Pikachu Re-Volts – Pokémon Season 2, Episode 6

Plot episodeButch & CassidyTogepi’s Metronome

Pikachu Re-Volts is the 6th episode of Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands, the second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 86th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 88, Bulbapedia code EP086). It first aired in Japan on 4 March 1999 and in the United States on 5 February 2000. It falls within the season’s Island-hopping stretch (EP86–EP92).

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

Synopsis

After his victory over the Mikan gym leader Ash is searching for his next challenge with the burning question of a true adventurer in his heart and on his lips “When are we gonna eat”? Just then Tracey spots Mandarin Island ahead, which looks more like a bunch of giant buildings floating in the ocean than a tropical island, and so Ash and friends set sail straight toward Mandarin Island. Little do they know however they’re being watched by Butch and Cassidy from Team Rocket. Ash and friends land on the pier and call Lapras into it’s Pokéball, all of a sudden they notice some trouble… a couple of Pokemon trainers being attacked by their own Pokemon.

Ash and Pikachu start running to investigate with Tracey and Misty just behind, suddenly Pikachu stops running and turns back, looking pretty angry and evil, Togepi jumps from Misty’s arms looking pretty angry and the two walk away from Ash and friends towards the other angry looking Pokemon (the ones which were attacking their trainers when they arrived). Pikachu shocks Ash and his friends knocking them to the ground but Ash gets back up and starts trying to approach Pikachu and Togepi, but is then attacked by Magnemites and a Voltorb. The Voltorb self destructs and once the smoke clears Pikachu and the other Pokemon are gone. The Mandarin Island Officer Jenny pulls up on her Motorcycle, Ash petitions her for help and Jenny explains that its been happening a lot lately, she has a Gastly with her and she said she suspects its a psychic attack affecting the Pokemon, because Ghosts are strong against Psychic types and Gastly doesn’t seem to be affected. Ash and his friends volunteer to help Jenny and Gastly find out whats causing the problem, because they’re sure it would lead them to Pikachu.

Meanwhile Jessie, James and Meowth are doing a bit of sightseeing in Mandarin Island when Meowth starts to run away, Jessie and James chase him and arrive at a strange facility with a huge satellite dish on top of it. Meowth goes through a small hatch and into the facility, Jessie and James squeeze through and follow, where they find Butch and Cassidy stood over them. After some rivalry and a comparison of the two duo’s different versions of the Team Rocket motto, Butch and Cassidy then reveal all the Pokemon they’ve stolen, as well as the Drowzee that they’ve been using to do it. Jessie and James try to send their Pokemon to attack, but Drowzee has already taken control of them all and Arbok, Lickitung, Weezing and Victreebel turn against them. Butch then reveals that the machine Drowzee is linked to amplifies it’s psychic power and transmits it via the satellite dish above the building.

Butch and Cassidy decide that Jessie and James know too much and send their own Pokémon to attack them, including their dear friend Meowth, they wake up a while later in a Pokemon Center with Ash and gang plus Officer Jenny and Gastly there with them. Jenny suspects Jessie and James might have something to do with the Pokémon disappearing and acting strangely but it soon becomes apparent that they are genuinely upset, having had their own Pokémon stolen, and even Meowth not being with them. Jenny, Ash and co petition the two to help them find the people who are doing this but Jessie declines saying she doesn’t want to blemish her perfect criminal record by helping the police, just as they are about to leave Ash blocks the door and emotionally tells them that they have to help or they can’t leave, Jessie and James agree to help just this once.

And so the plan begins, Jessie and James approach the facility via the front door, stating that they want to be friends and offering them a big cart of PokéBalls as a “peace offering”. Butch and Cassidy seem confused at their sudden change of heart and Jessie and James shove the cart of PokéBalls at them; Misty Tracey Ash and Jenny then emerge and Jenny tells Butch and Cassidy that they’re under arrest; Butch replies “Lets see if our Pokemon will agree”, Ash and co work out that it’s been Drowzee controlling the Pokémon all along, Gastly who is strong against Drowzee fires off an attack but Drowzee is strong enough to repel it. All of the Pokemon under Drowzee’s control then begin to aim their attacks at Ash and friends, Jenny, Jessie and James… Ash runs out straight into the path of the attacks and Jenny commands Gastly to save him, Gastly getting hit by a massive amount of combined attacks. Gastly continues to absorb the attacks from all of the posessed Pokemon except Pikachu, who Butch and Cassidy command to attack Ash, Ash taunts Pikachu and runs around the lab laughing dodging the attacks, he runs at all of the machinery that is powering Drowzee and Pikachu launches a thunderbolt at him, destroying the machinery and shocking Drowzee, this releases the psychic Pokémon’s grip on all the stolen Pokemon.

Butch and Cassidy are about to try and prevent the escape of all the Pokémon they caught and James uses Weezing’s smokescreen to slow them down, in the mean time Jenny uses Gastly to destroy the gate and frees the Pokémon. Everyone flees into the facilities front courtyard, but Butch and Cassidy aren’t done yet and appear standing above them, they specifically want to settle a score with Jessie and James and as a 2 on 2 battle is about to begin Ash steps in and joins forces with Jessie and James, making it 3v2; Butch and Cassidy are using the stronger than normal Drowzee that they bred themselves at the TR breeding center in Season 1. Ash immediately opens with a thunderbolt which Drowzee teleports away from, appearing next to and terrifying Pikachu, Jessie orders Arbok to attack Drowzee from behind but again it manages to evade the attack. James sends Weezing, Lickitung and Victreebel to attack Drowzee but it repels all three with a powerful mega punch. Butch instructs Drowzee to bounce it’s psychic waves off the satellite dish to re-establish control of all the Pokemon on the island. Ash and Pikachu run at them and Drowzee begins to use the Metronome, it looks as though Togepi is also doing the same if not a very similar attack. The facility explodes, Butch and Cassidy are arrested and carted off in a truck.

Back in the main town, outside the police station crowds of people have gathered to thank our heroes, Jessie and James for getting them their Pokemon back. Officer Jenny awards Ash with a certificate of distinguished achievevment and makes him an honorary citizen of Mandarin Island, Jenny states that she also has a special award for Jessie and James, but they are nowhere to be seen. Jessie and James are on a rooftop watching, Jessie vows that their job is to be bad and that they can’t imagine accepting a reward for doing something good and they renew their vow to steal Pikachu.

Ash and friends board Lapras once more and set sail once more.

Major Events

• Butch and Cassidy return with a Drowzee and an antenna that hypnotise Mandarin Island’s Pokémon
• Pikachu and Togepi turn against their Trainers
• Togepi’s Metronome revealed
• Jessie’s Lickitung appears for the first time since EP052
• The Botch name gag begins
• No blast-off

Trivia

• The English title plays on “revolts, plus volts”.
• The screenplay is by Atsuhiro Tomioka.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Orange Islands storyline.
• The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Drowzee in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Kangaskhan in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• An invented Ash–Cassidy grudge and Officer Jenny’s “honorary citizens” line added
• Type error: the dub claims Ghost beats Psychic
• Music added over the silent Metronome scene and Togepi’s echo removed

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