Japanese Title: Bizarre! Mystery of the Kinococo Mansion!?
Original Airdate: January 23, 2003
US Airdate: December 6, 2003
On the road to Rustboro city, Ash and friends come across Rinshin Town and decide to split and explore the town. Ash and Max come upon a lonely Shroomish and manage to befriend it with some Pokémon food, with Max tying a ribbon on the Pokémon's head, but not long after, Shroomish suddenly run offs to a mansion called the Green Lodge, with Ash and Max on its trail.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Didn't Think This Through: Team Rocket's new mecha is airtight to combat the Shroomishs' Stun Spore but they neglected to add a mechanism that allows fresh air to circulate in the machine. This leads to the Trio suffering from lack of oxygen and forces them to open the windows to prevent suffocation, and not only does this allow them to breathe, they also breathe in Stun Spore, leaving them vulnerable to blasting off.
- Foreshadowing: This marks the first episode in which May is able to successfully use her inexperienced Torchic to save the day, having it use Ember to burn the mecha of the Team Rocket and free the captured Shroomish, showing that little by little she's gaining more experience as a trainer and improving.
- Haunted House: The people of Rinshin believe the Green Lodge is haunted due to demolition workers suddenly fainting on the clock. Its later revealed to be caused by the Shroomishs' Stun Spore.
- Misplaced Wildlife: As Max points out, Shroomish usually reside in forests and finds them living in a mansion illogical. Turns out that the mansion they now occupy used to be in the middle of a forest that gradually became the metropolis that Rinshin Town is today.
