WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 48 of Digimon Adventure 2020, "The Attack of Mugendramon," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Episode 48 of the Digimon Adventure reboot series breaks the show's recent streak of wholesome filler with a nailbiter of a conclusion -- one that fans will have to wait until next week's installment to find out the result of. In "The Attack on Mugendramon," a figure from the franchise's past is used by the current Big Bad, Milleniummon, and one of his puppets, Vademon, to test the Chosen Ones' abilities when they reach FAGA. The group's battle against the titular Mega Digimon appears to wrap up with Tai and WarGreymon making the ultimate sacrifice, but, as has become traditional for the anime, the preview for the next episode hints that this may give rise to another form -- though not one the fan-favorite Digimon might actually want.
Also known as Machinedramon, Mugendramon (sort of) appeared in a previous episode of Digimon Adventure 2020. During Tai, Matt and their Digimons' last stand against DoneDevimon, MetalGreymon, anguished over Tai's apparent death, went berserk, bringing forth a glowing, red version of Mugendramon -- which is essentially the alternate 'evil' version of WarGreymon in the way that SkullGreymon is to Greymon. Older fans may also remember the foe from the original Adventure series, in which it presided over a Metal Empire as one of the four Dark Masters, antagonists with designs on taking over the Digital World. They were, in fact, the lesser of two evils, with Apocalymon, their creator and overlord, being the larger threat. Many years later, Mugendramon was resurrected for the sequel series, Digimon tri under a new master, but was once again defeated.
That same fate looks as though it's repeated in the latest episode of Adventure 2020. At first, the DigiDestined work as a team -- at one point, concentrating all of their Ultimate-level Digimons' long-range attacks on Mugendramon at once. Unable to break down its defenses sufficiently, Matt and Tai evolve WereGarurumon and MetalGreymon into their Mega forms, MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon, which is the first time in the reboot we've seen the two share the same screen. Viewers may have been hoping (or even expecting) an Omnimon appearance at that point. Instead, with MugenDramon still putting up a tough front, Tai pulls a classic shonen hero move, urging his team to pull back -- led by Matt -- while he and WarGreymon take MugenDramon on, solo.
Before they do, Angewomon expends the last of her energy to juice her ally up with holy light, giving him and Tai a much-needed buff to go to town on the rogue Mega Digimon. After losing much of his weaponry, WarGreymon successfully decapitates his opponent with a massive Gaia Force attack (his cyborg nature making this much less graphic than it sounds) but Vademon and MugenDramon have one last card to play: its torso takes off into the sky towards the floating Cloud Continent, along with Tai and WarGreymon. After they disappear into the clouds, a huge explosion rocks the area; the rest of the kids looking on in horror.
Despite the preview for Episode 49 mentioning the "sorrow" of the Chosen Ones, it would be a shocking curveball for Digimon Adventure 2020 to kill off its central partnership. The real question instead is how the show will reveal Tai and WarGreymon to have survived the blast -- and in what state. The final clip at the preview's end provides the most intriguing clue, showing a close-up of what looks like WarGreymon's head with his eye closed. The horn shapes of his metal helmet and the markings around his eye, however, look distinctly different from the norm. The little visual information offered makes it hard to match the head to an existing, alternate form, though fan speculation suggests it could be Kimeramon, a hybrid of many Digimon, with Greymon and MetalGreymon being most of the head and chest.
If so, this chimera will be how Milleniummon finally arrives in the series, as Kimeramon is its prior form. Whatever happens, though, we can still be pretty certain that this isn't the last we've seen of Tai and our favorite dino boy.
