Japanese Title: Wataru and the Red Gyarados
Original Airdate: February 7, 2002
US Airdate: February 15, 2003
Ash and friends discover a red Gyarados, unknowingly uncovering a plot by Team Rocket to control the secrets of Pokémon evolution. To ensure their silence, Team Rocket attempts to capture the children, but is foiled by a member of an elite Pokémon defense organization, who releases the children with instructions to continue on their way and leave the dangerous job of ending this Team Rocket experiment to adults like himself. Ash and friends assent at first, but before long, unable to ignore the compassion he feels for the red Gyarados that seemed to be in such pain, Ash decides to return and lend a hand.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Bittersweet Ending: Team Rocket successfully catch the red Gyarados and and lock the twerps in a cage before continuing their plans. However, Lance has successfully infiltrated Team Rocket and has figured out their plan.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: Twice in the beginning of the English dub. The narrator states Ash is aiming to gain his final badge, even though the Johto league has eight badges, and Ash is currently trying to get his seventh not his eighth. Ash then states he's trying to get his sixth badge, even though he already has his sixth badge. What makes this translation error stand out even more is that the episode title scenes show us how many badges Ash currently has, and this episode's title scene shows he has six at that moment.
- Big Damn Heroes: Lance uses his Dragonite to save Ash and friends from a Team Rocket Grunt’s Fearow's Drill Peck.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Lance dresses up like a Team Rocket Grunt to infiltrate their base.
- Mugged for Disguise: Lance does this to a nearby Team Rocket grunt.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Team Rocket grunts show that they don’t have issues with hurting children.
