A Seasoned Search! – Pokémon Season 20, Episode 18

Plot episodeBounsweet evolves into Steenee

A Seasoned Search! is the 18th episode of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, the twentieth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 953rd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 958, Bulbapedia code SM018). It first aired in Japan on 16 March 2017 and in the United States on 1 July 2017. It falls within the season’s Snowy, Rockruff & Steenee stretch (EP11–EP18).

Premiered on Saturday 1 July 2017, the third of six new episodes in a three-hour Disney XD special.

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

Synopsis

Mallow tries to recreate a legendary stew for her family’s restaurant, and while hunting for its rare ingredient with Ash, her Bounsweet evolves into Steenee to stop Team Rocket. Ash and Kiawe visit Aina’s Kitchen, run by Mallow’s father, Abe, where the classmates gather to taste Mallow’s legendary Alolan Stew. Pikachu follows the smell into the kitchen, and Mallow recruits it to help; a Thunderbolt later, she emerges singed with the stew. It looks burnt, and every Pokémon that eats it gets a jolt. Mallow admits that she used Thunderbolt in place of Yellow Nectar, the key ingredient, and may have overdone it. Abe explains that the stew’s recipe had been lost until Mallow’s older brother, Ulu, found it in an old manuscript on his travels and sent it home in a cookbook. Yellow Nectar gives the dish its shocking aftertaste, but it is out of season, so Mallow wants to find a substitute and make the stew the restaurant’s signature dish.

Abe recalls his grandfather’s hint that Yellow Nectar can be found at only one place out of season, and Ash offers to help search the next day. In the forest Rotom reveals that Pom-Pom Style Oricorio love Yellow Nectar, though it puts their chances of finding some at eight percent. The search goes badly, and even Rowlet’s old flock has no clue, but Mallow shares her dream of making Aina’s Kitchen the best restaurant in Alola. Team Rocket, who have just finished building their base, overhear and decide to steal the nectar and sell it. Remembering how Bounsweet’s Sweet Scent attracted Rowlet, Ash suggests using it to lure an Oricorio. It works: an Oricorio lands, and Ash and Mallow follow it through a cave into a hidden meadow, where a Baile Style Oricorio drinks the Yellow Nectar and changes into Pom-Pom Style.

As Ash, Mallow, Pikachu and Rowlet rush in, a net drops over them, and Team Rocket recite their motto while Meowth vacuums up the nectar with a jetpack. Bounsweet bravely tries to stop Jessie and James, but James flings it away. In mid-air Bounsweet releases Sweet Scent over Meowth and evolves into Steenee. Steenee attacks Meowth with Double Slap and frees Ash and Mallow, and Rowlet wrecks the vacuum, releasing the nectar. Steenee keeps up the attack as Team Rocket retreat with Magical Leaf, and when Pikachu charges, Bewear shields the trio and carries them home. Mallow collects the Yellow Nectar, and back at the restaurant she serves the new stew, made with Steenee’s help. Everyone loves it and asks for seconds, and Mallow thanks her friends and announces the stew as a seasonal special.

Major Events

• Steenee. Aina’s Kitchen and Mallow’s father, Abe
• The hunt for Yellow Nectar
• Oricorio change style
• Bounsweet evolves into Steenee
• Team Rocket finish their base
• The Japanese ending is updated with Steenee

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Steenee#0762 · SM018

Captures and evolutions

• Bounsweet → Steenee#0762 · Mallow · while its Sweet Scent dazes Meowth; learns Double Slap and Magical Leaf

Trivia

• The screenplay is by Ayumi Sekine.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Alola storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• A hypnotised member of Team Rocket sings a line of Ray Stevens’s “Everything Is Beautiful”
• The Japanese and English endings show Steenee in place of Bounsweet from this episode

Part of our Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.