21. Abra and the Psychic Showdown

As our heroes enter Saffron City, two Hawaiian-dressed girls convince them to enter a warp tile. They turn out to be Team Rocket who steals Pikachu. However, a mysterious little girl they saw briefly before appears, rescues them all, and disappears without a word. Despite some warnings from a bearded man, Ash goes to the local gym and tries to defeat Sabrina, a psychic pokémon trainer. The little girl is there too and seems to be under Sabrina’s control. Ash is defeated, and Sabrina forces them to play with her by shrinking them to the size of dolls. The man they met before, however, saves them and tells them that the only way Ash could beat Sabrina is with a ghost pokémon. And so, Ash heads off to Lavender town to get one.

22. Tower of Terror

Arriving at the pokémon tower where ghost pokémon are said to reside, our heroes are more than frightened. But Ash musters enough courage to venture in, only to be the object of pranks by the ghosts who live there. One prank causes a chandelier to crash on Ash and Pikachu, and the ghost pokémon bring out their spirits. They have a fun time flying around, and after returning Ash to his body, Haunter decides to join the group. With a ghost pokémon, Ash heads back to Saffron City to face Sabrina.

23. Haunter versus Kadabra

Entering the gym again, Ash wants to challenge Sabrina with his ghost pokémon. She accepts, but when the fight is about to begin, Haunter is no where to be seen. Ash is forced to forfeit and this time, Sabrina turns our heroes into actual dolls, but Ash is rescued by that mysterious man who is Sabrina’s father. Ash finds Haunter tormenting Team Rocket and tries to go fight Sabrina again. Haunter doesn’t fight but instead, makes Sabrina laugh with its ghost antics. Without her concentration, Sabrina is forced to forfeit. Ash gets a Marsh Badge, and Sabrina is reunited with her parents and stays with Haunter.

24. Primeape Goes Bananas

Ash calls Professor Oak and shows him that he has four badges. However, Oak relates how the other trainers have five badges and plenty more pokémon than Ash. This makes Ash more determined than ever to catch more pokémon, which he attempts to do with a Mankey. But the Mankey is bad-tempered and steals Ash’s hat after beating him up. A quick skirmish with Team Rocket causes the Mankey to evolve into Primeape who chases our heroes. However, Ash finally captures him and heads off to Celadon City where another badge awaits.

25. Pokémon Scent-sation!

Although his friends find a perfume shop wonderful, Ash finds it disgusting and loses the approval of not only the store manager but also the trainers at the local gym. Unable to get inside, Ash forms an alliance with Team Rocket and dresses up as a girl in order to challenge the gym leader Erika, who turns out to be the perfume store manager. Before they can finish their fight, Team Rocket interrupts as they steal some perfume and set the place on fire. Ash helps save the gym and Erika’s Gloom, for which she awards him with a Rainbow Badge.

26. Hypno’s Naptime

Ash and the gang find a town with lots of children missing and all the pokémon having no energy. As Pikachu gets affected and falls asleep, they go to investigate and find sleep waves emanating from the Pokémon Lover’s Club. Inside, there is a Hypno, which is used on club members with insomnia to put them to sleep. This creates the sleep waves that are affecting the children and the pokémon. However, they find that Drowzee’s dream eating waves can counteract the sleep waves, and thus, Drowzee fixes everything back to normal. In the end, Misty (much to her dismay) gets a Psyduck.

27. Pokémon Fashion Flash

Our heroes continue on through a street with tons of Pokémon Salons. Brock is searching for a certain salon, while Misty gets entranced by Salon Rokét, which gives flashy (but tacky) makeovers for pokémon. Brock finally finds Susie: the world’s number one pokémon breeder, who specializes in massage in order to bring out a pokémon’s inner beauty instead of flashy fashion. Misty, however, takes her Psyduck to Salon Rokét and finds out that it is none other than Team Rocket. With Susie’s help, the group defeats Team Rocket, and Brock in the end gets a Vulpix.

