“All right, hear me out. We’ll call it ‘Dragon Ball Super,’ okay? And we’ll spend the first 28 episodes redoing the movies, but with worse animation. Then we’ll get in a tournament that’s a total mismatch, with each finish screwier than the last! And then we’ll do a time travel story with an unsatisfying ending! Oh, and all our chins will be really pointy for some reason. And then we’ll team up with Frieza! Well, what do you think?”
Okay, so the Universe 7 team is down a man after Buu fell into a deep sleep, so they need a tenth member. And they definitely need a tenth member. As the Supreme Kai puts it, Grand Zeno specifically called for each universe to field a team of ten. Showing up with nine might irritate Zeno enough to disqualify the team and destroy their universe before the event even begins.
So Goku’s big idea is to recruit Frieza. No one likes the idea of resurrecting him with the Dragon Balls again, but Goku plans to use Fortuneteller Baba instead, as she has the power to bring back dead fighters for one day. We saw her use this with Grandpa Gohan, then Goku, then Vegeta. So even if Goku’s plan backfires, Frieza can only do so much mischief in a single days’ time.
The others are still skeptical, and Vegeta suggests they get literally anyone to stand in as their tenth member. That guy can jump out of the ring immediately and let the rest of them fight. Goku asks Whis if they can win with just the nine of them, and Whis thinks they might be in trouble if they tried that. He doesn’t know anything about the other teams, but he has heard of one universe with a mortal who defeated a God of Destruction. I’m pretty sure he’s talking about Jiren, but he doesn’t get into specifics. Whis also adds that this was no pushover god that was defeated, either. This one was stronger than Beerus, and the mortal still won, so the competition will be stiff to say the least.
Meanwhile, in Universe 6, Caulifla tries to get Kale to turn Super Saiyan, but Kale isn’t very confident about it. Caulifla and Cabba try insulting Kale to get her mad, but that goes poorly, as Caulifla gets offended on Kale’s behalf. While they bicker, Kale gets frustrated with her own inability and...
Whoa that ain’t good. Or is it?
Meanwhile, in Universe 4, Ganos delivers news to Quitela and Kuru. Ganos is one of the U4 team, but Quitela sent him to spy on Universe 7 and he learned about the plan to recruit Frieza. This gives Quitela a brilliant idea...
Back in U6, Kale goes wild, attacking Cabba in particular. Cabba speculates that Kale must have felt like she was being left behind with all this Super Saiyan business, and she’s lashing out in jealousy.
So Caulifla gets between them and tells Kale that it’s ridiculous to think she’d be “attracted” to someone like Cabba, and Kale “means the world” to her. Yeah, I think the dub abandoned any pretense of subtext, and this dialogue is more about how clearly they can spell it out without just announcing they’re gay. I mean, this sort of talk is basically how they handled the Trunks/Mai relationship earlier in the series.
Anyway, this calms Kale down, and Cabba realizes that he may have just found another recruit for the Tournament of Power.
In hell, Goku approaches Frieza with his proposal, and Frieza makes a counteroffer: He’ll join the team, but only if Goku agrees to wish Frieza back to life with the Dragon Balls. Goku suggests that Frieza could use the Super Dragon Balls awarded at the end of the tournament, but Frieza doesn’t think so. He doesn’t need a “super-wish” for his resurrection, and that prize only goes to the MVP of the team. No, he’ll settle for a promise from Goku to wish him back with the regular Dragon Balls. Goku is reluctant, but Frieza hints that he’s managed to get even stronger while in hell, but Goku won’t get to test himself against that power unless he wishes Frieza back. And that convinces Goku to agree to his terms.
Now, this always kind of bugged me, because Frieza seems to be under the mistaken impression that Earth’s Dragon Balls can revive him, even though Goku knows that they can’t be used to resurrect someone a second time. Goku should be aware of this rule, since he’s had to cope with it on more than one occasion. And yet, he agreed to Frieza’s terms without correcting him on the matter. So was Goku tricking Frieza, or was he planning to use the Namekian Dragon Balls, and just didn’t want to bother explaining that to him?
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, as we’ll see in the final episode, but it always bothered me how we didn’t know if Goku was playing Frieza or not.
Anyway, Goku makes the arrangements with Baba, and we’re all set.
