AG063

Take the Lombre Home (Japanese: ソルロックとハスブレロ！聖なる森の伝説！ Solrock and ! Legend of the Forest!) is the 63rd episode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and the 337th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It was first broadcast in Japan on February 12, 2004, and in the United States on January 29, 2005.
==Blurb==
Ash and friends are headed to Petalburg City so he can earn his fifth Gym badge. They fall into yet another Team Rocket scheme to steal Pikachu but are saved by a wild Solrock.
The kids arrive at a nearby village where the stream has completely dried up. They send out their Water-type Pokémon to search for water, and Brock's Lotad falls into the empty well. When he pulls it back up, the Pokémon evolves into Lombre. An old woman runs out and calls it their "Water Lord."
Her granddaughter Mary explains that they receive their water from a stream flowing out of a Lombre shrine, which dried up shortly after a meteorite fell to earth. Solrock has been spotted in the woods since then, so they blame it for the drought.
The villagers perform a rain dance with Lombre, and many wild Pokémon join in. Ash and friends use Lombre's dance to draw Solrock out, but May's Skitty runs off toward a cave. When May and Mary explore the cave, they discover a machine built by Team Rocket siphoning water from the stream.
A battle begins, and Solrock ends up using Ember to protect the villagers from Team Rocket's attacks. Pikachu sends the villains blasting off again, while Solrock continues to burn. Brock's Lombre and Mudkip cool down Solrock with their Water Gun attacks, and the steam creates a rainstorm.
The villagers decide to worship Solrock instead, while Ash and friends depart for Petalburg.
==Plot==
As and continue their back to Petalburg City, they realize that they’re out of water. However, reveals there is a world-famous freshwater spring nearby. Meanwhile, is setting up another trap at the spring. They see Ash and the gang coming, so they hide and wait. Max and May are nervous about the dense forest, which is only made worse when a that flies out of a nearby bush, scaring the group. Then they're distracted by a floating nearby, and as they go to follow it they find themselves at the bottom of a hole. The Rocket trio emerge victorious from their hiding place and grab out of the hole with a net. A suddenly knocks over Team Rocket, causing them to drop Pikachu back in the hole. It turns out to be the Solrock who decided to help. While Team Rocket is busy, Ash and the others manage to climb out of the hole. Ash discovers from his Pokédex that Solrock can read people's minds. James has use on Solrock, but to no effect. Solrock angrily responds with a to blast Team Rocket off. When the smoke clears, Solrock has disappeared.
Even though Solrock has vanished after Team Rocket's first defeat, the group decides to continue on to the spring, only to discover that the spring is empty. May notices a village nearby, but as they get closer, they realize that the town is empty, and the river that runs through the town is gone too. Ash sends out because Pokémon can locate water if it is close. Brock has and do the same. comes out of its wanting to help out too. Corphish immediately starts digging in the river bed, while the other three Pokémon take off in another direction. As Corphish continues digging, it only finds a large pot. Mudkip soon finds a well, but it appears dried up. Lotad hops up onto a bucket as if to say something, but it just loses its balance and falls into the well. Thankfully Brock manages to pull it back up without a problem. Suddenly Lotad begins to evolve and it becomes a .
An old woman named Tallulah runs up excited to see Lombre and explains that whenever hardship falls on their town, the "Great Water Lord" Lombre shows himself. Tallulah is convinced that the Solrock and the bad luck it brings is to blame and calls out some other people from one of the houses. One of them is , Tallulah's granddaughter, whom Brock immediately falls in love with. Mary doesn't seem to share Tallulah's belief that it is the Solrock's fault, and brings the gang inside for some water. Mary explains that there is a water shortage because the source of their water, the spring that Ash and his friends found earlier, is no longer running. The spring is believed to be where the Great Lombre Water Lord lives. The villagers think the shortage has something to do with a meteorite they saw crash near the Great Lombre's shrine, and since a Solrock has been wandering around the area, no rain has fallen, all of which makes people think it is the Solrock's fault. Mary's disagrees and is convinced that there has to be an alternate and more scientific explanation.
Outside, the villagers have begun doing a rain dance in hopes of driving away what they believe to be an evil Solrock and end the drought. Ash defends by explaining that it saved his . Mary continues by saying that the villagers should further investigate what might be stopping the water, but Tallulah believes that that would just anger the Water Lord. Tired of arguing, Tallulah starts up the rain dance again. Lombre loves the dancing and joins in, which excites the villagers. Pikachu starts to get excited by it too, and soon some wild Pokémon start dancing as well. All of the enthusiasm is to no avail, though the villagers don't seem to mind. Mary, however, is incredibly frustrated with this since there doesn't seem to be any point in doing the dance if it doesn't work. Ash thinks that the villagers should keep dancing in the hopes that the Solrock will show up. Brock, however, points out that since Solrock can read minds, it probably won't go to a place where there are a bunch of people angry at it. Brock comes up with a solution, though, and has Lombre just dance on its own, that way Solrock wouldn't be scared away. Sure enough this works, as Solrock soon joins Lombre.
