Episode 182 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on April 21, 1993 and titled Gohan's Plea in Funimation's dub, is where Gohan lays his cards on the table. Instead of attacking, the boy asks Cell to call off the tournament and explains, with almost naive honesty, that there is a power inside him that rage sets loose and that he cannot control. Cell, of course, wants to see it at any cost.
Summary
Cell opens fire with energy beams and Gohan dodges them one after another. At home, Chi-Chi pleads with the TV. At a military base a second assault is being readied, but in his castle King Furry gives up hope: the man who defeated King Piccolo has lost, and now the Earth rests in the hands of an unknown kid.
Cell starts landing real blows, and Gohan still does not fight back. A point-blank energy wave hurls him through several mountains. The reporter declares the boy dead and Chi-Chi faints; Piccolo blames Goku, who points out that Gohan's energy has not dropped at all. Cell demands that Goku eat a senzu bean and fight him again, but at that moment Gohan blasts away the mountain that buried him and walks forward wrapped in a golden aura.
Gohan asks Cell to end the Cell Games: the fight is pointless, and he does not want to kill anyone, not even someone as evil as Cell. Then he explains. Ever since he was little, whenever he loses control, he unleashes a power even he does not understand. We see the moments when it happened: Raditz's pod smashed open as he rushed to save his father, a mountain obliterated on his first day of training with Piccolo, his fury against Frieza on Namek. After a year of training with Goku, he concludes, he is sure that if he got angry he could kill Cell.
Cell bursts out laughing. He is not afraid; in fact, he has decided to make the boy furious just to see that power. He knocks him down, grinds his head under his foot and keeps beating him. Krillin begs Goku to step in, but the Saiyan does not move. Mr. Satan, meanwhile, rediscovers his stomachache. At last Gohan reacts with a kick that sends Cell to the ground. The monster wipes away the blood and smiles.
Our take
This episode explains Gohan better than any profile could. Goku's son does not ask to win, he asks to stop; he does not threaten, he warns. His peace offering to Cell is naive, but it is also the most grown-up thing anyone says during the whole tournament. And that is exactly the problem: a fighter who fears his own strength is the perfect target for an opponent who feeds on provocation.
The flashbacks serve the anime more than the story, stretching an explanation that takes a few panels in the manga, but they make sense. Seeing young Gohan against Raditz and Frieza reminds viewers that his rage has always erupted to protect someone, never for himself. It is a clue to what will really happen, and Cell misses it.
Goku, meanwhile, remains an unsettling enigma. His smile as his son is crushed into the dirt is starting to weigh on the viewer, and the episode sets up the confrontation with Piccolo in the next one.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 404 from page eight and the first five pages of chapter 405. Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Masahiro Hosoda, with Yūji Hakamada as animation director, it drew a 21.0% share.
- The flashbacks come from episodes 5 (Gohan against Raditz), 6 (the start of Piccolo's training) and 79 (Gohan against Frieza).
- The opening part of the fight, up to the blast that sends Gohan through the mountains, and King Furry's scene are anime additions.
- Gohan says his power first showed itself against Raditz, but filler episode 171 of the same saga shows it surfacing when he was a baby, as his runaway stroller goes straight through a tree.