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| Season | Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Adventures (Season 21) · Ultra Beasts & everyday Alola arc (SM078–SM086) |
| Episode | Season 21, episode 36 · English episode 1014 · Japanese episode 1020 · Bulbapedia code SM080 |
| English title | Not Caving Under Pressure! |
| Japanese title | サンドの嵐！氷穴のダブルバトル！！ Sando no Arashi! Hyōketsu no Daburu Batoru!! — “Sand’s Storm! Ice Cave Double Battle!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 28 June 2018 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 24 November 2018 · Disney XD |
| Screenplay | Yuka Miyata |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Mirai Konekushon (Future Connection) – ЯeaL · Jarī Bōi Jarī Gāru (Twerp, Twerpette) – Taiiku Okazaki |
| English opening | Under the Alolan Moon – Haven Paschall and Ben Dixon |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Alolan Sandshrew (US) |
| Previous episode | Showering the World with Love! (SM079) |
| Next episode | A Young Royal Flame Ignites! (SM081) |
Plot episodeLillie’s Icium ZAlolan Sandshrew
Not Caving Under Pressure! is the 36th episode of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Adventures, the twenty-first season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1014th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1020, Bulbapedia code SM080). It first aired in Japan on 28 June 2018 and in the United States on 24 November 2018. It falls within the season’s Ultra Beasts & everyday Alola stretch (EP78–EP86).
Synopsis
Separated in an ice cave on the way home from the observatory, Lillie leads a group of Alolan Sandshrew to victory over a Tyranitar in a Double Battle and receives an Icium Z from their newly evolved leader. Poipole finds a shortcut through a cave lit by glowing moss, but Kiawe’s overexcited Marowak chases the other Pokémon with a mossy bone and knocks Turtonator onto its shell, and the Shell Trap blast scatters everyone. Ash and Kiawe wake a Boldore and have to run without their sleeping Rowlet; Lana and Popplio find Rotom and Marowak; and Lillie, Sophocles and Mallow follow a breeze that turns out to be a charging Alolan Raticate. Resting over Mallow’s homemade cookies, the three share their dreams: Mallow wants to cook for more people, Sophocles wants to be an astronaut, and Lillie wants to grow closer to Pokémon.
Snowy’s ears pick up a group of Alolan Sandshrew training, and when Sophocles’s landing gives the group away, the Sandshrew surround them until Mallow offers one of her last cookies. Elsewhere, Lana ignores Rotom’s useless probability calculations and picks a path, while Ash and Kiawe stumble out of an exit into a blizzard on Mount Lanakila. An unusually large Sandshrew approaches Lillie for a pat before the group suddenly flees, and Snowy leads the humans after them to a massive ice structure shaped like a castle. There the Sandshrew face a towering Tyranitar, and claw marks on the walls tell Lillie that they are fighting for their territory. Tyranitar’s Sandstorm blows Snowy away and a Stone Edge brings down debris that separates Lillie from her partner.
Lillie reaches the fight as the giant Sandshrew is winded, and Snowy’s Hail turns the conditions in the Sandshrew’s favour. Remembering Ash’s battle with Olivia, Lillie directs a Double Battle: Snowy’s Aurora Veil shields itself and the Sandshrew, Powder Snow and a volley of Rapid Spins follow, and Metal Claw topples Tyranitar, which flees when the Sandshrew roar. Lillie insists that the Pokémon did the real work. Meanwhile, Ash and Kiawe meet up with Lana, and Marowak tearfully reunites with Kiawe. After Snowy seals the nest’s entrance with ice, Charjabug digs up an Ice Stone, which the giant Sandshrew nudges into Sophocles’s hand to evolve into Alolan Sandslash; it returns with an Icium Z for Lillie, who accepts it though she has no Z-Ring. When Charjabug finds a second Ice Stone, Snowy shrinks away, and Lillie keeps it for when Snowy is ready.
Major Events
- The ice cave. The group splits up in an ice cave
- Lillie and a giant Alolan Sandshrew beat a Tyranitar in a Double Battle
- It evolves into Alolan Sandslash with an Ice Stone and gives Lillie an Icium Z
- Snowy refuses an Ice Stone
- Kate Bristol’s last episode in the dub cast
- Anime debut of Alolan Sandslash
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Yuka Miyata.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Alola storyline.
Part of our Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Adventures guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.