28. The Punchy Pokémon

Along the road, Ash and his friends see a Hitmonchan in training. It belongs to Anthony - a trainer who is the number one contender for the P-1 Grand Prix: a competition for fighting pokémon. However, his daughter Rebecca complains that Anthony is ignoring the family, and she asks the gang to beat her father. Ash uses his Primeape and, despite Team Rocket attempts at cheating, wins the competition. Ash then lets Anthony have Primeape to train it better, as long as Anthony will not ignore his family again.

29. Sparks Fly for Magnemite

Upon entering the polluted Gringy City, Pikachu seems to be very sick and can’t control its electricity. Ash rushes it to the pokémon center, but Nurse Joy says it’s only a cold. Suddenly, the power goes out and the pokémon in intensive care will die soon if they can’t restore power. The gang goes to investigate, discovering that Grimers have taken over the power plant. However, with the help of some Magnemites, Pikachu is able to defeat all the Grimers and Ash catches their leader Muk (and Team Rocket is foiled, once again).

30. Dig Those Diglett!

As our heroes search for a way to Fuchsia City, an earthquake causes them (and Team Rocket) to investigate the Guyva Dam site. There, construction is being disrupted by Digletts, and the fore-man has offered a reward to any pokémon trainer who can get rid of them. Gary shows up along with other trainers, but no pokémon (not even Ash’s) will come out to fight. They find out that the Digletts are preventing construction of the dam to preserve the forest which is their garden. The fore-man stops construction, and the Digletts help tear down the dam (taking Team Rocket with it).

31. The Ninja Poké-Showdown

Unsure of the way to Fuchsia City, the gang stumbles upon what looks to be an old Japanese castle. Inside, weird things are about with a wandering Venonat, invisible walls, and explosive Voltorbs. They find themselves in a Ninja training ground which is also the Fuchsia City gym, home of Koga: the poison pokémon gym leader. As they begin to battle, however, Team Rocket interrupts (yet again), but Misty’s Psyduck drives them off. Ash resumes his battle with Koga and is able to earn a Soul Badge.

32. The Flame Pokémon-athon!

Thinking they have arrived in the Safari Zone, Ash discovers that instead the group is at the Big P Pokémon Ranch, owned by the Laramie Clan, where pokémon are specially bred so that they are stronger than wild pokémon. They meet Laura Laramie and find out that an annual Pokémon race is being held. She with her Ponyta are the number one contenders, but a jerk named Dario (a Dodrio trainer) wants to win the race. He hires Team Rocket to sabotage Ponyta such that Laura’s arm gets broken. Ash rides in her place and despite all adversities, is able to win.

33A. The Kangaskhan Kid

Although they have finally made it to the Safari Zone, Ash’s anxious pokémon-catching attempts are quickly put to rest by Officer Jenny. It turns out that they are in a pokémon reserve where it is illegal to capture pokémon. Protecting and living with a herd of Kangaskhans is a little boy named Tomo. It turns out, though, that Tomo is actually Tommy who was lost five years ago. His parents come back to try and retrieve him, but he does not want to leave the Kangaskhans. Team Rocket shows up and Tomo is able to fend them off. In the end, his parents decide to stay with him to protect the Kangaskhans.

33B. The Legend of Dratini(NOT AIRED)

Ash sees a dratini i dunno lol

34. The Bridge Bike Gang

Finally making it out of the Safari Zone and returning to civilization, our heroes stumble on to the construction of a bridge. It would get them to Sunny Town a lot quicker, but in order to cross it, they have to use bikes. At the pokémon center, Nurse Joy asks if they can deliver some medicine to a sick pokémon in Sunny Town and offers some bikes for their passage. The group is more than over-joyed and take off, but they are confronted by a Bicycle Gang who wants to battle. It turns out that Jesse and James used to belong to this gang, and they convince them to capture Pikachu. However, with some battles and heroic efforts, Ash is able to convince the gang to let him get through with the medicine and new friendships are formed.

