Episode 32: Time's Up! Red Eyes Black Metal Dragon

Joey and Bandit Keith's scores are only 50 life points apart—it's still anybody's game. Joey's friends encourage him to keep fighting hard for his sister. (A shot of Bandit Keith spitting was cut from the US version.)

Pegasus uses his Millennium Eye to see what motivates the two duelists. (In the Japanese, he's curious to see why Jounouchi is able to hold his own, even though Keith has more experience and better cards.) Bandit Keith is driven by a need for revenge, after his humiliating defeat by Pegasus at the Intercontinental Championships. A flashback of Keith's sordid descent into drinking and gang activities after the championship is cut in the US version to a brief glimpse of Bandit Keith staggering down a street, then slumped over at a bar, cards falling out of his hand. All of the bottles, as well as the floozy in the doorway, are digitized out of these scenes.

Joey, on the other hand, is motivated by his friendships and love for his sister. It's practically a battle of good vs evil, Pegasus thinks snidely. (In the Japanese, he thinks it's a battle between Light and Darkness, and is sincerely interested to see what the outcome will be.)

Bandit Keith continues to bait Joey, calling him "Dweeb" and "Blondie" (even though he's blonder than Joey). (In the Japanese, Keith calls Jounouchi "kozou," or "kid.") But Joey comes back with "Geek" and tells Keith that even if he wins, Yugi's going to clean his clock. He's only dueling for selfish reasons, and people like him never win when the people with good intentions come along. (In the Japanese, Jounouchi just says Keith will never make it to Pegasus, because he's going to beat him.)

Bandit Keith sets a card face-down and summons the Barrel Dragon, a triple-attack machine with an attack of 2600 points. The Barrel Dragon is able to destroy Joey's Garoozis and Axe Raider with one attack, reducing Joey's life points to 850. (The Japanese Barrel Dragon, which was redesigned for the US to make it less gun-like, works more like the real card—there's a 50% chance its attack will hit its target. To attack with the real card, you flip a coin three times, and if you get heads two out of three times, your attack succeeds.)

Joey plays Time Wizard (he's still using Time Wizards as if it's a magic card, even though it's really a monster card) and Baby Dragon and activates Time Roulette. If it works, Bandit Keith's Barrel Dragon will age and decay, but if it fails, Joey will lose his Time Wizard. (In the Japanese, Yugi explains that the result of losing will be that all of Jounouchi's monsters will be destroyed, plus he will lose half his life points, which is how the real Time Magician works.) The wheel spins... slows... and lands on a time machine! Bandit Keith's Barrel Dragon rusts, reducing its attack to 1800 points, while Baby Dragon grows into the mighty Thousand Dragon, 2400 attack points strong! Thousand Dragon destroys Barrel Dragon, but Bandit Keith plays his trap card, Time Machine. It brings back the Barrel Dragon as it was one turn ago, undecayed, and it's able to destroy Thousand Dragon. Disappointed, Joey can't do anything but play a monster in defense.

Bandit Keith summons Slot Machine, then uses the Barrel Dragon to destroy Joey's defense monster. Joey thinks he could summon a monster to destroy the Slot Machine, but whatever he plays would just be destroyed by the Barrel Dragon. Even his most powerful monster, the Red Eyes Black Dragon, isn't powerful enough to destroy the Barrel Dragon. He plays a card face down, and summons the Red Eyes Black Dragon, but ends his turn without attacking.

Bandit Keith attacks the Red Eyes with Barrel Dragon, but Joey plays his trap card, Copycat (again, Copycat is a monster card, although he's using it as a trap card), and uses it to copy Keith's Magic Metal Force, powering up the Red Eyes into the mighty Red Eyes Black Metal Dragon, with an attack of 2800 points! It withstands the Barrel Dragon's attack, and counterattacks, destroying it.

But Keith still has a few cards up his sleeve.... He plays a card face down, and switches the Slot Machine to defense mode. Joey also plays a card face down, then attacks with the Red Eyes Black Metal Dragon. Keith plays his face down card, 7 Completed, an equipment card that can increase a machine monsters attack or defense by 700 points (the real card is a normal equipment card, not a quick-play card, and can't be activated on your opponent's turn). It raises the Slot Machine's defense to 3000 points, strong enough to withstand the Red Eyes' attack, and Joey loses another 200 life points.

Keith gloats, telling Joey he has two more 7 Completeds in his deck. In fact, he has them hidden up his sleeve, and now he slips one out as he pretends to draw. Pegasus notes Bandit Keith's cheating, but says nothing. Bandit Keith uses the card to increase the Slot Machine's attack to 2700 points. One more 7 Completed, and it will be strong enough to destroy the Red Eyes Black Metal Dragon, and win the game. Then Bandit Keith plays Blast Sphere, which attaches itself to Joey's Red Eyes, and will self-destruct at the end of the turn, inflicting 2900 points of damage to the Red Eyes Black Metal Dragon.

But Joey plays his trap card, Dragon Nails, increasing the Red Eyes' attack by another 600 points, making it strong enough to withstand the Blast Sphere's attack. Bandit Keith's life points go down to 400.

Then Bandit Keith pulls the remaining 7 Completed out of his sleeve, using it to power up the Slot Machine by another 700 points, to 3400. Now it's even with the Red Eyes Black Metal Dragon.

Joey draws and plays a card face down, ending his turn. Bandit Keith thinks he's got it all sewed up. He plays the Pillager, a magic card that allows him to look at Joey's hand and steal one card from it. He takes Joey's Shield and Sword and uses it to switch the monsters' attack and defense points. Now Slot Machine's attack is higher than the Red Eyes. He attacks—but Joey plays his trap card, Graverobber, using it to steal the Time Machine from Keith's graveyard, restoring the Red Eyes Black Metal Dragon from the previous turn, before its attack and defense strength were switched. (In the real game, it costs 2000 life points to activate the magic card you've stolen from your opponent's graveyard, and it can't be activated during your opponent's turn in any case.) Keith's Slot Machine is destroyed, and Joey wins the duel.

The gang cheers, as Croquet declares Joey the winner. In his exuberance, Tristan nearly falls from the balcony, and Yugi has to catch him. (A snip of Honda's arm-pumping celebration is cut from the Japanese version. I love the look on Yugi's face in this scene.)

Joey holds Mai's handkerchief in his hand, thanking her for her help.

Bandit Keith isn't ready to concede, though. He claims the duel doesn't count, since Joey's entry card wasn't his. Joey gladly agrees—his card was missing, so Mai gave him hers. But how did Keith know the card wasn't Joey's? Keith doesn't have an answer. But Pegasus does—he says it's quite clear that Bandit Keith stole Joey's card. Then he reveals that Bandit Keith was cheating during the match, too, keeping his 7 Completed cards up his sleeve. He orders Bandit Keith to be taken away, and Pegasus's goons move in to drag a protesting Keith off. Pegasus congratulates Joey.

But Bandit Keith breaks free of the goons, and runs back to the dueling arena to threaten Pegasus, demanding that he hand over the prize money. (In the Japanese, Bandit Keith has a gun, while in the US version, he's merely pointing menacingly at Pegasus.)

But Pegasus steps on a concealed switch, causing a trap door around his chair to open up, dropping Bandit Keith down a tunnel, out the side of a cliff, and into the ocean below.

Croquet announces a ten-minute recess before the final—Yugi vs Joey!