Data Squad Episode 12: The Digi-Egg That Fell To Earth

In this episode, a digi-egg materializes, hatches, and befriends the main character and his sister. This time DATS is around to explain just how problematic that is.

Did anybody order a plot?! In one swoop, the first major plot element comes forth, followed in quick succession by the second and third. In an attempt to justify the long stretch of filler, Thomas presents research on patterns between all of the cases. They suggest a weakening in the barrier between the two worlds that may or may not be intentional. They do not justify the long stretch of filler. The decaying barrier also doesn't directly correlate to anything in this episode other than to suggest that things are only going to get nastier. Boy do they.

The premise of the episode is best described as what would happen if there was an organization keeping a close eye on the Digital World when the events of the first Adventure movie unfolded. Just as it happened then, a digiegg shows up in a household. Mom's involved this time, but isn't bothered by this at all and would just assume use it for dinner. DATS makes a proper big deal out of eggs materializing out of thin air, but are too late to get it back to base before it hatches. Once Puwamon shows up, he and Kristy are inseparable.

For all of the stink Thomas makes about Digimon responding to human emotion, it's really little more than a case of Puwamon taking to Kristy's instant love for him. She chides Agumon whenever he does anything to bother the little guy and cares for her like a beloved pet. Given how young both of them are, it shouldn't be any more complicated than that, yet it very much is.

Falcomon doesn't give a specific reason for wanting the egg/Puwamon/Biyomon to return to the Digital World, but he very much does, to the point where he'll disobey his master to do so (not very becoming of a ninja). That opens up a whole can of worms as it drags big Merukimon into the picture, setting up an epic showdown between him and Marcus that will lead into the next episode. This alone would have made an intruiging enough episode, but we get even more of an impact with the reaction from DATS.

It's the same dilemma Marcus went through with a more tragic spin: once again, either the partner joins DATS or the Digimon can't stay. It makes sense that the group regulating Digimon activity in the real world isn't going to put up with monsters under the care of outsiders. The resulting conflict puts Kristy and Biyomon in a terrible position where one of the two will be forced to make a sacrifice for the other's behalf. Biyomon wants to stay and Kristy's too young to understand what she just got caught up in. The result is a rare moment of pure innocence where the two hold hands, promising to stay together, neither grasping just how impossible that is. It leads to Marcus trying to bully Biyomon out of the real world, and when Biyomon fights him you feel bad for everybody.

Meanwhile, it's time for Sarah to come out of the woodwork with some startling revelations. Her ability to take Agumon in stride has been amusing enough, and she does have a high tolerance level given Thomas's giant unemotioninator and constant arguing with Marcus. Suddenly we not only see why she's been so capable of smiling off the potential for major personal injury and property damage, but that she does have a game face. She knows the members of DATS and accepted their recruitment of Marcus because she saw too much of his father in him. She can't give Kristy the same fate. It's tense, it adds to the mystery, it's not even the main conflict of the episode and it's something we really needed.

My Grade: A

Loose Data:

• Thomas tries to connect the previous Digimon-human interactions to the seven deadly sins. I was going to get all “Better Know A Sephira” and match them up, but it actually doesn't work at all.
• Yoshi and Thomas mention that the only Digimon that had arrived as digi-eggs were Lalamon, Gaomon, Agumon and the two PawnChessmon. To file in the “Subtle Mystery Department” is where Kudamon and Kamemon came from.
• Gotsumon and Merukimon namedropping Keenan loses a bit of its luster when the name in question is Keenan.
• As terrible as Kazemon was, Sunflowmon's repeated false starts at even trying to attack Falcomon clinches her position as the saddest Champion ever. Everybody point and laugh.
• To give you an idea how epic this episode is, we go from episode upon episode of filler to the earliest fight with a Mega.