Japanese Title: Sauboh's Counterattack! The Kidnapped Hoshigumo!!
Original Airdate: November 166, 2017
US Airdate: March 30, 2018
What dastardly design does Faba have in mind for the twerps?
Lillie is now free of her fear of Pokémon, but the incident is far from over. Now that Faba cannot control her memories, he kidnaps Nebby so he can complete his work of opening the Ultra Wormholes.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Ace Pilot: When the twerps realize Nebby was probably taken to the Aether Foundation, Hobbes shows up at the Pokémon School in a jet to take them there.
- Animation Bump: Masaaki Iwane has gone on record saying that the scene with Lillie jumping rope with all of the other Pokemon was one of the hardest scenes to animate.
- Ash Face: Lillie accidentally triggers Shell Trap on Turtonator. All the twerps, and even their Pokémon, end up with afros. She just laughs.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Normally, Ash is content to defeat others in a Pokémon battle. When he physically attacks Faba himself, you know he's pissed.
- Cliffhanger: Lusamine gets taken by Nihilego through an Ultra Wormhole, leaving the others with no way to rescue her.
- Go Through Me: Lusamine and Gladion stand between Lillie and Nihilego. When it targets Gladion, Lusamine knocks him out of the way so the Ultra Beast takes her instead of him or Lillie.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: Lampshaded by Faba, who realises that his Aether Foundation uniform makes him stand out, so he disguises himself as a janitor. This doesn't work either, so he opts to hide in a bush and leave a trail of star candy instead.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Reconstructed. Faba, in spite of some buffoonish attempts to kidnap Nebby, ultimately succeeds in using the Pokemon to open an Ultra Space wormhole, only to get swatted out of the way by Nihilego, reducing him to the Disc-One Final Boss.
- Irony: Faba could've avoided himself being punted across the room by Nihilego had he known about Nihilego's typing of Rock/Poison, and how Faba himself specializes in Psychic Type Pokémon which have a major advantage against Nihilego otherwise.
- Loner-Turned-Friend: Now that she's free of her past trauma, Lillie wants to be with all the Pokémon at the Pokémon School.
- Mama Bear: Lusamine was not willing to risk another Ultra Beast attack on her kids.
- Mobile Shrubbery: Part of Faba's plan to lure Nebby away.
- Mood Whiplash: The first half is light-hearted and humorous...until Faba kidnaps Nebby, after which the story takes another dark turn.
- Mythology Gag: Faba stuffs Nebby into the same box that Lusamine used in the games.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The twerps manage to free Nebby from Faba's machine, but then Nebby evolves into Cosmoem, and the evolution powers the machine back up, completing activation of the Ultra Wormhole.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Faba tries to get past the twerps by posing as a street cleaner. Team Rocket consider this amateur work.
- Parental Title Characterization: In the dub, Lillie briefly lets go of her formal title for Lusamine at the very end of the episode.Lillie: Mother...Mother...oh no, MOMMY!
- Shout-Out: The way Faba activates his net appears to be taken right out of Sailor Moon.
- Spanner in the Works: Team Rocket screw up Faba's first attempt at catching Nebby.
- Tap on the Head: Nihilego knocks an ecstatic Faba into a wall, knocking him out.
- That Russian Squat Dance: Ash is briefly doing this when he is doing jump rope training.
- The Unsmile: When the Ultra Space wormhole opens and Nihilego emerges, Lusamine reacts with a rather creepy entranced smile. As protective as she is of her kids, discovering Ultra Beasts is still her life's work. She gives another creepy smile as Nihilego is carrying her away in it's arms, one that looks like it's trying to be reassuring to her kids but also gives the sense that she's being taken over by something.
- Villainous Breakdown: Faba clearly isn't right in the head when you consider the masquerade he has been holding for 4 years prior has been completely shattered, and when he's ecstatic to once again have opened an Ultra Wormhole to see Nihilego, his guard is so heavily down that Nihilego knocks him across the room for his troubles.
