Bad to the Bone! – Pokémon Season 1, Episode 73

Plot episodeRoad to Indigo

Bad to the Bone! is the 73rd episode of Pokémon: Indigo League, the first season of the Pokémon anime, and the 73rd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 75, Bulbapedia code EP073). It first aired in Japan on 3 December 1998 and in the United States on 16 October 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

Even though Ash has tried to train for the Pokemon league competition, he still has a lot to learn so he and his friends have decided to get some last minute advice from Professor Oak. Brock explains that they genuinely did plan to train but they kept getting sidetracked, Ash asks the professor for some tips and Oak chastises him stating that if he’s not ready for the Pokemon League now he never will be, but he’ll tell him one thing, GO RIGHT NOW. Ash jumps to it, runs and gets his stuff and the friends wave goodbye to Ash’s mom, Mimey and Professor Oak, on the route to the Indigo Plateau and the Pokemon League!

As they’re trying to navigate the map and transversing some tall grass they come across a trainer named Otoshi who challenges them, he’s been training for the Pokemon League too and has been alone in the mountains for a long time actually training, he seeks one last battle to test his strength before he travels to the Indigo Plateau himself. Ash accepts Otoshi’s challenge, but Otoshi adds the condition that whoever loses must turn over all their badges to the winner. Ash starts to walk away, but after a few choice words from Otoshi Ash turns around and agrees to battle, sending out his Bulbasaur against Otoshi’s Marowak, the battle begins and it quickly becomes apparent that Otoshi’s Marowak is very skilled in battle, defeating Bulbasaur quickly. Ash sends Pikachu to take on Marowak next and avoids it’s Bone Club with its agility, he then defeats Marowak with an electric attack. Ash tells Otoshi to hand over the badges, but he says he hasn’t got any.

Otoshi breaks down to tears before telling Ash and friends the tale of how he and Marowak overcame many tough challenges to secure eight gym badges and how they were on the way to the Indigo Plateau when they were robbed, both he and Marowak had been very hungry and they spotted a pile of delicious fruit in the road, when they rushed over to eat it they fell down into a trap. It quickly becomes apparent that it was Team Rocket, and they stole all of his gym badges and fled. Ash and friends vow to help Otoshi get his badges back, despite running the risk of being late for the start of the Pokemon League.

James and Meowth meanwhile are in a nearby forest laughing to themselves about how easy it was to get eight gym badges, they decide to take another look at those beautiful badges, but can’t find them anywhere… they realise Jessie is nowhere to be seen, she’s stolen the badges off them and is on her way to enter the Pokemon League herself without them! Ash scouts the area with his Pidgeotto and it quickly leads Ash and friends to James and Meowth in the Team Rocket balloon, Pidgeotto pops it and sends them crashing to the ground. James and Meowth explain that they were robbed too but no one believes them, so the group makes them turn out their pockets and rifle through their posessions, finding that the gym badges are indeed not there.

Marowak starts going wild, Meowth interprets what it’s saying and it’s not good news for Otoshi, Marowak doesn’t want Otoshi to be his trainer anymore and only ever put up with the hard training and battles because it was dreaming of getting into the Pokemon league competition and now just a couple of days before the competition they lose all the badges and all the hard work was for nothin and its best that they say goodbye. Otoshi reaches out for Marowak who attacks his hand before walking away.

Ash and gang set off to find Jessie, as do James and Meowth. Jessie meanwhile is in disguise walking down a road when she spots another trainer on his way to the Pokemon League, she asks to look at his badges and also shows him her own, little does she know that James is watching her from the balloon and is pretty sure its her, as they have been dressing up in disguises together for a long time now, they bring the balloon quietly behind a clearing. Jessie makes the trainer look the other way and is about to steal his badges, when James throws a smoke bomb and interrupts her, they burst into their motto and Jessie’s true identity is revealed the trainer realises its Team Rocket and runs off. Jessie agrees to work with James and Meowth instead of go off on her own, as they can do more bad when working as a team than individually. Seconds later Otoshi arrrives with Ash and gang and he and Ash demand the badges back, of course Team Rocket aren’t going to give up without a fight and challenge them to a battle.

Marowak is walking through the woods when he reaches a clearing where there are lots of people doing their final preparations for the Pokemon league, triggering him to remember how he and Otoshi trained side by side and became strong together, with tears in his eyes Marowak decides to go back and find his trainer. Meanwhile Otoshi’s Doduo is losing the battle against Jessie’s Arbok and things aren’t looking good, Arbok defeating it with a wrap, Jessie is just about to steal Otoshi’s Doduo with a Pokéball and Marowak returns, knocks the ball flying and steps in to battle Arbok, quickly defeating Arbok with a Boneclub followed by a Bonemerang. James sends Weezing out and Pikachu shocks it, Arbok and James with a thunderbolt. Team Rocket try to escape in the balloon with the badges, but Marowak uses its Bonemerang to destroy the balloon and retrieve them.

Otoshi thanks Marowak for returning and retrieving the badges, asking him to fight by his side in the Pokemon League, Marowak happily accepts, Otoshi is handed his badges back by Misty and Ash and friends say goodbye. The Indigo Plateau is near, and Ash and co can see it in the distance.

Major Events

• Departure for Indigo Plateau
• Otoshi’s stolen badges
• James’s bottle-cap collection first seen. Debut: Marowak. Banned in South Korea. Lecture: Snorlax.

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Marowak#0105 · EP073

Trivia

• The screenplay is by Yukiyoshi Ōhashi.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Kanto storyline.
• The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Marowak in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Moltres in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• James’s Pokémon TCG card collection → glamour photos (one card painted)
• Saizō becomes Otoshi and loses his samurai speech
• “The League starts tomorrow” contradicts the next episode
• Dub ending: Pikachu’s Jukebox — Double Trouble

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