Episode Summaries 21-25

EPISODE TWENTY-ONE: Abra and the Psychic Showdown

WHO'S THAT POKÉMON? Abra

FAVORITE QUOTE - Ash: "Ewww! They [Team Rocket] kissed me!!! YUCK!"

QUICK SYNOPSIS:

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.

FULL SUMMARY:

The episode begins with the camera showing a strange throne seating a

shadowed figure with glowing red eyes. A voice says, "now it’s time to play,"

and in the eyes, we see our heroes treading through a foggy forest. Once

again, Ash and Misty are arguing over who got them lost on their way to

Saffron City. Suddenly, that gang hears a young girl with a ball giggling at a

distance. She then runs away and Ash follows asking for directions. As the fog

clears he finds himself at the edge of the cliff and falls off. He throws Bulbasaur

back to the edge of the cliff who uses vine whip to save Ash. Back at the top,

they realize that the lights they see in the distance is Saffron City. As they enter,

two Hawaiian-dressed girls put flower necklaces on the gang and say they get

to win a grand prize for being the millionth person to enter Saffron City. They

lead them to a building where the prize is, but as soon as their backs are

turned, one of the "girls" grabs Pikachu with rubber gloves and the other

pushes the group on to a warp tile which sends them to another room. It is, of

course, Team Rocket (with James cross-dressing, yet again) who attempt to

say their motto but are angered by the ignorance of our heroes (who decide to

drink some tea during the interlude). They gloat over a vid-screen of their

capture of Pikachu, but the little girl suddenly appears and freezes them with

an ominous blue glow. She then grabs Pikachu and teleports to the warp room

where Ash is. After returning Pikachu, they all glow and are teleported outside

(and several feet above the ground) in front of a weird building. A mysterious

bearded man explains that the building is the Saffron City gym, and they

should stay away and not challenge the gym leader Sabrina. He leaves before

any more questions are answered, so the gang enters. There, they find all sorts

of weird people trying to guess cards and bend spoons. A strange doctor-type

guy explains that they are practicing their telekinetic powers - powers which

allows one to control psychic pokémon. He takes them to Sabrina, and we see

the shadowed throne again. Ash wants to challenge her for a Marsh Badge,

and the lights reveal the little girl that they saw before. She says she will accept

the challenge on the condition that if she wins, the gang has to play with her.

Ash accepts and then we see the real Sabrina (an older girl that is holding the

smaller one). They release Abra and Ash calls Pikachu to fight. Abra seems to

be only sleeping. When Pikachu finally tries to shock it, it teleports behind him

and evolves into Kadabra. Pikachu vainly tries to fight, but Kadabra’s psychic

attacks are too much. Ash screams for the match to stop and forfeits. The little

girl in Sabrina’s lap says that now they have to play with her and teleports them

to a weird town. They go inside one of the houses and discover that everything

is plastic and that they are in fact in a doll house. Sabrina, now towering over

them, had shrunk them to the size of dolls in order to play with them. Running

away, the little girl corners them by a wall. As she is about to bowl them over

with her ball (Ash contemplates that they’re "going to have a ball"), the

mysterious bearded man shows up and teleports them to safety (although,

again it is several feet off the ground). He reiterates that Ash should give up his

quest to battle Sabrina, for he has no way to battle her telekinesis. As proof, the

man uses some telekinetic powers of his own on Ash. However, Ash struggles

through it all, getting bruised and punished from the psychic powers and begs

the man for help. Seeing such determination, the man reluctantly says that

although Ash could never develop telekinetic powers of his own, he could try

and catch a ghost pokémon: the only type of pokémon that would have a

fighting chance against a psychic one. The man quietly relates to himself that

Ash may be the only one who would be able to defeat Sabrina. Ghost pokémon

are at Lavender town, and so our heroes head off to try and catch one, while

Team Rocket (still paralyzed by the psychic attack of the little girl) is dragged

along by Meowth to follow the heroes. Will Ash get a ghost pokémon? Find out

next episode.

EPISODE TWENTY-TWO: Tower of Terror

WHO'S THAT POKÉMON? Gengar

FAVORITE QUOTE - James: "Her eyes are on fire." Meowth: "So is her hair."

QUICK SYNOPSIS:

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.

