to help him, Falcomon clearly feels kind of uneasy about this. He knows he has no choice but to ally with them here, but still, they’re humans. They’re supposed to be the enemy, not allies.

Once daylight comes, Masaru, Tohma and their partners prepare to head off with Falcomon, while they leave Lalamon in the cave to watch over the two sick people.

Lalamon:  [to Falcomon] “Don’t worry, I’ll look after the boy well.”

Falcomon just winces without responding to her at all. It’s his only choice, but he still hates having to leave his best friend vulnerable in the hands of – well, she’s a Digimon, but a Digimon who’s siding with humans. And he knows she won’t actually hurt Ikuto because she cares about her own sick friend, but still, it all just feels so weird.

Here is a beach with letters in the sand, just because Digital World weirdness! I like when they occasionally give us little glimpses of this, even though in a lot of ways this place is pretty similar to Earth.

Masaru:  “Hey, you said there were humans at Wanderer’s Cape… Where are they now?”

While travelling along the beach to the cape, Masaru attempts to strike up some conversation. It sounds like he’s trying to make it seem like casual and incidental curiosity and definitely not desperately wanting more clues where his dad went.

Falcomon:  “I don’t know.”

Masaru:  “Do you know anyone who does?”

Falcomon:  “Yukidarumon might’ve known.”

Masaru:  “So, could you ask that person for us?”

I’m not convinced Yukidarumon would have known where the humans went. Falcomon assuming she would is really more about him looking up to his mother figure and imagining that she knew everything.

Masaru is getting a little bit pushier than would be appropriate just for the sake of casual curiosity, here. Falcomon is being dismissive and clearly doesn’t really want to continue this line of conversation, but Masaru doesn’t even notice.

Falcomon:  “I can’t.”

Masaru:  “Why not?”

Falcomon:  “She’s dead.”

This gives Masaru pause, though, and he drops his interrogatory body language, realising he hit a sore spot.

Tohma:  “I thought death didn’t exist for Digimon…”

A fair question for Tohma to ask – Digimon are meant to leave behind eggs and therefore shouldn’t ever truly “die”. Masaru knows this too, but he’s already dropped it, as he can tell he went too far. Perhaps Tohma is the one to ask here because he has more of a scientific curiosity about the phenomenon.

Falcomon doesn’t say anything. He just grimaces bitterly. It’s pretty clear from this alone: one way or another, Yukidarumon actually died.

Tohma stares in disbelief, only just learning that that’s a thing that can happen. Masaru scowls, mostly at himself for hitting on such a painful subject, and apologises. It’s exactly as awkward and uncomfortable as it should be.

Falcomon:  “This is why I hate humans!”

More things Falcomon is implying very strongly without actually saying them: it was humans who killed Yukidarumon.

Masaru and Tohma continue to follow him, feeling even more awkward. Tohma mumbles an apology of his own, realising how horrendously insensitive and patronising his question must have sounded to Falcomon.

They’re saved from more awkwardness by Gaomon pointing out Wanderer’s Cape itself in the distance – or rather, the building hanging upside-down from the underside of the overhanging cliff. Digital World weirdness!

Meanwhile, Gotsumon, who’s learned of the humans heading there through his Kuramon CCTV system, informs Mercurimon about it. Surprisingly, he only mentions the humans and doesn’t bring up Falcomon going there with them, even though surely he couldn’t have missed Falcomon being there too. It would be very in-character for Gotsumon to make a big point to Mercurimon about how Falcomon is traitorously siding with those humans and it must be because of Ikuto’s influence and all Ikuto’s fault somehow. I commend his restraint for not actually doing that this time. Maybe he realises that making it just about the DATS humans (and not mentioning that Falcomon is trying to save Ikuto’s life) is more likely to spur Mercurimon to do something to stop it.

Mercurimon: “Let them go.”

Gotsumon:  “But… But Mercurimon-sama!”

Mercurimon:  “I said let them go!”

But Mercurimon still wants none of this. Despite the unnecessary evil smirk he was shown having the last time he expressed this opinion about the humans (which he has none of this time, thankfully), it really is starting to seem like this is less about him having some kind of cunning evil plan and more about him simply wanting to avoid conflict as much as he can. If the humans are coming for him, he’ll deal with them when they get here, but until then, he just wants to stay out of things.

Gotsumon:  “Really… Really, I don’t understand… Mercurimon-sama… What is he thinking?”

He’s trying to be a more reasonable and less warmongering person than you, Gotsumon, is what he’s thinking. It’s really not that incomprehensible.

