Showdown at the Po-ké Corral – Pokémon Season 1, Episode 65

Plot episodeMewtwo preludeTeam Rocket HQ destroyed

Showdown at the Po-ké Corral is the 65th episode of Pokémon: Indigo League, the first season of the Pokémon anime, and the 65th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 67, Bulbapedia code EP065). It first aired in Japan on 8 October 1998 and in the United States on 30 September 1999. It falls within the season’s Christmas, Mewtwo & the road to Indigo stretch (EP64–EP73).

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Ash is rudely awoken from a dream about becoming a Pokemon master by Mr. Mime and his vacuum. It becomes very apparent that Mimey only listens to Ash’s mom, and Ash and friends set off to visit Professor Oak. Jessie and James arrive at Team Rockets fabulous headquarters just in time to witness it exploding, and see a mysterious Pokemon shooting off into the sky. Giovanni survives the explosion and his chopper arrives to pick him up, he tells them to go and do their jobs. he then leaves in a hurry.

Ash and co arrive at Oak’s lab, and he’s quite excited to see Togepi. It just so happens that they turned up on the same day as Gary, who as ever starts taunting Ash, Professor Oak asks why pallets top two trainers (news to both Gary and Ash) can’t just get along and suggests they could actually learn from each other. Oak also reveals that of the four trainers who left Pallet, the other two started well but didn’t have the skill, and Gary has 10 badges, and Ash 8 at this point.

Professor Oak tells Ash and gang that the Pokemon League meeting will take place atop the Indigo Plateau in exactly two months. Meanwhile Team Rocket, disguised as news reporters arrive at Ash’s house looking for him, but they’re run out of town by Mimey.

Gary taunts Ash about his Krabby, and the fact that Ash doesn’t rotate his Pokemon to level them all up. Gary gives a small amount of legit advice while still taunting him and just then Professor Oak scans their Pokedex’s revealing that Gary has seen 60 different Pokemon and Ash has seen over 100, but Gary has captured many more. They all head to the lab to see all the different Pokemon that Gary has caught, and inside there appears to be thousands of Pokéballs. Gary has captured more than 200 Pokemon, even though many are duplicates. As the group discuss different techniques and methods of being a Pokemon Trainer Jessie and James are trying to break into the lab from the back but get attacked by Beedrill and blocked in by Snorlax.

Professor Oak explains what he does each day, checking all the Pokemon are OK and then letting them out of their balls to play, feeding them all and so on. In the afternoons he then does his research, in the early evening he returns the Pokemon to their balls for sleep.

The group continues its tour of Oak’s lab and facility, while Jessie, James and Meowth try to get there by following another route, disturbing a vast amount of rock and ground type Pokemon as they go and getting chased away. Ash and Gary vow to make their Pokemon the best they can be and decide to battle as practice before the Pokemon league, but theres an explosion from the electric Pokemon reserve and the whole group rushes over to investigate. It turns out Team Rocket have been blown up by a load of Electrode, Ash confronts them and they make clear that they’re here to steal Pikachu. Gary and Prof. Oak are more concerned about the fact that Meowth can talk than anything else, a battle is about to start between Team Rocket and Ash and Gary, but a herd of Tauros (Ash’s Tauros from the safari zone) charges the fence and sends them blasting off.

Gary says he’s going to head on home, and says they can have their battle at the Pokemon League. Ash now has two months to train for the battles ahead at the Indigo Plateau.

Major Events

• — Mewtwo destroys Team Rocket HQ (prelude 3)
• League in two months
• Dub finally reveals the 30 Tauros
• Gary has 200+ Pokémon
• Oak meets Team Rocket. Debut: Doduo. ED reverts to ニャースのうた (EP065–EP068). Lecture: Electrode.

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Doduo#0084 · EP065

Trivia

• The English title plays on the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
• The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Kanto storyline.
• The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Muk in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Slowbro in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• “C.F.S. — Chronic Failure Syndrome” joke added
• Dub ending: Pikachu’s Jukebox — Viridian City
• The first episode with Pikachu’s Vacation music; the dub swaps the opening bars of Team Rocket Forever for the motto theme
• The Japanese ending reverts to Nyarth no Uta (EP065–EP068)

Part of our Pokémon: Indigo League guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.