As the two Pokémon start having a conversation, suddenly comes out of its Poké Ball and runs off into the forest, with May quickly following. Mary joins the chase and soon Skitty goes into a cave, which thankfully Mary knows very well. Skitty is found quickly, as well a pump that has been pumping out all of the villagers' water. It turns out that is on the other side of the pump, filling water bottles in the hopes of making tons of money selling them. pops out of his Poké Ball and spots Lombre and Solrock, so Team Rocket decides to try to steal the two Pokémon too. Meanwhile, Solrock has begun dancing with . Tallulah believes that if Solrock is allowed to dance, the village will be cursed with even more sunlight, so she rounds up the villagers and they charge at Solrock. Solrock immobilizes them with , but Ash and Lombre convince Solrock to put the villagers down. Just as Mary, May, and Skitty make it back to start warning everyone about Team Rocket, the evil trio emerge from the ground with a new mecha to steal Lombre and Solrock, but Brock has Lombre use to cut through the capture net. Pikachu launches its first , only for Team Rocket to fire a stream of water directly at him.
Team Rocket continues the stream of water and attempts to fire water at the villagers, but Solrock blocks the water with its body, and as Brock points out: Solrock should be weak against water since it's a . The villagers are in amazement that Solrock saved them. Solrock is giving off so much heat as it spins that the water doesn't phase it, and it damages Team Rocket's mecha by battering it. Ash has Pikachu ultimately fire a second Thunderbolt to blast Jessie, James and Meowth off, this time destroying the mecha. Unfortunately, Solrock is giving off so much power that it can't control itself to the point where it turns into a floating fireball and starts heading straight for the village. To stop it, Lombre and Mudkip use , and all the steam being given off by the two attacks creates clouds in the sky. Soon the rain clouds are thick and it begins to rain, with the spring quickly filling up again. Now that the villagers' lives are back to normal, they begin to give thanks to Lombre. Tallulah announces that Solrock is the new Sacred Guardian of their spring, so all the villagers remove their Lombre-style hats to reveal their new Solrock headbands. Mary is at least thankful that the villagers changed their minds about Solrock. Soon after, the heroes are off to Petalburg City as the journey continues.
==Major events==
* 's evolves into .
===Debuts===
====Pokémon debuts====
* ()
=====TV episode debuts=====
* 
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Max
* Jessie
* James
* (fantasy)
* 
* Tallulah
* Villagers
===Pokémon===
Pokémon Trainer's Choice: 
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (, evolves)
* (, newly evolved; debut)
* ()
* ()
* ()
* 
* 
* 
* (×3)
* 
* 
==Trivia==
* This episode's English dub title is a reference to the song by .
** In the case of the dub, the title references the famous song .
** For the dub, as sounds similar to the word , the title is a play on the saying .
* This episode implies that water produced by Pokémon is unsafe to drink.
* Advance Adventure and music from Mewtwo Strikes Back can be heard in this episode.
* Tallulah says they are "suffering the slings and arrows of crisis and misfortune." This references the famous "" soliloquy in .
===Errors===
* When blasts off at the beginning of the episode, Jessie's Seviper and are seen, even though they were never called out. Also, disappears.
* When Team Rocket says that could dry 's hair with , it is shown using . In addition, Solrock cannot learn Ember.
* Brock's Mudkip cries when it is called out of the , but its mouth doesn't move.
* Despite Pokémon water being implied as unsafe to drink, the rainwater drank at the end of the episode is actually just the water from and after going through evaporation and condensation. This water would still be unsafe to drink.
===Dub edits===
====Pokémon Trainer's Choice====
* Question: Trainers, which one of these Pokémon is the best choice to battle ?
* Choices: , , 
* Answer: OK, Trainers! If you chose Camerupt, you were right!
==In other languages==
063
Category:Episodes written by Shōji Yonemura
Category:Episodes storyboarded and directed by Yoshito Hata
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Yoshito Hata
Category:Episodes directed by Yoshito Hata
Category:Episodes animated by Kumiko Shishido
Category:Episodes focusing on Brock
Category:Episodes in which a main character's Pokémon evolves
de:Der Lord des Wassers
es:EP339
fr:AG063
it:RZ063
ja:AG編第63話
zh:宝可梦 超世代 第63集