The Wacky Watcher – Pokémon Season 2, Episode 29

Filler / stand-alone episodeMagikarp evolves into Gyarados

The Wacky Watcher is the 29th episode of Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands, the second season of the Pokémon anime, and the 109th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 111, Bulbapedia code EP109). It first aired in Japan on 19 August 1999 and in the United States on 16 September 2000. It falls within the season’s The last badge & the Winner’s Cup stretch (EP106–EP112).

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

Synopsis

After an exciting battle at the Kumquat gym, Ash earned his fourth and final Orange League badge. Now our friends are making their way to the Orange League competition. Tracey takes a bottle full of seawater for Pokémon research purposes and that’s not elaborated on. Something huge passes beneath the group, and a giant submarine emerges from the water in front of them.

A guy pops out of the top of the sub and tells the group they’re just in time to see one of the most amazing scenes that they may see, on the sea. The sea starts rocking aggressively and the man states “They’re here, they’re here!” just then a huge school of Magikarp turn up and start splashing about in the water, each of them have a coloured band on the tail. The man goes on to say that he knows exactly where the Magikarp are headed, he goes back into the sub and speeds off. Tracey’s guidebook states that the island they might be going to is the nearby Rind Island, which is uninhabited.

When the group arrive they spot lots of Magikarp swimming upstream, and just then the guy from the sub emerges and starts running toward them and handing them boxes of stuff to carry, telling the group to follow him (without any explanation of why). Misty asks who he is and he tells them he is Quincy T. Quackenpoker, who explains that he is a Pokémon watcher who has dedicated his life to the study of Magikarp, turns out he is pretty famous and that Tracey, as a Pokémon watcher himself recognises his name.

The group continue exploring the island, and when they stop for a moment Dr. Quackenpoker reveals that it was him who put the bands on the Magikarps tails and that the different coloured bands indicate how long ago the Magikarp first left this island; A red band indicates it first left 1 year ago, blue 2 years ago, and yellow 3 years ago and that for some reason, no matter how far away the Magikarp; they always return to this Island, the place of their birth once a year and he’s studying to try and find out why. As the group stop to talk, Team Rocket are watching from a tree above, plotting to steal all the Magikarp in order to train them to evolve into Gyarados and then become the unstoppable Pokémon Masters of the world! Meanwhile Ash and gang are watching the Magikarp attempt to swim up a waterfall, and Tracey concludes that the Magikarp must be out at sea all year trying to become strong enough swimmers to swim up the waterfall, Dr. Quackenpoker confirms the theory but states that around 50% of the Magikarp don’t put up a very good showing and still can’t make it up the waterfall. Team Rocket are waiting at the top of the fall and planning to catch the Magikarp in nets, as they’re unable to afford Pokéballs. James gets a big one but it wriggles free and despite all three of Team Rocket trying to stop it it returns to the water, dragging Team Rocket with it.

Ash thinks he overhears a scream and suggests they go check if someone is in trouble, but Dr. Quackenpoker says they’ll be the ones who are in trouble if he doesn’t get to where the Magikarp are going in time to watch them evolve and they continue up the hill until they find a lake filled with Magikarp, the group stop to eat at the side of the lake and wait to see if some of the Magikarp are going to evolve, Dr. Quackenpoker notices the excellent relationship between Ash and Pikachu and advises Misty that Togepi likes to be petted on its front spike. Later on the sun sets and the moon rises, Ash and Misty go to sleep and Tracey stays up talking to Dr. Quackenpoker about how and why the Magikarp are able to find their way back to the island, suspecting that they might jump out of the sea to see the direction of the sun and follow that.

In the moonlight, the Magikarp begin splashing around, waking up Ash and Misty, Quackenpoker states that he believes it’s because they can sense that something is about to happen; the group assume that means evolution but the waters begin to churn violently and a giant robotic Magikarp turns up and starts grabbing all of them. Team Rocket grab so many Magikarp that their sub begins to sink, so they start releasing some Magikarp to enable them to surface in front of Ash and friends + Dr. Quackenpoker. Team Rocket start throwing Magikarp out of their sub one by one, and Ash, Misty and Pikachu start catching them to break their falls, while Ash and Misty have their hands full Team Rocket use it as an opportunity to swipe Pikachu, Ash sends Bulbasaur to try and get him back but it fails.

Team Rocket have Pikachu captive in an electric-proof jar, but James has a giant Magikarp stuck on his head, Jessie and James begin trying to prize it off but Dr. Quackenpoker warns they’re more likely to pull Jame’s head off than actually succeed, Quackenpoker goes over and relaxes the Magikarp so that it releases its grip on James’ head, Ash uses the distraction to get Pikachu back, and Quackenpoker rescues the Magikarp that was on James’ head, it then begins to glow and dives beneath the water, the whole lake begins to glow and a whirlpool forms, sucking Team Rocket into it relentlessly before sending them blasting off. The Magikarp one by one evolve into Gyarados before our heroes eyes. Dr. Quackenpoker asks Tracey to count the Magikarp and Gyarados with the red and blue rings, the Gyarados and Magikarp start heading downstream and Tracey and Quakenpoker, closely followed by Ash and Misty give chase, while counting them all.

The Magikarp and Gyarados all return to the sea, Tracey confirms that 70% of the Magikarp that made it to the lake evolved, and he and Quakenpoker have made a significant discovery in the research of Magikarp evolution. And so as a new day dawns, our heroes have a new understanding and a new appreciation for the mysteries of Pokémon.

Major Events

• Quincy T. Quackenpoker and his Magikarp research
• Magikarp evolves into Gyarados

Captures and evolutions

• Magikarp → Gyarados#0130 · Quincy T. Quackenpoker’s

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 Magikarp in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Poliwag in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• Text on Tracey’s map and sketchbook erased
• Shot of Quackenpoker running at Tracey with a Magikarp cut
• Midorikawa becomes Dr. Quincy T. Quackenpoker with a Groucho Marx voice; the narrator’s Pummelo reference cut

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