As he walks away from Mercurimon’s throne room, he encounters Blossomon, a Perfect-level Digimon who seems to know Gotsumon and agree with his general philosophy of hating humans and the Digimon who side with them, and who therefore wants to go and do something about it. Blossomon is ultimately another unimportant one-off Villain of the Week for the sake of giving this episode some fighting, but at least he feels significantly less fillery than MetalPhantomon did, because his reason for getting involved is connected to Gotsumon, who is a relevant overarching antagonist.

Gotsumon:  “Reliable! You really are reliable, Blossomon!”

One thing about Gotsumon is that he really likes sucking up to people who are on his side, especially when they agree with him and do what he wants. He’s a Child-level and doesn’t like getting directly involved in fights very much, but instead, he seems to be rather skilled at talking other, stronger Digimon into working for him. See also: that Yanmamon he had a couple of episodes ago to fly him around, who never says a word and basically isn’t a character but appears quite happy to be Gotsumon’s personal aerial transport when needed.

Gaomon:  “Master, this place smells awfully dangerous.”

I am going to keep pointing out every time Gaomon mentions that something “smells” a certain way that most people wouldn’t use the word “smell” for, because it’s great. He is a dog, did you know.

A narrow cliff leads down to the building so that they can actually reach it despite it being upside-down, and the front door at least has the consideration to be the right way up.

Despite how he feels about humans, Falcomon has instinctively decided that Masaru is the safest person here and is hiding behind him while clinging to him, which is pretty adorable.

Agumon:  “What, are you scared?”

Falcomon:  “No, I’m not!”

Agumon:  “I knew it, you’re scared!”

Falcomon:  “I am not!”

Falcomon flails in indignation at the accusation, not wanting these apparently cooler and tougher Digimon who aren’t scared at all by human stuff to think less of him. It’s okay, Falcomon – you might be scared, but you’re still here anyway!

Masaru cuts to the chase and opens the door, and they head inside to explore, Falcomon still clinging to Masaru for safety. (Masaru doesn’t mind and isn’t asking him to stop. Such a good big brother!) The actual interior of the building is also not upside-down, luckily enough. After some exploring, they find a room with an old chunky PC inside – definite signs of human activity – and Tohma boots it up.

(How did the expedition team manage to bring an entire PC that big with them to the Digital World? Don’t, uh… don’t think about that too much. But this was ten years ago, and assuming this series is set in 2006 (when it first aired), that’d have been 1996, and yeah, technology wasn’t exactly compact back then. They wouldn’t have had much of a choice if they wanted to bring some kind of computer at all.)

The logo says DGOS, and we’re never going to learn exactly what that stands for – but it also does look a lot like the DATS logo we see today, implying that this expedition team was something of a precursor to DATS.

Masaru:  “Maybe there’s something about my dad in there!”

Tohma:  “Yeah.”

Falcomon:  “Now’s not the time to be doing this! We need that vaccine!”

Falcomon must be so frustrated at these humans acting like some other previous human who came here is somehow more important than the far more pressing problem. And it is very like Masaru to get so excited about possible news of his dad that he forgets the bigger reason they’re here.

Tohma stays behind to try and hack the computer’s password login, while Masaru, Agumon and Falcomon explore further and find what Masaru thinks is a kitchen but actually looks more like a lab, based on the test tubes and beakers and stuff lying around.

(As an Actual Scientist, I want to take a moment to be impressed by how this genuinely looks like an actual lab to a reasonable extent. That tray there at the back-right? That looks exactly like a tray full of lab equipment left to dry after washing it up, and that’s something boring and mundane enough that nobody who hasn’t actually seen a lab would ever think to include in their drawings of one. The background artists must have used photos as reference, and hey, props to them for going to that effort for something that almost nobody will notice or care about the accuracy of.)

Probably the only reason Masaru thought this was a kitchen was because there’s a fridge. (Labs have those too, to keep samples and reagents cool.)

Agumon:  “That’s…! The box where Sayuri keeps her fried eggs!”

…which Agumon has the most adorable frame of reference for. Yes, Agumon, that is definitely the primary purpose of fridges.

The only thing in the fridge is not eggs, to Agumon’s disappointment, but rather a single small vial of something. (The shape of the vial may seem weird, but again, I have actually used chemicals that were in this shape of container and I am impressed. You’re supposed to snap the top part of the glass off at that thinnest point to get at what’s inside; it’s a one-use type thing.)

