Ash's Virbank Gym battle continues from the previous episode. Despite having been allowed to use all six of his Pokémon against Roxie's three, Ash, like all her other challengers, is at a disadvantage. Her Poison Pokémon are chipping away at his team's health and he's already had to use three Pokémon just to beat her Koffing. His third, Leavanny, is now facing her Scolipede, who has badly poisoned it with Toxic. Leavanny tries to put up a fight, but nothing it does works and it is knocked out. Ash then sends out Pignite, who has an advantage since Scolipede is part Bug-type. Pignite is badly poisoned with Toxic and loses a lot of energy as a result, but eventually its Fire-type moves manage to beat Scolipede. Afterwards, Roxie even gives Pignite a Pecha Berry to cure the poison for the final round. Unfortunately, her final Pokémon is her strongest, a Garbodor, and thanks to its powerful attacks and the use of its long, flexible arms, it beats Pignite without too much trouble. Ash sends in Palpitoad next, hoping for a type advantage again, but even it is overwhelmed thanks to a combination of Gunk Shot and Venoshock and it is knocked out. Ash is now down to just Pikachu. It struggles at first and takes a couple of hits and gets poisoned, but manages to hang tough and put up a fight. However, Pikachu is still at a disadvantage and takes multiple hits from Double-Slap. Fortunately, however, this activates Pikachu's Static ability, paralyzing Garbodor. The resulting drop in speed gives Pikachu the opportunity to turn things around and it manages to land the right combination of attacks, finally knocking out Garbodor and defeating Roxie. She congratulates Ash on his victory and awards him the Toxic Badge. With all eight badges now on hand, Ash has qualified to enter the Unova League.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Breaking Old Trends: Only Pikachu is there to celebrate Ash getting his badge, whereas normally all his other Pokémon come out and cheer with them. In most of the cases, they were poisoned, so they weren't really able to join in.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Roxie winds up losing because she forgot about Pikachu's hidden ability, Static, which can paralyze a Pokémon when it physically attacks an electric type. In this case, she was having Garbodor beat the crap out of Pikachu using multiple Double Slaps.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: At the end of the battle, Roxie gives Pikachu a Pecha Berry to heal his poisoning. She even gives one to Pignite after it beats Scolipede, not wanting Ash to be at a disadvantage against her most powerful team member.
- The Worf Effect: Palpitoad goes down to Garbodor in spite of a type advantage due to how powerful it is.
- Worf Had the Flu: Levanny, Pignite and Pikachu put up the strongest fights between Ash's team members, but all except Pikachu wind up falling in the end due to heavy poisoning.
