Episode 12: Black Flame! Red Eyes Black Dragon

Joey has Rex Raptor down but not out. Rex plays a monster in defense, and Joey's Battleguard destroys it. Yugi, Tristan and Téa talk about how powerful the two Battleguards are on the field together, and they think Joey's got this duel just about won.

But Rex still has his most powerful monster waiting in his deck, and now he draws it—the Red Eyes Black Dragon! Yugi says this legendary monster has power to nearly rival the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Then Rex powers up his Red Eyes even more with Dragon Nails. He attacks, and both the Battleguards are destroyed at once!

Joey's really sweating now. Téa asks Yugi if there isn't anything Joey could still do to win. Yugi thinks there is, but can't tell Joey or he'd be disqualified. He has to let Joey fight this battle on his own. But the friends can still urge Joey on, and they tell him not to give up.

Mai's shouting at Rex, too, but only to tell him to hurry up and win. He's not thrilled with the way she's pushing him around, and he gets an idea of how he can really wipe her out when he gets the chance to duel her himself. He suggests that he and Joey stake the cards they currently have on the field on the duel: his Red Eyes Black Dragon against Joey's Time Wizard. (In the Japanese, Ryuzaki doesn't say anything about the cards on the field. He suggests they each stake their best Rare Card.) Mai thinks Rex is double-crossing her and chews him out. Joey wonders if he ought to risk the card Yugi gave him, but he takes Rex's bet. (In the Japanese, Jounouchi reflects that if Ryuzaki is willing to risk his Red Eyes for it, the Time Wizard must be a much more valuable card than he realized. Jounouchi still doesn't know what would happen if he played the Time Wizard on its own, but he thinks it's time he found out.)

Joey flips the Time Wizard, and activates its effect. If the spinner lands on a Time Machine, Rex's Red Eyes will decay into dust, but if it lands on a skull, Joey will lose life points and his only chance to defeat the Red Eyes.

It's a Time Machine! The Time Wizard makes eons of time pass on the field. The Red Eyes Black Dragon is fossilized, and Joey wins the duel.

Triumphant Joey leaps down from the dueling platform and runs to his friends. Joey and Tristan rush together (in the Japanese, they're shouting "Honda!" "Jounouchi!" over and over) and meet with a crash! (BOM! in Japanese; just stars in the US version.)

Next thing we see, Joey's on the ground, and Tristan's standing over him, looking pleased with himself. However, in the Japanese, we actually see Honda's fist in the air in front of Jounouchi, as Jounouchi falls to the ground.

"You shoved me!" Joey protests. ("You punched me!" in the Japanese.) Tristan says now they're even for when Joey pushed him. (Japanese Honda says Jounouchi deserves it for making him worry.) Joey jumps up and they start wrestling, hurling insults at each other. Yugi starts to ask them not to fight, but Téa says maybe they should stay out of it. "This is their bizarre way of showing each other they care." Yugi hopes they don't care about him that way!

It's gotten dark, and the gang sets up camp for the night. They sit in a circle and start to tell ghost stories, although Tristan's story ends up being about pizza instead of ghosts. (In the Japanese, they're not telling stories, just complaining about not having anything to eat.) Joey's so hungry, he starts to eat a mushroom he finds growing on the ground, but Tristan stops him just in time—it's poisonous.

Mai shows up, munching on a snack. She teases Joey by offering to trade food for his Star Chips, before bringing out her knapsack full of supplies to share with the gang. But before letting anyone have any of it, she instructs Yugi to go find firewood (in the Japanese, she tells him to do the cooking), and Joey and Tristan to fetch water. Then she lets Téa use her camp shower to freshen up, while Joey does the cooking.

Here, there's a bit of Mai background that was cut out of the US version. She sees an ocean liner passing by, and recalls that she used to work as a dealer on a ship-board casino. The people she dealt with only dreamed of money and power, and she grew to hate herself among them.

Téa thinks she hears something outside, but Mai doesn't see anything. Cut out of the US version is a bit where Yugi's holding Honda and Jounouchi back by their coattails as they try to rush to Anzu's aid in the shower, and Mai clobbering them both:

Mai joins them for dinner, but leaves right afterwards. She's torn between wanting to be their friend, and thinking of them as enemies so she can focus on dueling. She's determined to win, and to do it alone. Just then, a huge hand comes out of the trees and covers her mouth so she can't scream, then drags her away into the woods!

Meanwhile, back at the campfire, the gang is wondering if Mai's all right—she's been gone a long time. They hear someone approaching from the woods, and think it's Mai, but it turns out to be Bakura. He joins them at the campfire. Joey's looking at his cards, and admits that sometimes when he's dueling, he pretends it's him on the field battling his enemies. If he could be any card he wanted, he'd be the Flame Swordsman, he says. Tristan chooses the Cyber Commander (Commander) to represent him, and Téa chooses Magician of Faith (Saint Magician). Yugi's favorite is his Dark Magician, and Bakura selects Change of Heart.

Bakura challenges Yugi to a friendly duel, and suggests that the rest of the gang put their favorite cards in Yugi's deck, so it will be as if they're all playing.

But before the game begins, Bakura starts to act a little weird, and suddenly a necklace appears around his neck—it's the Millennium Ring! He takes them all to the Shadow Realm, and steals the gangs' souls, sealing them in the cards. He reaches down to take Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, but before he can touch it, the spirit of the Puzzle comes out and tells Bakura he must duel him for it. If Bakura wins, he'll get the Puzzle, but if Yugi wins, Bakura must free Yugi's friends. In the Japanese, Yugi doesn't talk about terms, however. He simply tells Bakura he accepts his challenge of a Dark Game.