"Promise me, Max! Promise me you'll come back and get me!"
—Ralts, telepathically to Max after teleporting away with its family.
Japanese Title: Rescue Ralts! Hurry Masato!
Original Airdate: January 6, 2005
US Airdate: January 21, 2006
It's going to be okay.
Max tends to a sick young Ralts. When it becomes clear it needs more help than Brock can provide in the field, Max and Ash's Snorunt have to rush Ralts to a Pokémon Center, while also defending it from Team Rocket.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- But Now I Must Go: When Ralts is well, Gardevoir and Kirlia return to take Ralts home. Ralts has grown attached to Max and wants to travel with him as it's trainer, but ultimately can't due to Max not being of age yet to be a Pokémon trainer. Max instead makes a promise to Ralts he will come back for it when he begins his Pokémon journey, which is something Ralts, Kirlia and Gardevoir happily accept.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Max. It can also count as one for Snorunt, being only his second episode.
- Delicate and Sickly: Ralts is suffering from an illness that requires the gang to get it to a Pokémon center, with Max being the one to do the deed having grown attached to Ralts.
- Description Cut: When the group wonders if Max made it to the Pokemon Center, May figures he's already made it there and he's relaxing as they speak. Almost instantly, the next scene is a quietly dramatic one in which Max is worried sick whilst he tearfully waits for Ralts to recover.
- Forgot Flanders Could Do That: One of the few times in the Advanced series where Team Rocket fight very competently and keep the twerps on the defence for most of the episode instead of the usual two-minute Curb-Stomp Battle. Even the sparsely active Wobbuffet and Chimecho are used to counter the twerps' attempts to stop them.
- Go Through Me: At one point, Ash, Brock, and May battle Team Rocket to buy Max and Snorunt some distance to get Ralts to the Pokémon Center.
- Hope Spot: James thought he got away without getting blasted off, as Jessie and Meowth were by Ralts at the end. Then he turns around, and sees the real Kirlia and Gardevoir sneaking up right behind him. They quickly blast him off right away.
- Insert Song: The song "Please" is added when Max gets Ralts to the Pokémon Center in the English dub. In the Japanese, the song "Smile" (used as the ending theme at various points in the Hoenn era) is used.
- It's Up to You: When the real Gardevoir and Kirlia first save Max, Ralts, and Snorunt from Team Rocket, Kirlia initially wants to take Ralts back immediately. But Gardevoir stops it from doing so after hearing Max's crying pleas, apparently realizing that Max has to get Ralts to a Pokémon Center to save it. They teleport away with Max promising to return Ralts to it's family once it's healed, and do not return until Ralts is fully healed.
- Mundane Utility: Snorunt uses its Icy Wind to help Max make ice packs to keep Ralts cool from its fever.
- Mythology Gag: Ralts may be a nod to Wally, an NPC in the Hoenn games who sees the Player Character as something of both a rival and an idol. Wally is depicted as sickly in the game, and the player helps him catch a Ralts as his first Pokémon.
- Never Say "Die": Nurse Joy tells the twerps that Ralts had ended up with pneumonia. If it had been even an hour later, she might not have been able to save it.
- Nobody's That Dumb: As often as the twerps are fooled by Team Rocket's Paper Thin Disguises, even they feel insulted when they try the same one against them twice over.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Despite their planning not being their most fool proof this time round, when caught out, Team Rocket for once give the heroes a very intense battle, using all their Pokemon's abilities to perfectly match the twerps'. When the battle is revealed to have all been a diversion for Max, an angry Jessie engulfs the twerps with Seviper's Haze, leaving them out of action for most of the climax.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Team Rocket put on a bad disguise as Ralts' family, but Ralts sees through them and scanning Meowth through Ash's PokéDex gives them away. They try the same disguise again later on. The twerps lampshade that not even they would fall for the same act twice.
- The Promise: Max promises Ralts he will find it when he begins his Pokémon journey.
- Properly Paranoid: When Team Rocket tries to trick the gang into handing over Ralts by disguising themselves, Ash senses something is wrong and scans "Kirlia" with his PokéDex, revealing it to be Meowth in disguise.
- Rage Breaking Point:
- After Team Rocket realise their battle with the twerps was a distraction for Max to escape, Ash and May start jeering at them for falling for it. An absolutely livid Jessie has Seviper borderline suffocate the entire twerp group with Haze to get a heavy head start on pursuing Max.
- Team Rocket foolishly trying to use their disguises at the end of the episode has Max commanding Ralts to hurl them away with Psychic, furiously scolding them by saying that if they cared about Ralts, they wouldn’t let it fall into the hands of crooks like themselves.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Combined with Cross-Popping Veins, Max has these during his Tranquil Fury verbal lashing at Team Rocket before ordering Ralts to blast them off with Psychic.
- Seasonal Baggage: At the end of the episode, leaves fall around them as Max and Ralts have to part.
- Skewed Priorities: When the disguised Meowth is scanned by Ash's PokéDex, he and Jessie seem more distracted by the unflattering entry it gives than being caught out.
- Smart Ball: Everyone seems to be holding it in this episode: for once, Ash and gang aren't fooled by Team Rocket's disguises, and Team Rocket themselves actually match the twerps in battle for a change. James even avoids getting glomped by Cacnea.
- So Proud of You: What May says to Max after Ralts is saved.
- Talking Animal: At the end, Ralts sends a telepathic message to Max asking him to come back for it when he becomes a Pokemon Trainer, revealing it to be female.
- Tender Tears: When the rest of the heroes catch up to Max and Snorunt at the Pokémon Center while Nurse Joy is working on Ralts, Max breaks down and runs to May, hugging her and crying.
- Very Special Episode: This episode, dealing with a sick Pokémon on the verge of dying, is well-known for its highly dramatic and very Tear Jerker tone, even more so than most other episodes of the series not seen since Pikachu's Goodbye.
