History Recap / PokemonS1E23TheTowerOfTerror

Ash and company travel to Lavender Town to capture a Ghost Pokémon to defeat Sabrina's Psychic-type Kadabara. After several scares in Lavender Tower, Ash and Pikachu are knocked out by a falling chandelier. Haunter, one of three Ghost Pokémon living in the tower, pulls their spirits out of their bodies and the five fly off for a night of fun where Ash learns more about the fun-loving specters. After they return Ash to his body, he leaves, telling his friends that he couldn't capture any of the ghosts if they didn't want to be captured. While leaving he discovers that Haunter has decided to follow him, so it is back to Sabrina's gym for a rematch!

* AshFace: Happens to Brock when Charmander tries to light a candle for him, and ends up torching his head too. Later, he fries all three twerps in fear.

* AstralProjection: Ash and Pikachu both experience this after being knocked out by a chandelier. Apparently Haunter caused it by manipulating their unconcious bodies somehow. Ash can fly, walk through walls, and apparently still carry things, even lifting Misty high off the ground, although neither she nor Brock can see him.
* BreatherEpisode: After the team's harrowing encounter with the genuinely unsettling Sabrina in the previous episode, this one is meant to be a lighthearted romp where the main threat are a bunch of silly, harmless prankster Ghost Pokemon. Even Ash's death is a fun and light-hearted affair!

* EndOfEpisodeSilliness: The episode ends with Team Rocket tied up by Gastly and Gengar, and forced to ride on a Merry-Go-Round.

* {{Foil}}: Compared to the Ghastly in "Ghost of Maiden's Peak" just two episodes prior, all three ghost Pokémon here are tricksters at worst but friendly and lack any true maliciousness. Despite the darker Pokédex entries in the games, this ends up setting the anime's primary stance on the Ghosts: trickster types that can be problematic but aren't totally evil and dark.

* FriendlyGhost: Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar are a friendly bunch, and take Ash on a fun adventure during his out-of-body experience.

** The second one is when Ash and his Pokémon investigate the hole Team Rocket has fallen in. Believing that a Ghost Pokémon is lying down there, Ash orders Charmander to use Flamethrower, giving the trio quite the burn. Then Ash throws a Poké Ball, which lands right onto Jessie's face. As Jessie swears revenge on Ash for ruining her face, Meowth notice that Jessie's hair is on fire, causing her to run around in terror before crashing into her comrades.
** At the end of the episode, Team Rocket gets captured by Gastly and Gengar, who tie them up and force them to go on the Merry-Go-Round for their amusement.
* LighterAndSofter: Lavender Tower is a bleak dungeon in the games, being a Pokémon graveyard filled with scary ghosts, possessed Channelers, and eerie music. Here, it's a mundane haunted tower, and the resident ghosts are just a bunch of lovable pranksters who like to watch TV and play with toys when they aren't messing with people.
* {{Manchild}}: Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar are all incredibly silly and immature, and even have a toy room that they hang out in when they aren't scaring people.

* NeverSayDie: The dub dances around this. Then part of Misty's relief when Ash finally comes to is her saying, "You're alive!"
* NonMaliciousMonster: The Ghostly trio don't actually mean any harm. Sure they like scaring the Hell out of anyone that wanders into their tower, but their activities are no more than [[{{Troll}} harmless pranks]], and beneath it all they just want someone to play with.

* {{Troll}}: The ghost trio live for messing with anyone who visits the tower. And once he becomes a ghost, Ash gets in on the fun by freaking Misty out and dropping her on top of Brock.