DP142

Where No Togepi Has Gone Before! (Japanese: 史上最悪のトゲピー！ The Worst Ever!) is the 142nd episode of Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, and the 608th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on September 10, 2009 and in the United States on January 30, 2010.
==Blurb==
Thanks to a generous cash bonus given to Team Rocket for their excellent salesmanship at the Twinleaf Festival, the group has constructed a state-of-the-art secret base, which they use to fool Ash and his friends into thinking is a Pokémon Trainer’s center. But both Team Rocket and our heroes soon discover that the base contains a mischievous Togepi that delights in playing prank after prank. Disguising herself as a sweet Togepi, she fools everyone time and time again. Finally, using Attract, Togepi puts Pikachu, Croagunk, and Meowth under her spell, forcing them to pilot Team Rocket’s base, which turns out to be a real rocket ship, to the farthermost reaches of the universe!
Our heroes and Team Rocket join forces and come to the rescue, only to find themselves all sent into outer space! Panic ensues as the rocket ship begins to lose control and plunge back down to Earth. Just when things are looking hopeless, Togepi decides that she’s had enough fun for one day. She saves the ship and leaves the Team Rocket members trapped in their own cell. Meanwhile, our heroes are a bit frazzled, but they begin looking forward to Lilypad Town and Dawn’s next Pokémon Contest. Ash, always looking at the bright side, even marvels at the fun of being in outer space!
==Plot==
 and come across a tall tower. A disguised surprises them and mentions that it is a Trainer Tower, pushing them inside, leading them right into a pit trap that sends them into a cell. When they recover, Team Rocket appears without disguise on a video screen. Team Rocket head up towards the tower, not realizing that a has sneaked on board. While Togepi are normally known for being cute and kind, this one has an evil grin on its face suggesting that it doesn't plan on helping out at all.
Up in the tower, Team Rocket celebrates since their work at the Twinleaf Festival was able to pay for such an expense. The Togepi waddles into one of their food storage closets, making a lot of noise. When Team Rocket heads out to check it, they find the food bank left in empty chaos. They hear another rattle at another food bank, where they catch Togepi. It tosses a banana peel at , angering it to attack, but it quickly moves away. Togepi lands on the other side of the room, and as they prepare to attack, Togepi cries and tells Meowth that it is a different Togepi, that an evil one is still loose having used to get away. It convinces Team Rocket as they search for the other Togepi, but the manipulative Spike Ball Pokémon slips away.
Meanwhile, Ash and his friends try to break out with , and 's attacks, but the bars are too resilient. Togepi appears from the elevator directly across from the cell and , having never seen a Togepi before, checks it with her Pokédex. They try to tell Togepi to get away, but it helps by triggering a lever, raising the cell bars. They enter the elevator and head up to the fifth floor, but as they exit, they fall into another pit trap, Togepi watching and laughing. They wind up back in the cell. Also, Team Rocket continues to find ransacked food banks, as they wonder if their rooms have been hit too. James finds his bottle caps intact, but Togepi uses to make him chase it. It proceeds to affect Jessie and Meowth as well, using its Psychic powers to send Jessie's dresses into a mud bath while affecting the petting robot Meowth has, making it rub so hard that the friction sets Meowth's fur on fire.
Back at the cell, Togepi once again releases Ash and his friends and takes them into the elevator. They head up to the rooftop, where once again they fall into a pit trap and wind up back in the cell. Dawn suspects that Togepi is deliberately doing it since it never fell into the pit trap as well. Togepi appears crying, trying to apologize, which successfully tricks Ash and his friends. It lets them out once again, but instead of running to the elevator, they stay on the current floor. However, they once again hit a pit trap and wind up back in the cell, which solidifies the suspicion that Togepi is behind it.
Meanwhile, Team Rocket meets back up as they realize that Togepi is evil too. The elevator nearby appears as Togepi taunts them. They try to attack, but Togepi roasts them with . They try to run forward, but they hit a pit trap and wind up in the cell with Ash and his friends. They all realize that Togepi has been playing them all and is in control. It appears by the elevator, prompting Jessie to have fire , but it seems to disappear, a decoy taking the hit. Togepi reappears, seeming gentle as it opens the cell and lets them out, but mentions that Togepi could not have used , but would have created the desired effect. Having been unmasked, Togepi turns with an evil grin. Meowth tries to attack with , but Togepi uses to not only stop Meowth, but capture Pikachu, Piplup, and Croagunk as well; however, it has no effect on Yanmega. After Togepi gets the affected Pokémon onto the elevator and up, the humans wonder why. Jessie ponders this, but Brock explains that Attract will only work against the opposite gender. James adds that it worked against Meowth, who they know is male, and since that makes Togepi female. Jessie ponders this for a second before coming to the conclusion that Yanmega is female. Since the elevator is inaccessible, James leads them to the stairwell.
