As Yuya, Yuzu, Gongenzaka, and Sawatari look for passage to Academia's island, Serena appears and shows them a pirate ship that can take them. The captain of the ship, Captain Solo, promises them it can make the trip. As they set out, a helicopter from Academia arrives. Serena leads Yuzu to safety as the others confront Academia's agents, when Serena suddenly restrains Yuzu. Captain Solo's crew tie up Gongenzaka and Sawatari, and Solo himself challenges Yuya; Serena led the group into a trap, and leaves aboard the helicopter with Yuzu. Alone on the ship, Yuya prepares to duel Solo.
Solo takes the first move and Fusion Summons "Captain Lock" with 0 ATK. As long as it remains on the field, neither player can summon or set monsters from their hand, but Lock will be destroyed if a monster with 1000 or more ATK enters play. Solo finds the Action Card "Power Crystal," giving Lock a permanent 800 ATK boost. Solo sets a card and ends his turn. Yuya draws and has a hand full of monster cards with a lone Trap. He looks for an Action Card to power up Lock over 1000 ATK so it will destroy itself, but Solo throws a barrel to knock it into his hand; it's Fire Crystal, dealing 600 damage to Yuya. Yuya finds another card, Cursed Crystal, which deals 600 damage to himself. With no choice but to use it so he can use another Action card he may find, Yuya activates it. Solo then finds another Fire Crystal; Yuya is down to 2200 Life Points already. Yuya finally finds another Power Crystal atop the mast, but Solo has the ship change course, throwing Yuya into the air.
Suddenly, Crow arrives and saves Yuya with "Assault Blackwing - Raikiri the Rain Shower." Reiji drives a boat up to the ship, Reira, Sora, and Crow aboard, and Tsukikage has already dispatched Solo's crew and frees Sawatari and Gongenzaka. The group escapes to Reiji's boat, but the duel continues between ships. Yuya sets a card and ends his turn. Solo activates the Continuous Spell "Grand Naval Battle," doubling battle damage done by Water monsters. Captain Lock orders a barrage of cannonfire on Reiji's boat, taking Yuya to 600 Life Points.
Sora stands and enters the duel, and Fusion Summons "Des-Toy Kraken." With Kraken on the field with 2200 ATK, Captain Lock is destroyed. Solo activates his Trap "Deadman Pirates," reviving Lock and equipping "Skull Mariner" in his Graveyard to it to grant Lock its ATK, 1600, while also negating Lock's effects. Solo further activates Power Crystal, boosting Solo to 2400. Yuya activates his set card "Entermate Big Support," letting him equip an Entermate monster with less than 1000 ATK to Sora's monster and boost its ATK by double the equipped monster's ATK. Yuya chooses "Entermate Sword Fish," boosting Kraken to 3400. Due to Kraken's effect, it can attack twice, so Sora attacks and defeats Solo. Reiji drives away as Solo attempts to give chase, but Tsukikage stole the bolt holding the ship's steering wheel on, stranding Solo as he sails in a circle.
Reiji explains to Yuya that back in Synchro Dimension, Security has been disbanded and the city is working towards unity, and thus they've come to help. Yuya explains about Serena kidnapping Yuzu, and Sora says he's heard a member of Leo's inner circle can control minds. Yuya surmises that is why Serena betrayed them, and fears the same may happen to Yuzu now. The Lancers resolves to reach Academia and rescue the four bracelet girls from Leo.
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Badass Driver: Reiji, being the boss of the Lancers, knows how to drive a speedboat.
- Bait the Dog: It seems that Serena is plotting behind the heroes' backs by hiring Captain Solo to take them out. The Professor must have done something to her.
- Bash Brothers: Yuya and Sora team up to finish off Captain Solo.
- Big Damn Heroes: Crow, whom is on a speedboat with the other Lancers, Synchro Summons Raikiri to save Yuya from dropping into the sea after falling off of the ship. Tsukikage also helps bail out Sawatari and Gongenzaka from being tied to the ship's mast.
- The Bus Came Back: Reiji, Reira, Crow, Sora, and Tsukikage return after being absent since Season 2.
- Duels Decide Everything: Unusually for this series, played straight. Despite the group having quite obviously defeated Solo and escaped, Yuya continues the duel with him. An attempt is made by the writers to justify this by Solo using a Spell card to directly attack Reiji's ship, but that's something that he could have done on his own, duel or not.
- Equippable Ally: Des-Toy Kraken wields Entermate Sword Fish like a sword via Yuya's Trap effect, and uses it to attack Solo with.
- Foreshadowing: Yuya and Sora's conversation might have something to with Rin and Ruri's abduction. Also doubles as a Wham Line:Yuya: I don’t think that Serena kidnapped Yuzu because she wanted to. Serena is a comrade who has fought together with us. I’m sure there has to be a reason…Sora: Yeah. You're probably right.Yuya: Huh?Sora: I heard that the Professor has someone in his inner circle who can freely control people's minds.Yuya: Seriously!? That's why Serena is... Then, Yuzu will undergo the same thing!
- Idiot Ball: Sawatari has a brief but glaring run-in with it. He questions why Sora interferes with the duel when Captain Lock prevents players from summoning monsters from their hand, and thus presumes Sora will lose. He completely overlooks Sora is a Fusion user, and Lock can't do crap against Extra Deck summonings. Sora immediately lampshades that Sawatari apparently forgot Sora's playing style, and explains to him in a rather condescending manner that Polymerization lets him fuse monsters in his hand.
- Impossible Thief: Tsukikage, true to form, manages to steal the bolt connecting the wheel of Captain Solo's ship while there were two pirates standing right in front of the wheel.
- Lured into a Trap: Turns out that the Professor has already corrupted Serena by the time Yuya's group met her again.
- Obviously Evil: Aside from the fact he's a Pirate, Captain Solo is wearing a purple coat of some sort, like numerous other Academia agents.
- Mythology Gag:
- Remember Anacis, the Levia-Dragon Daedalus Duelist? The Fusion Dimension has their own version of him.
- Brainjacking and mind corruption are the standard villain techniques used in GX.
- A Pirate Four Hundred Years Too Late: Captain Solo/Cutter. The dub has Sora imply he’s just a loser in cosplay and his immediate response suggests that he actually is.
- Rule of Drama: The Action cards turn against Yuya big time here for the sake of upping the drama as he takes damage. It's telling that bad chance with the Action cards does more to hinder Yuya's game than Solo himself.
- Slasher Smile: Thanks to Academia's brainjacking, Serena is starting to act like Yuri.
- This Is Gonna Suck: In the words of Sawatari, regarding Serena and Captain Solo:Sawatari: You’ve gotta be kidding me! I have a bad feeling about this…
- Yuya gets an expression that can only be described as this when he picks up an Action Card that damages himself and has to use it in order to get another.
- Troll:
- When Sawatari somehow forgets how Fusion Summoning works and that Sora's a Fusion user, Sora takes the opportunity to explain it to him as condescendingly as humanly possible.
- Tsukikage of all people gets in on the fun as well by unscrewing the wheel of Solo's ship, leaving him to sail in circles while claiming that he's "just borrowing it".
- Xanatos Gambit: Using Serena as bait to dispose of Yuya's group and kidnap Yuzu is probably the Professor's idea.
