SM064: A Touchdown for the Team!

is the 21st episode of .
==Episode plot==
A group of Machamp have fallen by a group of Pokémon. Officer Jenny goes to investigate, questioning why the Red Buns have arrived to this island. One of the Pokémon smiles, having a scar on its eye. Ash is at the marketplace with his Pokémon, and is amazed by the aroma. The old woman offers him some food, and he takes it. Ash's Torracat steps forward, as the old woman sees Litten has grown a bit. Ash and Rotom correct her it is Torracat, who evolved. Regardless, the woman gives Ash's Pokémon some Sitrus Berries, and they eat them. As they eat, Ash's Pikachu senses something. The group of Pokémon run off, and throw a fruit away, which hits Ash on his face. The Pokémon, Passimian, take Ash's Rowlet by accident, who fell out of Ash's backpack. The old woman explains Passimian usually live in the forest playing with fruit, and it is unusual to see them here. Ash shows the Passimian the fruit, who realize they grabbed Rowlet, and let it fly away. Ash throws the fruit to the Passimian, who are terrified; Ash turns around, seeing a bunch of bigger, more intimidating Passimian.
Ash thinks these ones are just their friends. However, he gets knocked away by one, as it passes by them. The other Passimian catch Ash, and one passes by the two enemy Passimian, but gets hit by the scarred Passimian, and is knocked out. A Passimian grabs the fruit, but is quickly surrounded by the opponent team Passimian. The Passimian throws the fruit to the other one, who fails to grab the fruit, which lands into Ash's face. Confused, Ash gives the fruit to the scarred Passimian, who yells out and walks away with its team, leaving the other Passimian sad. Officer Jenny arrives to tend to the knocked out Passimian she names "Tiny", and Ash tells her about the events. Officer Jenny tells the scarred Passimian is the leader, and asks for his help to take Tiny to the Pokémon Center. There, Nurse Joy has taken care of Tiny, and believes it will recover tomorrow. She sees this Passimian team is named Melemele Greens, who live in the forest near Lili'i Town. Jenny explains the enemy Passimian team from Akala Island, Red Buns, led by Claw, came to stir trouble, and had no choice but to set guards around to watch over the place. Ash, however, wishes Tiny would recover soon.
The next day, Ash explains what happened yesterday, and throws Rowlet as the fruit. He tells the meaner-looking Passimian showed up and snatched the fruit, apparently a violent team coming from Akala Island. Kiawe believes those were the Red Buns, led by Claw, who assaulted his ranch once and made lots of damage. Sophocles wonders why they came to Melemele Island for a fruit, thinking it is quite tasty. Professor Kukui comes and believes they wanted to decide the leader of the team. He explains the Passimian teams have a special fruit, and whoever takes it becomes the leader of that team. Ash realizes the leader of Melemele Greens was Tiny, and hopes it is doing okay. Later, Ash goes with Officer Jenny to find the Passimian nest, since he was worried about Tiny. The two see the Passimian are playing with each other, throwing berries and even Passimian. Ash goes to the trio he saw yesterday, seeing they are quite sad. With a large stomp, everyone stops, as the Red Buns came. Claw places the fruit into a handmade basket, and the other Passimian serve it. Jenny notes Claw is the leader now, and heard the team has been attacking other Passimian teams on other islands.
Ash tries to encourage the Melemele Greens to stand up, since this is bothersome. The trio continues gloating, while Ash hopes for a way to fix this. The next day, Kiawe walks into the classroom, but is startled to see Ash and Pikachu hanging from the ceiling. Ash starts jumping and leaping away, as Sophocles explains he has been like that all morning. Kukui comes to class, and notes Ash is doing great. He tells the class he wants to tell the Passimian something, and is training like this. Thus, he lets Ash behave this Passimian behavior, as long as it does not disturb the class. Ash cries out a voice, and Lana jokes he is thanking Professor Kukui. At lunch, Ash snatches Rowlet's berry, making Rowlet angry. Mallow shares her berry with Rowlet, while Ash plays around. Mallow believes he is starting to become like a real Passimian, but Lana thinks something is missing. Lillie has an idea, and has Mallow and Lana make a costume, while she paints Ash. In a moment, the class notes Ash looks like a real Passimian, who thanks them. Sophocles reminds he forgot its voice, so Ash mutters out Passimian's cry.
