Wherefore Art Thou, Pokémon? – Pokémon Season 2, Episode 20

Filler / stand-alone episodeNidoran evolvePokémon Contests first mentioned

Wherefore Art Thou, Pokémon? is the 20th episode of Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands, the second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 100th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 102, Bulbapedia code EP100). It first aired in Japan on 10 June 1999 and in the United States on 22 April 2000. It falls within the season’s Prima & the road to Trovita stretch (EP99–EP102).

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

Synopsis

We find our heroes passing through a quaint little village as they head toward their next Orange League gym. Just then they spot a young girl running around the old looking streets shouting “Maria! Maria!”, the girl asks if Ash and co have seen her but they don’t know who Maria is – she explains that its her female Nidoran and that it’s been running away a lot lately. Ash and friends agree to help find the girls Nidoran.

As the search continues Pikachu doesn’t manage to find Maria but does come across a tree covered in Pink ripe berries, meanwhile Ash and Misty spot a kid running around shouting “Tony! Tony!” and he explains that he’s lost his male Nidoran whose name is Tony, just then the girl runs up with Tracey and the boy accuses her of stealing his Nidoran and they begin to argue and fight with sticks. Marill then approaches and indicates that it’s found something, the boy and girl run off into the undergrowth and find their Nidoran, Tony and Maria together, and they look very friendly… despite both Nidoran owners clearly finding the scene rather cute they then quickly snap into rival mode and snatch up their respective Nidorans and walk away, both of their Nidoran looking most distressed at being seperated.

Later on Ash and friends are eating at a local restaurant and the local chef tells them theres lots of Pokémon trainers in Trovita and they’re all friends, Ash tells the chef about the two they met and how they definitely weren’t friends. The Chef goes on to say that their names are Ralph and Emily, and not only grown up together, but they’ve always ended up in competition with one another, infact in this years Pokémon competition in Trovita they tied for first place! The Chef even knew that it was love at first sight for their Nidoran, but because of Ralph and Emily’s stubborn natures they are destined to never be together.

Ash and his friends are walking through the streets once more wishing they could do something to help the situation, when they spot Tony, Ralph’s Nidoran running by, it then starts talking sweet talk to Emily’s Nidoran which is on a balcony above it. Emily appears, pours water on Tony from the balcony and then goes inside. Ralph appears and brings Tony in, and the friends realise that Emily and Ralph are actually next door neighbours.

Misty vows to help the two Nidoran be together, even though as Ash kindly points out it’s none of their business. Team Rocket are watching the whole situation unfold from the bushes. Later on Misty is writing two identical love letters, one to Emily and one to Ralph, pretending they are from each other. Jessie is outside hatching a plan of her own by moonlight, saying that they will convince the two Nidoran that the only way they can be together is if they come with them, Jessie tells James and Meowth about all her love problems in the past and how nobody will love her just because shes mean and nasty and evil.

Meowth appears at Emily’s door and communicates with Maria the female Nidoran through the glass, telling it what it has to do if it wants to be with its boyfriend forever, he goes and does the same with Tony. Meowth returns unsuccesful to Jessie and James, both Nidoran answered that although they are in love they can’t disobey and run away from their masters.

Ash and friends watch to see Ralph and Emily meet after they recieved the love letters Misty wrote, and the gifts she sent. It doesn’t go as well as Misty thought and the two begin hitting each other with sticks once more.

Just then a newlywed bride and groom appear and grab Tony & Maria who are in their carriers, it is of course Team Rocket in disguise. A giant wedding cake then appears and Team Rocket’s balloon emerges from within it, they begin departing with Ralph and Emily’s Nidoran. Misty tells them both off and said it only happened because they were fighting. Ash and Tracey find a trail of cans which dropped from Team Rockets wedding themed balloon, and it does of course lead straight to Team Rocket who are in the woods dressing up the Nidoran to get them looking their best for the boss.

Ash and co confront Team Rocket, Jessie and James send their Pokémon to attack but Ralph and Emily’s Nidoran’ manage to defeat Arbok, Weezing and Victreebel against all odds. Team Rocket return to their balloon and instead use a suction device to try and steal the Pokémon, but are blasted off quickly by Pikachu and Staryu.

Misty continues to tell off Ralph and Emily, neither of them want to lose their Nidoran, but Tracey tells them they don’t have to and because they are next door neighbours they could just build a little house in the middle for their Nidoran. Ralph and Emily agree, and seem to be getting on a lot better. They thank our heroes for the help and wave them goodbye.

Major Events

• A Romeo and Juliet story between feuding Trainers
• Emily’s Nidoran♀ evolves into Nidorina and Ralph’s Nidoran♂ into Nidorino
• First mention of Pokémon Contests
• First Japanese Who’s That Pokémon? with two species
• The dub narrator claims Ash beat Prima

Captures and evolutions

• Nidoran♀ → Nidorina#0030 · Emily
• Nidoran♂ → Nidorino#0033 · Ralph

Trivia

• The English title plays on Romeo and Juliet; the comma shows the writers took "wherefore" to mean "where".
• The screenplay is by Yukiyoshi Ōhashi.
• 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 Nidoran♀ & Nidoran♂ in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Venonat in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• The English word “Monster” erased from a vendor’s sign
• John and Mary renamed Tony and Maria; around 70–80% of the script rewritten
• The narrator claims Ash defeated Prima

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