Episode 51, "Goku's Furious Battle Cry! Make it in Time... The Resurrection Wish!"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Goku fires a Kamehameha at Freeza, which Freeza avoids. Freeza then burrows Goku deep into a lava pit, claiming victory. Not detecting his father's ki anymore, Gohan decides to go defeat Freeza on his own, against Bulma's pleas. Namekians find themselves alive again, as does Vegeta, having been wished back by Shenlong on Earth. Kaio contacts Saichoro, who has also come back. Gohan arrives where Freeza is at, and challenges him, but despite his best efforts doesn't seem a match. Freeza realizes that he's stalling for time, but before he can retaliate, Goku emerges from the water and tells Gohan to leave. Goku is enraged when Freeza mentions Kuririn, and the two resume their battle. Kaio tells Saichoro to make a wish on Porunga to transport everyone but Freeza to the planet to Earth, but Goku cuts in and demands that he be left behind, too, to finish the battle. Saichoro contacts Dende to make the wish, and Dende flies to where Porunga is. Freeza notices the dragon and flies towards it to make his wish, but as the wish must be made in the Namekian tongue, is unable to, while Dende is. Vegeta makes an appearance before being suddenly teleported away with everyone else. Goku and Freeza decide to finish things with a body blow fight.
Comments:
There was a lot going on in this episode, a lot packed in, to the point where you can clearly tell that this was two episodes originally and pretty much figure out where one ends and the other begins. A lot of combat, a lot of planning, a lot of maneuvering, and a lot of Namek breaking apart.
So, first, we have Freeza seemingly killing Goku by plowing him into the planet and a giant lava eruption occuring where he was. Lava was something that didn't even bother regular Goku that much, so it was pretty obvious that in his Super Saiyan form he would emerge fine. But meanwhile, we got some of the filler in Z with Gohan challenging Freeza. I'd forgotten it was filler until I realized that yeah, that battle was completely worthless. I checked, and sure enough, filler. But it did make a cool scene when Gohan decides to leave the ship, his hair blowing in the wind, Bulma telling him not to go, and he looks back and says he's Goku's son. I love that bit.
When Goku reemerges, we get that "ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT KURIRIN?!" bit that was a semi-meme at some point. Clearly Goku is angry that Freeza dare bring up Kuririn after having callously murdered him. This brings a burst of energy to him. It was Kuririn's death that caused Goku to transform into a Super Saiyan to begin with, after all.
My favorite part of the episode, though, is Freeza trying to get his wish from Porunga, only to fail. His dream for immortality had been squashed before by not arriving in time to make his wish, but this time he made the wish but not in the right language. This was perfect, because it totally shatters his dream right in front of him, and he's even unable to get revenge, because Dende is teleported away.
Another filler bit they left in this episode was Vegeta's arrival to where Goku and Freeza are, which creates a bit of a plothole because he's not supposed to know that Goku is a Super Saiyan until later. Still, I love this bit, because Vegeta is excited that the possibility exists and even decides to take a shot at Freeza himself again.
Even though the episode contained some filler, it was one of my favorite episodes in a while. Now Goku and Freeza are the only ones left on the dying planet. The battle is almost over!
Overall Score:
4 out of 5
