JN145

Rocket Revengers! (Japanese: 逆襲のロケット団！ Strikes Back!) is the ninth episode of Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master, the 145th episode of Pokémon Journeys: The Series, and the 1,230th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on March 10, 2023, in Canada on July 8, 2023, in South Africa on July 18, 2023, and in the United States on September 8, 2023.
==Blurb==
Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet get a big surprise when Delibird arrives from Team Rocket Headquarters to deliver their Pokémon friends! After a sweet reunion, they devise a clever plot to steal Pikachu. Pretending to flee from Team Rocket, James’s Mime Jr. deceives Ash, Misty, and Brock, but Pikachu remains skeptical. Team Rocket’s other Pokémon manage to split up our heroes, leaving Pikachu alone, but Ash and friends arrive just in time—and so does Latias! It helps defeat Team Rocket, then shows our heroes a vision of a Latios in danger. Meanwhile, Team Rocket’s Pokémon start to panic as an angry Jessie, James, and Meowth part ways…
==Plot==
While traveling along a road, and spot a flying across the sky. Said Delibird soon arrives in front of the Team Rocket trio, delivering them boxed lunches and ten s, containing the Pokémon they had previously left behind at the , much to their great delight. Delibird also produces a golden statue of , through which the actual Giovanni contacts them, telling Jessie and James to take charge of managing these Pokémon from now on. After finishing his message, the statue self-destructs and Delibird flies away. The trio is happy to reunite with their Pokémon and takes a moment to reminisce about the Pokémon that are no longer with them. With all these Pokémon at their disposal, they decide to launch the ultimate capture scheme, with James already having a plan in mind.
Soon after, appears before Ash and his friends, pleading for help. Pikachu, recognizing it, is distrustful, but the others sympathize with it due to its distressed expression, just as James had planned. Team Rocket appears on a nearby tree and performs their before claiming that Mime Jr. has betrayed them and is trying to meet up with an Officer Jenny to turn them in. Ash has Pikachu send Team Rocket blasting off with a to defend Mime Jr., who starts leading them towards the spot where it supposedly wants to meet Officer Jenny. Along the way, however, the second part of Team Rocket's scheme is put into action in order to split the group up. First off, and attack the group, with staying behind so he and can hold them off. Next up, Ash and run into and . Misty sends out and stays behind to fight them. also emerges to join in, only for Yamask to attach its mask to its face and render it useless. Lastly, Ash runs into and , which he fights with and while telling Pikachu and Mime Jr. to run ahead.
Pikachu and Mime Jr. arrive at the supposed meetup spot, where Jessie, James, , , and appear. Mime Jr. reveals its true colors and tries to hold Pikachu back while James fires a net at it, but Pikachu manages to break free, resulting in Mime Jr. getting caught in the net instead. James frees the and congratulates it on its great work. , , and join in to keep Pikachu from getting away while Jessie and James prepare to seize him in a net, forcing Pikachu to fight off multiple enemies alone. , who has invisibly been watching the entire scheme unfold, refuses to just stand by any longer and relays Ash a telepathic vision of Pikachu's distressed state. Though confused, Ash trusts the vision and abandons the fight with Carnivine and Gourgeist to go save his partner. Gourgeist fires s into the air to signal that the plan has been exposed, but before Pikachu can be seized, Ash arrives in the nick of time and has Infernape destroy Team Rocket's nets with .
All of Team Rocket's Pokémon come together while the trio reveals to Ash that Mime Jr.'s seeming betrayal was just a part of their plan all along. The Pokémon launch a devastating combo attack towards Ash and his Pokémon, but they quickly move out of the way, forcing Wobbuffet to take the hit instead. He manages to reflect the attack back with , causing it to strike a nearby tree and obliterate part of its trunk. When the tree falls down, a that was resting on it is sent flying, so Ash runs up a rock and jumps high into the air to save it. Just as Brock and Misty arrive, they notice Ash seemingly floating through the air and being brought back down. Ash realizes Latias was behind this, and she reveals herself, much to Brock and Misty's surprise. Latias turns to Team Rocket and uses to send them and their Pokémon blasting off. After crashing down, the trio starts considering what they did wrong. The situation quickly dissolves into the trio members blaming each other, until they finally declare they're through and head their different ways, their Pokémon sadly looking after them.
Meanwhile, Ash is thanking Latias for her help, understanding that she was also the source behind the vision he saw. Brock and Misty reveal that Ash had actually told them of his encounter with her. Suddenly, Latias starts showing them another vision, this time showing them a behind a glass wall in an underground facility. He breaks the glass and the vision moves outdoors, showing the group a view of the surrounding landscape before the vision cuts off. Latias is looking sad, making Ash wonder what exactly is going on.
==Major events==
* Jessie and James reunite with all of their Pokémon from the and add them back to their respective teams.
** In the process, returns and to Jessie's ownership, and and to James's.
* James's Amoonguss and are revealed to have learned , while the former is also revealed to have learned .
* Brock's Ludicolo is revealed to have learned .
* Jessie's Seviper is revealed to have learned .
* learns that has been following him.
* Blaming each other for their latest failure, the Team Rocket trio splits up.
* Latias shows Ash and a vision of a .
