Our heroes are enjoying a little Wailmer watching at the beach when a Lapras appears in the distance, crying out for help. But it's not just any Lapras; it's Ash's old Lapras from the Orange Islands! After a touching reunion, she guides Ash and co. to the source of her troubles: a Wailmer stuck in the rocks! Can they get it out?
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Brock can't help but chuckle when Misty calls Ash clueless for failing to recognize that they're talking about him.
- Blackmail: Pikachu forces Team Rocket to cooperate by threatening to zap them.
- The Bus Came Back: In addition to Ash's Lapras reuniting with her old trainer, Ash has Kingler, Heracross, Sirfetch'd, Bayleef, and Torterra on his team, while Misty brings out her Gyrados, and Brock brings back his Marshstomp years after Advanced Generation ended.
- Call-Back:
- A Wailmer gets stuck, and Ash and co. try to free it, only for it to evolve into Wailord when it seemingly gets free. This happened before in "Leading a Stray!" back on Diamond and Pearl.
- Bayleef cuddles with Ash upon being let out of her Poké Ball.
- Lapras uses her Ice Beam to freeze the rising tide, then has Wailord use Weather Ball to create an ice path she can slide in and grab Ash out. This recounts Ash's first Gym Challenge in the Orange Islands, where he had Lapras use Ice Beam to create a sliding path to help him win the race against Blastoise.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Team Rocket tries swiping Pikachu once Wailord is freed, but Pikachu sees it coming and zaps the hatch open to their Magikarp Submarine.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: At the end, Misty realizes they could have just caught the Wailmer in a Poké Ball and released it afterwards, but Ash thinks the whole experience was worth it.
- Empathy Pet: Misty and Brock note that Ash's Lapras has the same desire to help as he does.
- From Bad to Worse: After freeing the Wailmer, it bounces itself into a cave...and then evolves into Wailord!
- Idiot Ball: It doesn't occur to the heroes until later that they could have just caught Wailmer in a Poké Ball and then released it instead of going through all that trouble to pull it out with brute force.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Team Rocket's attempt to swipe Pikachu when the crisis is over is rewarded with Pikachu blowing the hatch on their submarine, which sinks into the ocean and starts drowning them.
- Look What I Can Do Now!: Torterra has learned Frenzy Plant.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Implied by Torterra knowing Frenzy Plant, the strongest Grass-type attack. In his debut series, Torterra rarely won any battles and was prone to The Worf Effect, so logically he must have gotten a lot stronger since then.
- Put on a Bus: Lapras departs as the leader of her herd, making her final appearance in the anime.
- Super Mode: Played for Laughs. Team Rocket uses a soda to boost their pedaling power on their submarine to free the stuck Wailord.
