While the confrontation between Jaco and the Great Saiyaman is anti-climactic, the scene does make up for it with humor. I did like Jaco mistaking Gohan's name for food. Considering that's the basis for most saiyan names, that bit was a long time coming, but I thought it was a nice touch. Jaco's repeated potshots at the superhero getup also drew a laugh.
We don't get an explanation for how Jaco jumped to the conclusion that Saiyaman was Watagash (maybe he did that off screen?) but he does give both Gohan and the audience a bit more background on how Watagash operates.
Much like Babidi's magic, Watagash latches on to the darkness in a person's heart and provides a subsequent boost in strength. Jaco explains that while the parasite is harmless on his own, in the right host, he can do a lot of damage, having wiped out entire civilizations in the past.
Enter Barry Kahn. Now, given what we saw last episode, his being the host seemed inevitable. He was smug, uncaring, and had a beef with Gohan. However, this episode takes what was once an unlikable dick and turns him into an oddly cartoonishly sinister menace. The way he talks when it's revealed that he set up Cocoa (the idol co-star of the film) to go out with Gohan in order to stir up scandal and disgrace Gohan and his family, it almost sounds like how Freeza or Goku Black would talk. It worked for the most part, the scenes were fairly chilling in their own right and it does make you hate him even more, but it still seemed like a radical left turn for the character.
As bad as Kahn is, he's even worse when he's "possessed" by Watagash. Not only does he surprise clothesline Gohan through a wall, he kidnaps Pan! That's going too far.
Alas, Gohan doesn't follow this by yelling "KAAAAHNN!!" He does, however, accept the challenge to fight and settle the score once and for all.
We saw last episode that a Watagash-fused human could give Gohan a good fight, but this goes above and beyond what we had seen previously. Kahn turns into a bona fide Kaiju. It was an interesting turn and it did add an element of excitement that probably wouldn't have been there had he just stayed in Barry's human form.
I was hoping for a Saiyaman/Jaco team up, but this episode averts that and lets Gohan take the spotlight. Honestly, it worked better this way in many respects. Jaco does try to take out the parasite with his BFG, but Gohan intervenes, reminding him that there's still a human there. On the one hand, you could understand Jaco's logic, thinking big picture, but it was still a nice moment for Gohan.
I do wonder why it took Gohan so long to go super saiyan. Yeah, it makes for a pretty engaging fight, as he spends a good chunk of time on the losing end, but the question still nags. To be fair, it was a thing that happened a lot in "Z" a lot as well.
A part of me wants to say that he was taking a cue from Black and intentionally letting himself get smacked around a bit for the sake of the zenkai boost. The problem there is that Gohan never actually saw Black, so wouldn't know that that was a thing. Although, Goku and Vegeta kind of sort of brought it up during their team meetings, so maybe there is something there.
Just as the last episode did, this one really puts a lot of emphasis on the strength of Gohan's family unit. Videl doesn't flinch when Kahn presents a photo of Gohan kissing (or to be more accurate, being kissed by) Cocoa, as she knows Gohan's faithful and she doesn't waver when it looks like he's not going to make it during the fight as she knows that he'd never let Pan see her superhero dad lose. Where the last episode's title was a bit of a misnomer, this one fits rather perfectly. Not surprisingly, these scenes are quite heartwarming.
Really, this episode was a joy to watch. Pretty much every element worked and it delivered a bit of everything. There was heart, humor, and a great fight. Really, you can't ask for more than that from a 'Dragon Ball' episode.
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