Meanwhile, Yugi receives a mysterious tape in the mail from Pegasus himself. He puts it into the VCR and is stunned to find Pegasus challenging him to a duel in real-time! The Pegasus on the tape reveals he also possesses a Millennium Item—the Millennium Eye—and, using its powers, draws Yugi through the tape into a dark dimension where the monsters are as real as they are. (The dub calls this place the Shadow Realm.)
Pegasus challenges Yugi to a duel, ostensibly to test his skills. They'll play for fifteen minutes, and whoever has more Life Points at the end will win. However, the Eye allows Pegasus to read Yugi's mind, look through his eyes, and thus counter every strategy he has. Pegasus then reveals to Yugi that Duel Monsters isn't actually his game. It existed in Ancient Egypt long ago, where deadly Shadow Games were played until a Pharaoh sealed it away with the Millennium Items, Items such as the Eye and the Puzzle. There is magic inside the Puzzle that would change Yugi's life–if he knew how to harness it. (The Japanese version has Pegasus explaining how Duelist Kingdom works and telling Yugi that he'll have no choice to enter his tournament.)
Even with Pegasus's mind-reading powers, Yugi is about to win... until the timer runs out. He loses by default, and as punishment, Pegasus takes Solomon Muto's soul away, saying that Yugi will have to come to Duelist Kingdom in order to save him! The episode ends with Yugi clutching the TV as his grandfather's soul fades from view.
This episode contains examples of:
- Adapted Out: The episode leaves out the Great White vs. Oscillo Hero #2 (Wattkid) due to the Alignment system being dropped and Rogue Doll is replaced by Sun Shower due to its effect of gaining ATK when battling Zombie-type monsters being removed on the real life card.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Koumori Dragon had 1700 ATK in the manga due to the fact that it could breathe fire and was considered a FIRE attribute monster and it gained an extra 200 ATK points due to being more effective against Beast-type monsters like Silver Fang.
- Had Yugi simply attacked Dragon Piper, a 200 ATK Monster, with Dark Magician, a 2500 ATK Monster, he could have won the duel immediately. In the original cut, Pegasus questions why he attacked Koumori Dragon instead, allowing Pegasus to continue the duel, and Yugi states he couldn't leave his own Monster under Pegasus' control. In the dub, this is not mentioned, leaving it unclear why Yugi didn't end the duel by attacking Dragon Piper.
- Adaptational Wimp: Joey is made one in the dub version of this episode: In the sub, Jounouchi is mentioned to have been a quarterfinalist in the same tournament in which Dinosaur Ryuzaki and Insector Haga are competing, indicating that his skills have improved in the time between the first episode and this one. This line is cut from the dub.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Pegasus, or rather his recording, beats Yugi and steals Solomon's soul. He challenges Yugi to attend Duelist Kingdom in order to get him back via rematch.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The Japanese version explains how Duelist Kingdom works...which is repeated two episodes later. The English version instead sets up the "Duel Monsters started in Ancient Egypt" plot point.
- Doing in the Scientist: The manga version of this duel had an odd double-bluff where Pegasus splices subliminal images on the videotape to lure Yugi into making moves he could "predict"... notwithstanding the fact that Pegasus really does have mind-reading powers. The anime, probably considering this either too confusing or time-consuming, drops it and makes the magic element explicit.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Infinite Dismissal is called Vortex and is used to paralyze Rex's Terrible Two-Headed King Rex.
- The manga brings in the alignment system as Pegasus's Komouri Dragon (who is Yami Yugi's but Brainwashed and Crazy) and Oscillo Hero #2 are able to destroy Yami Yugi's Silver Fang and Great White. Pegasus also attempts to use Rogue Doll to destroy Zombie Warrior but is thwarted when Yami Yugi summons Dark Magician. The anime cuts these out because the manga never went anywhere with them and changes Rogue Doll to Sun Shower.
- Foreshadowing: A poster can be seen in the background of the game shop showing Black Luster Soldier vs. Harpy's Pet Dragon. Guess how Yugi's Duelist Kingdom finals duel against Mai ends?
- In the Japanese version, the poster instead foreshadows Yugi's first Duelist Kingdom duel, with Celtic Guardian opposite Hercules Beetle.
- Spoiler: In the dub, when Pegasus explains what Shadow Games are to Yugi, footage of two monsters battling is overlaid whilst he talks. Unfortunately, said footage shows Magician of Black Chaos destroying Thousand-Eyes Restrict, which is the climax of Yugi's Duelist Kingdom duel with Pegasus.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Averted; Pegasus uses this trope to his advantage when he talks to run down the timer.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Invoked with the duel Pegasus has with Yugi over a recording on a VHS tape. The anime makes it explicit that the duel is possible because of magic forces - and, as mentioned, removes the speculation element to the manga that the video may simply have subliminal messages in it.
- Worf Had the Flu: The start of a trend that would continue over the next four series where the main character defeats a powerful opponentnote but then loses to the next one due to a technicality.note
