Data Squad Episode 33: The Final Bio-Hybrid Battle

In this episode, Marcus and Kouki provide us with a fight to provide us some entertainment while Kurata locks up his inevitable victory.

Once the space oscillation charge went off, this battle was over. Eldradimon and everyone it housed were stranded in the real world with no way back without the big guy slimming down enough to fit in Kevin Crier's basement. Kurata knew what he was doing in sending him over. Even if he didn't have the Gizumon Javelin at his disposal, he and the national security department could have leisurely engineered a way to destroy the Mega.

As a result, the suspense of the episode is very artificial. For all the shots of good guys and family waiting and watching with baited breath, the result was inevitable. Not only was Eldradimon going down, it wasn't a stretch to assume that Marcus would defeat Kouki as well. The only question became how. While the actual acts were impressive and worth the price of admission (anyone else get Lance of Longinus vibes?), the wait for such certainties was a drag,

Before everything goes down, the only major development is the human world's reaction to all this. It's exactly how you would expect people to react when a giant turtle crashes into the harbor. Given the prior attacks from Gotsumon's army and SaberLeomon, of course they're going to be hostile, and of course the media is going to spin it as a major crisis. Kurata, who presents himself as the only guy with any sort of solution (which would actually be true), is given emergency power to go all Pacific Rim on the poor thing.

Natural as it is, it's shocking and a little disheartening. Eldradimon, while large and imposing, is such a non-threat that it's sad to see it demonized on sight. Really, Gotsumon and SaberLeomon are to blame for this perception. It makes you appreciate Merukimon's position and his insistence on not attacking the human world. Eldradimon's cries of pain are tough to sit through, as a Digimon who did nothing but good is destroyed forever. The people of this world cheer its destruction.

While Marcus's attacking mentality was a colossal flop, it's hard to say that anything could have been done to save Eldradimon. Unless Marcus could have defused the oscillation charge or prevented its planting to begin with, it was hopeless once the waterfall burst. That's really disappointing, as so far the actual impact of the entire Data Squad has been fairly minimal all season. Other than saving Keenan, they've had few actual accomplishments since the plot started. They've been doing little more than putting out fires and accidentally enabling Kurata. If Marcus's actions had been directly responsible for allowing Kurata's success and stopping Kouki was limiting the damage, there might be more emotional impact. As it is now, Marcus is still kicking all sorts of ass while the world falls apart around him.

But oh the ass he kicks! The battle between ShineGreymon and Bio-Darkdramon is a proper fight between two parties that relish in the act. Kouki is a simple creature with a simple mission, but he uses every advantage he has to achieve victory. It's incompatible with the Marcus Code as his lack of concern for innocent bystanders and property damage is a huge part of this. That's why Marcus never appears to fully respect Kouki despite their similarities. He recognizes that the camaraderie of trading punches doesn't apply here due to Kouki's motives and methods. That's why he's so determined to help ShineGreymon win, that's why his digivice gets an additional charge, and that's why the GeoGreySword appears to give ShineGreymon a melee attack. It's not all that original or clever, but it's certainly Marcus.

My Grade: B

Loose Data:

• Nice bit of reality as the lesser Digimon freak the hell out over getting transported to the human world. Thomas knows his place in telling Baromon (Baronmon? Boronmon? Barometer?) that he's the one who needs to offer leadership to his people.
• Terrible bit of reality that two Pumpkinmon are able to take out a pair of Gizumon XT. Those things are getting more and more pathetic.
• If Kurata really did have the Gizumon Javelin all lined up in his pocket and waiting for Eldradimon to show up, this whole war was a foregone conclusion from the beginning. He wouldn't even need it for your average Mega, as one Gizumon XT was able to take down Merukimon eventually.
• How did Miki know ShineGreymon's name? He didn't appear until the Data Squad was in the Digital World and she doesn't have access to any DATS files standing outside.