35A. Ditto’s Mysterious Mansion

Ash and company have to take refuge in a mansion after being caught in the rain. They discover that the mansion is really the House of Imite belonging to Duplica (Copycat in the game). She with her Ditto tried to perform on stage with imitations of pokémon, but Ditto isn’t able to transform its face. Then, Team Rocket busts in stealing Ditto to make it transform into a Dratini to present to the Boss. Ditto’s faulty transformation, however, only angers Team Rocket who threaten Ditto which causes it to transform perfectly. Our heroes eventually rescue a fully transforming Ditto, blasting Team Rocket off again.

35B. Electric Soldier Porygon(NOT AIRED)

Pokemon centers have a system to transmit Pokeballs to other centers, and it seems to be out of order. Dr. (Akihabara), who developed the system, sends Ashs and his friends into the circuit. They find the Rocket gang in there,capturing monster balls. Joy is afraid that the system went wrong, and orders a security company to install a vaccine program. The program, in the form of a missile, insistantly attacks Ash and his friends and the Rocket gang. Pikachu counters with electric beams(which caused the seizures).Porygon, a polygon monster, then saves them. AFTER THE SEZIURES POKEMON DID NOT HAVE NEW EPISODES FOR HALF A YEAR

36. The Battling Eevee Brothers

Still roaming the forest, our heroes discover an Eevee tied to a tree. They see that it has a license tag on it and go into Stone Town to return it to the owner. At the address, they find a garden party where lots of pokémon are being evolved by stones. They return Eevee to Mikey who doesn’t want to evolve his Eevee, but his three brothers want him to (they each have the three evolved forms of Eevee). Team Rocket comes in to steal all the pokémon, evolution stones, AND the food. But Mikey’s Eevee is able to blast them off (again), and the brothers let Mikey have his Eevee just the way it is.

37. Wake up Snorlax!

Ash and company pass an old hippie in the forest who plays music to them with his flute in hopes of getting food. Unfortunately, they have none and they decide to go into town to get some. However, the town has no food because the river has run dry. They go to investigate and find a huge Snorlax blocking a spring which forms the river. Team Rocket shows up wanting to capture the Snorlax, but they need to wake it up, too. So they team up and discover out that the flute the old hippie can wake it up. With that, Snorlax wakes up and the river runs free again (but Team Rocket loses again).

38. Showdown at Dark City

Arriving in the seemingly ghost town of Dark City, our heroes find that pokémon trainers aren’t welcomed here. That is because two would-be gyms (the Yas and Kaz Gyms) are having street brawls in order to claim this town as their own in an attempt at becoming an official Pokémon League Gym. However, in the process they are destroying town. Ash and the gang is able to stop them and with the help of Nurse Joy (the official Pokémon League Inspector), convinces the two gyms to rebuild the town.

39. The March of the Exeggutor Squad

Ash and Brock see a carnival where they decide to get down and party. However, Misty wanders off to find Melvin: the-not-so-great magician. She agrees to help him achieve his dream of having a world famous magic act with his pokémon Exeggcute. However, as they try to perform, Melvin fumbles and gets fired (literally and figuratively). Ash tries to boost his confidence but instead gets hypnotized by Exeggcute. Melvin then uses Ash to capture lots of Exeggutor, who (thanks to Team Rocket) accidentally hypnotize themselves and charge through the carnival. In order to save everyone, Ash’s Charmander and Melvin team up to stop the Exeggutors, after which Charmander evolves into Charmeleon.

40. Pikachu’s Goodbye

As the group continues through the forest, they happen to find a wild group of Pikachus. Ash’s Pikachu is quite happy and tries to make friends, but all of them run away scared. Only a baby Pikachu seems to trust it, but still, Ash’s Pikachu is quite crestfallen over his alienation from the others. Later, the baby Pikachu falls into a river, and Ash’s Pikachu dives in to save it, with help from the rest of the pack. The pack begins to trust Pikachu, and when it saves them all from Team Rocket, they celebrate it as their hero. But Ash feels that Pikachu should stay with them and begins to leave. He sadly runs away because he truly loves Pikachu, and that is why he wants it to be happy with its own kind. Pikachu, however, returns and shows that no matter what, its place is at Ash’s side (or on his shoulder).