This is, of course, the vaccine, or the medicine, or whatever else we should be calling it. Falcomon recognises it because it looks the same as the one Yukidarumon used to cure Ikuto before.

(Let’s also not think too hard about why the expedition team had been taking the time to synthesise a cure for this digital virus. The implication would be that one of them fell ill with it at some point during their expedition, but this isn’t something we ever hear about at any point, so I’m not sure if that’s actually meant to be what happened. I guess it could be?)

(It’s also possible, I suppose, that it wasn’t the entire expedition team who was here and it was actually just Suguru, after the rest of them had escaped to the human world. Maybe he did contract the virus at one point and just had to struggle to synthesise a cure himself, alone, while sick. Ouch.)

Before they can do anything, though, a large vine shoots forth and grabs the vial from them (somehow not breaking it). It’s Blossomon, here to make their lives difficult.

Tohma:  “A virus made out of digital data shouldn’t have been able to infect a human. But it still did, nonetheless…”

This is presumably because of a fact that’s established in some other Digimon series: humans’ bodies are also effectively made of data while they’re in the Digital World. Tohma is never actually going to figure this out, though, because ultimately it doesn’t ever matter to this story except for right here. Really, the bigger question should be why this virus seems to only infect humans and not Digimon, as far as we can see. You’d think it wouldn’t be able to propagate like that with so few potential human hosts.

He’s still trying to hack the computer, presumably having written a program to brute-force the password by the looks of it. There is some binary floating past on some windows that, while I’m not a computer scientist, I strongly suspect is complete nonsense. Oh well; they got some of the science stuff right for once this episode and that’s more than they usually do.

Tohma:  “Damn… Why does this have such tight security?”

I guess we’re meant to believe that “tight security” means more than just “there’s a desktop login password”, because that’s all it looks like to me.

To be frank, this mystery they’re going for here about this base the human expedition set up, containing top-secret information about possibly Masaru’s dad, is a loose end that’s never going to go anywhere. We will visit Wanderer’s Cape again later, briefly, but not to answer any of these questions about it. It’s kind of a shame, because it feels like there could be interesting stuff going on with this, but then the story just doesn’t go there.

That’s okay, though, because it still goes in plenty of other directions that are also interesting. Maybe this is a thing the writers were originally planning to do more with later, except they changed their minds when the later direction of the series didn’t really have space to fit it in. But these empty loose ends are definitely the exception rather than the rule with this series.

Meanwhile, Masaru and the others rush to confront Blossomon in the building’s entrance hall.

Blossomon: “Falcomon, your betrayal has made Mercurimon-sama very angry.”

Falcomon:  “No! I was…!”

Blossomon is being a big ol’ liar. Gotsumon didn’t even tell Mercurimon about Falcomon’s involvement in this at all – but apparently he must have mentioned it to Blossomon offscreen at some point for him to have already crafted this lie here. He’s trying to make Falcomon feel like he’s no longer able to rely on Mercurimon any more. I can definitely sense Gotsumon’s hand in this, since Blossomon is barely a character and has no particular investment in Falcomon that we’ve seen, but we know Gotsumon has a vendetta against Ikuto and therefore by extension Falcomon.

Blossomon launches an attack at Falcomon, who’s frozen to the spot in fear, but Masaru tackles him aside in time to save him.

Falcomon:  “You… protected me?”

Masaru:  “Of course. We’re comrades.”

Of course he did! The word Masaru used in Japanese here is nakama, which is often translated as “friend”, but that’s not quite what it means. It can also apply to people who are on your team and who you’d fight for and risk yourself for even if you don’t necessarily like them that much. That’s pretty much what’s going on here. “Comrades” is a reasonable translation for it in this context, I think.

Seemingly emboldened by the fact that he really isn’t all alone in this and he has comrades who will fight by his side and protect him if he needs it, Falcomon gets to his feet and flies into the air to face Blossomon.

Falcomon:  “That medicine is important! Give it back!”

Look at him being brave and fierce and doing what he needs to do to save Ikuto! He uses his speed to swoop in and grab the vial out of Blossomon’s vine (or, well it doesn’t exactly look very fast of him in how it’s animated, but let’s assume it was meant to be that and Falcomon is being cool and impressive, rather than Blossomon was just careless and way too slow to react).

As he’s hovering triumphantly with the vial in his beak, Blossomon smacks Falcomon to the ground, and he lands in a heap on top of Masaru, the vial still safely in his wing-claws.

Masaru:  “You…”

Falcomon:  “I’m not doing this for you guys, but for Ikuto!”

