Zero Two Episode 07: Guardian Angel

In this episode, Kari is stranded in a hostile city and TK and Davis are off to the rescue. Davis gets jealous of TK's Digimon while his sister gets a date with TK's brother.

Okay, this is more like it! Granted, nothing happens plot-wise and there's only a couple side snippets that prevent this from being complete filler, but it's all in the entertainment value. This one takes all of the fun elements new to this season and showcases them in a tidy little package.

First off, the “destroy control spire” plot has entered montage mode. The simple act of toppling a spire has become so routine that they crash a dozen of them in rapid succession at the start. Sora, Tai and Matt are seen helping out, with Izzy doing dispatch. Davis and company decide to hit just one more before the day's out. It goes badly: a horde of Guardromon force them to retreat and one blows up the terminal preventing Kari's escape. We've been looking for this kind of development.

This group has been ripe for a blow-up for a while now and we finally get one. Davis blames TK for what happened, Cody tries to diffuse the tension and Davis lashes out at him. TK accepts responsibility, but somehow that doesn't make anyone feel better. TK decides to enter a nearby gate and travel to her, so naturally Davis insists on going in as well. Yolei wants to go too, but Cody reminds her that someone needs to cover their asses and explain their absence to their families.

That's one of the best things about this season: between all the bouncing back and forth and destroying spires, they still have their real lives to deal with. Families tend to worry about this sort of thing, so Cody's left calling Tai and Matt while Yolei stocks up on food for the late shift. Matt offers to tell Davis's family while Tai goes after his sister. What he didn't plan on was Davis's sister, who sees right through Matt's lie and only agrees to cover for him in exchange for a date. In addition to all that, Izzy shows up at the end royally pissed off that nobody bothered to call him.

Davis's libido, of course, is running as strong as his sister's. While his concern for Kari is sincere, he's also equally concerned with getting credit for the rescue, trying to use a trick coin to send TK back home. TK's more amused by this than anything else, especially when Patamon points out that they are technically in a no-spire zone. Davis is floored and humbled when Angemon shows up to take out the lone guard, and distraught when he learns that Kari has a counterpart in Angewomon. TK may be content with just rolling his eyes at Davis's fascination with Kari, but Patamon makes certain implications just to piss Davis off.

Unfortunately, while they get back into the city and find Kari successfully, the horde of Guardromon is still there and the Digimon Emperor is pulling a late night. Feeling particularly devilish, he sends in Ultimate-level Andromon. As he's a former ally of the digidestined, it proves to be another misstep. Andromon subdues all the Digimon easily, including Halsemon and Digmon the moment they show up, but something about seeing Tai, Kari and Davis's goggles makes him hesitant. His memories start to conflict with his dark ring and he holds up Kari for closer inspection. Turns out their newfangled digivices work similar to the old ones, as contact finally puts the picture in place (literally) and Andromon frees himself from the spell.

It was a little sappy, but certainly an improvement over beating up some random monster of the week. Plus, Kari's resolve when being hoisted up by a hostile Digimon shows that as much as she appreciates TK and Davis rescuing her, she's pretty tough on her own.

My Grade: B+

Loose Data:

• This series wrapped up in this century and yet there are two references to things technology has more than fixed. Kari laments the lack of spellcheck when sending an e-mail from the Digital World, when just about every mobile device these days has Auto Correct. Also, when meeting Tai outside, Matt realizes he had left Mimi on hold inside and freaks out over her hypothetical phone bill. Now, anybody who calls internationally as much as Mimi's family certainly would have an online phone (or at least a flat-rate international plan) where that's not a problem.
• Kari doesn't exactly exhibit the smartest behavior in this episode. Instead of hiding from the horde of Guardromon, she and Nefertimon fly out in search of a second terminal. Under fire the whole time, she's lucky they didn't get hit until after TK and Davis arrived.
• From the maniacal look on the Digimon Emperor's face, you'd think he was summoning Andromon because he wanted to see him face his former allies, but there's no way the Emperor would have known about that so it's probably just the Ultimate thing.
• On that note, I'm glad they're starting to formally associate the Digimon Emperor with Ken Ichijouji so I can start calling him Ken soon. He's very uppity about the distinction, as Wormmon discovered.
• Amusing as it was to see Izzy's angry ranting at the end of the episode, there was an unwelcome Willis name drop in there. We're hitting that uncomfortable “shoehorn the movies into the canon” stretch, aren't we?