By Trainer_Auro
After two episodes, Ash already has two Pokemon; Pikachu and Pidove. Hopefully he doesn’t fill out his party too soon, and stick us with the same six for the rest of the season. It would be even better if he caught more than six, and switched some things around every now and then. Something I’ve noticed about Team Rocket is that in both the episodes we’ve seen them in, they’ve used their classic mechanical arms to grab Pikachu, and yet they seem so different. But enough about Team Rocket for now.
This time, we start off with Ash and Iris heading towards Striaton (Sanyou city) to challenge the gym.
Introductions aside, it’s time for a play-by-play review. Warning, the following WILL contain spoilers. I recommend you watch this series on your own, but if you’re in a hurry, want another opinion, or just don’t feel like watching, this will be quick, and to the point without losing the details.
*SPOILERS*
As the two walk down the road, Ash asks Iris why she is following him. Iris responds with “you’re following me” and it eventually builds up to a full on race, as one tries to walk in front of the other. Iris pulls in front of Ash, and turns around, insisting that she was trying to be nice by showing Ash around, and that he was being childish. The two argue, until Oshawott shows up again.
Iris picks Oshawott up, saying that it must have followed her, and that she would capture it. Oshawott escapes her grasp, and runs up to Ash’s shoulder, pushing Pikachu off. Ash asks if Oshawott wanted to go with him, and Pikachu, obviously annoyed by the sudden ejection, uses thunderbolt on Oshawott. The attack is deflected by the shallot on his chest, and redirected into Ash.
Ash agrees to capture Oshawott, and steps back, turning his cap around backwards so we know he means business. Ash tosses his Pokeball, and it bounces off Oshawott’s head and lands uselessly on the ground. Ash then realizes that it was the Oshawott from professor Juniper’s lab, and that she would have the Pokeball at her lab.
The two call the professor form the Pokemon Center, and she sends the Pokeball over, glad to know that Oshawott was safe. She warns that it will often wander off without warning. This is when Ash realizes that it has already done so.
Ash and Iris run outside to search for it, when they are caught in a pitfall trap! (We’ve seen THESE before. Most over-used Team Rocket trick in the boo-) Ash and Iris wonder who could have done such a thing, when a boy sticks his head over the edge, and says it was Sandile (Meguroko).
The boy helps get Ash and Iris out of the hole, and mentions that the same Sandile are forcing his family’s sand bath out of business. Ordinarily, the Sandile and the humans would share the sand bath, but suddenly, they started kicking up sand, tearing landscape, and scaring off all the customers. Ash decides to investigate the sand bath. And by investigate I mean jump in and relax. Pikachu and –much to the dismay of Iris- Axew join in as well.
Team Rocket watches Ash and Iris from a distance, planning their attack, when a Sandile wearing sunglasses (which probably isn’t necessary considering it looks like they’re wearing glasses already) who had been following them for a bit, burrows under ground, and heads toward the sand baths.
Iris reminds Ash that they were supposed to be looking for Oshawott. Ash jumps up, only to see Oshawott relaxing in the sand not far away. The Sandile then rushes in and bites Axew, clamping it in its jaws. Pikachu readies a thunderbolt, but Iris calls the attack off, since Axew would get hurt. (No mention of the fact that Sandile, being a ground type, is immune to electric attacks) Iris goes in on her own, trying to open the mouth of Sandile with her bare hands. Ash, Pikachu, and Oshawott rush in to help, trying to pull Axew out, because the devastating flesh wounds one would sustain from being torn by a croc’s fangs aren’t an issue for them. Sandile refuses to let go until Pikachu’s ear tickles its nose, causing it to loosen.
The Sandile instead bites down on Pikachu’s arm, and Oshawott’s leg, trapping the both of them, and running off. Before Sandile can get far, Team Rocket grabs the Sandile, and consequently Pikachu and Oshawott with some sort of Pokemon magnet attached to a crane. Meowth tosses a smoke grenade, and the crane drives off.
Just as it seems like Team Rocket has escaped, the crane’s wheel is caught in another of Sandile’s pitfall traps. A large group of Sandile appear, and trap the crane even further. The Sandile with sunglasses (Sundile?) with Pikachu and Oshawott still trapped, continues on its way. Team Rocket retreats.
Sandile releases Pikachu and Oshawott with a group of other wild Pokemon, all of which look less-than-thrilled. Suddenly, geysers of boiling water burst from the ground in several places, and the Sandile leader directs all the Pokemon to begin moving away. Iris notices that the Sandile is leading the Pokemon away, and the boy from the sand bath realizes that the Sandile were only scaring the humans away because they could tell that the geysers were going to blow.
A large geyser and a river of boiling water cut the wild Pokemon off from the Sandile, and trap them on a slowly shrinking island. Ash tries to cross the water, but instantly pulls out, the water being too hot to touch.
The Sandile bite each others’ tails, and form a chain. They then form a bridge across the water for the Pokemon. Understandably, the Pokemon are hesitant to walk across a bridge of crocodiles, so Ash crosses over onto the island to encourage them to cross. The Pokemon take turns crossing, and the Pidove suddenly remember that they can just fly. (Maybe it wasn’t just Ash’s Pidove that was slow. It could just be a species wide stupidity) he Sandile struggle to hold formation as the last Deerling to cross takes its sweet time. Another geyser blows, pointed at Ash. Oshawott uses water gun to protect him before falling toward the scalding water. Ash recalls Oshawott with its recently obtained Pokeball before Oshawott hits the water, however, the bridge-o-croc can’t hold on any longer. It starts to slip, when Iris ninjas her way across the bridge to grab Ash’s hand, while holding the bridge. The Sandile raise the bridge, carrying the both of them over dry land before collapsing.
The episode ends as Ash and Iris soak in the hot spring that formed where the sand bath used to be (however, like a good businessman, the guy who ran the sand bath quickly adapted) and the Sandile leader pokes its head out of the dirt, watching them as its sunglasses glint mischievously…
Tags: Best Wishes, Generation V, Oshawott, Pidove, Pokemon Black & White, Pokemon TV Show, Sandile