EP044

The Problem with Paras (Japanese: パラスとパラセクト Paras and Parasect) is the 44th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on May 14, 1998, and in the United States on February 13, 1999. It was initially intended to air in Japan on February 10, 1998, but was rescheduled following the EP038 incident.
==Blurb==
As our heroes continue their journey, Team Rocket never let up with their constant interception, but today something seems strange. The coin on Meowth's forehead is blinking red, indicating overheating. If something isn't done soon, Meowth may die, but James and Jessie don't know what to do. Just then, a young girl approaches. Unable to bear the sight of Meowth's pain, she pulls a bundle of healing herbs from her backpack, crunches them into powder and, mixing this with water, feeds it to Meowth. As Meowth drinks, the redness gradually fades from its face.
==Plot==
 and arrive in Mossgreen Village, a village so small it doesn't have its own Pokémon Gym. Because of this, Ash feels that there's no reason to stop there. However, reveals that their bag of Potions and Antidotes is empty, so they should stock up on supplies in town. Meanwhile, , hot on their trail, is about to make their move on . Before they get far, however, they discover has a fever. Deciding that the loss of Meowth is worth the capture of Pikachu, Jessie and James begin to leave him behind. They are immediately scolded by a girl, who lashes out at them for abandoning their , believing that Jessie and James were Meowth's s. She then nurses Meowth back to health and, during this process, Meowth has fallen for the girl. She instructs Jessie to give Meowth medicine after each meal and skips off with her basket in hand.
In town, the group arrives at an herbal shop to purchase their medicine. Entering, they find an old woman grinding herbs. When they request to buy some Potions and Antidotes, she offers them a snakeroot that will cure insomnia and grow hair on their nose and tongue. The old woman is then scolded by the same girl who helped Meowth, her granddaughter, named Cassandra. immediately falls for her, trying to make small talk about how he intends to be the best , but Cassandra parlays the conversation into a Pokémon battle, which Ash accepts. At the battle, Cassandra sends out her , while Pikachu leads off for Ash. However, before the battle, Pikachu tries to make friendly talk in a show of sportsmanship, but it causes Paras to cower in fear. Meanwhile, Team Rocket is spying on the battle, intent on stealing Pikachu; Meowth is distracted by Cassandra, as he intends to repay her for healing him.
Meanwhile, Cassandra admits her ulterior motive in battling: she wants to make this Paras evolve so that she can use 's mushroom to help develop a miracle Pokémon medicine. Paras is acting cowardly, fearful of battling. Agreeing to throw the battle by going easy on Paras, the battle gets off to a rocky start when Pikachu fires a small "static bolt" at Paras, which unfortunately knocks it out. While Cassandra tries to get Paras back into shape, suggests Ash try a different Pokémon. Ash's Pokédex reveals that Paras is both a and a , so he decides to send out to give Paras the type advantage. However, Squirtle's weakened also manages to knock it out. Desperate to help Paras evolve, Ash sends out , despite the massive advantage that he has, telling him to go easy on Paras. Charmeleon refuses to obey, gets too violent, and instead of doing an easy, soft attack, he launches a full-power at Paras before sending it flying by smacking it with his tail. This causes Paras to run away in tears. When Ash tries to rein in Charmeleon, he too is blasted in the face. Pikachu decides to hit Charmeleon with a , enabling Ash to recall him. Ash can't believe Charmeleon is acting this way, as he was so excited when Charmander evolved, but apparently, he wasn't ready for it. Misty tells Ash to deal with Charmeleon later and focus on finding Paras.
As Paras is running away, it bumps into Meowth, who, wanting to help Cassandra, tries to get Jessie and James to help Paras. However, they want to know what's in it for them. Meowth then explains that if Paras evolves, Cassandra will be able to make her miracle Potion which would be worth millions. Meowth then explains that once they help Cassandra, she'll make Meowth the company mascot. Jessie and James don't see how this would benefit them, but then Meowth adds that he would make them his business managers as he'll probably have a lot of money to manage. Fueled by greed, Jessie and James agree, asking Meowth how they'll make their millions. Meowth then explains that he needs and as losing battles is their specialty. First, Arbok goes up against Paras, but before it can attack, Meowth intercepts and knocks Arbok down. Paras, believing it had defeated Arbok, is cheered by Jessie and James as if it had scored the knockout. This repeats itself with Weezing and with Meowth, causing Paras to get fired up.
Cassandra, with Ash and company in tow, manage to find Paras up a tree, and because of its visibly different mood, determine that it's raring to go. While Team Rocket is watching from a nearby bush, Ash sends out Pikachu to battle again. Paras goads Pikachu closer and manages to prod him in the tail. As Pikachu prepares to retaliate from the cheap shot, he is reminded by Ash to throw the fight, so instead Pikachu falls over, feigning unconsciousness. Ash then sends out Charmeleon for another chance, but once again Charmeleon starts to disobey. Ash can't understand this as it was always obedient before evolving. The old lady, Cassandra's grandmother, then explains that if the Pokémon's strength is greater than the Trainer's skill level, it won't respect them and take orders. Cassandra asks that Ash call back Charmeleon, but it breathes fire on him again before turning towards Paras, who finds itself cowering in fear again. Team Rocket then comes out of hiding and cheer Paras on to win, only to be burned by Charmeleon. Charmeleon advances towards Paras and is about to finish it off when Paras, in desperation, closes its eyes and throws out its pincer, which strikes Charmeleon in the stomach, causing him to collapse. Paras is surprised that it won and promptly evolves into Parasect. Everyone hails Parasect's success, including Team Rocket who are overjoyed. Charmeleon, however, recovers and angrily sends Team Rocket flying with a tail slam. He then turns back to Parasect for revenge. Cassandra attempts to protect it, but Parasect stops Charmeleon with its attack, putting him to sleep and allowing Ash to recall him.