FULL SUMMARY:

It seems that this trilogy of episodes is full of fog, as our heroes muddle their

way into Lavender Town. They try to hold hands, but Brock accidentally grabs

Pikachu’s tail, freaking it out, and causing it to shock Brock. Misty is frightened

by Brock’s scream, but all Ash does is put on a scary mask and scare them all.

He apologizes but reasons that if they are to catch a ghost pokémon, they

should be prepared to face the fright with bravery. The others are more than

angry and scream at him as Pikachu punishes him with a thundershock.

Finally, they reach Lavender Town, and by nightfall, they arrive at the eerie

Pokémon Tower: where ghost pokémon are said to reside. As they are about to

enter, Team Rocket spies on them from a window on the second story of the

tower. Somehow, they figured out where the gang was going and got there first

to set up some traps. But before they can go anywhere, James falls through

the old floorboards and lands on the first floor. Jesse and Meowth wonder how

to get to him, when suddenly, a Ghastly wakes up and wreaks some havoc

between Jesse and Meowth. After some comedic antics, Jesse knocks Meowth

down the hole and falls down herself, after fainting from seeing the Ghastly.

Team Rocket revives, only to fall again as the floorboards on the first floor give

way to the basement. Outside, their screams are heard by Ash and the others,

who are now too afraid to venture inside. With some funny convincing, they

finally open the door, which promptly closes behind them. Ash calls out

Charmander who lights up the place (and poor Brock - he seems to get a lot of

punishment this episode). They hear ominous laughter and are freaked out. We

then see Gengar, Haunter, and Gastly enjoying a comedy show on the TV in

another room. Our heroes venture into what looks to be a nice dining room. A

rope has a sign that says, "pull me," which Ash does despite Misty’s warning.

A welcome sign pops out, and suddenly, the chairs, plates, silverware, and

such start floating around. The gang freaks out (yet again) and busts out of

there. The three ghost pokémon suddenly appear, laughing at their

achievements. Outside, Misty and Brock are tired of trying to go in, but Ash

convinces Pikachu and Charmander to return with him to get a ghost pokémon

in order to beat Sabrina. They enter and think that the ghosts are in the

basement, but in fact, it is Team Rocket who unfortunately get the full force of

Pikachu’s and Charmander’s attacks, as Ash tries to catch them. Suddenly, a

Haunter appears behind Ash and freaks them out. Charmander tries to do a

leer attack on it, but Haunter simply licks it, paralyzing Charmander and

causing Ash to call it back. A Gengar appears and hits Ash with a fan. Then it

begins hitting Haunter with it, as they try to repeat a comedy act they saw on

TV. However, Ash finds it less than humorous. Saddened, the ghost pokémon

begin to float away through the floor. Ash dives to stop them, only to crash on

the floor which causes the chandelier above to fall on him and Pikachu.

Knocked out, the ghost pokémon bring out their spirits and show them the

time of their life. After scaring Misty a bit (who can’t see Ash, but hears him so

she believes there’s something wrong and she and Brock rush into the tower),

the ghosts fly around and have some antics which are humorous and make

Ash and Pikachu laugh. They finally take Ash to their toy room in the attic of the

tower. All they ever wanted was to have some people to play with. The ghosts

never intended to scare anyone and Ash realizes this. They all float down to

where Misty and Brock are trying to revive Ash’s and Pikachu’s bodies. Ash

and Pikachu decide to return, and Misty seems quite happy that Ash is still

alive (wiping tears away - we all know she really likes him). They begin to leave

with Ash stating that it’s impossible to catch a ghost pokémon. However,

Pikachu points out that Haunter is following them. It makes its characteristic

weird faces prompting Misty and Brock to run for the hills, but Ash and Pikachu

just laugh at its antics. The narrator informs us that Haunter had such a good

time with Ash, it seems to want to join. Maybe their comedy act will beat

Sabrina and the psychic pokémon. As for Team Rocket? They were tied to a

carousel in the toy room of the ghosts and forced to play with Gengar and

Gastly, much to their dismay.

EPISODE TWENTY-THREE: Haunter versus Kadabra

WHO'S THAT POKÉMON? Haunter

FAVORITE QUOTE - Ash: "But if you knew Sabrina all her life, then that

means...you must have taken her baby pictures, too!"

