Ash and his friends arrive in Virbank City for Ash's eighth and final Unova gym battle. At the Pokémon Center, Ash discovers several trainers who battled the gym leader and lost badly to her Poison Pokémon, in at least one case without scoring even a single knockout, so Ash takes the night to come up with a strategy. The next day, Ash and his friends rush to the gym. They discover that it's also an underground punk rock club, where the band is led by gym leader Roxie, who turns out to have a Koffing, a Kanto Pokémon that she picked up during a concert there. She tells Ash that her gym has a special rule where Ash must use all six of his Pokémon while she only uses three. The battle begins with Roxie using Koffing and it soon becomes clear that this six-on-three rule is there for a reason. Koffing's speed, power, and ability to poison its opponents take their toll and Ash's Boldore and Unfezant are soon knocked out of the match. Ash then sends out Leavanny. Despite its type weakness, Leavanny ends up being the one who finally manages to take out Koffing thanks to a clever combination of String Shot and Energy Ball. Unfortunately, the battle is far from over and things are about to get much harder as Roxie sends out her second Pokémon, Scolipede, who hits Leavanny with Toxic. The episode ends on a cliffhanger and while Ash has more Pokémon left, he's clearly at a disadvantage as Roxie's poisonous techniques are slowly but surely hammering away at his team.
Tropes
- Adaptational Badass: Koffing isn't exactly known for being the most powerful 'mon out there, yet Ash loses both Boldore and Unfezant immediately just to defeat it.
- The Bus Came Back: This episode marks the first time in Best Wishes where a pre-Unova Pokémon besides Ash's Pikachu and Meowth of Team Rocket makes a physical appearance outside a brief cameo, Pokédex entry, or photograph.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Ash's Levanny badly poisoned and Roxie's Scolipede ready to strike.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Roxie's Koffing isn't really antagonistic (at least in terms of personality, and is more of an obstacle in Ash's journey), but it's definitely a greater powerhouse than the one James used to own, in spite of the fact that it never evolved into a Wheezing like James' did.
- Determinator: Unfeazant pushes itself to fight against Koffing despite being poisoned. It falters in the end, nonetheless.
- Didn't See That Coming: Ash pulls a surprise out of his hat by having Levanny—a bug/grass type with a huge disadvantage—use Energy Ball to lower Koffing's special defense. While Roxie is confused by the strategy, she has Koffing use Gyro Ball. It turns out Ash was counting on that, and has Levanny use string shot to spin it around before it can get off a sludge bomb, then hit it with another Energy Ball at close range to take out of the running.
- The Worf Effect: Boldore and Unfeazant both fall to Roxie's Koffing, despite getting in a few good hits, demonstrating how powerful it is.
