Episode 22 of Dragon Ball GT, first broadcast in Japan on August 21, 1996 and titled The Baby Secret in Funimation's dub, introduces the villain the saga is named after. Behind the secret door in Dr. Myuu's lab is Baby, the creature the whole of planet M-2 was built around. Goku, Pan and Trunks think they have destroyed him, but in the final scene the mutant bursts out of his own creator's body.
Summary
Past the door, at the top of a long staircase, a fluid-filled capsule holds a life-form that is not yet complete. Trunks explains that Giru told him the rumors about it and that he sabotaged its life support, rerouting it into the base's plumbing. As Myuu tears the panels off his computer in a desperate bid to save his creation, Trunks fills in the rest: Giru had lost his memory until they neared M-2, then freed Trunks from the slab before it reached the lab and sent a copy in his place, the one that shattered moments earlier.
Myuu's plan, Trunks adds, was to conquer the universe. Completing Baby meant mobilizing every machine on the planet, which is why Rilldo and the other mechanical warriors were created. The scientist begs his creation not to give up, reminding it that it is made from material gathered across the galaxy. Goku leans in toward the capsule, almost disappointed that he will never get to fight it, and at that very moment Baby opens his eyes.
The mutant soaks up the energy stored in the capsule, grows and blows it apart. The shockwave slams the three Saiyans against the wall and shorts out Myuu. Goku is stunned by the power of a being that has not even finished developing. Baby scans his three opponents and picks Goku as his first target, but the Saiyan coordinates a combined attack with Pan and Trunks that appears to obliterate him.
Myuu weeps for his creation and escapes aboard a spaceship. Pan wants to go after him, but Goku and Trunks hold her back: without Baby, the scientist is no longer a threat. Nobody notices a tiny substance slipping into Myuu's leg before he leaves. In flight, as he plots to rebuild everything, Baby tears out of his back and reveals that he was pulling the strings all along. Gazing at M-2, the mutant chooses his next targets: the Saiyans.
Our take
On Toei's official episode list, this is where GT's first arc, the Black Star Dragon Ball quest, comes to an end, with the Baby arc proper starting at episode 23; the American split, which we follow on this site, starts the Baby Saga as early as episode 17. The Japanese view makes sense: episode 22 settles the score on M-2, unmasks Myuu and hands the series a villain with a clear goal. Fittingly, it is also the last episode written by Aya Matsui, the series organizer who wrote the very first episode.
Baby works because he overturns everything we thought we knew. Myuu, presented since episode 13 as the mind behind the Machine Mutants, turns out to be a tool; the creature that looked like a failed experiment is the real puppet master. The final scene, with the mutant tearing out of the scientist's body, has a sci-fi horror flavor unusual for Dragon Ball, and it introduces the idea that will make Baby so unsettling: an enemy who hides inside other people's bodies.
There is also a link to Dragon Ball Z that the series will soon develop. Baby does not just want power, he wants the Saiyans, and the reason why will take the story back into the past of Goku and Vegeta's race.
Trivia
- Written by Aya Matsui and directed by Takahiro Imamura, with Kazuya Hisada as animation director.
- It drew a 13.8% share in Japan, a clear rebound from the 9.6% of the previous episode.
- Its original American airdate was December 19, 2003.
- On Toei's list it is the final chapter of the Ultimate Dragon Ball arc (Kyūkyoku no Doragon Bōru hen, episodes 1-22); the next arc, named after Baby the avenger, covers episodes 23 to 40.
Characters
- Goku, Pan and Trunks
- Giru
- Dr. Myuu
- Baby