Zero Two Episode 25: Spirit Needle

In this episode, Davis and Yolei debate whether it's justified to kill a threatening Digimon. TK says very little... and that makes him a colossal dick.


There was far more substance than style this time around, especially for an episode with a random Mimi appearance. Unlike ExVeemon and Ankylomon's debuts, it followed the standard “new evolution episode” mold: go to spot, find danger, battle danger, need more power, get more power... show me your brave heart. The beauty of it lies in the debate between the digidestined, particularly Davis and Yolei. There's two questions in play here and neither has a correct answer, so their arguing drifts between intelligent and heated at various points. It also shows that TK's a real dick to Davis.

The first round is about whether or not Ken should be invited into the group. Davis believes that Ken is sorry for his actions and that they could use his help in dealing with this new threat... whatever it may be. Kari's iffy about it, Cody refuses to hear it and Yolei has some serious misgivings after watching Stingmon kill Thundermon. Davis is too stubborn to take no for an answer, going so far as to visit Ken himself. Even as Ken's in no mood to join the team, Davis persists, even while he's alone on an island.

Except he's not. TK agrees with him. Does TK say anything to Davis to show some support? Does TK try to explain to Yolei why Davis feels this way? Does TK encourage Davis to keep trying after the failed meeting with Ken? Nope! TK keeps his mouth shut the whole time, making Davis feel like the outcast.

Whatever the reason for his insistence that Ken be welcomed in as a fellow digidestined, it's Davis at his absolute finest. He may not know exactly why it's the right move, but he does know it's right and charges after it no matter what the others think. Wouldn't it be great if TK, Davis's implied antagonist, was his sole supporter in this quest? Wouldn't it make it easier for Kari and Cody to come around? Wouldn't it be fun to have TK rooting to unite two guys he got into fistfights with? Yes, but that would be too easy. TK's silence keeps the drama flowing and while it adds spice to the series, it's a black mark on his character sheet.

Worst of all, he does it a second time in the same episode! A rampaging Golemon is threatening to destroy a dam and flood a village downstream. When the Armor brigade is unable to damage it, Davis suggests that they'll have to resort to killing it. Yolei objects hard and they argue loudly about the ethics of killing Digimon for the greater good. It's a great topic that is seemingly handled differently every season, and what's not to love about a shouting match in the heat of battle? Cody sides with Yolei, believing that there's no justification for murder. TK... keeps his mouth shut yet again.

TK was around in season one. In the latter half of season one, the digidestined were slaughtering Digimon left and right. It wasn't just the villains that got the axe: they vaporized loads and loads of minions, all perfectly conscious of their actions and choices. TK could have pointed out that this is part of the job. Hell, he could have pointed to Mimi and talked about the time she and Joe threw a helpless Scorpiomon into a burning building just for the lolz. Nah, he's just going to watch Davis and Yolei fight, even as their Digimon are beaten back down to Rookie level and Golemon continues to pummel the dam. TK's willing to jeopardize a village of innocent Digimon just to deny Davis the satisfaction of being right. What. A. Dick.

It was a moot point anyway, as their Digimon weren't capable of even scratching Golemon, let alone killing him. Palmon made it additionally irrelevant when she explained that Golemon was actually a control spire brought to life. With that knowledge and the sight of Ken helping, Yolei evolves Hawkmon to Champion to delivers the finishing blow. Because there's no way a sentient control spire could have a shred of humanity... right?

My Grade: B+

Loose Data:
  • Hey, Yolei's sisters got a scene! I always like it when random insignificant siblings steal screen time, like Takuya's brother or Henry's other sister. The best part is that from their side of the phone call, they were probably thinking Yolei was in a relationship with Davis.
  • Well, it must be a new story arc because Mimi's got a new hairstyle.
  • Useless as they were against Golemon, the Armor brigade did a hell of a job with the first break in the dam. Raidramon and Shurimon cut rows of trees, Pegasusmon and Nefertimon tie them together and Digmon creates a trench. That's impressive stuff.
  • There's probably something to be said about Yolei's digivice responding to her feelings about Ken helping, since it's the only time in the first two seasons a new Champion emerges from something other than an “oh crap, we're in trouble” moment. Not that they weren't in trouble, mind you, but Aquilamon only showed up after she realized she was wrong about Ken. Those kinds of soul-searching revelations are typically more for the Ultimate and DNA forms.
  • So... just because Ken's not a bad guy anymore means that everybody can e-mail him all of a sudden?

10 comments:

  1. Yolei's digivice responding to her feelings about Ken actually makes sense in a really twisted way. While the new Digidestined don't actually have crests, their character traits are supposed to be loosely connected to the same set of crests from season 1, via the Digi-Eggs, right? Now think ahead to the distant finale. Yolei and Ken are married. And what was the first Digi-Egg that Yolei got? Love. The holder of the Digi-Egg of Love got a power-up when she came to accept the man who would one day be her husband. How very Red String of Fate.

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  2. To be fair on TK... It was in the latter half of the season particularly in the dark masters arc that the orginal 8 digidestined were swatting down and killing enamy digimon....
    Kari was there and she certainly had more moral problems against it so shouldn't her actions get as much critisim as TK's even though he was around longer
    I see it as a way of increasing then tention in the episode but also that TK could be letting the new kids take more charge

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  3. I remember admiring Davis as the only one who really gave Ken a chance, using his crest of friendship power to bring Ken out of darkness. After watching this again, however, I have to admit that the others' attitudes are much more realistic. It's a trope in television to have a villain turn good because of someone's total trust in them, but in real life that's a recipe for manipulation. I don't think Yolei was wrong, except that the situation forced her to take a chance on Ken in this episode.

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  4. Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that the Armour Digimon can't damage Golemon here, but when they were up against Metalgreymon, Shogungeckomon and Megaseadramon they were capable of hurting them?

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  5. I honestly felt that Ken deserved a second chance too, so Davis isn't really alone on his opinion. :)
    And your point about how they can just email Ken is funny. But there's one even bigger thing: How does Yolei even know Ken's email in the first place?

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    Replies
    1. In the original version, Poromon reminds Yolei that Ken's email was in the newspaper article about him. But she decides against contacting him to ask him if he really had changed for the better. So when Mimi asks if anyone knows his email, Yolei had saved it in her D-Terminal just in case.

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  6. ... I hope you're speaking from an unbiased point of view. After reading so much, I can't decide if you like Davis or not. You're obviously a Takari fan, but I'm going to put that out of the picture because shipping matter not.

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