Japanese Title: Vamdemon, the Castle of Darkness
While the kids worry about what they're going to do about Vamdemon, they receive a message from Gennai, who informs them that he's got Good News, Bad News. The kids are so exhausted that they ask for the good news first, and Gennai informs them that there's another Chosen Child. Without the help of this eighth child, the distortions of the Digital World cannot be repaired. Gennai states that while he doesn't know who the eighth child is, he knows that the child is in Japan. The bad news, unfortunately, turns out to be that Vamdemon already knows this, and is sending an army out to Japan to kill the child.
At Vamdemon's lair, PicoDevimon is recruiting soldiers to fight in Vamdemon's army, and a boxer Digimon, Nanimon, comes out to give them Training from Hell. In come Agumon and Palmon, wearing wigs and claiming to be "PunkAgumon" and "ReggaePalmon". Pretending to be army recruits, they join in with the trainees.
PicoDevimon reports to Vamdemon about him recruiting soldiers, but another one of Vamdemon's minions taunts him: Tailmonnote , a catlike Pint-Sized Powerhouse who, despite her appearance, is an Adultnote -level Digimon and very much not to be underestimated. Tailmon, calling PicoDevimon's army weak, tells Vamdemon that she's gathered an army of elite soldiers. With that, Vamdemon descends deeper into his lair to inspect the "stone room", where there's a door that will lead them to different worlds — which he plans to use to invade the human world.
Gennai tells the kids about the gate, and Taichi muses on how Agumon and Palmon are taking a while infiltrating due to being run dry by Nanimon. A Sukamon in the army informs Agumon and Palmon that Nanimon would get drunk off sake whenever it was time for real battle. Agumon and Palmon decide to get Nanimon drunk off sake, and the other army members are so upset at Nanimon for overworking them that they agree to help them with the plan. Sure enough, Nanimon gets so drunk that he knocks himself out, and Agumon and Palmon make an escape. They lead the other kids and Digimon up into the castle through a window, and Gennai wishes them luck.
Vamdemon attempts to figure out some mysterious cards which, when put in the right order, will lead him to the human world. After becoming ready to go to the human world, Vamdemon has PicoDevimon and Tailmon call their respective armies.
The Chosen get lost in Vamdemon's mysterious, gravity-defying, path-changing castle, but when they see Vamdemon's armies preparing, they follow them in secret. Vamdemon solves the card puzzle and opens the door; the Chosen burst in, but it's too late, as the armies are already going. PicoDevimon has Nanimon's army attack them, but the Chosen's Digimon evolve, the army deserts in terror and Nanimon retreats before the battle even starts. Tailmon intervenes and quickly kicks everyone's asses with her unexpected strength and speed.
The kids desperately try to make a break for the gate to the human world, but Tailmon summons her elite army of Devidramon. The kids' Digimon are only able to win against the Devidramon when Greymon evolves to MetalGreymon, but they end up unable to make it to the door in time for it to close with PicoDevimon and Tailmon behind it. Taichi bangs on the door in anguish that they couldn't make it...
Tropes
- Army of Thieves and Whores: The forces DemiDevimon scrounges up for Myotismon's army is a ragtag band of "junk" Digimon — Digimon that, in the games, evolve when the player fails to feed their digital pet, exercise them and clean up their… waste. The result is a loose band of slovenly, low-grade Digimon — slug-like Numemon, shifty Vegiemon, a single turd-like Sukamon and his Chuumon partner… and two of the heroes in crude disguises. As can be expected from an army scrounged up from the literal leavings of society, not a one of them has the stomach for war and they mutiny en masse when the going gets tough.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The episode ends with Vamdemon's forces making it through the gate, with Chosen Children left behind.
- Bizarrchitecture: The interior of Myotismon's is a surrealist mess of intersecting masonry bridges and passageways forming a mazelike tangle, where gravity often becomes inverted and finding one's way is nearly impossible.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Vamdemon and his forces getting through the portal, but the gate closes before the Chosen Children can reach it.
- Denied Food as Punishment: While going through Nanimon's "training", several of the recruits moan and complain about him overworking them. In response, Nanimon declares the recruits wouldn't get dinner for backtalking, much to the Numemon's dismay as food was the actual reason they joined the army in the first place.
- Frothy Mugs of Water: The dub changes Nanimon getting drunk off sake to becoming... fizzed off soda, despite the bottles blatantly being ones typically used for alcohol.
- Good News, Bad News: Gennai opens the episode by delivering this to the kids and their partners, the good news being that there's an eighth Chosen Child and the bad news being that Myotismon also knows this. There's some debate over which news to hear first, but they eventually settle on the good news first because Gennai thought they looked like they needed cheering up.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Agumon and Palmon infiltrate Myotismon's castle by putting on wigs (and some necklaces in Palmon's case) and pretending to be street punks looking to join DemiDevimon's Army of Thieves and Whores. They even give their names as PunkAgumon and ReggaePalmon. Of course, given the sorts of variants that Digimon species can and do come in, this stratagem actually working is a rather more justified example than usual.
- Spoiler Opening: A bit of a variant in that the next arc's opening is played right at the ending of the episode. On top of revealing that Hikari is the eighth Chosen Child and Gatomon's her partner, the new ending theme is also courteous enough to spoil the remaining Perfect-level forms that haven't appeared yet along with WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon.
