SM114: Beauty Is Only Crystal Deep!

is the 22nd episode of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon - Ultra Legends.
==Synopsis==
When a mysterious Pokémon steals Hala’s Z-Crystal, the Ultra Guardians leap into action—even though it’s the middle of the night! They return empty-handed, but the next day, Lusamine tells them they’re looking for an Ultra Beast named Pheromosa. Pheromosa is fascinated with Z-Crystals, and it’s stolen several from unsuspecting Trainers. When it steals Team Rocket’s Z-Crystals, Meowth is no help—because he’s infatuated with the thief! But when it becomes obvious that Pheromosa only cares about Z-Crystals, Meowth’s heart breaks, and he returns to his friends…including Bewear, who inadvertently helps the Ultra Guardians return Pheromosa to its own world!
==Episode plot==
At night, an Ultra Wormhole opens, from which an alluring Ultra Beast comes out. Once descended down on the floor, it dashes into the forest. Elsewhere, Hala is creating a Z-Ring, and places a Fightinium Z in it. He looks at the door and hears someone, suspecting a guest. Upon seeing the Ultra Beast, he sends Hariyama, who blocks the Ultra Beast's attack, which makes Hala wonder what this creature is. At Kukui's house, Ash and his Pokémon sleep, until they get woken up by Kukui, as an Ultra Beast was spotted. Thus, the heroes go onto their Ride Pokémon and fly away to the site of the incident. Hariyama continues blocking the Ultra Beast's attacks, but gets hit and blown away. The Ultra Beast stares at Hala for a bit, then walks into his house and takes a Fightinium Z. Just then, the Ultra Guardians arrive to the scene, but the Ultra Beast dashes away and disappears. Rotom is disappointed, as it could not take a good picture of it. Lillie tends to Hala, who admits he is fine, but his Z-Crystal was stolen.
At morning, the class begins, though the heroes are very tired from the action last night. Ash yawns, to which Lillie comments about it before she yawns, too. As they think of the lack of sleep, Professor Kukui comes in, stating they did a good job last night, even if they weren't able to catch the Ultra Beast. Suddenly, Komala rings the bell as a distress signal, and the heroes change into their Ultra Guardians outfits. Lusamine greets them, apologizing for sending them to the mission the middle of the night. Burnet shows pictures of the Ultra Beast, but they are very muffled, and they had trouble analyzing it. Lusamine explains that many trainers have been attacked by the Ultra Beast, all of whom have their Z-Crystals stolen. Wicke adds they named it as Pheromosa, who may have been attracted to the energy that the Z-Crystals emit. Kiawe is still furious, swearing justice for this Ultra Beast thief.
Rotom downloads the data about the Bug/Fighting-type Pheromosa. Burnet reminds about the damage that this Pheromosa could cause if they do not find it quickly. The Ultra Guardians understand, and for the mission, the Meltan carry supplies. The heroes praise the Meltan, whom Clefable gives out some bolts as food. Lusamine dispatches the Ultra Guardians, who fly off. At Bewear's cave, James polishes the Z-Crystals, and while Jessie reads a magazine, Wobbuffet and Meowth eat the berries. The Ultra Beast, Pheromosa, approaches them. Meowth looks at Pheromosa, and becomes infatuated; he offers her a berry, and comments her "pretty gaze". Jessie becomes worried about Meowth, while James is interested in Pheromosa. The latter hits James and snatches the Z-Crystals. Jessie demands them back, but Pheromosa kicks Meowth's berry to her face, and dashes away. Meowth goes after the "Dear Beauty", leaving Wobbuffet worried and calling for help. Bewear and Stufful return with more berries, and look at the mess that Pheromosa has made.
Pheromosa gazes at the Z-Crystals, while Meowth praises "her" beauty. Meowth wants it name, but Pheromosa does not reply to him, so he decides to call it "Beauty". Pheromosa continues to ignore him, and looks at its stash of Z-Crystals. Meowth notices that, and upon seeing the Ultra Guardians arriving, mentions that he knows some people that have a lot of these crystals. Pheromosa is now listening by Meowth's knowledge and gives him a look, to which Meowth becomes stunned and hypnotized. As the Ultra Guardians try to find Pheromosa, they get blinded by Meowth's charm, as he has their attention. The Ultra Guardians descend down, wondering what plan is he plotting. Meowth admits he has something, and they need to fight him off using Z-Moves. Ash goes up for this challenge, and raises his hand for Z-Move, but Meowth manage to signal Pheromosa quickly. Thanks to Meowth's perfect ambush, Pheromosa able to snatch the Electrium Z, which angers Ash; Pikachu uses Quick Attack at Pheromosa, who evades the attack. Jessie and James try to find Meowth, and the latter comments how Meowth falls in love often.
They find him making a strange look, which James and Wobbuffet think of as funny. Meowth admits he is here to serve his Beauty. Jessie demands the Z-Crystals back, to which Meowth simply replies that he now knows what love feels like. Jessie outbursts to drop the look and accent, and to return the Z-Crystals. Meowth simply fantasizes how romantic moments they'll spend together. He tries to kiss her, but Pheromosa leaves the area. Meowth goes after her, as do the Ultra Guardians, which leaves Jessie annoyed. Later, the Ultra Guardians are exhausted in their base, failed to have caught up with Pheromosa because of its unstoppable speed. Burnet thinks they can only react and catch Pheromosa once it shows up. Wicke believes they can set up a trap, and calls Faba, who quickly appears on the screen. He shows a device, on which he places a fake Z-Crystal; if Pheromosa were to get to it, it'd be caught in the sticky trap that she cannot come out of, due to the adhesive. However, he gets caught in the trap, and asks of others to help him out.
