Poké Ball Peril – Pokémon Season 2, Episode 3

Plot episodeAsh receives the GS BallBrock leaves

Poké Ball Peril is the 3rd episode of Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands, the second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 83rd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 85, Bulbapedia code EP083). It first aired in Japan on 11 February 1999 and in the United States on 15 January 2000. It falls within the season’s Pallet Town & the GS Ball errand stretch (EP81–EP83).

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

Synopsis

Our heroes are walking around Valencia Island looking for Professor Ivy’s lab, when they realise no one actually knows where it is, they then come across a tropical looking Pokémon Center that is operated by a Nurse Joy, she tells them how they get to Professor Ivy’s lab.

Ash and friends arrive shortly after at Ivy’s lab which initially appears desserted before a couple of her assistants pop open a trapdoor and startle them, asking them who they are and what they’re doing there. Ash and co explain their task, and the assistants tell them that the Professor is in the bay working with the Pokemon, before taking them to her. As they arrive in the bay the heroes are setupon by a Gyarados that emerges from the water, but it turns out Professor Ivy was just training it, and it wasn’t really going to attack them.

Professor Ivy comes over and introduces herself before taking the group back to her lab and showing them the Poké Ball, a golden and silver ball which appears to have the letters G S inscribed on it. Ivy then proceeds to tell Ash and co that they’ve tried EVERYTHING to open it, but they can’t, and she’s run out of ideas so she wants them to take it to Professor Oak to see if he can uncover the balls secrets.

Now in possesion of the “GS Ball” Ash calls Oak and tells him that he has it, Oak is surprised to see Ash has already made it there as he was unaware of the Blimp situation in the previous episode. Ivy joins the call and talks to Oak before Ash interrupts, Oak is excited to see this mysterious Poké Ball for himself. Meanwhile Team Rocket are assessing the ruins of the blimp and decide that because Ash and co are on a round-trip they’ll rebuild the blimp, in order to try and steal Pikachu again on the way back, so they set about with repair work.

Ash and friends accompany Professor Ivy on a tour of her rather extensive Pokemon facility and encounter lots of different species of Pokemon, especially at feeding time. All of the Pokemon are slightly different looking to the ones that Ash and co are used to seeing, Ivy explains that this is because the conditions on Valencia Island are much different to those on the Kanto mainland, resulting in variations in the Pokemon’s mannerisms and appearances when compared, Ivy then tells Brock that not only does she make all of the food for the Pokemon; a different type for each different species, but she also bred all the Pokemon on the island, Brock is captivated by this. Just then Ivy’s assistants spot a Butterfree who seems sick, and hasn’t eaten in days despite them trying lots of different recipes. Brock starts eating a piece of the food they’re giving to Butterfree and then runs off into the woods and starts milling some stuff to make the food taste nicer, he adds the flavour to the food and the Butterfree immediately begins eating. Brock learned that Butterfree like sweet stuff in their food so he mushed up some berries for them, it’s assumed he learned this from his exposure to Ash’s butterfree. Ivy and her assistants are very impressed with Brock’s knowledge.

Later on the gang arrive at Ivy and her assistants house which is a complete dump, it seems they are so wrapped up in their research that they haven’t tidied the place in ages. This sends Brock into overdrive who frantically begins washing up, vacuuming and polishing, he even cooks dinner while he does it all, quickly presenting an impressive meal and a shiny house. Everyone digs into the meal, Ash and friends then retire for the evening. The Professor and her assistants however are in the meantime monitoring the behaviour of some Vileplume outside as they’re doing some research about their nocturnal habits, Brock arrives to offer them a midnight snack and Ivy explains that the Vileplume come out at night to spread pollen to prevent other Pokemon coming into their territory. At this point a Raticate wanders in and is quickly rendered unable to breathe by the pollen, Ivy goes to retrieve the Raticate and is also badly affected by the Pollen, she instructs Brock to save the Raticate. Ivy and Raticate end up in the Pokemon Center, where Nurse Joy declares that the Raticate will be OK because Ivy acted so quickly.

Ash and Misty say goodbye to Professor Ivy and realise Brock isn’t there, they then see him charging about fixing things at Ivy’s Lab. Ivy declares that Brock has decided to stay there with them. Brock tells Ash and Misty that Ivy and her assistants need him a lot more than they do.

Ivy and her assistants, Brock and his Pokemon wave goodbye to Ash, Misty and Pikachu. Ash and Misty arrive back to the airport as they still have the return tickets, where once more they are ushered onto a blimp, this ones a little more solid looking. As Ash and Misty are waiting for food and service, Jessie and James reveal that it is infact them again and cage Misty and Ash, shortly after they realise that Brock is missing and begin to insinuate that Ash and Misty are “lovebirds”. This winds up both Ash and Misty, Ash commands Pikachu to use ThunderBolt, but Team Rocket quickly advise that using it will detonate the gas and destroy the blimp and everyone in it. Jigglypuff then appears and bursts into song, as everyone is put to sleep Team Rocket are sucked out of the emergency door, parachuting to the ground along with Jigglypuff. Ash and Misty are still onboard the blimp, asleep and in a cage, where is the unpiloted blimp now heading? who knows.

Major Events

• Professor Ivy debuts
• Ash receives the GS Ball
• Brock leaves the group to become Ivy’s assistant
• Orange Islands colour variants of Butterfree, Vileplume, Raticate, Nidoran, Paras and Weepinbell
• The dub title card misspells it Pokéball Peril

Trivia

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

Changes in the English Dub

• James jokes about “flight insurance”
• Professor Oak first refers to Ivy as a man (dub error)

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