Masaru just grins at that. The way he sees it, that’s still more than enough reason to trust Falcomon right now, because it’ll still ultimately lead to the outcome they’re both after in the end. He spots the open front door just past the furious Blossomon and tells Falcomon to take the medicine and leave ahead of them.

Meanwhile, back at the cave, Yoshino is awake and still very sick.

Yoshino:  “I’m sorry, Lalamon. I’ve given everyone so much trouble lately.”

Lalamon:  “That’s not true!”

Listen to Lalamon, Yoshino! None of this is your fault! But having this prolonged period of feeling weak and helpless and like she’s nothing but a burden on her teammates definitely is not doing any favours for her self-esteem. Given the timing of this, she’s probably also spending a lot of this time dwelling on the contents of her nightmare from the previous episode, which is a thing to keep in mind.

Yoshino:  “I wish… I was stronger…”

Lalamon:  “Yes. Me too.”

Aww. It’s so cute how Lalamon feels the same way – not only because of how she must wish she could be strong enough to do more to help Yoshino at times like this, but also because Yoshino knowing she’s not alone in feeling this way must be helpful to hear. They are friends.

Ikuto is still lying next to Yoshino, facing away so she can’t see him – but he’s awake, and listening in. This human… she’s not acting like an enemy at all. She’s a person, someone who has feelings and just wants to be stronger. Much like how he must have also felt a lot before.

Masaru:  “What are you doing? Get going, Bird!”

Falcomon:  “Why do you trust me? This medicine is the only one there is! I could betray you and let Ikuto have it all to himself!”

If Falcomon were actually, genuinely planning on doing that, he’d have already left to do it; he wouldn’t stay behind and mention it to give Masaru an opportunity to change his mind and stop him. If he’s asking this, then he’s already thinking of the betrayal option as the bad thing to do and wouldn’t ever actually do it, even if maybe a part of him is worried he might get selfish when it comes down to it. (And if he were to get selfish, it’d be out of fear for Ikuto, wanting to give him the best possible chance to be cured even at Yoshino’s expense. Basically, Falcomon’s afraid he’ll be a coward when the time comes.)

Really, the reason Falcomon’s asking this isn’t so much because he’s convinced that he doesn’t deserve Masaru’s trust. The only reason he’d really ask something like this is because he wants to trust Masaru, too, even if he can’t quite admit it, and so he wants to be sure that Masaru has already chosen to trust him despite everything, and better understand why that is.

Masaru:  “If you don’t know, then I’ll tell you.”

I like how Masaru prefaces his explanation with this, as if he thinks it should already be obvious to Falcomon and he’s only having to explain it because it somehow isn’t.

Masaru:  “Men never betray their friends! You’re a man! You’ve mustered what little courage you had to take us this far, and that makes you a man among men! That’s why I trust you!”

Masaru’s concept of manliness is so good. As I’ve already mentioned, it really isn’t remotely about gender, and this speech makes that abundantly clear. He’s not calling Falcomon a man because he’s literally male; he’s calling Falcomon a man because he’s brave. Falcomon was obviously really scared to come here, but he did it anyway, and someone who has that kind of courage is a Good Person in Masaru’s book – the kind of person who deserves to be called a “man”, which is effectively like a badge of honour to Masaru. He already knows that someone who belongs in that category would never be so cowardly and selfish as to betray them and leave Yoshino to die just for a slightly better chance of saving Ikuto.

(I should note that the word Masaru used for “friends” here was also nakama, giving it a better connection to that line earlier – because really, they still aren’t quite friends. Maybe this should have been subbed as “comrades” here too.)

These words are enough to convince Falcomon – either he somehow bought into the manliness talk, or he was able to see past that to realise Masaru’s actual point about his courage – and he heads for the door without another word of complaint.

Masaru and Agumon distract Blossomon, who fires attacks wildly enough that one manages to hit the room where Tohma and Gaomon are and break the computer. Whoops, there goes that plot thread, never mind.

Blossomon, meanwhile, has grabbed Masaru and Agumon in his vines, rendering them immobile. Falcomon, who’s still at the door, still having hesitated to just up and leave, looks back at them.

Masaru:  “You… What are you still doing here?!”

Falcomon:  “But…!”

Masaru:  “Idiot! We’re fine, just go!”

This time Falcomon’s not lingering out of wondering why they’re trusting him – it’s because he’s worried about them and doesn’t like the thought of them getting themselves hurt here while he flies away to safety. Look at him caring about them! He totally trusts them too, even if he can’t quite admit it to himself.

