Ash and his friends have arrived in a harbor town when they see there's a show going on; a show with the Squirtle Squad! Yes, Ash's old friend from journeys long ago is in town with his team to teach everyone about fire safety, and Ash is intent on seeing him again. But their managers, aka Team Rocket, fear that Ash has come to take his Squirtle back and are intent on keeping the two apart! Can old bonds remain strong as friendships are tested?
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Ash Face: Charizard tries this on the Squirtle Squad to get their attention, but Ash's old Squirtle, thinking his trainer doesn't care about him anymore, doesn't appreciate it and attacks everyone. Later, with things patched up, Charizard does this again to everyone on accident, much to his dismay. Notably it's the first time he's done it since Unova.
- Brick Joke: A trainer's Venonat ends up in Misty's path and scares her, much to the trainer's dismay. Later, the same Venonat wanders into a construction site before a Makuhita and Spoink convince it to play with them in a warehouse. Said warehouse catches fire, resulting in them being in danger until rescued by our heroes.
- The Bus Came Back: Ash brings Bulbasaur and Charizard back onto his team, Brock's Croagunk returns to deliver his famous Ass Shove gag, while the Squirtle Squad, as well as the Officer Jenny taking care of them, make their final appearance in the series as well.
- But Now I Must Go: The Squirtle Squad is forced to head back on their tour, this time under Officer Jenny's proper care rather than Team Rocket.
- Call-Back:
- The original four Pokémon mascots of Ash's team reunite for the first time since "Gathering The Gang of Four!" when Ash brought his old starters back to face Pyramid King Brandon.
- Misty's fear of Bug Types comes up when a Venonat crosses her path.
- Charizard burns everyone twice, resulting in the famous Ash Face gag that he pulled on Ash and co.
- Brock tries flirting with Officer Jenny and gets a twofer of this: Croagunk uses Poison Jab on him and Misty grabs him by the ear. Ouch.
- While fighting the warehouse fire, Squirtle rips off the outfit Team Rocket gave him for the show and throws back on his old Squirtle Squad robes, with the rest of his team following suit.
- When Ash requests Squirtle battle with him next time they meet, Squirtle takes off his glasses and jumps into Ash's embracing arms while Misty and Brock look on, just like in Squirtle's debut episode "Here Comes The Squirtle Squad!", which was seen in the original opening theme.
- Disaster Dominoes: Team Rocket's attempt at stealing Ash's Pokémon is thwarted by a gust of wind, sending their net onto a Hariyama at a construction site. Said Hariyama twirls their net like a kid's toy and sends them blasting off again, where they land in a Camerupt's hump and get volcanoed into the sky once more. The net then blows onto a wire out of a warehouse, where an exposed wire and the net's material ignite and catch fire, setting the warehouse ablaze as a trio of Pokémon are playing inside. The Squirtle Squad rush over to put it out, but even with Ash's help, they're having trouble keeping the fire under control. Then another gust of wind blows the fire onto the next warehouse over, where the three aforementioned Pokémon get trapped on the roof. Luckily, everyone is able to come together and put it out before it spreads.
- Failed a Spot Check: Team Rocket has hijacked the Squirtle Squad's show for their own profit, and they've changed it to where they play bad guys using a modified version of their usual motto. Misty notes it sounds familiar, but it never occurs to the heroes that their old foes are involved.
- Famed In-Story: Ash, Misty, and Brock — the World Coronation Series Monarch and a pair of famous Gym Leaders — are swarmed by fans at the end of the episode.
- Flashback with the Other Darrin: The English Dub uses the current voice cast for flashbacks set during Ash's Kanto Journeys, rather than the 4Kids dubbing voices used back then like with The Fires of a Red-Hot Reunion!.
- Improperly Paranoid: Team Rocket fears that Ash came back to get his Squirtle and will kill their money-making scheme as a result. Considering it's been 22 years out of universe and a considerably long time In-Universe since Ash let his Squirtle go back to his squad and only asked to use him once in that entire time, it doesn't cross their mind that Ash would just want to stop by to say hi to his old friend.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: Team Rocket tries stealing Ash's Pokémon with everyone in bad spirits about the fight with Squirtle, but a gust of wind bungles their plans.
- Later-Installment Weirdness: An In-Universe case. Squirtle and his Squad were apparently touring the globe on fire safety lectures. Now they're suddenly in a Sentai show stopping a group of pyromaniacs. Apparently nobody in the audience seems to care. It's later revealed that Team Rocket borrowed the squad without Officer Jenny's permission so they could profit off their show and afford themselves proper meals.
- Mythology Gag: When Bulbasaur is called out of his Poké Ball, he poses like the original Ken Sugamori artwork.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Team Rocket gets Squirtle mad enough at his trainer by keeping Ash from seeing him, resulting a bitter fight that leaves Charizard and Bulbasaur mad at their old friend. If they wanted to keep the gravy train they have going strongly, they could have just left it alone and moved on, but old habits die hard and they decide to steal the twerps Pokémon. Unfortunately for them, the winds have different ideas, resulting a Disaster Dominoes that causes a warehouse fire that lets the heroes work together to put it out and patch things up in the process.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Invoked by Team Rocket, who keep Ash and his friends away to make Squirtle think his old trainer doesn't care about him anymore, leading to a fight breaking out between Charizard, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle. Team Rocket winds up bungling it up and causes a warehouse fire during their latest failed attempt at stealing Pikachu, which results in everyone working together to put out the fire and patching up their friendship.
- Put on a Bus: Squirtle leaves the series in his final appearance to keep putting in public appearances with the Squirtle Squad.
- Sentai: The Squirtle Squad's outfits in the show are designed to resemble such a team.
- Shout-Out:
- A Gigantamax Charizard is seen in the show during the motto, in reference to Godzilla.
- The Squirtle Squad are dressed like the leads from Power Rangers.
- Unknown Rival: Ash and the others were completely unaware of Team Rocket's presence in the episode, both as the Squirtle Squad's managers and when they attempt to steal Pikachu.
- The Unreveal: In-Universe, Ash, Misty, and Brock can't figure out why Bulbasaur, Charizard, and Squirtle got into a fight, but they decide it doesn't matter at the end since they made up.
