Japanese Title: Rocket Gang and Delibird!
Original Airdate: January 10, 2002
US Airdate: January 25, 2003
Are you absolutely sure you want to re-join Team Rocket that badly?
Jessie, James, and Meowth get twisted up when they end up finding a Team Rocket recruiter and her Delibird. Can they prove that they deserve to officially be part of Team Rocket again? Or is Team Rocket just that desperate that they need the trio back?
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Affably Evil: The Rocket scout seems like a pleasant old woman for someone who recruits for Team Rocket. Even her Delibird is pretty chipper for a Pokémon that's essentially a debt collector.
- Bad Santa: Downplayed. There is a Delibird working for Team Rocket, but he seems Affably Evil and could be Just Following Orders from his trainer.
- Evil Is Petty: Wendy holds a grudge against Jessie for sticking her with a bill for smoothies, which the latter promised to pay back but never did. Seriously.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Delibird uses Present on Pikachu, which ends up restoring Pikachu's energy, allowing him to blast Jessie, James, and Meowth off.
- Now You Tell Me: Said word for word by Ash to his Pokédex when it informs him that the majority of Delibird's Presents explode, after the Presents blow up in his and the others' faces.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Jessie, James, and Meowth are allowed back into Team Rocket, but their "recruitment bonus" is used to pay off their debt to Giovanni, and Delibird will come by occasionally to collect more money from them.
- Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Averted. The expenses for all those mechas the Rocket trio used added up into a very large debt.
- Unknown Rival: Wendy to Jessie. The latter doesn't even remember the smoothie incident, going as far to say that she prefers coffee and hates smoothies. Poor Wendy...
- Villain Episode: The Team Rocket Trio are the main focus of this episode, with Ash and co. taking up more of a supporting role. This episode mostly focuses on the former's financial debt and ordeals with their past failures and issues regarding daily losses to Ash and co. and their status as Team Rocket mooks.