The Ultra Guardians place the Z-Crystals in the container, and let the adhesive come out. As the heroes hide behind the boulders, Jessie and James look at the Ultra Guardian twerps' plan. They already think of how to take back their Z-Crystals, and steal the others ones at it once they served their purposes. Meowth walks with Pheromosa, and the two see the Z-Crystals in the container. Pheromosa goes after them, but Meowth sees it is a trap, and goes onto the floor and gets stuck. Pheromosa bounces off Meowth and grabs the Z-Crystals. Pikachu goes to attack her, but gets kicked away. Ash sends Lycanroc, Kiawe brings out Turtonator, and along with Lana's Brionne, they use their Z-Rings to power their Pokémon up. However, Pheromosa quickly snatches the crystals before the trio could react. Togedemaru, Snowy and Tsareena attempt to attack, but get hit by Pheromosa. Jessie has Mimikyu use Shadow Ball, but it targets Pikachu instead of Pheromosa. Thus, Mareanie fires Spike Cannon at Pheromosa, who dodges the attack and goes to counterattack. Wobbuffet stands in her way and uses Counter, but Pheromosa is too strong for it and kicks Team Rocket and shatters the boulder that they were behind.
thumb|Bewear and Pheromosa's battle.
Meowth snapped out and sees his teammates are getting attacked, and goes to them to prevent Pheromosa from hurting them. Pheromosa kicks Meowth away back to the sticky trap, who tries to get to the Beauty. Pheromosa doesn't care, which makes everyone realize it was using Meowth for her own goals. As Team Rocket wonders what they could do, Stufful inexplicably appears, causing them to realize that Bewear was coming. Bewear walks in, sees her friends hurt and becomes enraged, emitting a malevolent aura in the process before she charges at the Ultra Beast, smashing the rock behind it much to Team Rocket's horror. Bewear then throws another boulder at Pheromosa, which cracks as she charges up and sends the Ultra Beast flying into another one with a single kick. The Ultra Guardians are left stunned as they witness a seemingly normal Pokémon being able to combat the Ultra Beast without much difficulty. As she walks up to the Ultra Beast, Pheromosa quickly gets back up and starts running in circles around Bewear, who dispels her aura and simply stares in circles. Pheromosa then stops and tries to kick Bewear, but she retaliates with a powerful uppercut punch.
The Ultra Beast falls down, and the Z-Crystals it stole fall out from it. Rotom declares a victory for Bewear, who then take Team Rocket, their two rightful Z-Crystals, and a heartbroken Meowth back, then dashes away. The Ultra Guardians are left confounded, but Rotom reminds Ash to catch Pheromosa before it woke up. Tossing the Beast Ball, Ash captures the Ultra Beast. However, they feel disappointed that Pheromosa's defeat was not their own doing. Later, with the Aether Foundation with the Ultra Guardians, Ash sends Pheromosa out, who sticks its tongue out at the group as it returns to its own plane; Kiawe remarks for it not to come back while Mallow tells it to stay in its home next time. Ash is glad everything's over, but Sophocles shows they still have to return the Z-Crystals to their respective owners. As the heroes decide to split the task, Lillie wonders what became of Faba, who is still stuck in his trap. An employee claims he could take off his clothes; he does so, but sneezes and finds it embarrassing. 
At Bewear's cave, Meowth is still depressed how he betrayed everyone because Pheromosa manipulated him. Bewear returns with some berries, and gives out a large one to Meowth, just to forget what Pheromosa did to him. Jessie claims there's no need to be humble, as the berries are for everyone. Thus, Team Rocket eats the berries, with Meowth adding this is where he belongs to.
Faba shows a new invention to Wicke and Lusamine, which allows one to lock their sight to a lifeform, in case Pheromosa returns. He lets a Ribombee out, but as it flies, so does Faba, much to his displeasure.
==Trivia==
*"Who's That Pokémon?:" Pheromosa (JA and EN)
*The Poké Problem segment hosted by Hala asks which Ultra Beast appears in today's episode. The correct answer is the blue answer, Pheromosa. The other answers are Buzzwole (red), Celesteela (green), and Stakataka (yellow).
*The Japanese title is a reference to the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast".
**Beauty might also be derived from the code name of Pheromosa, "UB02: BEAUTY".
*The English title is a pun on the expression "beauty is only skin deep".
*Hala's encounter with Pheromosa is a reference to a Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon cutscene.
*The way Bewear defeated Pheromosa might be inspired by her counterpart from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
==Gallery==
==References==
pl:SM114
Category:Episodes featuring Mythical Pokémon
Category:Episodes featuring Ultra Beasts
Category:Episodes featuring the Ultra Guardians
Category:Episodes focusing on Meowth
Category:Episodes featuring Island Kahunas
Category:Episodes in which a main character obtains a new Pokémon
Category:Episodes in which a main character releases or gives away a Pokémon
Category:Episodes featuring alternate colored Pokémon
Category:Episodes featuring Elite Four members