Episode 190 of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on June 23, 1993 and titled The Horror Won't End in Funimation's dub, is the eve of the final clash. Cell, back and stronger than ever, charges a Kamehameha that could wipe out Earth and the whole solar system, while Gohan, one arm out of action, believes he has already lost. What gets him back on his feet is a voice from the other world: his father's.
Summary
In what is left of the Cell Games arena, Cell taunts Gohan and starts gathering energy. The boy's left arm hangs useless, injured when he shielded Vegeta in the previous episode, and the Saiyan prince, struggling to stand, actually apologizes to him, which says everything about how hopeless things look.
Cell's power is felt everywhere, from Kami's Lookout to New Namek. As he charges, he relives his own past in Trunks's future: Dr. Gero working on his masterpiece, Android 17 and Android 18 rebelling, killing their creator and blowing up the lab. Cell's incubator survives, the computer finishes the job, and years later the creature emerges into a world the two androids have already ravaged. With almost no one left to absorb, he kills Trunks, steals his time machine and travels back to the present timeline to become perfect.
Now Cell believes he understands his true purpose: not to beat Goku, but to end everything. He declares he will destroy Earth and the solar system, and the planet begins to shake. At the Son house, Fortuneteller Baba arrives with her crystal ball and shows the fight to Chi-Chi and the Ox-King. Seeing her son hurt, Chi-Chi faints.
Gohan resigns himself to defeat. Then, through King Kai, Goku speaks to him from beyond the grave, urging him not to give up and to answer with a Kamehameha. Gohan protests that he has one arm and less than half his strength, then admits he blames himself for his father's death. Goku reassures him and tells him to believe in his own power. Gohan takes the stance with a single hand, both blasts fly almost at once and meet in the middle, and behind the boy the image of Goku appears.
Our take
The Japanese title says it all: "From Goku to Gohan... the father's spirit has been passed on." The handover the saga has been preparing since the Cell Games began finds its defining image here: the son with one working arm, the father who is gone yet standing right behind him. The father-son Kamehameha is one of the most quoted moments in the series precisely because it fuses the two things Gohan has always been chasing, strength and his father's approval.
Before getting there, though, the anime takes a long original detour. The flashback to Cell's origins does not exist in the manga, and it tweaks a few details: in Trunks's future, 17 and 18 know about the project and Dr. Gero dies in the lower lab. It is useful filler, giving shape to a timeline the manga left in the background, but it delays the moment everyone is waiting for. The same goes for Baba and her crystal ball, which pad the runtime but also give Chi-Chi a reaction the manga never offers her.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 415. Written by Hiroshi Toda and directed by Shigeyasu Yamauchi, with Masayuki Uchiyama as animation director, it drew a 24.3% share, among the highest of the saga.
- According to Kanzenshuu, this is Cell's 50th appearance in Dragon Ball Z.
- In the original Japanese broadcast, half of the next-episode preview was given over to a ticket lottery for the ninth Z movie, the one with Bojack, which opened on July 10, 1993.
- In the Funimation dub, Gohan stumbles over the name of the attack while charging it, repeating one syllable.
Characters
- Gohan, Cell and Vegeta
- Goku and King Kai, in the afterlife
- Piccolo, Krillin, Tien and Yamcha
- Mr. Satan and his entourage
- Dende and Mr. Popo
- Chi-Chi, the Ox-King and Fortuneteller Baba
- Dr. Gero, Android 17, Android 18 and Future Trunks, in flashback