Falcomon nods at Masaru’s words, and this time he really does leave, trusting them to be okay without him as well as to be on his side. Blossomon reaches out a vine to try and stop him, but Gaomon rushes in and breaks it, and then it’s evolution time. Tohma is not wasting any of our time and is going straight to Perfect-level, which I’m glad about. I told you the evolution padding was the exception rather than the rule.

MachGaogamon punches Blossomon through a wall and out of the mansion, then catches Masaru and Agumon as they’re released from his vines before they fall into the sea. Masaru leaps from MachGaogamon’s hand with the power of anime physics to punch Blossomon himself. Agumon jumps out of MachGaogamon’s grasp as well before he starts to evolve. Good thing he did, too, otherwise that’d have been… awkward.

RiseGreymon is on Masaru-catching duty this time. Really we didn’t need him at all – I’m sure MachGaogamon could have finished the fight on his own – but of course Masaru’s gotta get to punch a thing. MachGaogamon seems content to just hover there and let RiseGreymon finish the job, in a single attack because of course, and Blossomon’s egg falls into the sea. That’s, uh, gonna suck for his Baby form when he hatches again underwater.

I wonder if they had the sense to travel back to the cave while their partners were still evolved. It’d have been way, way quicker. We don’t see whether or not they do so, though; we just cut to them rushing in with their Digimon back at Child-level. (I guess the answer is probably not, because they might well have overtaken Falcomon if they’d been going that fast.)

They find Yoshino, sleeping more soundly, and Lalamon informing them that her fever’s started to go down. Ikuto and Falcomon are gone.

Lalamon:  “Falcomon gave Yoshino the medicine first.”

Aww. He didn’t even have to give it to Yoshino first just so long as he shared it out, but he did anyway! What a good trustworthy bird.

Masaru:  “Didn’t I say so? That guy’s a man.”

He is, isn’t he! Masaru was absolutely right to trust Falcomon based on these principles of his; his manliness thing is not nonsensical and aimless at all. Masaru is great.

Elsewhere, Falcomon (who is bizarrely bandaged somehow; I know he got a bit beaten up back there but where did he find those) feels Ikuto waking up on his back.

Falcomon:  “You’re okay now, thanks to them!”

He says this in such an excited sort of tone, like he’s trying to help Ikuto agree with his new opinions on these sort-of-possibly-maybe-friends who just helped them.

Ikuto:  “Falcomon, they human. Get revenge for Yukidarumon.”

But Ikuto, despite having had his own experience that showed him these might be people and not just horrible enemies, is still single-mindedly fixated on his goal. Now we know a little more about why he’s so determined to fight humans, too, given what Falcomon implied earlier about Yukidarumon. She was just as important to Ikuto, if not more so.

Falcomon:  “…I know.”

Falcomon’s kind of sighing as he says this. It’s like he was hoping this might have helped change Ikuto’s mind, about these humans at least – but, since it hasn’t, he’s still Ikuto’s loyal friend to the end. And he still absolutely understands why Ikuto feels this way, so he’s going to keep helping him all the same, no matter what.

Overall thoughts

This is a great episode! Given that the general theme of the arc we’re on is about both sides of this Digimon-human conflict learning that things aren’t so black and white and the other side isn’t as evil as they’d thought, it’s appropriate to have a whole episode directly based around that concept, and it’s pulled off really well. Falcomon is a good brave bird friend; it’s fun seeing him slowly warm up to openly trusting Masaru and co., and how he must have instinctively trusted them at least a little in the first place to be willing to ask them for help. I love Falcomon.

As well as the main point of the episode, there’s also loads of great moments for multiple different characters here. Despite spending the episode being sick, Yoshino isn’t just a damsel and we get to see more of her issues and how she pushes herself too hard (just like everyone else on this team), there’s Masaru and Tohma (especially Masaru) struggling with feeling powerless to help, that fun conversation between Agumon and Gaomon showing Agumon’s naivety, Lalamon noticing and relating to Falcomon’s worry about his friend, Ikuto also getting a reason to see his enemies being people, Masaru’s speech about Falcomon being a man because he’s brave. Just, lots of good stuff. I try to tag these posts with a character tag only when that character does something fairly substantially interesting in an episode, and this episode gave me a reason to tag all of the main cast, including their partners. That’s pretty rare!

It's also a neat way to introduce Yukidarumon and her importance to Ikuto and Falcomon without it feeling like an unnecessary exposition dump, as well as hinting at her fate.

---

[Dub comparison]