QUICK SYNOPSIS:

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.

FULL SUMMARY:

After a brief narrative re-cap, the gang is about to enter Saffron City with

Haunter floating around outside of a pokéball (guess it, like Pikachu, doesn’t

like the pokéballs either). In front of the gym, Ash remembers (with the aid of a

flashback) how humiliating his defeat at Sabrina’s hands was. But this time, he

has Haunter and will get the Marsh Badge. However, Misty and Brock do not

share Ash’s confidence. They, too, remember (with another flashback) how

Sabrina shrunk them to the size of dolls and tried to bowl them over. However,

Haunter seems very sure of itself, and Ash trusts it, so they all venture inside.

As Ash enters the league floor, Haunter and him are in the challenger’s circle.

Sabrina comes out with the little girl in her lap and calls out Kadabra. But when

the camera cuts back to Ash, Haunter is no where to be seen. He cries out for it,

but the impatient Sabrina demands the pokémon match Ash challenged her for

to be started. When Ash tries to call Pikachu out, however, Pikachu simply

backs into the far wall, scared out of its wits. Ash has no better luck with his

other pokémon. When Sabrina wants to match NOW (you know it’s now,

because her eyes glow red), Ash suddenly declares he quits and runs for it,

Pikachu close behind him with Misty and Brock trailing. However, the door

closes and Misty and Brock get changed not only to the size of dolls, but into

actual dolls so that they can’t move. As the little girl moves to transform Ash,

the mysterious bearded man teleports in and teleports Ash and Pikachu out.

Sabrina notes that, "he’s back." Outside, the man safely teleports on to the

ground, but the others are in the air and fall to the ground. Later, the man

explains that Sabrina wasn’t always mean. When she was young, she was only

developing her psychic powers. However, she became obsessed with them

and caused lots of destruction. She didn’t want to make any friends and drove

her parents away using telekinesis. The conflict caused a personality split: the

harsh trainer we see in Sabrina versus the small girl wanting love - represented

in the little girl, which is actually a doll Sabrina carries around. The doll looks

just like Sabrina when she was younger, as the mysterious man shows a

picture. Ash then begins to speculate that the man and Sabrina share some

history. The man thinks that Ash realized that he is Sabrina’s father, but Ash is

(as usual) dumb and guesses he’s a photographer. Sabrina’s dad reiterates

that Ash needs a ghost pokémon to defeat Sabrina, so Ash goes looking for

Haunter. Team Rocket is in some box (the ones used to wipe windows on

skyscrapers) several stories up from the ground. After their motto (which

Meowth thankfully interrupts), they plan to throw down a fishing net to get

Pikachu. However, Haunter shows up scaring them and causes them to

humorously crash into the ground below with its crazy faces antics. Ash

confronts Haunter and asks him to go defeat Sabrina. It agrees and they leave

Team Rocket in the hole they made from their fall. At the gym, Brock and Misty

are in doll form and can’t move, but they are able to communicate and find that

a fellow doll is Sabrina’s mother. Ash interrupts them all and re-challenges

Sabrina. However, Haunter has disappeared once again, and as Sabrina is

about to transform Ash, Pikachu goes into the arena to fight. After taking a little

beating, Pikachu is able to shock Kadabra, but it recovers. Just then, Haunter

shows up and starts making faces. The doll comments that two against one

isn’t fair, but Sabrina’s dad teleports in saying that Haunter is acting on its own.

After some antics (and an explosion), Haunter gets Sabrina to laugh. Her dad is

over-joyed, but Ash is once again dumbfounded. However, he finds Kadabra

rolling with laughter, since it and Sabrina are telepathically linked. The little doll

disappears, and Brock and Misty are restored to normal. Sabrina’s dad

declares that Kadabra must forfeit and Ash is the winner. As our heroes say

good-bye to Sabrina and Haunter, Ash wonders if he deserved his Marsh

Badge. However, Misty and Brock believed he did, and so, they head off toward

Celadon City with cement-covered Team Rocket close behind.

EPISODE TWENTY-FOUR: Primeape Goes Bananas

WHO'S THAT POKÉMON? Primeape

FAVORITE QUOTE - James: "Team Rocket always puts beauty over duty."

