The 144th episode of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on June 17, 1992 and titled Piccolo's Folly in Funimation's dub, is about the mistake Piccolo will kick himself over for a long time. The Super Namekian has Cell on the ropes, but when reinforcements arrive the monster blinds everyone and escapes. While the fighters regroup, and Vegeta is furious to learn he is no longer the strongest, Cell resumes his hunt somewhere else.
Summary
At full power, Piccolo has the monster in serious trouble. That is when Trunks and Krillin show up. Cell realizes he stands no chance against three opponents, so he raises his hands to his face and unleashes a Solar Flare, Tien's old technique. By the time the trio can see again he is gone, and he has suppressed his energy so they cannot track him.
At Kame House, Goku smiles in his sleep. Yamcha says it is the same smile he gets before facing a strong opponent and is already picturing his return against the Androids, but Chi-Chi blows up at him: she will not hear a word about fighting until her husband has recovered.
Cell, meanwhile, races through the woods and bursts onto a road, where a bus has to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting him. On board is a Battle Ball team, armored athletes in spiked shoulder pads. One of them gets out to complain and is promptly absorbed; soon his teammates and their coach follow. Along the way, the monster spots Vegeta flying overhead.
Back at the battlefield, Piccolo vents his rage at letting his opponent slip away. Drawn by that enormous energy, Vegeta arrives and cannot work out what has happened to the Namekian. Trunks explains the fusion with Kami, and the Saiyan prince discovers that Piccolo is stronger than him even when he turns Super Saiyan. Once Tien joins them, Piccolo tells everyone what he has learned about Cell. The monster, for his part, has already picked his next target: Nicky Town and its residents.
Our take
The Japanese title pulls no punches. Piccolo's "grievous mistake" is the one so many Dragon Ball characters make, from Vegeta to Frieza: talking instead of finishing the job. He had a clear advantage and spent it gathering information, useful information, sure, but paid for with the escape of an enemy who grows stronger with every victim.
The episode matters for Vegeta too. The prince has only recently reached Super Saiyan, and already he finds himself trailing a Namekian. That blow to his pride is what pushes him toward the training that, a few episodes later, will take him into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber in search of a level beyond the Super Saiyan transformations known so far.
Chapter 364 alone could never fill half an hour, so the anime adds plenty. The Battle Ball massacre is an invention, showing Cell's cruelty with an almost horror-movie tone, and so are Chi-Chi and Yamcha's scene at Kame House and a brief exchange between Androids 17 and 18 about her new clothes. The pacing suffers a little, but the heart of the episode remains the clash of egos between Piccolo and Vegeta.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 364. Written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and directed by Yoshihiro Ueda, with animation supervision by Yukio Ebisawa, it drew an 18.8% share, the lowest of the saga's first six episodes.
- Funimation's dub premiered it on October 10, 2000.
Did you know? When Cell realizes he cannot win, the original Piccolo mocks him by asking whether he has only just figured that out. Funimation's first dub turned it into "You're not as dumb as you look," and the remastered version into the odd "At least you're not as dumb as I am."