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| Season | Pokémon: Johto League Champions (Season 4) · Whitestone & Bayleef arc (EP197–EP200) |
| Episode | Season 4, episode 42 · English episode 199 · Japanese episode 201 · Bulbapedia code EP199 |
| English title | Current Events |
| Japanese title | さよならチコリータ!? でんきのラビリンス! Sayonara Chikorita!? Denki no Rabirinsu! — “Goodbye, Chicorita!? The Labyrinth of Electricity!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 24 May 2001 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 27 April 2002 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Shōji Yonemura |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Mezase Pokémon Master (Whiteberry version) – Whiteberry · Maemuki Rocket-dan! (Face Forward Team Rocket!) – Team Rocket |
| English opening | Born to Be a Winner – David Rolfe |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Dragonair (US) · Chikorita (Japan) |
| Previous episode | The Heartbreak of Brock (EP198) |
| Next episode | Turning Over a New Bayleef (EP200) |
Plot episodeChikorita evolves into Bayleef
Current Events is the 42nd episode of Pokémon: Johto League Champions, the fourth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 199th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 201, Bulbapedia code EP199). It first aired in Japan on 24 May 2001 and in the United States on 27 April 2002. It falls within the season’s Whitestone & Bayleef stretch (EP197–EP200).
Synopsis
Ash’s Chikorita evolves into Bayleef to save him inside an automated power station overrun with Electric Pokémon. Team Rocket break into a strange white building beside a wind farm and are promptly zapped by a Magnemite patrol, and Jigglypuff wanders in too. Ash and Chikorita, out collecting firewood, step through the open door, which locks behind them, and Brock sets off to summon the electricity company.
Descending by the complex map, the pair are set upon by Magnemite and a Magneton, then by a swarm of Electrode among the generators; Chikorita’s Vine Whip detonates one to clear a path. Jigglypuff’s stolen microphone becomes everyone’s favourite diversion, tossed back and forth so that the singer puts each wave of attackers to sleep. Meowth convinces the facility’s Electabuzz that Ash is the intruder, and when Electabuzz attacks, Team Rocket cage both Pokémon and flee the building with them.
Ash slides down the hillside to confront them, and Jessie and James set Arbok and Victreebel on the boy himself. Seeing her Trainer in danger, Chikorita evolves; Bayleef’s Razor Leaf frees herself and Electabuzz, and Vine Whip hurls the two Pokémon into their Trainers. The arriving electrician, Electabuzz’s owner, adds a Thunderbolt to Pikachu’s, and a final Vine Whip blasts the trio off. Jigglypuff then sings everyone to sleep and doodles on their faces.
Major Events
- Ash’s Chikorita evolves into Bayleef, the only evolution of an Ash Pokémon in the Gold and Silver series
- Jigglypuff appears
Captures and evolutions
Chikorita → Bayleef#0153 · Ash
Trivia
- The English title plays on “current events, in an episode set inside a power station”.
- The screenplay is by Shōji Yonemura.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Johto storyline.
- The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Chikorita in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Dragonair in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.
Changes in the English Dub
- Some shots of Victreebel’s Vine Whip hitting Ash are cut.
Part of our Pokémon: Johto League Champions guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.