Katopesla changes into his "ultimate" mode, which amplifies both his speed and his strength. While he never gains the upper hand against Vegeta, he does hold his own far better than his previous appearances would suggest. The prince eventually goes super saiyan and almost knocks Katopesla out of the ring.
Oh, Katopesla gets eliminated (though at least he gets to go out with some sense of dignity,) but it isn't by Vegeta's hand. It's made clear that something else hit him and stole the elimination stat from Vegeta. Said thing doesn't hesitate to go after Vegeta as well, though he is able to catch himself.
Once again, the fighters of universe 7 find themselves facing off against an unseen enemy. Unlike the sniper, this is a melee fighter who just happens to be invisible. They make a point to say that the fighter is masking their energy, but I seem to recall it being established that they were unable to sense the energy from fighters from other universes. I guess they learned, as the energy sensing thing comes into play later, but we'll get to that.
This foe proves especially problematic as it is able to get the upper hand against even universe 7's strongest fighters. Even android 18 can barely hold her own. You'd think Gero would have given them an infrared vision option to pick up heat signatures, but apparently not.
She probably would have been knocked out had Piccolo not leaped in and unleashed a simultaneous ki blast in every direction. It works, but it's the sort of thing that would only work once due to energy limitations. You'd think that this wouldn't be a problem for the two androids but it never comes up, as Gohan has another strategy to draw out their unseen attacker. He blasts the ground to create dust clouds which allow them to see their target. Without his invisibility, the fighter (who's name is revealed to be Gamisaras) is pretty much defenseless and is easily dispatched by Piccolo.
If it seems like it was a bit too easy, you're not wrong. Despite this being hyped up, it's done before the mid-episode card. Universe 4 still has other tricks up its sleeve, however.
It isn't long before the next fighter enters the fray and traps universe 7 in a strange dome filled with phantoms of the fighters from eliminated universes. Not surprisingly, the constructs are able to hit the heroes, but the heroes punches pass right through.
It's a cool concept and the episode could have probably done more with it, but Piccolo manages to figure things out pretty quickly and eliminates the fighter (Shantza) once he discerns the opponent's location.
This leaves universe 4 with but one fighter. At first, it seems like another invisible adversary, but it's soon made clear that there's more to this than meets the eye. Even with the ability to sense their foe's energy, nobody can seem to get a clear hit.
Said foe is even able to eliminate Piccolo by knocking him out of the ring. Universe 7 is still doing pretty well, all things considered, but that's still a pretty heavy hit. Piccolo was proving himself to be a major asset to the team, even though he may not have the raw power of the three saiyans.
While it is android 17 who figures out what this fighter's deal is (it's a bug named Damon) it is Goku who figures out how to turn the tables on it.
With Damon eliminated, that leaves universe 4 with nobody left in the ring. Quitela vows to take everybody with him, but his threat proves hollow as his universe is erased before he can act.
This leaves just universes 3, 7, and 11. Oddly enough, 3 and 11 sit this one out. We see the three Pride Troopers during the Gamisaras portion, but they don't do anything. I guess the plan is to just sit back and let the rest of the universes fight it out. Considering the next episode has the remaining fighters from universe 3 going up against universe 7, it seems likely. It's not a bad strategy, but it is weird how we still have fighters who are able to sit back and relax while their existence hangs in the balance.
In any event, this episode was very enjoyable. It got multiple characters involved, gave them all chances to shine, and provided adversaries that were able to adequately challenge them. The methods to defeat them were, admittedly, pretty simple, but I think that's why we had them all go in one episode. To devote an entire episode to each of them would have been a bit much. This keeps things moving and gets us closer to the final showdown between universes 7 and 11. The prior has the numbers advantage, but the latter has Jiren, so it could still prove to be an uphill battle.
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