First aired in Japan on May 6, 1992 and titled Closing In in Funimation's dub, episode 138 of Dragon Ball Z is a waiting episode, but not an empty one. While Piccolo is asked to be patient at Kami's Lookout, the Androids hit the road toward Goku's house like three kids on a joyride, and his friends scramble to move him before they arrive.
Summary
Piccolo asks Kami to merge with him. The old Namekian saw it coming, but he hesitates: too much is playing out differently from what Trunks described, and before giving himself up he wants to know whether these Androids are truly a threat to Earth. An impatient Piccolo agrees to wait and sits down on the spot.
Android 17, Android 18 and Android 16, tired of flying, decide to travel on four wheels. Outside a shop they spot a pink delivery van and take it; the two deliverymen start to object, then fall silent when 18 lifts the vehicle over her head to shake out the packages. Android 17 takes the wheel, his sister rides shotgun and 16 sits in the cargo hold. On the road a biker gang starts hassling them, honking and leering at 18, until 17 shakes them off with some reckless driving inside a tunnel.
Meanwhile Tien goes ahead to Kame House to pick up Chiaotzu and resume training. Krillin and Trunks reach Goku's house, where Krillin, still thinking about 18's kiss, wonders aloud whether the Androids are really that evil; Trunks has no doubts. With help from Yamcha and Chi-Chi, they load the sleeping Goku onto a plane bound for Kame House. Gohan arrives just then, having dropped Bulma off at home. The narrator signs off with an omen: Bulma is about to get a phone call that will change everything.
Our take
The heart of the episode is Kami's doubt, and it's no small detail. For the first time someone says outright that the future Trunks described doesn't match the present: Android 16 wasn't supposed to exist, 17 and 18 haven't killed anyone, and Goku is still alive thanks to the medicine. The saga will keep pulling on that thread right up to the reveal of Cell, and Kami's caution delays a merger viewers could already see coming.
The rest is a road movie starring the villains. The van theft comes from the manga, while the biker gang and a brief run-in with the police are anime additions. They work because they show the Androids at their most unsettling: bored, capricious, able to flip from play to violence in an instant. Fans of 18 also get a taste of how short her patience is.
The Goku thread is more functional, moving every piece to Kame House, where the next act will play out.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 356. Written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with animation direction by Takeo Ide, it drew a 22.4% share.
- In Italy it aired on Italia 1 on September 10, 2000, together with episode 137.
- Steve Simmons, who usually translated these titles for the English subtitles, rendered it as "The Super Weapons Wore Tennis Shoes!! The Artificial Humans Close In on Goku"; this time the subtitle translation was done by Chris Psaros.
- The side of the stolen van is misspelled "Campany."
Did you know? One of the two robbed deliverymen looks strikingly like the young man whose body Kami borrowed to enter the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament.