Beg, Burrow and Steal – Pokémon Season 8, Episode 14

Filler / stand-alone episodeTrapinch labyrinthVibrava evolve

Beg, Burrow and Steal is the 14th episode of Pokémon: Advanced Battle, the eighth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 379th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 382, Bulbapedia code AG106). It first aired in Japan on 9 December 2004 and in the United States on 17 December 2005. It falls within the season’s Izabe Island: Harley, Ludicolo & Snorunt stretch (EP102–EP109).

The last new episode of 2005 on Kids’ WB: there were no new episodes on 24 and 31 December, and the series returned on 7 January 2006.

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

Synopsis

Lost in a desert where neither the PokéNav nor the map is any help, the group find the ground pitted with identical craters. When Ash tosses a rock into one, an orange head pops up and swallows it, and the Pokédex identifies a Trapinch: the craters are Trapinch burrows. Ranger Elisa drives up to warn them that they have wandered into a dangerous restricted zone, hauls Ash out with a rope after he slips into a crater, and explains that the pits connect to the Trapinch Underground Labyrinth. Driving them to safety, she rescues a man fleeing from a charging Donphan, which her Meganium calms with Sweet Scent. He is Hal, an accident-prone researcher and Elisa’s old friend, who is tracking a Trapinch fitted with a transmitter in search of an underground lake where he once saw Trapinch evolve.

As the group watch the tagged Trapinch slip into a crater, Team Rocket strike from below in a Diglett-shaped digging machine and snatch Pikachu. The machine is insulated against Thunderbolt, but Ludicolo’s Water Gun knocks it into a crater, where swarming Trapinch chew it to scrap. Team Rocket and Pikachu plunge into the labyrinth, followed by Ash, Elisa, the tagged Trapinch and Hal, and soon May, Max and Brock fall in too, leaving everyone scattered through the dark tunnels. Underground, the trio try and fail to catch a Trapinch of their own for Giovanni, and decide instead to tail Hal in the hope that he will lead them to something valuable, while Ash searches desperately through the maze of tunnels for his partner, calling Pikachu’s name.

A rush of water floods the tunnel and sweeps everyone into the hidden underground lake, where Pikachu is waiting, and Hal and his tagged Trapinch arrive for a happy reunion. Nearby, Trapinch begin evolving into Vibrava, but Team Rocket capture the new Vibrava in a balloon-mounted net. Ludicolo’s Bullet Seed and Meganium’s Razor Leaf cut them free, the Vibrava’s Supersonic counters Dustox’s Poison Sting and Cacnea’s Pin Missile, and Pikachu blasts the trio away. The Vibrava carry everyone up to the surface. Hal confesses that he wanted to find the lake mainly so that Elisa would finally believe his old story, and having seen it, he resolves to keep its location a secret to protect the Pokémon living there, and Elisa happily agrees to help him.

Major Events

• The Trapinch Underground Labyrinth and its hidden lake
• Trapinch evolve into Vibrava
• Trapinch and Vibrava debut

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Trapinch#0328 · AG106
• Vibrava#0329 · AG106

Captures and evolutions

• Trapinch → Vibrava#0329 · wild · underground lake

Trivia

• The English title plays on "beg, borrow or steal".
• The screenplay is by Shōji Yonemura.
• This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Hoenn story.

Changes in the English Dub

• Music from Mewtwo Strikes Back reused

Part of our Pokémon: Advanced Battle guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.