‘Dragon Ball Super’ Episode 123 Recap With Spoilers

The episode begins with a recap of the previous episode where Vegeta challenged Jiren to a head-to-head battle, but despite his impressive showing of strength he was eventually knocked unconscious by Jiren’s overwhelming power.

Episode 123 begins proper with Jiren standing over the unconscious Vegeta while Goku stands there shocked, and saying “Warrior, rest” as Vegeta struggles to get up. This takes Universe 11’s Belmond by surprise as he says it takes quite a bit for Jiren to recognize someone as a warrior. He’s fully acknowledged Vegeta for his bravery and the two Zen-Ohs are impressed by this as well.

Vegeta wakes up and says he can tell Jiren’s still not at full power and Goku stands to challenge him again. The episode then cuts to Freeza fighting Dyspo again as Dyspo continues to drag around Freeza and throwing him into the rubble. As Dyspo brags and says that’s the power of the Pride Troopers, Freeza appears out of the rubble unharmed and asks if that’s really all their power had to offer.

When Dyspo asks how did he survive unscathed, Freeza retorts with asking how Dyspo expected him to take any damage from that attack and fires Death Beams toward him. Then it cuts to Toppo fighting Gohan and 17, while their attacks still seem ineffective. Android 17 figures out Gohan’s sloppy because he and Gohan have never fought together before.

Then he devises a plan to keep Toppo occupied and for Gohan to attack any openings, as Android 17 strikes at Toppo alone. Toppo seems to get the upper hand on 17, but 17 locks the two within his energy shield and Gohan launches a Kamehameha Wave to push the both of them out.

Toppo realizes this, however, and manages to break free of Android 17 by getting Gohan to hit 17 with the wave instead and barely avoids being eliminated from the Tournament. It then cuts back to a hesitant Goku facing Jiren as the others notice that Goku is trying his best to create any openings in Jiren’s defense.

He begins darting around Jiren, getting close and then backing off while planting small ki blasts into the ground. Jiren then steps on one of these mines and sets off a chain reaction. Goku’s hoping to create an opening by using these ki mines, but Jiren jumps into the air.

Frustrated, Goku launches several Destructo Dics at Jiren. Jiren catches one, and throws it back to knock over the pillar Goku was standing off. Thrown off balance, Jiren rushes in and delivers a few successive blows to Goku before charging ki into his fist.

But before he could deliver the finishing blow, Goku activates the Destructo Disc Hex Blade (which Krillen remembers using on Goku when they were training) which chops the rubble they were standing on. Using this opening, Goku appears to knock Jiren out of the stage but Jiren is able to jump back onto the stage by jumping on the falling rubble and climbing his way up.

He then charges straight through Goku’s minefield and appears cloaked in an oppressive aura in front of Goku and Vegeta. After exchanging a few more blows, Jiren charges his energy even more. Belmond sense the rise in Jiren and says he hasn’t seen Jiren like that in a long time.

Goku responds by charging is ki and the both come to blows once more. Zen-Oh is impressed, of course. Jiren then launches a powerful beam that whizzes by Goku’s head and Goku back away in fear after this display of what Belmond calls his real power. To Jiren, the beam was just a simple punch.

After hitting Goku with a few more of these punches, Goku stands silently and says he’s never been hit by that strong of an attack before while saying Jiren’s amazing. Seeing Goku refusing to back down, Vegeta is inspired to fight once again. He says they know Jiren is strong, but they need to win in order to obtain the Super Dragon Balls.

The two then charge their Ki to their full potential. Goku reaches his Super Saiyan Blue form with Kaioken boost, and Vegeta reaches a new level of Super Saiyan Blue.

Thinking back to Cabba, and his promise to resurrect his universe, he says he needs to surpass his limits in his own way. His aura then starts to sparkle and a new form is reached which has a different energy from Super Saiyan Blue.

The Grand Priest notes that Vegeta seems to have broken out of his shell too and focused a power beyond his normal Super Saiyan Blue. This new sparkling energy is everything Vegeta has, a “limit-breaking” power.

The two full charged then begin their attack on Jiren, and he’s pushed back by the two working together. He notes that their strikes are sharper, yet blocks everyone one of their moves. Piccolo notes that Jiren is off-balance, but Whis corrects with that Vegeta and Goku can’t do a proper coordinated assault.

This, however, is what seems to be throwing off Jiren. As the two stare down Jiren once more, the Tournament of Power whittles down to its final seven minutes.

Dragon Ball Super‘s “Universal Survival” arc is part of the recent simulcast agreement that sites like Crunchyroll and Funimation have scored. DragonBall Super airs on Crunchyroll Saturday evenings at 7:15 p.m. CST. Adult Swim airs the English dub during its Toonami block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m, and is now available to stream on FunimationNOW and Amazon Video.