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| Season | Pokémon the Series: XY Kalos Quest (Season 18) · Rivals, ninjas & a postponed voyage arc (XY050–XY054) |
| Episode | Season 18, episode 6 · English episode 849 · Japanese episode 854 · Bulbapedia code XY054 |
| English title | Facing the Grand Design! |
| Japanese title | カラマネロ対マーイーカ！絆は世界を救う！！ Karamanero Tai Māīka! Kizuna wa Sekai o Sukuu!! — “Calamanero VS Maaiika! The Bonds that Would Save the World!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 25 December 2014 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 14 March 2015 · Cartoon Network |
| Screenplay | Shinzō Fujita |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Mega V (Mega Volt) – Yūsuke · Doridori (DreamDream) – Shōko Nakagawa |
| English opening | Be a Hero – Ben Dixon and The Sad Truth |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Bidoof (US) |
| Previous episode | A Race for Home! (XY053) |
| Next episode | A Slippery Encounter! (XY055) |
Filler / stand-alone episodeThe Malamar returnInkay stays with James
Facing the Grand Design! is the 6th episode of Pokémon the Series: XY Kalos Quest, the eighteenth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 849th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 854, Bulbapedia code XY054). It first aired in Japan on 25 December 2014 and in the United States on 14 March 2015. It falls within the season’s Rivals, ninjas & a postponed voyage stretch (EP50–EP54).
Synopsis
The evil Malamar return with a plan to remake the world’s environment, and James’s Inkay rallies a colony of peaceful wild Malamar to stop them, proving its loyalty to James. On the way to Coumarine City the group reaches the strangely shaped Grace Tower, where talk of UFO sightings turns to alarm when a Malamar drifts out of the bushes; remembering the villain who hypnotised them, Ash warns everyone not to look at its lights, but this one simply floats away. They soon find Malamar, Inkay, Flabébé, Bidoof and Ledyba sharing Berries peacefully, and admit they were wrong to assume every Malamar is evil. Team Rocket reach the same conclusion, and James’s Inkay is delighted to meet its own kind, until three speeding trucks nearly run everyone over and Inkay, sensing something, chases them up the mountain with Team Rocket behind it.
At the summit Team Rocket find six strange devices, and James recognises the Malamar stepping out of a truck as the one that once hypnotised them. When Inkay shouts at it, Jessie and Meowth wrongly suspect it of siding with the enemy. Chased down the mountain, the trio crash in front of Ash’s group, and Officer Jenny, who has secretly tracked the Malamar since the radio observatory incident, leads everyone into a cave. She explains that these unusually intelligent Malamar forced top Kalos scientists to build huge energy crystals. A quake drives them outside, where six devices hold a giant energy sphere, and the Malamar capture everyone except James, Inkay, Meowth and Clemont, who escape thanks to Bunnelby’s Dig. Meowth finally explains that Inkay has never forgiven Malamar for hypnotising James, and apologises for doubting it.
Inkay asks the forest Pokémon for help, and the sceptical good Malamar agree once an evil Malamar attacks their friends. On the summit the villains boast that their “final project” will reshape the world to suit them, but as the countdown runs, James, Clemont and their allies burst in and free the captives. One Malamar hypnotises Inkay against James, yet their bond breaks the spell, and Inkay, the wild Pokémon, Jenny’s Manectric and Pikachu defeat the three villains. The project is destroyed, though the Malamar escape with their devices, vowing to try again in the future. Back in the forest James offers to let Inkay stay with its new friends, but Inkay chooses to remain with him, and a tearful James hugs it.
Major Events
- The Malamar return. A sequel to XY019: the evil Malamar’s project to remake the world is foiled by James’s Inkay and a colony of peaceful Malamar
- James offers Inkay its freedom, but it stays
- The first title card focused on Team Rocket
- No motto
- Main-series debut of Yellow Flower Flabébé
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Shinzō Fujita.
- This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Kalos story.
Part of our Pokémon the Series: XY Kalos Quest guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.