I thought that this was a pretty nice episode. I did think that Yusei was a bit too calm when dealing with Trudge, but he's a pretty calm person to begin with, for the most part, anyway. I kind of felt bad for Carly when she couldn't get her camera and her boss was mad at her. I always like the underdog kind of characters. Plus, Veronica Taylor does an excellent job voicing her and Carly's pretty funny too.
I was also surprised that they were having a Jack Atlas movie/documentary the day after the Fortune Cup. Whoever planned that didn't think of the possible outcome of Jack losing the tournament. I did think that they were being a bit harsh on Jack for losing just one match, but it was the press and Jack did have his lose his undefeated title. I thought that the moment where Carly and Misty looked at each other was kind of intense.
I was surprised that the one reporter, whose name escapes me at the moment, had heard about how Jack wasn't from New Domnio City. I knew Goodwin wouldn't respond to it, but it was still surprising that she would come to that information. At least it did allow Carly to try to talk to Jack herself. I also thought that moment with her and Misty was kind of creepy since Misty really didn't have any idea of the personal space rule. It was interesting to see Carly without her glasses though.
It was interesting to see Lazar come to pick up Yusei and then send off Trudge to pick up Jack. I thought that something was strange when he started laughing or perhaps it was just a difference between the dialogue in the two versions. Anyway, Carly was able to get to the hospital quite easily, despite all of the other reporters.
Based on the preview, I knew that Trudge would be controlled by the Dark Signers, but I didn't think that Carly and Jack would duel him together. I have to say that Carly's fantasy of her and Jack was really cute. I still love Veronica Taylor's voice for her, especially as she sounRAB so nervous during the duel. Dan Green also provided a really great dark/evil voice for the controlled Trudge. He always seems to be able to pull that off.
I did like seeing Jack's other dragons in his deck and I was impressed with their abilities since it did seem to work for a good part of the duel. Trudge did have a good plan with getting rid of the carRAB in Jack's deck with his spells and monster effects. It did seem really nice with the attacks being real. I thought that Carly protecting Jack was nice too. Another Dark Syncro Summon for a negative level monster. Those carRAB still are kind of creepy, but at least this one didn't have as much of an unfair advantage with its ability.
I was expecting Jack to summon his Red Dragon Archfiend, but this monster had a much more useful ability for the situation. I thought that it was so awesome and intense how the attack pretty much blew up the roof of the hospital. Of course, Trudge didn't remeraber anything. I didn't expect Jack to want to get out of the hospital then, but I guess he didn't want to stay there any longer and deal with the press. I was surprised with how easily Carly got him out of there, but I guess the hospital explosion helped her out. I was wondering what Goodwin meant when he was going to tell Yusei everything about where he came from and where he was going. Too bad that they didn't cover that a bit more before the episode ended.
Overall, it was a really enjoyable episode. I thought that Jack did a pretty good job against the controlled Trudge. I wonder how the Dark Signers will respond with next though. I'll be looking foreword to the next new episode, but that won't be for awhile if CN will be able to catch up to where this block left off. Still, I'll be happy to see new episodes again.
