Ash and others must find a way to free the Lugia and themselves after they are all captured by Team Rocket. It won't be easy; made even more dubious by Professor Namba's invention that awakens a Pokémon's inner rage, making it more powerful.
Tropes
- Berserk Button: Mama Lugia is clearly pissed off at her captors for kidnapping her child and trying to use it (and her) for their nefarious purposes.
- Fantastic Racism: Namba shows shades of it, believing that Pokémon exist only to serve man's ambitions. No one in Ash's group is impressed.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Oliver sneaks into the base and immediately gets caught by a grunt. Jessie and James manage to take over and tells the naive boy that they're superheroes...and he believes them. Sort of justified with him being a little kid.
- I Gave My Word: Ash vows (and ultimately follows through) to save Silver and its mother from Team Rocket.
- Mama Bear: Lugia shows Team Rocket, and everyone in and out of universe too, why you never mess with her kid. The whole base ends up sunk in the end with Namba and the (presumingly) surviving agents clinging to ship wreckage.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Subverted, actually. Jessie and James try to break out Lugia so they can get credit from Giovanni, but Butch and Cassidy intercede and start a Pokémon battle with them. Eventually, Wobbuffet's counterattack reflects Houndour's flame technique onto an already damaged restrainer, shattering it and freeing Lugia. By now, she's (Lugia's) immensely pissed off and blasts off the villains and their Pokémon. She doesn't calm down immediately, however, and goes on a rampage throughout the base, putting everyone else, including Ash and Silver, into serious danger. It's only after Namba is beaten and Silver is rescued that Ash manages to calm the mother, and even then just barely.
- Put on a Bus: Ritchie leaves again to continue his own travels after the incident is settled. He won't appear again until Pokémon Chronicles. Luka also leaves, never to be seen again.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Jessie, James, Meowth, plus Butch and Cassidy, are all blasted off by Lugia just before the climax, and are not seen again for the remainder of the episode.
- Too Dumb to Live: The fight between the rival Team Rocket agents in front of Lugia. Jessie and James can be somewhat handwaved but at that point, Cassidy and Butch should have known better than to start an intense battle in such confined space. All the fight accomplished was pissing off Mama Lugia even more and getting all five of them blasted off, which puts Ash and the others in even more peril.
- Unstoppable Rage: Aside from the anger-inducing devices that Namba uses, Mama Lugia also reaches this point after the main Rocket trio and Cassidy and Butch start a fight in front of her; inadvertently busting her out.
- Villain Decay: Butch and Cassidy are blasted off along with their rivals after getting into a petty dispute with Jessie and James. They'd only get worse come Pokémon Chronicles.
