Adventure: (2020) Episode 49: The God of Evil Descends, Millenniumon

In this episode, Taichi’s absence leads to open grieving, shattered confidence, stoic determination, and more raw, genuine emotion from the other kids. Clearly he wasn’t going to put up with that for very long.


One of the biggest situations we’ve been yearning for is an authentic reaction to a major setback. Even with Millenniumon on the verge of revival, the team has had a pretty smooth ride so far. They don’t lose battles, they don’t screw up and lose confidence, and even when they get separated, it’s treated as an hassle more than a true loss. For a while, the sight of Taichi blown to oblivion incites the emotion we were looking for. Everybody reacts a little bit differently, but it’s all real and more human than we often see these kids. Naturally, WarGreymon’s grandstanding appearance at the end makes it clear that this bout of humanity won’t last.

Before dwelling on the juicy emotion on the ground, there’s a lot to admire about Yamato assuming the leadership role. The danger in a scenario like this would show the job falling to Yamato without a reason, as if the presence of MetalGarurumon makes him second-in-command automatically, without noticing that he’s been pretty passive when Takeru’s not involved. There is a reason he takes the reins however: everybody else is too stunned to move. Yamato is dispassionate enough to recognize that they’re still in the middle of a crisis that isn’t waiting for them to mourn. He rallies whomever he can and gets the team moving. It’s doubtful he’d quietly break down the way he did in tri. under similar circumstances, but it’s a logical way to get him in charge.

Hikari’s reaction to Taichi’s getting himself blown up isn’t quite as dramatic as it was in tri., but it is both consistent and scaled down appropriately. As normalized and conventional a relationship as they have this go-round, it’s still family and seeing witnessing this is traumatic to witness. Of course she’s going to shut down, swept by grief and dead silent as the others try to suppress their feelings enough to figure out their next move. It’s not a dark evolution, but it’s enough of a sign that what happens with Millenniumon is the last thing on her mind. She isn’t begging Komondomon to win the fight: she just wants to go after her brother. As agonizing as that is, it’s just as tragic watching Tailmon, who’s more in Yamato’s camp as far as recognizing the ongoing threat, knowing she can’t move her partner and stuck helpless as the wheels turn up above.

Mimi’s grieving process involves keeping her hands busy. With Joe and Takeru stuck trying to be useful while clearly rattled themselves, it’s a different and refreshing approach to the support role. The corsage project helps her distract Hikari enough to get into her ear. That’s key to starting conversation, getting her mind on positive memories, and instilling a bit of hope. While it’s beautiful when it works on Hikari, it’s a little ridiculous when her words carry across the digivice and reach Yamato, Koshiro, and Sora. They shouldn’t be motivated because they believe Taichi’s still alive. Saving the world should be motivation enough either way.

Not that it matters, since the Vademon army is far more prepared and dedicated and won’t let such a token resistance disrupt their plans. While story convention would have Millenniumon’s revival inevitable, there’s nothing about the last fifteen episodes to convince you the team tried their best to stop it. The revival itself is… typical. The thing about Millenniumon is for all the attention he earns on the peripheries of Digimon canon, there’s nothing there or here to suggest any character other than big lunk of raw destruction.

At least the destruction is real, blowing away everything in the world with its wakeup yawn. Sure would have been a nice, ominous finale, right? Unfortunately, Taichi has to ruin things again, descending with WarGreymon like the invincible golden god he has now become, removing all the subtlety and dismissing everyone’s emotion as human frailty. The rest of the team is punished for their weakness, wiped away with the rest of the land. Even if we knew Taichi wasn’t actually gone, to arrive this early with so little apparent damage and being the only one to withstand Millenniumon’s opening salvo cheapens everything that happened prior to the episode, as if it was silly to worry about him because of course he can’t be harmed. We know and detest that, but it was sure nice to enjoy the brief moment when the rest of the cast believed he was human.

My Grade: B

Loose Data:

• Happy that Sephirothmon and its powers weren’t left forgotten in the final phase of the revival plan. It had a key role, and used its power to generate a perfect distraction in Griffomon. Even if a single shot will take it out, it’s enough of a flying speedster that getting that hit poses a challenge even for MetalGarurumon.
• Also returning is the dark miasma from Cloud Continent. This would have been a far better callback if it had been seen at all recently, but it does logically explain why the continent is so valuable to Millenniumon’s revival.
• While it was needed to supply the flowers for the corsages, Komondomon’s flower shower was pretty random and arbitrary. You would think there would be a way to present flowers and have Komondomon do something cute without something so direct.
• Y’all caught those prequel movie outfits, right? Yeah, thought so.

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