Japanese Title: The Reluctant Pikachu and the Exasperated Barrierd
Original Airdate: July 26, 2020
US Airdate: December 4, 2020
When Ash is actively focused on training Riolu without giving Pikachu any notice, the latter feels ignored and seeks to return to Pallet Town, forcing Mimey to go after it.
- A Day in the Limelight: Focus is on Ash's Pikachu after it feels like Ash is ignoring it in favor of Riolu, and Mimey trying to stop him from going back to Pallet Town. To a lesser extent, Delia gets some focus being sympathetic to Pikachu's worries of feeling replaced.
- The Bus Came Back: Tony from JN018 reappears as Ash's first Super Class challenger, only to be defeated.
- Continuity Nod: Delia recounts how Ash and Pikachu met to Goh and Chloe. Pikachu gets a flashback to him shocking the Spearow to save Ash when he saves Mimey from a similar scenario, giving him a change of heart about going back to Pallet Town.
- Easily Forgiven: Subverted — Ash doesn't get away with ignoring Pikachu and accusing it of being lazy without getting zapped.
- Failing a Taxi: A hitchhiking variant occurs when Pikachu and Mimey are trying to get to Delia's house and Mimey is desperately trying to get the drivers' attention, but they all pass by, until Pikachu tries its own super-effective strategy.
- Friendship Moment: The episode is full of moments between Pikachu and Mimey.
- Funny Background Event: During the dinner scene Mr. Mime mimes pouring a drink to Chloe who is only confused at what he's doing. She's even more confused later when looking at her empty cup.
- Idiot Ball: Somehow, Ash doesn't pick up that something might be wrong even when his partner literally electrocutes him in anger. As if that wasn't enough, he still doesn't get the hint when Pikachu spends the entire night in another person's room, and remains ignorant until Chloe (who wasn't even a trainer yet) spells it out for him.
- Jerkass Ball: Pikachu acts uncharacteristically bratty and irritable for most of the episode, repeatedly shocking Ash and Mimey simply for trying to reason with him.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Ash likely experienced this off-screen when Chloe told him how Pikachu was feeling. After deducing where his partner and best friend would most likely be going, Ash rushed to Pallet Town in order to fix things with Pikachu.
- After rescuing Mimey from a Spearow, Pikachu realized his mistake in running away and for assuming that Ash didn't care about him anymore.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Due to Ash training Riolu so much, Pikachu began to feel ignored to the point that he considered leaving Ash. Fortunately, they make up in the end.
- The Runaway: Pikachu decided to run away and be with Delia when he had enough of being ignored as he believed that Ash doesn’t care about him anymore.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Pikachu ended up not eating the lum berry after he saved Mr. Mime from the angry Spearow and having a flashback to when Ash saved him from the said angry birds.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Ash mentioned that Chloe really chewed him out for abandoning Pikachu to focus on Riolu offscreen. She definitely had good reason to, considering the previous episode.
- Pikachu, also gets chewed out by Delia for running away from Ash, and making everybody sick with worry in the process.
