Data Squad Episode 20: The Crier Family Reunion

In this episode, Keenan would totally be reunited with his parents, but neither he nor they are all that interested in making it happen. Then their house turns into a giant death robot.

As a general rule, any time you get a voice actor joke/Kingdom Hearts reference in the first five minutes, you know you're going to be in for a weird one. And by the time that the toy robot that possessed and animated an entire house is finally defeated and the feds show up to arrest the whole family, it's safe to say that we got a weird one. There was no way to see any of this coming, and we should probably welcome such an odd turn of events. But there's several things that don't sit right. While it makes the episode more interesting than a standard emotional reunion turned fight against a bad guy, there's too much that doesn't make sense.

We'll start with what does make sense- Keenan's response to seeing his birth mother. While he has calmed down from his angst over being outed as a human, he's still wrestling with the truth. The evidence is all there and he probably sees it. Deep down, he knows that he is human and that Frigimon could not possibly be his mother. But he has too much hatred towards mankind and too much pride as a Digimon warrior to admit that he's wrong. With all that running through his head, he sees his mother and it's... his mother. He can feel it. The mother and child reunion is only a motion away. So of course he's going to flip out and bail.

There's nothing wrong with Michelle Crier either. Actually, there's a lot wrong with her, but after something as traumatic as having your baby child sucked through a strange vortex, it's understandable to have a few issues. It's hard to blame her for having trouble moving on from it, and likewise it makes sense for her newborn daughter helping her find closure. Here's the rub- all of this is second hand information provided by the biggest thing that doesn't make sense in the episode (perhaps after the robotic house of death)- her husband.

Let's run down what we know about Kevin Crier. He and his wife had performed dangerous experiments on an inter-dimensional gate that they keep in their basement with their baby son in the room. When the gate opened, they failed to grab the baby. Without consulting his wife, he tells Marcus to take Keenan away, fearing it will open old wounds. Even if he knows his wife that well (and judging by her reaction at the end, he doesn't), it's terrible to think she'd react that badly to good news. The only thing worse is his reaction to seeing Keenan again after all these years. He doesn't react at all! Reunited with his son after ten years and he barely registers that he's even in the vicinity. There aren't too many bad parents in the Digimon franchise, but Koji and Koichi's dad suddenly has company.

It's also a little too random that another chaotic neutral Digimon breaks through, especially using a gate that everybody (including Hashima, apparently) assumed was dormant. It's a stretch for not a lot of payoff, as Marcus and RizeGreymon do the heavy lifting while Keenan is still very reluctant to help out. He does rescue his mother in a dramatic way, but there could have been a lot more tension if he had to choose to take charge as the hero rather than follow Marcus's lead. Gotta give him credit for his stunt with Hashima at the end though.

At least the Digimon are staying civilized. Falcomon's in a real tough spot since he's trying to be a loyal partner, but sees the connection between Michelle and Keenan and can only urge Keenan to do the right thing. His tone is perfect for the scene, as is the look he gives Keenan to make sure he's willing to help stop the robotic house of death. We also get to see Merukimon's defensive nature as he shuts down Gotsumon's attempts to manipulate the truth in order to stir up war. This SaberLeomon fellow, however, looks a little more persuasive.

My Grade: B

Loose Data:

• Marcus saying he “got it memorized” is an obvious reference to his voice actor's character in the Kingdom Hearts franchise. The other voice actor allusion is that Michelle Crier is voiced by Michelle Ruff. The same thing happened in Zero Two with Derek.
• I get that the red ribbon in baby Keenan's hair is meant to make it clear who it is. Why does his baby sister also have a similar ribbon in her hair?
• Now that we finally see the full flashback of Frigimon's death, it's easy to see why it turned Keenan against humanity so much. Between the fire and the death of someone's mom, it's like watching all of Bambi in two minutes.
• Yoshi seems less concerned about losing Keenan into the wilderness and more concerned about the scolding she's in for when she gets back. Model soldier, her.
• While looking for Falcomon, Lalamon can't detect any Digimon activity in the area, but DATS detects Hagurumon from miles away.
• Boy, Hatsuma was quick to get himself and his men up to the Crier house. The alleged breach could have only been an hour old and Yoshi made it seem like a heck of a long drive.
• Hey! It's our first episode emphasizing the female form! It happened a couple times in Zero Two and Frontier, but since Yoshi actually has something to emphasize, such episodes are insanely distracting this season. Michelle falls victim to it a little bit as well.