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| Season | Pokémon: Master Quest (Season 5) · The Whirl Islands & the Whirl Cup arc (EP210–EP218) |
| Episode | Season 5, episode 9 · English episode 218 · Japanese episode 220 · Bulbapedia code EP218 |
| English title | Plant It Now… Diglett Later |
| Japanese title | ディグダのむらをまもれ! おとしあなだいさくせん!? Diguda no Mura o Mamore! Otoshiana Daisakusen!? — “Protect the Digda Village! The Big Pitfall Strategy!?” |
| First aired (Japan) | 4 October 2001 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 9 November 2002 · Kids’ WB |
| Screenplay | Takeshi Shudō |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Mezase Pokémon Master (Whiteberry version) – Whiteberry · Maemuki Rocket-dan! (Face Forward Team Rocket!) – Team Rocket |
| English opening | Believe in Me – David Rolfe |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Sandshrew (US) · Diglett (Japan) |
| Previous episode | The Perfect Match! (EP217) |
| Next episode | Hi Ho Silver… Away! (EP219) |
Filler / stand-alone episode
Plant It Now… Diglett Later is the 9th episode of Pokémon: Master Quest, the fifth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 218th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 220, Bulbapedia code EP218). It first aired in Japan on 4 October 2001 and in the United States on 9 November 2002. It falls within the season’s The Whirl Islands & the Whirl Cup stretch (EP210–EP218).
Synopsis
Ash and company are on their way to Transit Town in order to return to Olivine City. Meanwhile they are getting hungry and tired. Team Rocket is ahead of them and realize that this would be the time to grab Pikachu. They dig a pit for a trap to catch our heroes, but wind up with both groups falling into two different pits. Soon a couple of young girls show up to apologize for the pits, that they create with the help of digletts. They offer both Ash and company and Team Rocket a banquet in their honor, explaining that they need the services of expert trainers.
After the banquet, the mayor and the town council ask for something, but are a little confused as to what they need. Suddenly a bandit shows up to announce that the local band of thieves will be coming the next day to steal the current crop of digletts. The bandit leader then leaves and the elders explain that they have lived on the land for many years, but most of their children have left for the big city. Since then they have been harassed once a year by the bandits who take their best digletts that help them till the soil for their crops. They tell the group that if they refuse after being given such an expansive banquet they would have to consider them “thankless and insensitive”. This triggers James to take umbrage and he declares that no matter what any other evil they do, they do not turn their backs on people who have helped them and are oppressed. Team Rocket and Ash’s company agree to work together to protect the village.
The next day, James assumes command and creates a strategy to defend the village sending the three heroes to steal the dodrios that the thieves use for transportation. While sneaking into the enemy camp they discover the two girls who initiated contact with them talking with the thieves as if they were friends. The thieves are then honor bound to reveal that they are in reality the children of the villagers. They explained that they created a wonderful retirement home for their elders, but the elders refused the offer. The elders preferred staying in the village tending their fields with the digletts as they had always done. So the children of the elders decided to stage a ruse to keep the older people alert and healthy, while ensuring their comfort in their declining years. They then asked Ash and company to keep their secret and not to worry about hitting them with full force. Proving to them that even Pikachu’s Thunderbolt could not get through their special armor.
Not having time to let Team Rocket in on the secret, they stage a mock battle making it look as if their dodrios had been successfully stolen. At the end when Team Rocket started using bombs on the “thieves”, harming the diglett as well. Ash had no choice but to have Pikachu use his Thunderbolt on them. Team Rocket was confused about still being attacked as they blasted off again.
In gratitude the elders presented Ash and company with a badge, which incorporated the silver wing into its design. They then tell them the badge comes from Silver Rock Isle, an island in the Whirl Islands. The group decides they should go there in search of any clues to the silver wing and possibly the mystery pokémon.
Major Events
- Silver Wing “badge”
Trivia
- This episode was loosely based on the classic 1954 Japanese film, 七人の侍, Shichinin no Samurai (Seven Samurai).
- The English title plays on "plant you now, dig you later".
- The screenplay is by Takeshi Shudō.
- 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 Diglett in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Sandshrew in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.
Part of our Pokémon: Master Quest guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.