As they ascend, the building starts to shake as at the top, Togepi leads them to the control room as Meowth reveals the true nature of the structure: it is a spacecraft. The tower's outer structure comes apart and unveils a rocket ship. Togepi takes command of the bridge and has Meowth activate the boosters and sends the ship rocketing into space. The rocket takes them out into orbit as they plan to head away from the planet. The humans break onto the bridge and Brock has use to snap everyone out of infatuation, only to have Togepi recast Attract. Happiny and Togepi squabble and fight as Pikachu points that a is approaching. It fires , and though it misses, the force sends the ship hurtling back towards the atmosphere. The ship jolts and snaps the Pokémon out of infatuation as the power goes out and the exterior of the ship starts to heat up from reentry.
While Happiny and Togepi continue to skirmish, James, having received a real rocket for his 10th birthday, takes control of the ship. Ash, Brock, and Dawn also offer their assistance. As Meowth removes a panel to the emergency generators, James has Pikachu power them up with and to cool down the exterior nose cone by firing around the bridge. However one of the ship's maneuvering rockets explodes, making it unstable, leaving James clueless. Brock suggests to have and Piplup use and to create explosions outside to stabilize the ship, which works. James deploys the parachute and the ship slowly floats downward. He sets the controls to auto-pilot when Togepi fires Flamethrower at Happiny and Happiny deflects it upward with Pound, incinerating the parachute and sending the ship into free fall. Just as they are about to crash boosters-first, Togepi uses Psychic to set the ship down gently for the last few meters. Togepi glares back at Happiny and states that they'll continue their battle another time. Meowth repeats in disbelief that Togepi is tired and is going go home as it walks off the bridge. It gets clear of the rocket just as the ship disintegrates.
In the wreckage, Dawn considers the fact that even Togepi can have a darker side, but Brock reassures her that this Togepi was most likely an exception. Ash on the other hand can't help but think about the fact that the group got to travel to outer space. Picking themselves up and dusting themselves off the group continue onto Lilypad Town. Meanwhile Team Rocket is trapped by the debris, where they will be staying for the time being. As for Togepi, it walks away laughing, ready to cause misery again.
==Major events==
===Debuts===
====Pokémon debuts====
=====TV episode debuts=====
* 
==Characters==
===Humans===
* 
* 
* 
* Jessie
* James
* (portrait)
===Pokémon===
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* ()
* 
* 
==Trivia==
* Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Examination: 
* This is the last episode to air in Japan before the earliest releases of in Japan and .
* The episode's English dub title references the famous quote "."
* After falls victim to 's trap, says that the base has become a "Tower of Rabble," a pun on the .
* Jessie's Yanmega's gender is confirmed to be female in this episode, being the only one unaffected by Togepi's while , , Meowth, and were. In addition, Pikachu's, Piplup's, and Croagunk's genders are also officially confirmed in the Japanese version as male.
* This episode marks the first time that a first partner Pokémon had its gender confirmed since Ash's Totodile, which was confirmed in Love, Totodile Style, 455 episodes earlier.
* Jessie, James, Meowth, and 's faces are carved into the side of a cliff in this episode, referencing .
**The drapery that initially hid the faces is similar to stripes of the American flag.
* The in this episode has a similar personality to 's Togepi from Pokémon Adventures.
* Team Rocket does not recite their or blast off in their episode.
** However, they do say "We're blasting off again!" at the end of the episode, when they are trapped in the cell.
* This is one of the few episodes in Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl where the English dub retains all of the Japanese version's music, including the title card.
* Music from Pikachu & Pichu, Pikachu's PikaBoo, Pokémon Heroes, Gotta Dance, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, and Giratina and the Sky Warrior is used.
* Team Rocket Forever plays briefly before the first eyecatch.
* This is the first episode in which the protagonists visit outer space.
* Team Rocket's rocket resembles the Soviet/Russian family of launch vehicles.
===Errors===
* When Togepi walks up to and in the cell to help them "escape" again, Ash and grab the cell's bars. However, their arms are layered behind the bars, resulting in them grabbing thin air.
* During the rocket ship's free-fall, a portrait of Giovanni is seen at the back of the control room, despite it not being present in earlier scenes.
===Dub edits===
* Jessie's exaggeration of Ash and his friends being the ten zillionth Trainers to visit the "Trainer Tower" was originally the ten thousandth Trainers.
* In the original Japanese version, James says that they like rockets because they mean romance, while Jessie says that rockets mean love and romance. In the English dub, they just say that rockets rule.
* In the English dub, James mentions his parents buying him a real rocket when he turned ten. In the original Japanese version, he just remembers playing with a toy rocket as a kid.
* James incorrectly refers to Meowth's gender in the dub. This error appears to have been corrected in July 2021 re-airings, with the ambiguous Hindi pronoun "" being removed.
==In other languages==
142
Category:Episodes written by Shōji Yonemura
Category:Episodes storyboarded and directed by Yūji Asada
Category:Episodes storyboarded by Yūji Asada
Category:Episodes directed by Yūji Asada
Category:Episodes animated by Masaaki Iwane
Category:Episodes in which a Legendary Pokémon appears
Category:Episodes focusing on Team Rocket
de:Wo ein Togepi noch nie gewesen ist!
es:EP611
fr:DP142
it:DP142
ja:DP編第142話
zh:宝可梦 钻石＆珍珠 第140集