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| Season | Pokémon: Battle Frontier (Season 9) · Fennel Valley & the Brave Symbol arc (AG183–AG190) |
| Episode | Season 9, episode 43 · English episode 460 · Japanese episode 464 · Bulbapedia code AG188 |
| English title | Pinch Healing! |
| Japanese title | ポケモンセンターはおおいそがし！ Pokemon Sentā wa Ōisogashi! — “The Pokémon Center is Very Busy!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 17 August 2006 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 3 February 2007 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Shinzō Fujita |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Supāto! (Spurt!) – Satoshi (Rica Matsumoto) · Watashi, Makenai! ~Haruka no Tēma~ (I Won’t Lose! ~Haruka’s Theme~) – Haruka (KAORI.) |
| English opening | Battle Frontier – Jason Appleton |
| Previous episode | The Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing! (AG187) |
| Next episode | Gathering the Gang of Four! (AG189) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeNurse Joy has fluLast character of the day
Pinch Healing! is the 43rd episode of Pokémon: Battle Frontier, the ninth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 460th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 464, Bulbapedia code AG188). It first aired in Japan on 17 August 2006 and in the United States on 3 February 2007. It falls within the season’s Fennel Valley & the Brave Symbol stretch (EP183–EP190).
Synopsis
Outside the Fennel Valley Pokémon Center, Ash is training Pikachu, Corphish, Sceptile and Aipom to knock down bowling pins as he works on his own battle style, and Brock is looking forward to cooking breakfast with Nurse Joy, when a crash and a cry from Chansey send him running. He finds Joy unconscious on the kitchen floor, and Professor Oak diagnoses flu, probably brought on by the stress of hosting Ash’s and May’s battles. He orders her to rest, and everyone volunteers to cover for her. Team Rocket, meanwhile, lost after being blasted off by Harley’s Cacturne, set off a chain reaction when Jessie throws a stick at a fork in the road: it hits a Diglett and a Gloom, the Gloom’s Stun Spore paralyses an Electrode in a tree, and the Electrode rolls off a cliff onto a passing bus, which explodes. The driver, a Pokésitter named Matt, calls the Pokémon Center for help with the injured Pokémon in his care.
Oak has Scott drive everyone to the scene, where Matt is calming his frightened young Pokémon, and the group load them into the car while Scott tows the wrecked bus back, unaware that Team Rocket are watching from the clifftop and plotting to steal the little Pokémon. None are badly hurt, but a Bagon, inspired by the sight of flying Fearow and Butterfree, runs off to try to fly. Ash and Matt chase it, and it crashes off a rock, headbutts Ash and escapes. Back at the Pokémon Center, Max feeds Whismur and Makuhita, May plays with Swinub and Seedot and gets a Sandstorm in the face from a shy Larvitar, and Brock’s Marshtomp heals a Wooper by spraying it with Water Gun, which Wooper absorbs. Oak praises Brock’s skill with Pokémon. Samuel stops by to tell Scott that Brandon has still not returned.
Ash and Matt find Bagon on a high cliff, where it jumps again and falls into a river teeming with Carvanha. Pikachu’s Thunderbolt drives them back, but more keep coming and they gnaw through the log Ash uses as a bridge, until Sceptile leaps onto the log and catapults Bagon into Matt’s arms. Bagon then develops a fever, and Brock and Oak rush it to the emergency room. Team Rocket arrive disguised as a “Pokésitter Union”, load the young Pokémon into a cart and escape behind a smokescreen, while a refreshed Nurse Joy gets out of bed to give Bagon its medicine. The group chase the balloon, but the trio dangle the young Pokémon beneath the basket so that Pikachu cannot attack, until Larvitar’s Sandstorm brings the balloon down and Volt Tackle sends Team Rocket flying. Bagon’s fever breaks, Scott returns Matt’s repaired bus, and Samuel arrives with news that Brandon has found the Pokémon he was looking for and is ready for the rematch.
Major Events
- Nurse Joy has flu and the group run her Pokémon Center
- Matt the Pokésitter and his Bagon
- Aipom back on Ash’s team and Torkoal back at the lab
- Brandon has found the Pokémon he was looking for
- The last Ruby and Sapphire character of the day
- The anime’s first Water Absorb
Trivia
- The English title plays on "pinch hitting".
- The screenplay is by Shinzō Fujita.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Kanto story.
Changes in the English Dub
- Japanese hints that Brandon is after an Ice type removed
Part of our Pokémon: Battle Frontier guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.