Showdown in Pewter City – EP005

Last time: Ash’s stubbornness emerged and he was rewarded with a Butterfree. Life isn’t fair. 

The episode begins with Team Rocket doing their motto…to nobody. They just stand there performing aloud as poor Meowth digs one of their classic pitfall traps. Team Rocket then falls down their own trap. I love that they felt the need to write Team Rocket out of the episode early. Like the fact that an episode without them even this early in the series would be a plot hole of some sort.

“I know Ash wanted to battle a gym in Pewter but WHAT WERE TEAM ROCKET DOING?”

What way to sort a potential plot hole than having them fall in a literal hole?

It is also revealed that there are many other Nurse Joys in the world. The fact that all the Nurse Joys are sisters is probably something one shouldn’t ponder for too long. Fun fact: Joy is the family surname. It’s not just a cruel mother calling all her children the same name.

Ash learns humility in this episode – he gets utterly obliterated by Brock. In fairness Ash was doomed from the start – a team of Pikachu, Butterfree and Pidgeotto doesn’t stand much of a chance against Brock’s Onix and Geodude. That doesn’t stop Ash from trying. It doesn’t stop him from failing either. Anyone who played Pokémon Yellow will feel Ash’s type disadvantage pain. 

I do always like when the show leans into ways of training other than just battling. It’s obviously something the games could never really do, but Ash running on a mill to supercharge his Pikachu is fun stuff. Feels a small bit like cheating but we’ll let him have it.

The other, considerably more poignant, arc running through this episode is introducing Brock and giving him a tonne of character development up front. Underneath that gruff exterior is a loving, caring brother – more in line with the Brock we come to know over the series and the Brock that basically stops Ash from starving to death at some stage on his quest to be a Pokémon Master.

Brock here though is still angry that his father abandoned him and his family. While it would be easy for the show to present Brock’s father Flint as a character worthy of scorn, they opt to deepen him instead – people are rarely one dimensional after all. Flint abandoned his family to pursue his dream and failed. Too embarrassed to face his family with the guilt of not only leaving them but also doing so in vain, Flint watched from afar instead.

But Flint redeems himself, finally stepping up to accept his responsibilities but also enabling Brock to pursue his own dream of being a great Pokémon breeder. This is all good stuff!

Oh and Ash won his first badge – but who cares about that over emotional family drama.

Stray Observations 

 – Who’s that Pokémon? It’s Onix! That was onixpected. Heh.

– I love how Pikachu knows exactly what’s coming the first time he fights Onix and wants absolutely no part of it.

– Ash has a pretty long history of winning him Gym badges by fluke or pity. That was his first as Brock just handed him the Boulder Badge after Ash refused to win by sprinkler induced cheating.