Episode 37: Counterattack Begins! Mind Shuffle

It's Yugi's turn, but what can he do? If he plays a monster in defense, Pegasus's trap card will turn them to stone. But if he plays them in attack, Pegasus's Toon monsters will destroy them!

Yugi plays Dark Magician in attack mode, and then plays Magical Hats to hide him. But Pegasus says it won't help—he can just read Yugi's mind to find out where the Dark Magician is hidden. Yugi desperately tries to think of a way to keep Pegasus from reading his mind. Téa reminds him that Pegasus may have magic, but Yugi has magic, too—the magic of his Millennium Puzzle! Yugi calls out to the spirit of the Puzzle, who says he can feel Pegasus trying to claw his way into their minds. Yugi meets the spirit in the corridor between their soul rooms, and tells the spirit that instead of merging to duel, as they usually do, he must banish the spirit from his mind! The spirit says that they must work together, but Yugi explains that instead of merging, they should keep their minds separate and switch back and forth each time they play a card. The spirit agrees.

Pegasus sends Toon Summoned Skull to attack one of the hats—but he misses! The Dark Magician is still on the field. He's just probed Yugi's mind, and he was sure he knew where the Dark Magician was.

(In the Japanese, this whole sequence runs a little differently. After Yami Yugi plays the Dark Magician and Magical Silk Hats, Pegasus does read his mind and sees that the Dark Magician is in the far left hat. [He tells Yugi, "Your mind decides where the Dark Magician is."] Yami doesn't know what to do. Jounouchi and Anzu tell Yugi not to give up. Then the Puzzle activates, and Pegasus orders his Toon Demon to attack. Then he sees that the Dark Magician hasn't been destroyed. He looks up to see Yugi—not Yami—standing at the other end of the arena. And little Yugi tells him he should have read his other mind. We find out about the Mind Shuffle at the same time Pegasus does. At this point, Anzu remembers what Yugi told her about the "other Yugi," and tries to explain to Jounounchi, but a confused Jounouchi asks Yugi what's going on. Yugi says that he hasn't been honest with them—it's not really him dueling, it's the other Yugi. "My other self takes my place in battle, while I watch deep inside my heart." But this time, he couldn't stand watching his other self suffer.

(Now, in flashback, we see the conversation between Yugi and Yami. Yugi begs Yami to listen to him, and Yami realizes that "the other me" is trying to talk to him. So he goes inside to the corridor outside his soul room and faces little Yugi, who tells him this is the first time he's spoken—usually, no matter how hard he screams, his other self doesn't hear him. He feels that his other self is in trouble, so he calls to him, and finally it worked! Yami asks what he wants, and Yugi asks Yami to let him join the battle. Yami says he can't find a way to defeat Pegasus's Millennium Eye. Yugi says maybe Pegasus can't read his mind, and together they agree to try the Mind Shuffle.)

Yugi tells him he probed the wrong mind! One that didn't know where the Dark Magician was. Joey asks Téa if she has any idea what's going on. She thinks it has something to do with Yugi's other spirit, but she doesn't really know either. Yugi tells Pegasus that now we'll see how the power of the Millennium Eye stands up to the power of the Millennium Puzzle! (In the Japanese, Yugi just tells Pegasus that ever since he solved the Puzzle, he and the other Yugi have been taking turns at living. Anzu remembers when Yugi told her he sometimes becomes "the other me," and suddenly realizes Yugi isn't crazy, he really does have another self inside him! While Jounouchi is still confused.)

Yugi draws a card and plays it face down. He challenges Pegasus to read his mind and find out what the card is—then he switches minds with the spirit. Now Yami stands alone on the field. He tells Pegasus that two minds inhabit this body, and whenever Pegasus tries to read one of their minds, they'll use the Mind Shuffle!

Meanwhile, Bakura and Tristan, with Mokuba's body, are trapped at the top of a dead-end stairway by Pegasus's goons, who tell them to give up. But Bakura calls them foolish mortals and tells them it's far from over. Tristan suddenly remembers when Bakura was acting like this before—when the spirit of his Millennium Ring took them to the Shadow Realm to duel Yugi. Bakura summons the Man-Eater Bug, which becomes a real monster and attacks the guards. (The guards shooting at the Man-Eater Bug are cut from the US version.)

Present-day humans are so much fun to terrorize, he says, but Tristan doesn't agree—he is a present-day human. Who are you? he asks, but Bakura only says he's someone with great power. Then he summons the Morphing Jar, sending the goons to the card graveyard, where the Reaper of the Cards comes for them.

Pegasus says he won't bother trying to read Yugi's mind. He has plenty of skills besides his mind-reading and will still win. It's only a matter of time until he'll find the Dark Magician. Yugi says he thinks Pegasus has relied on the Millennium Eye for so long, his dueling skills have diminished. (We'll find out later that Pegasus didn't create the Duel Monsters game until after he got the Millennium Eye, so he has in fact never dueled without the Eye. In the Japanese, Yugi asks, "Don't you trust yourself without the Millennium Eye?" and Pegasus agrees that he hasn't relied on himself these past years.) Pegasus says he's still better than Yugi, and sends Toon Summoned Skull to attack the Magical Hats, but he misses again. (In the Japanese, Yami takes the time to lecture Pegasus on how the winner and the loser is determined in Duel Monsters. You have to use your judgment and intuition, he says. Judgment is based on experience and confidence, while intuition requires courage. In relying on the Millennium Eye, Pegasus has lost his courage.)

Yami switches back with Yugi, who draws the Living Arrow. He plays it face down and ends his turn, putting Yami back in control. Yami doesn't know what the cards are that Yugi's played, but he has faith in Yugi and the heart of the cards.

Frustrated, Pegasus draws his next card. Triumphantly, he throws down Magical Neutralizing Force, a magic card that destroys Yugi's Magical Hats and reveals the Dark Magician. (Japanese Pegasus says he doesn't need intuition to win.) (For a change, they decided to add some Japanese characters to a card when they redesigned it for the US. They're the kanji for "bind" and "boundary.")

Then, Pegasus attacks Dark Magician with Toon Summoned Skull. Yami doesn't have a move—but Yugi might! Quickly, he switches with Yugi, who activates the Living Arrow card he played face-down earlier, fusing it with Magical Neutralizing Force and sending it back at Pegasus's Toon World. (Japanese Yugi says it was their plan to stir Pegasus up into destroying the Magical Silk Hats and attacking them.)

Pegasus says it's too late—Toon Summoned Skull has already attacked. But then Yugi activates his other face-down card, Mirror Force. With Toon World destroyed, Pegasus's monsters all revert to their normal forms and reappear on the field, where they're destroyed by Mirror Force's blast.

Toon World and all the Toons are destroyed, and the score now stands at Yugi 900, Pegasus 600. Pegasus throws a tantrum, while Joey and Téa cheer, and Yami congratulates Yugi on his successful strategy.

Meanwhile, Tristan is shocked to see that the guards have disappeared, while Bakura warns that he has no patience for fools that get in his way. Tristan asks Bakura who he really is and what he wants—Tristan knows he's the one Yugi sent to the Shadow Realm. Dark Bakura says that wouldn't have happened if Bakura hadn't betrayed him. He wants a new host—one without a mind of its own. He wants Mokuba's body, and he tells Tristan to hand him over, or suffer the same fate as the guards.

Pegasus has pulled himself together, and tells Yugi he planned it this way all along! He takes the game into the Shadow Realm, where he intends to take possession of Yugi's Millennium Puzzle!

To Be Continued