Shell Shock – Pokémon Season 2, Episode 9

Filler / stand-alone episodeKabuto fossils

Shell Shock is the 9th episode of Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands, the second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 89th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 91, Bulbapedia code EP089). It first aired in Japan on 25 March 1999 and in the United States on 4 March 2000. It falls within the season’s Island-hopping stretch (EP86–EP92).

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

Synopsis

Our heroes are once more drifting toward another tropical adventure in the Orange Islands when two ships rush past aggressively, coming quite close to Lapras, Ash & friends. The group wonder why they were in such a hurry and follow them to the nearby Island they went to.

On the coast it seems the press are there and there’s a reporter doing a news report on something that’s happening at the island; an archaeological team is about to explore the island to try to uncover the Kabuto mystery. Ash and friends overhear and decide it could be interesting, so they follow them and find their camp, it’s there that they overhear the reporter stating talking about what has prompted this expedition; it’s an ancient kabuto fossil they discovered that was dislodged from its ancient resting place on the island and then drifted into the international spotlight.

Tracey explains what a major find this fossil is to Ash and Misty who didn’t immediately understand its significance, Ash checks out the Kabuto entry in his PokeDex, just then the leader of the expedition starts an interview with the reporter; it’s Nurse Joy, who explains that they are there to find out about the habitat of the ancient Kabuto as well as to do research into Kabuto oil, which is fabled to not only have fantastic health benefits but even to make people live forever. Ash and friends volunteer to Nurse Joy to help with the expedition. Team Rocket are offshore in their sub watching events unfold with their periscope.

As the expedition begins venturing deeper into the undergrowth of this uninhabited island the group is being followed by a strange figure in the shadows. Suddenly something startles the pair of Growlithe who are leading the expedition up the mountain path, and sure enough a giant boulder starts rolling toward the group. Ash tells Nurse Joy to use her Machoke who are part of the expedition to stop the boulder, the two super powered Machoke stop the boulder in its tracks and throw it off the side of the mountain.

Team Rocket meanwhile are also walking the mountain path but are much lower down the mountain and the groups are unaware of each other, unfortunately for them they’re just beneath the ledge that the Machoke threw the giant boulder off, it knocks James into a ravine but misses Jessie and Meowth. The main expedition finally reaches its destination; an isolated Bay on the islands desolate northern shore, where experts believe the recently discovered Kabuto fossil may have come from. They are still being stalked by a mysterious figure.

The expedition and it’s Pokémon begin digging for fossils on the bays shore, but again boulders begin to come at them from the ledges above, this time a dozen or more! Nurse Joy commands her Rhydon to horn drill some of the rocks to stop them and crisis is again averted. Misty suggests that the ‘accidents’ that keep happening might not necessarily be accidents and just then Pikachu spots a mysterious figure running off and gives chase, closely followed by Ash.

Ash catches the mysterious figure who turns out to be a tall, fairly old man who warns he and Pikachu to leave the island before it’s too late. Tracey, Nurse Joy, Misty and the reporter all then arrive, he warns them to get off the island too and admits that it was he who sent the boulders at them both times. The old man goes on to state that he was trying to do them a favour by getting them to leave before it’s too late, needless to say the group didn’t appreciate the nature of his favours but they decide to hear him out anyway; he goes on to tell of an ancient prophecy which goes as below:-

“When the scavengers arrive the moon will glow an angry red, the land itself will vanish and be swallowed by the sea.” Nurse Joy says she isn’t here to hurt anything they just want to study the fossils, but the man insists they need to leave to avert great danger. Just then another member of Nurse Joy’s expedition runs up shouting that they found another Kabuto fossil, the group head back to the isolated bay and inside a cave where it’s confirmed to be a genuine Kabuto fossil. It soon becomes apparent that the Cave on the shore has got walls completely made of Kabuto fossils.

One of the expedition guys is about to go get Rhydon to start drilling, the old man warns them again that this will cause grave danger when suddenly the cave begins to crumble and is filled with smoke, as the expedition scramble to safety Team Rocket make their entrance and state that they’re going to steal all of the Kabuto fossils, the old man warns them of the danger it will cause but they ignore him and throw a bomb at him. This bomb is passed around until it lands with Ash who stands there hesitating for a moment before throwing the bomb in the cave, it explodes and sends lots of ancient Kabuto fossils crashing down. Team Rocket grab a massive amount of Kabuto fossils in a net and fly off in their balloon. The moon begins to glow an angry red, and the ancient Kabuto fossils start to come to life; the ones in the cave and the ones in the net attached to Team Rockets balloon.

The Kabuto begin a rampage, bursting Team Rockets balloon, eating the reporters videocamera and all of its footage and driving the expedition out of the cave. Nurse Joy realises that the prophecy must be true and that they do indeed now need to get off the island urgently. It seems that the entire island built up around the fossilised Kabuto, they were infact holding it together, but now that they are awakened by the red moon, the island is beginning to crumble. The old man goes on to quote another part of the prophecy:

“When the sea comes to swallow you, flee to the forest, build rafts and save yourselves”

The whole expedition flee to the forest and begin using all their means to build rafts from the trees there. The sea begins to swallow the island and the rafts are built just in time. Ash and Misty send out their water Pokémon to pull the raft out to sea. The group escape just in time to see the entire island crash beneath the waves.

Nurse Joy and the rest of the expedition realise that the old man, and the prophecy he told them of were right and true all along and are regretful of their actions. Nurse Joy and even the reporter apologise to the old man, the reporter even promising that its best that the world never learns what went on there. The Kabuto swim off in the ocean, looking for a new home where they can rest in peace undisturbed until they come alive again.

Major Events

• Kabuto fossils wake under a blood-red moon and sink Fukuhara Island No. 4
• The only time a fossil Pokémon is shown in a dormant form
• Aired in the US after EP090–EP092

Trivia

• The screenplay is by Shinzō Fujita.
• This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Orange Islands story.
• The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Kabuto in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Ponyta in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• A prophecy about building rafts added

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