Spinarak Attack – Pokémon Season 3, Episode 7

Filler / stand-alone episodeSpinarak debutFirst Gen II music

Spinarak Attack is the 7th episode of Pokémon: The Johto Journeys, the third season of the Pokémon anime, and the 123rd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 125, Bulbapedia code EP123). It first aired in Japan on 25 November 1999 and in the United States on 11 November 2000. It falls within the season’s The road to Violet City stretch (EP122–EP129).

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

Synopsis

Today our friends are passing through Castelia City famed for it’s beautiful buildings and the exploits of a legendary thief. Ash and friends see a patrol car go speeding past and follow as they suspect trouble, Brock is then tripped up by something and a Pokémon descends from a web and scares Misty before Ash and the whole group are tied up a web generated by this Spinarak.

Meanwhile Team Rocket, dressed in some rather extravagant generic thieves attire are trying to follow in the footsteps of the Black Arachnid, the famous cat burgular of Castelia City. They break into a building and begin checking out the best items to steal, when someone approaches and asks what they’re doing. Meowth emulates the payday attack that the Black Arachnid’s Meowth once used (with a little help from James’ bottle cap collection) to scare the guy off. The group make their escape, leaving behind the bottle caps as evidence.

Officer Jenny is investigating the third break in this week and finds the bottle caps, herself suspecting it looks like payday and just then Ash, Misty and Brock are bought to her attention (they’re all stuck together in a giant ball of web after being captured by the mysterious Pokémon from earlier on). Another officer suggests that they could be the thieves, but Officer Jenny quickly realises they aren’t and sets them free. She recognises the group for having a Togepi and a Pikachu and asks if they’re the Pokémon crime fighters who helped her cousin in New Bark Town (when they helped recover the Totodile), the group volunteer to help her with this case too. The Pokémon which was responsible for capturing them all in its web earlier on then makes an appearance; Officer Jenny identifies it as a Spinarak and says that it’s the cutest one they have on the force.

Ash asks why Officer Jenny uses Spinarak on the police force instead of Growlithe and she goes on to say that it’s an old tradition in Castelia City because many long years ago one of her ancestors, who was also called Officer Jenny used her trusty Spinarak to help finally capture the Black Arachnid. The Spinarak that she uses herself is actually a descendant of her ancestors Spinarak too.

Team Rocket are hiding at a tower, Jessie wants to do bigger heists to get more recognition for their thieving prowess, Meowth is more concerned about eating and James is getting pretty upset that he’s almost run out of bottlecaps because he’s been emulating payday for Meowth with them at each crime. Jessie decides they’ll gain more notoriety if they write their next victim a letter saying exactly when and what they are going to steal; knowing full well the police will be there waiting.

Jessie pens a letter to a rich man who is known to have a valuable trophy in his home telling him it’s going to be stolen at midnight. Jenny along with Ash and friends vow to stop it being stolen; Ash even sends out all of his Pokémon into the grounds of the large mansion to guard the perimeter, Jennys Spinarak also joins them and places webs around the mansion. Ash, Misty, Brock and Jenny head inside and sit guard at the trophy.

Midnight hits and all is quiet, the owner of the mansion thanks everyone and gives the group a large meal to thank them… just as the group finish the meal Team Rocket descend from the ceiling on ropes; revealing that they’d been hiding in the attic since they wrote the letter. It seems they turned up late because they fell asleep themselves.

Team Rocket grab the trophy and escape through the mansion roof in their balloon but the balloon is stopped short when the Spinaraks web prevents it ascending any further. Ash then uses attacks by Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charizard to hit the balloon. Charizard’s flames however burn away the web and free Team Rockets balloon, Jennys Spinarak manages to get hold of the balloon with it’s web allowing Charizard to catch up and send Team Rocket blasting off. Ash uses all of his Pokémon to catch all of the falling artifacts, and Jenny’s Spinarak saves the trophy.

Everything that was stolen is back in the hands of its rightful owners. Officer Jenny thanks Ash and friends for their help and wishes them all the best on the rest of their journey.

Major Events

• Spinarak debut
• First episode after G/S’s release and first with Gen II music
• Only anime use of Pay Day

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Spinarak#0167 · EP123

Trivia

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

Changes in the English Dub

• The Generation II Team Rocket Hideout theme plays during the first heist — the first Generation II game music in the anime.
• Pokémon Karaokémon: “Pikachu (I Choose You)” (Élan Rivera).

Part of our Pokémon: The Johto Journeys guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.