Episode 8: The Stolen Blue Eyes White Dragon

From a high tower in Pegasus's castle, we see a small boy escaping out a window, on a rope of tied-together sheets. Croquet (I'm not sure what his name is in the Japanese version; I haven't heard him called by name) enters the boy's room with his breakfast, to find that the prisoner is gone!

Alone in his huge dining hall, Pegasus laughs uproariously. He's reading a comic book and sipping a glass of wine (okay, in the US version he calls it "fruit juice," but it's clearly wine), when Croquet enters to tell him that their prisoner has escaped. (Pegasus's "Funny Rabbit" comic book is obviously supposed to be American—the title is in English, and the front cover's on the right side of the book. So why did they block out the title in the US version?)

Pegasus isn't worried; he's sure the boy will try to find Yugi. He uses a remote to lower a huge computer screen at the other end of the hall to check on the status of the duels, and discovers that Yugi has already gained five Star Chips.

Meanwhile, our gang is walking along in the woods when they hear someone calling for help. They see a boy being muscled by Kimo, one of Pegasus's goons, and run to his aid. Kimo tells them that the boy has lost all his Star Chips, so, according to the rules, he's being kicked off the island. The boy protests that he didn't lose his Star Chips, they were stolen from him along with his deck, but Kimo's not interested. Rules are rules, and without Star Chips, the boy's out of the tournament.

Yugi and the others follow, and see Kimo tossing the kid onto a rowboat with three other duelists who are being ejected from the island, including a rather pissy Weevil Underwood. Yugi asks the boy who stole his Star Chips, and he explains that it was a little guy wearing a bandanna covering his face. Yugi and the others promise to find his Star Chips for him. Kimo says the ship leaves in 30 minutes; if they're not back by then, it will be too late. (In the Japanese, Jounouchi cheerfully asks the kid to share his recovered Star Chips with him as a reward, to everyone's exasperation. But later he tells the gang he was just kidding.)

Back in the meadow, Yugi is challenged by the the thief—the same boy who earlier escaped from Pegasus's tower, still hiding his face behind his bandanna. Yugi agrees to duel him. Joey and Tristan wonder why Yugi's going to the trouble of dueling the kid, when they could just take the stolen Star Chips from him. Yugi himself doesn't always seem to know why he does what he does. Could it have something to do with the Millennium Puzzle...? (In the Japanese version, they wonder why Yugi's taking the time to duel, because they don't realize the kid is the thief until they notice he doesn't have a dueling glove.)

Yugi and the boy face off. Now we see that the boy is Mokuba Kaiba, who thinks that he's going to make Yugi pay for what he's done to Mokuba's big brother. In flashback, we see Mokuba asking Kaiba why he isn't getting ready to go to Duelist Kingdom. But Kaiba is still shaken by his defeat at Yugi's hands, and doesn't intend to enter the tournament. He tells Mokuba that he has to go away to think, leaving him a Duel Monsters card as a keepsake. (In the Japanese version, this card contains Kaiba Corporation passwords—he's leaving the company in his little brother's care.) Mokuba blames Yugi for breaking up his family.

Mokuba plays his first card, the Man-Eating Plant, and Yugi counters with Winged Dragon Guardian of the Fortress, which destroys the Man-Eating Plant. Yugi tells Mokuba he can't win with cards that don't belong to him, but Mokuba says (parroting his big brother) that he doesn't believe in that "heart of the cards" nonsense—cards are all about power. Then Yugi recognizes who his opponent is, and confronts him. Mokuba tells them that his brother has gone away and left him, and now Pegasus is trying to take over Kaiba Corp.

He describes a secret meeting he overheard between Pegasus and a group of Kaiba Corp executives called the Big 5. They plan to merge Kaiba Corp with Pegasus's Industrial Illusions, but first Pegasus must get rid of Kaiba, and capture Mokuba to be a figurehead. (In the US version, we're told that according to the Kaiba Corp bylaws, only a Kaiba family member can preside over the corporation, which is why they want Mokuba. In the Japanese version, it's the key to the Kaiba Corp passwords they want from Mokuba.) Pegasus must perform one other task for the Big 5: he must regain Kaiba Corp's honor by defeating Yugi Mutou in a duel. Since Pegasus has already made plans to duel Yugi for his Millennium Puzzle, he's quite willing to do this.

Now Mokuba plays Crocodilus, but it's also destroyed by Yugi's Winged Dragon. Yugi tries to convince Mokuba that they should be working together—he wants to stop Pegasus just as much as Mokuba does—but Mokuba's not interested in Yugi's troubles. He thinks if he can defeat Yugi, then Pegasus won't be able to duel him, and the plan to take over Kaiba Corp will fail.

But Mokuba realizes he can't beat Yugi in a duel. Instead, he sneaks up and grabs two of Yugi's Star Chips and starts to run off with them. Yugi tells Mokuba he'll never save Kaiba Corp that way, and explains to him that after his duel with Kaiba, he opened Kaiba's mind and removed all the dark influences that were making him evil. Now Kaiba's confused and struggling to find himself. Mokuba understands, but he doesn't know what to do. Yugi asks Mokuba to trust him, telling him that they can defeat Pegasus together.

Mokuba agrees, and with only three minutes to spare before the boat leaves, they head back to return the boy's stolen cards and Star Chips.

Meanwhile, we see Kaiba in a house on a steep cliff by the sea, sitting in front of his computer, still desperately trying to figure out how Yugi beat him. He wonders if Yugi's "heart of the cards" could really be the reason. He knows the only way to find out is to face Yugi again, and he plans to use the new Duel Disks he's been developing.

Suddenly, someone's pounding on the door, and Pegasus's goons burst in. They point menacingly at Kaiba (the guns they're holding in the Japanese version having been digitized out).

But Kaiba tosses his Duel Disks into his metal briefcase, throws a chair at the goons, and dives for the window. (The US version also cuts out the sight of bullets ricocheting off of the briefcase, which Kaiba's using as a shield.)

The goons look out the window and see the waves crashing on the rocks below—no one could have survived a fall like that. So they take Kaiba's deck, with its deadly Blue Eyes White Dragon, and leave.

Yugi, Mokuba, and the others arrive at the dock, but the boat has already left. (Are they making those poor kids row all the way back to Japan? It took the ocean liner at least half a day to get there.) They protest that the time wasn't up yet, but Kimo's not interested. When Mokuba holds out the stolen Star Chips, saying he has to return them to the boy, Kimo knocks them out of his hand into the water. But two of those Star Chips were Yugi's! Then Kimo grabs Mokuba, intending to take him back to Pegasus. Yugi challenges him to a duel for Mokuba's freedom, and Kimo tells them to meet him in four hours at Arena 146. (In the Japanese version, this scene takes place right after Mokuba and the gang head back to the boat, before the scenes with Kaiba. Also, Kimo tells Yugi from the start that he won't duel him, but he will arrange another opponent for him—in one hour's time, not four.)

But when they arrive at Arena 146, they're astonished to find that Yugi's opponent is Kaiba's ghost!

To Be Continued