Pallet Party Panic – Pokémon Season 2, Episode 1

Plot episodePidgeotto evolves & is releasedNew opening: The Rivals

Pallet Party Panic is the 1st episode of Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands, the second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 81st episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 83, Bulbapedia code EP081). It first aired in Japan on 28 January 1999 and in the United States on 4 December 1999. It falls within the season’s Pallet Town & the GS Ball errand stretch (EP81–EP83).

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

Synopsis

Ash and friends return to Pallet Town to find a party being thrown to celebrate Ash’s Top 16 placing in the Indigo Plateau Pokemon League Tournament. The party is hosted by Professor Oak at his lab. The festivities begin and after a speech its time to eat, Misty suggests everyone let their Pokemon out with the exception of Charizard who is a bit of a danger to the party.

Meanwhile Team Rocket are at the party undercover as food vendors, Ash orders some food from them which they sabotage with extra hot sauce, Ash returns to his friends and Pokemon and Brock and Squirtle are the first to dig in, both appearing to have had their mouths incinerated by the food, after Staryu cools them both off a bit with its water gun Ash laughs at how sensitive they are to spice and takes a big, complacement bite of his own before himself dancing around with fire coming out of his mouth. As the chaos continues Team Rocket take the oppurtunity to grab Pikachu and return to their stand, which happens to be one of their hot air balloons in disguise. The balloon starts to make its escape, Squirtle is unable to hit it’s watergun attack because the balloon is too far out, Ash’s Pidgeotto bursts the balloon but Meowth activates a secondary balloon as Arbok brings down Pidgeotto with it’s poison sting, Pidgeotto comes crashing toward the ground but Ash manages to catch it just in time. Team Rocket continue to throw bombs from their balloon as they escape.

Now running out of options Ash decides to take a chance on Charizard, sending him out and ordering him to attack Team Rocket, Charizard however has other ideas and heads straight for the nearest food table, just as he gets there the food is destroyed by a bomb thrown by Team Rocket, a furious Charizard takes flight and heads right at them, Team Rocket throw out a few more bombs which Charizard fires straight back at them, destroying the balloon and sending them blasting off before rescuing Pikachu in mid air and returning to the ground where it celebrates by using it’s flamethrower on Ash to demonstrate it’s power to the other party guests.

Team Rocket find themselves stuck in a tree surrounded by Pidgey and Pidgeotto. Jessie tries to take a look above the forest’s canopy to work out where they are but is attacked by a flock of Spearow being led by a Fearow. At the same time back at Oak’s Lab, the Professor has just finished treating Pidgeotto’s injuries. While Ash blames himself for Pidgeotto getting hurt, Pidgeotto rubs against him to show that it doesn’t blame him. It’s just after this point that Professor Oak makes a new request of Ash and his friends; travel to Valencia Island in the Orange Archipelago and seek out Professor Ivy, from whom they should pick up a special type of Poké Ball, said Poké Ball cannot be transported by normal means and Gary isn’t available to go and collect it either. Brock and Misty seem excited to see Valencia Island’s beaches, Ash is more fixated on what might be inside the Pokéball and they set off on Oak’s Errand.

The group find the forest to be strangely quiet, until Pikachu notices a giant flock of Spearow led by a Fearow heading straight for them, the Fearow manages to grab Ash and Pikachu and starts to fly off. Ash instructs Pikachu to hit the Fearow with a ThunderShock, which is effective, the Fearow dropping the two plumetting down int othe forest, where they just happen to land in the same tree that Team Rocket are still stuck in. Jessie tells Ash about the situation and Ash notices the family of Pidgey and Pidgeotto in the tree, he then frees Team Rocket from the tree by jumping on the branches, dropping them to the ground shortly before being chased off by the Spearow.

Misty and Brock arrive as Ash is trying to think of a way to help the Pidgey and Pidgeotto who are scared of the more aggressive Spearow and moreso the Fearow. Ash tells them all to fly away, but they’re too scared so he sends out his own Pidgeotto to lead them, once airborne however the group is spotted by Fearow and it’s Spearow, Ash’s Pidgeotto tries to battle the Fearow but is knocked to the ground quite quickly by Fearows powerful tackle. Ash again manages to catch his injured Pidgeotto, as the two watch helplessly as Fearow begins attacking the Pidgey/Pidgeotto again.

Ash’s Pidgeotto lets out a cry before evolving into Pidgeot, Pidgeot gestures for Ash to get aboard so they can pursue the Fearow together, Pikachu joins them and they give chase, quickly catching up to Fearow. Pidgeot knocks Fearow around with a combination of Gust attacks before following up with a Quick attack, while the Fearow is dazed Pikachu takes the oppurtunity to jump onto it and hit it with a Thunderbolt. The Fearow starts to fall to the ground briefly, Pikachu returns to Ash and Ash makes an attempt to catch Fearow with a Pokéball, the attempt fails when Fearow defiantly bats the ball away with it’s wing and gets ready to attack again but just as it does the Pidgey and Pidgeotto family return, inspired by Ash’s Pidgeot and together they attack the Fearow who, outnumbered badly has no choice but to fly away.

Ash makes the difficult decision to leave Pidgeot with the Pidgey and Pidgeotto family, to protect them should Fearow decide to return. Pidgeot and Ash say their goodbyes before Pidgeot leads it’s feathered friends off into the sunset. Team Rocket are still at this point being chased by the group of Spearow, and Ash and friends continue their journey to Valencia Island.

Major Events

• Pallet Town party for Ash’s Top 16 finish
• Professor Oak sends Ash to fetch the GS Ball from Professor Ivy
• Gary has already left on a new journey
• The Spearow from EP001 returns as a Fearow
• Pidgeotto evolves into Pidgeot and is released to guard a Pidgey flock
• New Japanese opening The Rivals
• First episode to show every Pokémon on the group’s teams
• Dub broadcast still opens with Pokémon Theme (the DVD uses Pokémon World)

Captures and evolutions

• Pidgeotto → Pidgeot#0018 · Ash

Trivia

• The screenplay is by Hideki Sonoda.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Orange Islands storyline.
• The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Pidgey in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Pidgeot in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• Pidgeot’s release softened with “for a while” / “see you soon”
• The Kids’ WB! broadcast still opened with Pokémon Theme; VIZ’s DVD uses Pokémon World

Part of our Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.