Japanese Title: Satoshi VS Kasumi! The Final Battle in the Whirlpool Cup!!
Original Airdate: September 27th, 2001
US Airdate: November 2nd, 2002
The Whirl Cup continues as Ash goes up against Misty in Round 2. Battling her will be extremely tough, especially since he has to battle with Pokémon of her specialty: Water. Will Ash be able to beat Misty for the third time in a row? And if not, will the competition for Misty be tougher than ever?
Tropes
- Anti-Climax: The Whirl Cup arc comes to an end this episode with Misty being eliminated before even reaching the semi-finals. Her fight with Ash can also count as this given it ended before the halfway point of the episode despite how hyped up it was.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: James gives a play-by-play "for the folks at home" about how Team Rocket is going to steal the Sea Spirit Sapphire. It fails.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Downplayed with Kingler. Technically the bus arrived last episode but this was the first time Ash has actually used Kingler since the Indigo League.
- Downplayed with Psyduck as the "bus" never left in this case but the last time Psyduck was used in a battle was 107 episodes ago.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Misty's Psyduck is barely able to do anything besides flailing during the fight against Ash. However, once Kingler gives him a headache, Psyduck is able to unleash his psychic powers and helps Misty win the match.
- Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Not a plothole exactly, but when Ash suggests Corsola could use Mirror Coat against Gyarados's Hyper Beam, Brock mentions that Mirror Coat only works on Water attacks. Aside from this being blatantly untrue, the very same fight has Corsola use Mirror Coat against an Electric attack just a few minutes later. Somewhat justified as this was before the Physical-Special split had happened note .
- Idiot Ball:
- Ash would have won his match against Misty if he had Kingler doing anything but attacking Psyduck's head.
- For whatever reason Jessie warned Maya and the police that they would be stealing the Sea Spirit. Predictably, all this does is increase security and Team Rocket can't even get close to the thing.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: See Offscreen Inertia below.
- No Kill like Overkill: The water guns had already sent Team Rocket flying off but Ash just had to order Pikachu to blow their balloon to kingdom come on top of that with a thundershock. Overdoing it much, Ash?
- No-Sell: Trinity's Chinchou doesn't even flinch after being hit by Corsola's Mirror Coat.
- Offscreen Inertia: Near the beginning of the episode, Team Rocket are seen peering around a corner discussing how to steal the Sea Spirit Sapphire. About halfway through, we see them again in the same pose, and James asks how long they have to stand like this.