QUICK SYNOPSIS:

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.

FULL SUMMARY:

We start off seeing Professor Oak’s home where lots of pokémon reside

(supposedly those extra pokémon that belong to the trainers of Pallet,

including Ash and Gary). Professor Oak himself is having breakfast, and Ash’s

little Krabby brings him a ringing vid-phone. Ash is calling Oak to show him

that he now has four badges, but Oak seems to shrug it off, asking, "only

four?" It appears the other trainers of Pallet have already got five badges and

passed through Celadon City. In fact, Gary has caught 30 pokémon (although

in Ep. 13, Oak told Ash that Gary caught 45). Oak tells Ash that for him to be a

good pokémon trainer, he has to capture more pokémon. A depressed Ash

rejoins the rest of the gang on the road. They are eating donuts (they aren’t

really donuts - they’re some sort of Japanese treat that look like rice balls and a

little sushi seaweed with meat inside). Brock offers Ash one, but Ash still

laments over his lack of pokémon. Suddenly, a Mankey comes out and sniffs

the donuts. Brock gives it one, and it happily munches away on it at a distance.

For some stupid reason, Ash just tries to throw a pokéball at it (I thought he

learned he has to weaken a pokémon first). The Mankey throws the donut at

the pokéball which results in the capture of the donut. However, the Mankey is

more than furious now and starts chasing our heroes down the road. Brock

tries throwing a donut to pacify it (in a humorously similar fashion as throwing

a pokéball), but the Mankey just knocks it away. Misty then trips and the

Mankey seems to be going for her. But then it jumps off her head and slams

into Ash, beating him up and creating a dust storm. After the dust settles, Ash

is quite knocked out, and the Mankey went up a tree wearing Ash’s hat.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket is spying on them and decide this is a great time to

catch Pikachu, since Ash is too beat up to protect it. Ash then tries to get his

hat back, saying that it is an "official pokémon hat of the official pokémon expo

of the official pokémon league." The Mankey is able to easily kick him off the

tree. Team Rocket then makes its grand entrance (with their overly-repeated

motto). However, the Mankey takes an interest to them. James promptly kicks it

away, and after it lands, its eyes glow white hot. As Team Rocket tells Ash to

hand over Pikachu, they are all interrupted by Mankey’s evolution into

Primeape. Team Rocket ignores it and throws out Ekans and Koffing. However,

Primeape bashes Jesse into a tree, ruining her face. So all of Team Rocket

goes after Primeape. Brock and Misty make a run for it, but Pikachu tries to

retrieve Ash’s hat which fell over in a corner. Before it can get to it, however,

Primeape had already finished with Team Rocket puts the hat back on. Ash

tells Pikachu to shock Primeape, which only makes it more mad. Brock tries to

be friendly with it, but gets bashed away. And so, Primeape begins chasing our

heroes again through a canyon. They try to split up, but Primeape stays right

on Ash’s tail breaking through all the obstacles Ash runs around. In the

distance, Team Rocket has regrouped by digging a hole, waiting to trap

Pikachu. Ash and Pikachu do fall into the hole, but Primeape stops in time. Ash

has Pikachu shock Team Rocket to hold them at bay, and as he tries to climb

out of the hole, Primeape stand in his way. Ash then remembers what Oak said

and vows to catch Primeape. He calls out Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charmander

in that order and one at a time to do an attack (like a typical game battle).

However, Charmander misses with its attack, and Primeape begins to pummel

it. Suddenly, the flame on Charmander’s tail grows brighter, and Dexter says

that it is the rage attack where Charmander gets more powerful as it gets hurts

(logical, huh?). Charmander is about to do a devastating flame thrower attack,

and Pikachu rescues Ash’s hat just in time before Primeape is knocked down.

Ash then successfully captures Primeape. As Team Rocket struggles to get out

of the hole, Ash simply uses Primeape to knock them away. Primeape,

however, is still rebellious and gives Ash a black eye. Suddenly, Pikachu

notices over a ridge that they have already arrived at Celadon City, thanks to

Primeape chasing them. And so they head off to another gym.

EPISODE TWENTY-FIVE: Pokémon Scent-sation!