At the forest, Ash walks to the Passimian, but they become alert at his presence. Ash waves at the Melemele Greens, who are still sad and ignore Ash. Suddenly, a Passimian touches Ash's tail, and Ash offers it a berry. The Passimian becomes excited and grabs the berry, then walks away and throws the berry at Ash. Ash becomes sad, but sees Passimian wants to play, and throws the berry back at it. More Passimian join in the game, making Ash's classmates amazed he blended in. The Melemele Greens join in, and throw the berry away. Ash takes it and throws it, but seeing it flew quite far, he apologizes for that. The Melemele Greens let Tiny jump up and snatch the berry, who gracefully descends down. The Passimian cheer until they hear the loud footsteps of the Red Buns. The trio sit down and have the Passimian serve them. Just as Claw goes to eat the berries, a berry is thrown at its hand to stop it. Claw is angry, as the Melemele Greens step forward. Tiny points at the fruit, which Claw grabs, being challenged to a fight. The teams leave, but Claw has more Passimian join them. Nobody wants to, so Ash decides to help the Melemele Greens out. The teams leave, so Ash's classmates follow them.
At the beach, the two teams have a showdown against each other, with other Passimian and Ash's classmates watching. Claw throws the fruit. Upon the fruit falling down, the two teams dash to grab the fruit. Ash is surprised the match has immediately started, and dashes away. The Red Buns' Passimian grabs the fruit and throws it to the other one, who gets held by a Melemele Greens' Passimian. The fruit is passed to Claw, whom Ash and Tiny attempt to stop. The fruit is held by the Red Buns, who dodge and hit away the Melemele Greens. The Red Buns' Passimian passes the fruit, which Ash manages to catch. He dodges a Red Buns' Passimian and throws to a Melemele Greens' Passimian, which astounds the spectators Passimian. Ash gets the fruit, and seeing the Red Buns are charging at him, he remembers how the Red Buns took out the Melemele Greens. He avoids the two Red Buns' Passimian, but drops the fruit, which Claw obtains, and is passed to the other Red Buns. Ash's classmates fear this means a loss for Ash and his team.
Ash orders Melemele Greens around, who understand. Claw throws the fruit away, but Tiny jumps up from a Passimian and grabs the fruit. The Red Buns charge, but Tiny jumps off from a tree onto the Red Buns, and reaches the other side. Ash is amazed, but Tiny sees the Red Buns hold onto the rest of his team. A Passimian appears behind Tiny, and the spectator Passimian join in the match. The Red Buns are overwhelmed by the Passimian, allowing Tiny to pass the fruit and win the match. Ash and his classmates are glad the leader has changed. The fruit is passed to Ash, who is raised up and taken away. Ash is confused, while Lana comments Ash has become the new leader.
At night, Kukui visits Ash's Pokémon, who are waiting on the porch. He assures them Ash will return soon. Just then, the ground trembles, as Ash comes to the house, with the entire Passimian nest.
==Debuts==
===Pokémon===
*Passimian
==Trivia==
*Dare Da?: Passimian
*The Poké Problem segment hosted by Nurse Joy asks what's the team name for Passimian of Melemele Island featured in today's episode. The correct answer is the green answer, Melemele Greens. The other answers are Blue Oceans (blue), Red Buns (red), and Yellow Socks (yellow).
**This segment was not shown in the original broadcast of the episode, the trailer of the 21st movie was shown in its place.
*This episode was skipped in US airings of the English dub, due to a 'controversial' scene of Lillie painting Ash like Passimian as it can be perceived as . It was also skipped in other dubs, aside from the Korean, Chinese, and Thai dubs, which are based on the original Japanese version, instead of the English dub, like most dubs are based on, although foreign versions nowadays base their version of the original Japanese audio combined with the US scripts and music. While the episode has not been shown in the dub, the English title has been released on Netflix.
**This makes it the first episode since "The Ice Cave!" in Pokémon: Master Quest, to be banned in the US by the companies, due to 'blackface offences', a total of 16 years apart.
**This is the only non-dubbed episode of the main series to have an official English title, due to The Pokémon Company listing all episodes of the Pokémon anime that are available on the Korean version of Netflix with their official English titles.
*Before dragged away by Passimian, Ash exclaims "What even *is* this feeling?", Team Rocket's phrase. (This is localized in English as "Team Rocket's blasting off again!").
==Gallery==
==References==
Category:Episodes focusing on Ash
Category:Banned and skipped episodes