JN143

Ride, Lapras, Ride! (Japanese: ラプラスにのって♪ Riding on ♪) is the seventh episode of Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master, the 143rd episode of Pokémon Journeys: The Series, and the 1,228th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on February 24, 2023, in Canada on June 24, 2023, in South Africa on July 4, 2023, and in the United States on September 8, 2023.
==Blurb==
Ash, Pikachu, Misty, and Brock are watching Wailmer when they see a Lapras speeding toward them from across the sea. It’s Ash’s friend Lapras from his journey in the Orange Islands! Lapras leads them to a cavernous island where a Wailmer is stuck in a hole. Our heroes free Wailmer, but it’s so happy that it bounces back into a hole and evolves into Wailord. Now it’s really stuck! With Team Rocket’s help, everyone gets Wailord out, but Ash becomes trapped inside a cave. The water is rising, but Lapras and Wailord make an escape tunnel. Grateful, Ash once again says farewell to Lapras as it returns to its group.
==Plot==
 and are watching some bouncing on a beach when a distressed approaches them. Almost immediately, Ash recognizes this Lapras as the same one that he met back at the Orange Islands. He and Lapras share a happy embrace before Lapras motions him and his friends to come with it. As such, the group boards Lapras, who leads them and the Wailmer from the beach to a small rocky island filled with holes and caves. The reason behind Lapras's distressed state is soon made clear as the group spots a Wailmer stuck in a hole, having apparently gotten stuck in it after bouncing too high. Ash promises Wailmer to help it, with an invisible arriving to observe the scene. Unnoticed by the group, the periscope of 's Magikarp submarine surfaces nearby and spies on all the Pokémon gathered on and around the island, the trio planning to nab them and Pikachu.
After failing to get Wailmer unstuck by hand, Ash calls out and to help smash the rocks around Wailmer. However, the rock the island is made of proves too hard to break, with Wailmer's bouncy body sending everyone flying back. Ash lands in a cave, but gets out easily with 's help. is the next one to offer a solution, suggesting she and Ash try to pull Wailmer out with their fishing rods. Ash approves the idea and calls out to help, getting affectionately hugged by her immediately after she appears. Once she's calmed down, Ash has her hold onto Misty with , while Heracross holds onto him. They both throw their lures into Wailmer's mouth and start to pull. Ash receives additional help from Kingler, while calls out to support Misty and Bayleef. With extreme effort, they manage to pull Wailmer out of the hole, but just when the situation seems to be over, Wailmer jumps so high up out of happiness that it falls into a cave. Unexpectedly, the Wailmer then proceeds to evolve into , causing it to get stuck again.
With Wailord's new size, the fishing rods are out of the question. While the group tries to think up something, Pikachu notices Team Rocket's periscope and gets an idea, climbing onto the periscope and peeking inside to startle Rocket trio into surfacing. When they emerge, Pikachu threatens to shock the trio unless they help, which they reluctantly agree to do, deadpanning at the twerps' ignorance of the fact that their submarine is man-powered. Ash calls out his and explains his plan as it's put into action: Brock and Torterra ride the submarine, with Brock having Torterra use to bind Wailord, the group of Wailmer helping to give the submarine an extra boost, and Pikachu standing inside the submersible to make sure Team Rocket does their part. Misty, meanwhile, has all the Pokémon on land and in the water, including her , pull on Torterra's Frenzy Plant to add more force to the pull. Lastly, Ash enters the cave with Heracross and Bayleef, the three of them joining together in tickling Wailord to help it squirm its way to freedom. In the middle of the rescue operation, Wailord starts to glow as it uses , successfully freeing itself. Team Rocket plans to steal Pikachu now, but he simply busts the submarine's hatch off and jumps off with Brock and Torterra, giving the trio a watery sendoff.
However, even though Wailord is now safe, its escape caused a cave-in that blocked off the cave entrance, leaving Ash trapped just as the tide begins to rise. To save him, Lapras uses to freeze the water flowing into the cave, after which Wailord uses to create an ice tunnel all the way to Ash's location. Lapras reaches Ash by sliding through the tunnel, and they slide out together. After Ash has thanked Wailord for its part in helping him, Lapras takes the group back to the beach, where Ash and Lapras share one more hug before Lapras swims away to reunite with its herd. No sooner has Lapras left, though, when Misty realizes they could've gotten Wailmer out of the hole by just briefly putting it in a Poké Ball. Regardless, Ash says he found the experience a fun one.
==Major events==
* reunites with his again.
* Ash's Torterra is revealed to have learned .
===Debuts===
====Pokémon debuts====
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Jessie
* James
===Pokémon===
Who's That Pokémon?: 
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (formerly )
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (herd; multiple)
* ()
* (×6; one evolves)
* (newly evolved)
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
==Trivia==
* Get Inspired! Let's Solve a Poké Riddle!! - Episode Paldea: 
* The Japanese title of this episode shares its name with the sixth original series ending, Riding on Lapras, which is also used as the ending theme for this episode.
* Like in the previous two episodes, there was no Dare Da? segment in the initial airing of the episode, instead having the series logo on the screen before and after the commercial break.
* This episode marks the first physical appearance of Ash's Lapras since Lapras of Luxury, 971 episodes earlier.
** This episode also marks the first appearance of Brock's Marshtomp since Home is Where the Start Is!, 762 episodes earlier.
* This episode marks the final physical appearances of Ash's Kingler, , and .
* Shinji Miyazaki's music from the original series, Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and Pokémon the Series: Black & White are reused as background music in this episode.
* This episode marks the only time that Ash's through the Orange Islands is directly referenced in Pokémon Journeys: The Series. With this, all the regions that Ash has traveled to during his Pokémon journey have been recalled during Pokémon Journeys: The Series.
* This is the first episode of Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master in which has a Pokémon caught in Pokémon Journeys: The Series in his active party. 
** As such, as of this episode, at least one of Ash's Pokémon from each region he has visited has been in Ash's active party during this arc.
* This is the only episode of Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master where Ash is shown with a full team of six Pokémon on hand.
* performs a variation of their in this episode.
* This episode marks the first time Ash's Kingler has been in Ash's active party outside of being used for a .
* As of this episode, Ash's Bayleef once again retains her Japanese voice in the English dub, after her voice have been dubbed in earlier episodes of this series.
* Lapras sliding on ice to help Ash is reminiscent to Ash's Mikan Gym challenge in Fit To Be Tide, in which Lapras also slid on an ice path it created.
* The English dub title is a reference to a lyric "Ride, Sally, ride" from the song by .
* Misty, , Ash, and narrate the preview for the next episode.
** The narration part where Brock speaks to Nurse Joy and gets attacked by his is synced up with a shot from the episode where the same thing happens.
===Errors===
* When Misty and Ash start using their fishing rods to pull , Misty's suspenders are disconnected from her shorts for a split-second.
* When Pikachu says "pika-pi" as Ash and Lapras are sliding out of the cave, the English dub's closed captions incorrectly spell it as "pika-pika."
* When Team Rocket surrenders to Pikachu's threat, Jessie's undershirt is missing.
===Dub edits===
==In other languages==
143
Category:Episodes written by Atsuhiro Tomioka
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Noriaki Saitō
Category:Episodes directed by Tazumi Mukaiyama
Category:Episodes animated by Akihiko Oka
Category:Episodes in which a Legendary Pokémon appears
Category:Episodes which aired in Canada before the United States
Category:Episodes which aired in South Africa before the United States
de:Los, Lapras, los!
es:EP1232
fr:LV143
it:EP143
ja:新無印編第143話
zh:宝可梦 旅途 第139集