Ash and co. meet Katherine and her Gothita, who seems to be very spoiled and demanding. Gothita develops a crush on Ash's Scraggy and insists that Katherine acquire it by any means necessary. While Scraggy completely fails to realize Gothita's motives, Axew is horrified at the prospect of losing his favorite playmate. That night, Ash and his friends, along with Katherine and Gothita, take shelter from the rain together in a cabin. Seizing her chance, Gothita cozies up to Scraggy and that night, while their trainers are sleeping, Gothita suggests to Scraggy they go out to find some apples, which Scraggy is delighted to do, still not understanding Gothita's intentions. Axew has a nightmare about what would have happened if Scraggy had left and wakes up to find Scraggy gone. Now afraid more than ever of losing its best friend, Axew runs out the door after them, waking Ash's Snivy, who follows out of concern.
Scraggy and Gothita find some apples and Axew catches up to them, insisting Scraggy come back with it, resulting in a tug-of-war that sends Gothita flying and landing on top of a Garbodor. Frustrated with its failing plans and angered by receiving a face full of stink from Garbodor, Gothita takes it out on the large Pokémon, but in doing so, wakes it up and sends it running after Gothita, Scraggy, and Axew. Luckily, Axew and Scraggy are saved by the timely intervention of Ash's Snivy, who is not pleased with the whole situation. Ash and the others show up just in time, too, and Katherine's Deerling is able to calm Garbodor down with Aromatherapy. The next morning, Ash and Katherine have another battle, this time with Gothita vs. Snivy. Ash and Snivy win and Gothita throws a tantrum before running off, with Katherine chasing after it as she says goodbye to our heroes.
Tropes
- Extreme Doormat: Katherine concedes to Gothita's demands a little too easily.
- Iris: Look at them, it's hard to tell which one of them is the trainer.
- Imagine Spot: Axew's nightmare about what would have happened if Scraggy had to go with Katherine and Gothita. It also gives us a pretty funny idea of how Axew sees the world, since in his dream, Cilan is wearing a cape and sunglasses due to his campy nature, and Gothita is a giant holding Katherine in its hand, due to Katherine being such a doormat to her own Pokémon.
- Oblivious to Love: Scraggy never picks up on the fact that Gothita has a crush on him.
- Oh, Crap!: Gothita runs out of the bushes after realizing what a bad idea it was to attack Garbodor, a Pokémon several times larger than itself, while it was sleeping.
- Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: Ash initially is clearly against the idea of trading Scraggy, battle or not. Then, Katherine gets the idea of taunting him by saying he's afraid of losing and just a fraud with fake Gym Badges. This gets Ash riled up to prove her otherwise.
- Spoiled Brat: Gothita constantly makes demands of its trainer and throws a tantrum whenever it doesn't get its way.
- Team Mom: Once she sees that Axew and Scraggy have wandered off into the night, Snivy decides to follow them, knowing they will probably end up needing help. She pulls them to safety with Vine Whip and scolds them for wandering off like that.
- The Snack Is More Interesting: Not only does Scraggy get annoyed with Gothita staring at him while he ate, but he also doesn't even so much as glance up from his food while Katherine and Gothita try to talk Ash into trading him, despite everyone else hearing loud and clear.
- Too Dumb to Live: Gothita, for some reason, thinks it's a good idea to use an attack on a sleeping Pokémon ten times its size.
