Meowth Rules! – Pokémon Season 2, Episode 16

Filler / stand-alone episodeMeowth can’t learn Pay Day

Meowth Rules! is the 16th episode of Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands, the second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 96th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 98, Bulbapedia code EP096). It first aired in Japan on 13 May 1999 and in the United States on 25 March 2000. It falls within the season’s Ghost ships, Meowth’s island & Scyther stretch (EP95–EP98).

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

Synopsis

Our heroes are continuing their journey through the Orange Islands as always, and as usual they’re being pursued by Team Rocket. Although Team Rocket have crashed their sub, and the pursuit is not going well. As Team Rocket squabble amongst themsleves they spot Ash and co in the distance aboard Lapras. Ash and friends notice something coming toward them, and Team Rocket emerge from the waves atop their Magikarp Sub, but just as they finish their motto their sub begins to sink, Ash sends out Squirtle to blast off Jessie and James with a watergun attack, Squirtle then goes up close and blasts off Meowth too.

Meanwhile on the Island they’ve landed on a group of people are worshipping the “Great Meowth of Bounty” next to a golden statue of a Meowth, just then Team Rocket’s Meowth crashes to the ground in the middle of the ceremony and is picked up by the worshippers and placed afront the greater golden statue. Two of the lead islanders greet Meowth and present him with offerings, Meowth speaks and the islanders are all amazed, because their prophecy doesn’t mention that the Meowth of Bounty can talk, they decide that because the Meowth of Bounty is a special creature that it probably can talk.

The worshippers bow down before the Pokémon they believe to be The Great Meowth of Bounty and continue to present him with offerings. Meowth continues to take full advantage of the islanders hospitality, but he kind of misses Jessie and James and just as he is atop a cliff thinking about them he spots Ash and co on the way toward the island and realises they could completely ruin his setup.

The Islanders spot the children and the Pikachu coming, but Meowth tells them they must not allow them to land on the island, the people agree and send out “The Meowth of Bounty Guard” who arrive in a giant golden Meowth statue to repel Ash and friends. But as Ash and friends are repelled, the islanders find Jessie and James washed up, Meowth denies knowing them and tells the islanders to get rid of Jessie and James, who are then promptly thrown into the sea. Meowth feels conflicted to have cast aside his own friends but feels as though he has to for his own happiness.

Jessie and James re-approach the grounds of worship and hide in the bushes, there they overhear that soon it’s time for the ceremony where the Great Meowth of Bounty must use Payday to bring riches to the islanders, Meowth is a bit worried about this since he hasn’t learned Pay day and tries to leave. He is grabbed by the giant golden Meowth which begins to shake him around in the hope that gold coins will come out, Meowth explains that he can’t use payday no matter how much they shake him.

The two islanders decide that the Great Meowth of Bounty may have just not used Payday for a long time, and that a few battles at the stadium might help it remember. A Nidoking is sent out to attack Meowth and after the “battle” the islanders see that still no coins have been produced, next an Onix is sent after him which gives him a bit of a beating. Jessie and James are watching from the audience in disguise as the Onix continues to attack Meowth, and they eventually decide to help. The Onix is smacked in the face by what appears to be a silver coin, and a load more silver coins start falling to the ground, but not because Meowth used payday, because Jessie and James are hiding in the corridors beneath the stadium throwing coins and bottle caps. Jessie and James decide Meowth would be happier there as a hero than as a loser with them and they leave the stadium.

Later on Meowth is back at the ceremony area, and the lead islanders ask him to stay behind and rule them, just then Meowth see’s James’ favourite bottle cap in the pile of coins that his “pay day” produced, and he realises his friends helped him. Meowth rushes after Jessie and James, who are hiding just around the corner from him, the worshippers then catch up to Meowth and he tells them he isn’t the great Meowth of Bounty and he misses his friends. Jessie and James emerge from behind the rock and are very happy to see that Meowth wants to return to them, they rescue Meowth from the worshippers on their sub and dive once more beneath the waves.

Ash and friends are still wondering why the giant Meowth chased them off the island, and continue their journey across the seas.

Major Events

• Meowth is worshipped as the Great Meowth of Bounty on Golden Island
• Meowth reveals he can’t learn Pay Day
• James’s bottle-cap collection first mentioned
• Oak’s Japanese lecture shows Kinesis, its only anime appearance

Trivia

• The English title plays on “Meowth rules — and literally rules Golden Island”.
• The screenplay is by Junki Takegami.
• 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 Meowth in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Magnemite in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• Ganmo becomes “meatballs”; Dogasu’s Backpack calls it “an objectively bad localization”
• The most replacement music of any Orange Islands episode

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