Episode 45 of Dragon Ball GT, first broadcast in Japan on May 14, 1997 and titled Piccolo's Best Bet in Funimation's dub, is the great escape. In Hell, Piccolo puts his plan to send Goku back to Earth into motion, and stays behind to make it work. On Earth, meanwhile, Super 17 has already flattened almost everyone, and Dr. Myuu reveals his real game at his partner's expense.
Summary
Goku is out of the ice, but still trapped in Hell. Piccolo has an idea: copy what the two Android 17s did and tear open a gateway by making two energy blasts, fired from the two worlds, collide at the exact same instant. He reaches Dende at the Lookout telepathically and walks him through it. Goku asks whether this is some kind of fusion; Piccolo calls it a fusion of the mind.
The problem is timing: the two Namekians' blasts never line up. A hungry Goku has the ogres bring him a meal and ends up staring at a soup full of dancing skulls, while King Yemma nearly loses his mind over all the escapees he has to send back to Hell.
On Earth the fight is one-sided. Trunks, Goten and Uub keep attacking, as Gohan did before them, but Super 17 knocks them down without a scratch. Vegeta powers up to Super Saiyan and throws all his pride at the android, only for Super 17 to turn the Saiyan's own energy against him. When Myuu suggests Goku is stronger, the prince gets up in a rage and goes straight back down.
In Hell it is Goku who breaks the deadlock, suggesting that Piccolo and Dende use a little chant to keep in rhythm; in the Funimation dub it becomes "Pepper Pot, Pickle Pot, Purple Pot." Piccolo grudgingly agrees, and it works: the gateway opens. Goku wants to take him along, but if Piccolo moves a single muscle the passage closes. Goku promises to pay him back and leaves. Alone, Piccolo finds himself facing Nappa and three old Red Ribbon officers, and decides to get in some target practice.
On Earth Pan, tired of watching, grabs Dr. Gero as a hostage and orders him to call off the android. Super 17 stops, then turns his weapon on Gero: Myuu reveals that he programmed the android to obey him alone, and has him destroy his partner. Super 17 then takes aim at Vegeta, and that is when Goku arrives, pushes him out of the line of fire and transforms into a Super Saiyan.
Our take
This episode belongs to Piccolo. Only a few episodes earlier he went down with the Earth at the end of the Baby Saga; here he once again chooses to stay behind, without fuss and as gruff as ever. It is a quiet farewell that GT almost slips in unnoticed: from here to the end Piccolo stays in Hell, and in the final episode Goku stops by there to say goodbye. Writer Atsushi Maekawa has explained that Piccolo stayed on the sidelines in GT because he was tied to Gohan rather than Goku, while the series chose to focus on Goku and Vegeta.
Maekawa also admitted he had dreamed of a whole episode about Gohan, the scholar digging out his old gi to fight again. On screen, that comeback gets no build-up at all, and it shows.
The twist with Gero lands: the androids' creator destroyed for the second time by his own creation is an irony longtime fans catch instantly, and Myuu's betrayal sets up his own downfall. One question still nags at many viewers, though: why does a Super Saiyan 4 Goku never try to leave Hell on his own with Instant Transmission?
Trivia
- Written by Atsushi Maekawa and directed by Hidehiko Kadota, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation director.
- The Japanese title translates as "Hurry, Goku!! The Great Plan to Escape From Hell."
Did you know? This is not the first time Dr. Gero dies at the hands of Android 17: in Dragon Ball Z, right after being activated, the android disposed of his creator with a single blow.