As Ash and his friends leave, they are thanked by Cassandra for their help. Ash is also reminded by Cassandra's grandmother that he'll never get control of Charmeleon if he doesn't improve his skill level. Brock even offers to be Cassandra's first customer for her miracle potion. 
After the group leaves, Team Rocket drops in, and Meowth is nursed back to health once again. Cassandra is reluctant to let Meowth become the company mascot, not wanting to separate Meowth from the heroic Team Rocket, who she thanks for helping out her Paras. Meowth does not win the spot anyways, thanks to Cassandra's grandmother having just found a in the backyard for the mascot role instead. As Team Rocket sulks off, their potential riches lost, Cassandra promises to treat the Persian like it was Meowth.
==Major events==
* Ash's Charmeleon starts disobeying him.
===Debuts===
====Pokémon debuts====
* 
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Jessie
* James
* Cassandra
* 
===Pokémon===
Who's That Pokémon?: 
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (Cassandra's; evolves)
* (Cassandra's; newly evolved; debut)
* (Cassandra's; new)
==Trivia==
* After the hiatus caused by EP038, the show moved from Tuesday to Thursday. The original schedule was as follows:
* This is the first episode to air on Kids' WB!.
* Although is afraid of Pokémon, she isn't scared of .
* The English title for this episode might be a reference to the phrase "the problem with people".
* This is the second time is rejected in favor of a .
* This episode was partially adapted into the book Charizard, Go!.
* This is the only episode where is shown exclusively as a Charmeleon. He evolved from Charmander in the previous episode and would evolve into Charizard two episodes later. 
* The events contained within this episode confound the logistics of Pokémon battles, implying that experience points are rewarded based upon whether one is declared a winner, not upon whether one's actions throughout a battle cause them to become stronger. In this respect, it would appear that experience points are not an abstraction for the purpose of game mechanics, but an actual, concrete effect in the Pokémon universe. However, experience points are rarely brought up afterward.
* This is the first time actively attempts to lose a battle. This doesn't happen again until 452 episodes later, in Some Enchanted Sweetening! with another type, .
* This is the first episode that acknowledges both of the types of a dual-type Pokémon.
* Parts of this episode were reanimated and used for flashback material for The Fires of a Red-Hot Reunion!.
===Errors===
* When Paras hides behind Cassandra, it clips through her.
* Just after uses on Paras, Cassandra's shoes are pink.
* After first burns Ash, he turns his head away, but the flames still come from the same direction.
* When Jessie and James ask what they will get for helping Paras, James's belt buckle is missing.
* When Paras evolves into , Charmeleon is missing.
* As Ash recalls the second time, the colors of the swap over between frames.
* In the English dub, Ash says Electric Shock instead of . This is most likely a translation error, as Thunder Shock's Japanese name means "Electric Shock".
* In the dub, is incorrectly called , which is a domestic cat breed. This mistranslation is due to both the Pokémon Persian and the having the exact same spelling in English. The same error would go on to be repeated in EP265.
EP044 error.png|Cassandra's miscolored shoes
EP044 error 2.png|Charmeleon's flame error
EP044 error 3.png|James's missing belt buckle
===Dub edits===
* The Japanese kanji for "medicine" on the front of Cassandra's shop is painted over in the English dub.
* At the beginning of the Japanese version of the episode, Ash wanted to eat hamburger curry, while Misty wanted to eat Katsudon. The English dub changes it so that Ash wants a cheeseburger, and Misty wants to eat at a nice restaurant.
* Jessie and James originally told Cassandra that they are travelers on an urgent mission, not superheroes.
* While offers Ash and in the dub, she originally offered them whiskers instead.
* During Team Rocket's plan for Paras, Meowth turned into a real , which was cut from the English version.
* At the end of the Pokérap, the Kids' WB! announcer at the time (Jim Cummings) dubbed over the voice that normally tells the viewer to watch for more of the Pokérap with "Tune in next week and watch Ash, Misty, and Brock on their quest to become Pokémon masters! Don't miss them, the new ones are now only on Kids' WB!" When this episode was rerun on and Boomerang, and even when uploaded onto , the Kids' WB! announcer's voice remained. Home video releases, streaming services and Disney XD don't have the announcer's voice.
* Lacy originally said that she got the Persian instead of having found it.
* In the Hindi Marvel HQ dub, most of the scenes of Meowth's Cassandra fantasy were removed.
==In other languages==
044
Category:Episodes written by Atsuhiro Tomioka
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Yoshitaka Fujimoto
Category:Episodes directed by Toshiaki Suzuki
Category:Episodes animated by Keishi Sakai
Category:Episodes focusing on Meowth
de:Die Paras-Problematik
es:EP044
fr:EP044
it:GA044
ja:無印編第44話
zh:宝可梦 第43集