WHO'S THAT POKÉMON? Gloom

FAVORITE QUOTE - Meowth: "Oh yeah! I forgot! The cartoonist never gave me

a nose."

QUICK SYNOPSIS:

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.

FULL SUMMARY:

Traveling through Celadon City, Ash wants to get to the gym right away, but

Brock, Misty, and Pikachu smell something wonderful in the air. Brock follows

his nose to a perfume shop where he goes ga-ga over all the cute girls inside.

Ash is more than annoyed but finds that Misty and Pikachu have entered the

perfume shop in order to smell some of the fragrances. Ash enters telling Misty

not to buy the perfume, as it is a waste of money. The salespeople take offense

and the store manager pops out, demanding to know why Ash believes she is

ripping people off. Ash explains that perfumes only serve to make "guys into

zombies," like Brock is. The store manager berates Ash, and the salespeople

kick him out. He is just fine with that and storms over to the gym. However, the

gym trainers (who are all girls) won’t let him in, because they heard he doesn’t

like perfume, which they manufactured right at the gym. He is promptly

stamped with a big red X on his face and kicked out. Meanwhile, Team Rocket

attempts to sneak into the gym to steal the secret perfume formula. That way

they can sell it and get rich quick. However, all they find is a Gloom: a grass

pokémon that supposedly smells bad. James calls out Koffing to attack, so

Gloom releases its horrible smell affecting everyone (except Meowth who

doesn’t have a nose). Suddenly, all three are knocked out and stamped with

big X’s. The gym trainers tie Team Rocket up to a tree for trying to steal their

perfume. Ash finds them and gets conned into releasing them so that they can

help him get into the gym. They dress him up as a girl and teach Ash the proper

ways of girlhood, although Ash forgets his manners every now and then. So

now, "Ashley" along with Mother Jesse and Father James (with a pot-belly

Meowth) enter the gym and enroll Ashley into the program. Ash sees that many

of the gym trainers were the salespeople from the perfume store, but his

disguise fools him. Meanwhile, Team Rocket takes off to steal the secret

perfume. Jesse also plans to leave behind a blaster-bomb to exact revenge at

the gym for stamping her beautiful face. Elsewhere, "Ashley" is being

introduced to everyone, but Ash finds himself confronting not only Misty,

Brock, and Pikachu, but also Erika the gym leader who is the perfume store

manager. Several plant pokémon are with them, including Gloom. Misty asks

Erika why the Gloom doesn’t smell bad, and Erika explains that it only emits its

bad smell when it feels frighten. This Gloom rescued Erika from a Grimer a long

time ago, and so they have been best friends ever since. Pikachu eventually

reveals that Ashley is Ash, and so Ash challenges Erika. She has to accept and

sends out Tangela who easily defeats Ash’s Bulbasaur. However, Charmander

is able to knock out Erika’s Weepinbell. Finally, Erika brings out her Gloom,

saying that Ash will never win since he has no empathy with his pokémon like

her with her Gloom. It defeats Charmander, so Pikachu volunteers to try and

fight for Ash. Suddenly, Team Rocket interrupts with their motto, but their

motto is interrupted by Meowth’s premature detonation of the blaster-bomb,

which causes them to blast off with the secret perfume. The explosion,

however, set the gym on fire, and the girl gym trainers set to work putting out

the fire. Ash’s Squirtle and Misty’s Staryu and Starmie aid with water gun, while

Brock’s Geodude attempts to stamp out the flames with dirt. Erika realizes that

Gloom isn’t with them, and Ash runs in to save it. He finds the Gloom scared

and trapped behind some flaming debris. Because it is scared, Ash has to hold

his breath to get through the bad smell and save the Gloom. As he gets to the

Gloom, he can’t hold his breath longer and has to breathe but finds the air okay

(though it must be smoky from the fire). He remembers Erika’s explanation and

is thus able to save Gloom. The next day, in front of a badly burnt Celadon City

gym, Erika gives Ash a Rainbow Badge, declaring that he deserved it after his

heroic rescue of Gloom. Gloom agrees and so Ash accepts. Ash laments over

Team Rocket getting away with the perfume, but Erika consoles him saying

that all they stole was one ingredient of the secret perfume. It was ode of

Gloom. And so Team Rocket gets their just desserts (again).