"The green slime can talk, too!"
"My, my! Does that astonish you? You, who is able to speak as well?"
—Meowth and Squishy
Japanese Title: Pikachu, Dreams of Puni-chan!
Original Airdate: November 26, 2015
US Airdate: March 19, 2016
Silly Chesnaught. Pikachu would rather die than evolve into Raichu.
Pikachu and Meowth have a dream linked to Bonnie's Zygarde Core, Squishy, that is haunted by a powerful fire spectre. They have to figure out why Squishy is being pursued by the spectre.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Brick Joke: Early in the episode, Clemont makes his own alarm clock. Near the end, it explodes, like everything else he invents.
- Calling Your Attacks: In the dream, the Pokémon say the names of their moves while fighting the fire ghost.
- Continuity Nod: The Pokémon Quiz feature Mismagius and Beeheyem together with Darkrai. They are the ones responsible for the Once a Season nightmare episodes from DP, Best Wishes and this series, respectively.
- Counting Mareep: Meowth tries this to get to sleep. He ends up buried in Mareep before he realizes that he's stuck in a dream.
- Dream Sequence: Much of the episode is a dream shared by Pikachu and Meowth (and possibly the other Pokémon), all apparently linked to Squishy and his fears.
- Foreshadowing: The fire ghost in the dream is a reference to Team Flare, whom Squishy originally escaped from.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Meowth and Pikachu go nuts when Squishy reveals its "true" form, a.k.a. Zygarde Complete, to them. So nuts, they prematurely wake up.
- Hard Head: When they wake up, both Pikachu and Meowth head to the area of the forest where they met in the dream. They knock heads and pass out, returning to the dream. Funny enough, they bumped heads the same way in the dream before.
- Insult Backfire: When Meowth examines Pikachu in the dream, in the dub he says he's "the same dopey Pikachu" he always is. Pikachu responds cheerfully. The Japanese version lacks an insult with the verification. Granted this could easily be interpreted as Pikachu just being happy that Meowth is acting like Meowth.
- Literal-Minded: Squishy imagines its tormentors as a "fire ghost", when it was actually referring to Team Flare.
- Magic Pants: Pancham's sunglasses size-up with the rest of him when he evolves into Pangoro.
- Pokémon Speak: In the dream, this is actually inverted: All the Pokémon can speak normally except Pikachu. The human trainers on the other hand, sound like their Pokémon: Ash sounds like Frogadier, Jessie sounds like Wobbuffet, and James sounds like Inkay.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Pikachu freaks out in utter horror when he sees Diggersby, Delphox, and Froakie talking like humans. Meowth does the same thing, finding the idea of other Pokémon talking weird, which Squishy calls him on it shortly after.
- Super Mode: Most of the crew's Pokémon can evolve and de-evolve at will within the dream. Bunnelby and Braixen are evolved to Diggersby and Delphox (Diggersby de-evolves to Bunnelby during), Chespin and Pancham evolve into Chesnaught and Pangoro during the dream, and Frogadier is actually de-evolved back to Froakie.
- When Chesnaught asks Pikachu why he hasn't evolved, he gets a rather indignant response. Pikachu's resistance to evolving is well-documented in the series.
- Skewed Priorities: Just as they're about to battle the fire ghost, Chespin/Chesnaught and Pancham/Pangoro start fighting after the former takes some of the latter's food. Luckily, Pikachu is there to get them back on track.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Pikachu and Meowth decide to cooperate, realizing they are the only ones immune to the effects of the dream.
- Vocal Dissonance: Even after evolving, Dream Chesnaught in the English Dub retains the same voice it had as a Chespin. This is odd considering that Dream Pangoro's voice gets more gravely after its evolution.