===Debuts===
====Pokémon debuts====
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Jessie
* James
* (voice)
===Pokémon===
Who's That Pokémon?: 
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (; fantasy)
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (formerly ; fantasy)
* (formerly ; fantasy)
* () 
* (formerly ; fantasy)
* () 
* () 
* () 
* (; )
* (formerly ; fantasy)
* (formerly ; fantasy)
* (formerly ; fantasy)
* (; fantasy)
* () 
* ()
* ()
* ()
* (formerly ; fantasy)
* (; )
* (Team Rocket)
* ()
* 
* (vision)
==Trivia==
* Get Inspired! Let's Solve a Poké Riddle!! - Episode Paldea: 
* Takeshi's Paradise, and Team Rocket's Team Song are used as insert songs in this episode.
* This episode's title card features instead of .
* This episode marks the first appearance of many of 's Pokémon after long absences:
** , who last appeared in Coming Full-Festival Circle!, 588 episodes earlier.
** , , and , all of whom last appeared in Memories are Made of Bliss!, 573 episodes earlier.
*** This episode also marks the first appearance of a in the since then, as well as the first appearance of a in the animated series since Beyond the Rainbow!, 361 episodes earlier.
** , who last appeared in Team Rocket's Shocking Recruit!, 434 episodes earlier.
** and , both of whom last appeared in Best Wishes Until We Meet Again!, 432 episodes earlier.
** , who last appeared in The Dream Continues!, 431 episodes earlier.
** and , both of whom last appeared in Till We Compete Again!, 291 episodes earlier.
*** Aside from Seviper and Mime Jr., this is the first appearance of the aforementioned Pokémon outside of their debut series.
* This is the first time where interacts with Team Rocket’s Unova Pokémon, since he wasn’t in Jessie's active party during Pokémon the Series: Black & White.
* This episode marks the first appearance of Brock's Ludicolo since Grating Spaces!, 779 episodes earlier.
** This episode also marks the first appearance of Team Rocket's Delibird since Memories are Made of Bliss!, 573 episodes earlier.
* The appearance of Misty's Staryu confirms that, like , she is also rotating her Pokémon in and out of her party.
* This episode marks the first appearance of a in the animated series since its debut in The Semi-Final Frontier!, 579 episodes earlier.
* This episode marks the first time Team Rocket has used Pokémon in previous series other than Wobbuffet since Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl.
* This is the first episode where Jessie has had more than two Pokémon on hand since Memories are Made of Bliss!, 573 episodes earlier, as well as the first episode where James has had more than one Pokémon on hand since The Dream Continues!, 431 episodes earlier.
** This is also the first time Jessie and James have had a full team of six Pokémon on hand each.
** This is also the first episode of Pokémon Journeys: The Series when Jessie has had Pokémon other than Wobbuffet in her active team.
* At 12 Pokémon (21 including fantasies), this episode features the highest number of Team Rocket's Pokémon ever seen in a single episode.
* is the only Pokémon that has been in Team Rocket's party for longer than one episode to not appear in this episode in any capacity.
** Growlie also didn't appear in the episode. However, even though it appeared in two episodes and is James's Pokémon, it never was a part of Team Rocket and never joined James's active party.
* Shinji Miyazaki's music from the original series, Pokémon the Series: XY, and Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias are reused as background music in this episode.
** Team Rocket's motto music from Pokémon the Series: XY is also reused as background music in this episode.
* This episode marks the first time James's Amoonguss has used a new move since its debut, 464 episodes prior.
** This episode also marks the first time Jessie's Seviper has used a new move since ZigZag Zangoose!, 908 episodes prior.
* Gourgeist's method of firing s that explode like fireworks up into the sky is reminiscent of Ash's Bulbasaur doing so with its in The Dream Continues!.
* Unshō Ishizuka was added into the credits for this episode, with archived audio of his voice being used for James's Weezing.
* As of this episode, all of Ash's Kalos Pokémon that reside at Professor Oak's Laboratory have been in his active party at some point during Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master.
* Mime Jr.'s act of seemingly leaving Team Rocket is similar to what Meowth did during the Battle Subway arc in Pokémon the Series: Black & White.
* This is one of the few instances of Team Rocket referring to by name instead of as "Boss" in the English dub.
* Michele Knotz returns to voicing James's Mime Jr., taking over from Kayzie Rogers due to the latter's departure from the series.
* This marks the final appearances of Brock's Ludicolo and Team Rocket's Seviper, Yanmega, Woobat, Frillish, Mime Jr., Yamask, Amoonguss, Inkay, and .
* Ash, , , , , and a Latios narrate the preview for the next episode.
===Errors===
* Latias blasts Team Rocket and their Pokémon off with , including Inkay and Morpeko, even though they’re types.
* In the English dub, after Jessie says that Team Rocket will steal all of Ash's Pokémon, her mouth continues to move but no sound comes out.
* In the dub, Latias is referred to as a male.
===Dub edits===
* The title card featuring Meowth is replaced with the one with Pikachu in the English dub.
* The maracas Brock uses during his performance of Takeshi's Paradise are removed in all international dubs outside of Japan, including the English dub and Asian language dubs based on the Japanese version.
* Takeshi's Paradise as an insert song is replaced with different instrumental music in the English and international dubs, but Ludicolo can still be heard singing the song in the dub.
Brock Ludicolo Teeter Dance.png|Original version
JN145 dub edit.png|Dub version
==In other languages==
145
Category:Episodes written by Atsuhiro Tomioka
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Hiromasa Amano
Category:Episodes directed by Fumihiro Ueno
Category:Episodes animated by Takashi Shinohara
Category:Episodes focusing on Team Rocket
Category:Episodes in which a released Pokémon rejoins a main character's team
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:Die Rocket-Rächer!
es:EP1234
fr:LV145
it:EP145
ja:新無印編第145話
zh:宝可梦 旅途 第141集