Burn or Get Burned

**Season 2, Episode 6**

This is the sixth episode of Total Pokémon Action. Every castmate will be competing for a change in this endurance-like challenge. The movie of the day is Holes and they have to dig holes in a desert set in hopes of being the last one or ones standing so their team wins. One castmate’s huge target on their back leads to them being sabotaged via gaslighting and eliminated later that night.

The challenge starts with Dewgong and Milotic in the water hole while Azumarill, Clamperl, Floatzel, Gastrodon, Luvdisc are all trying to get in. Clamperl and Milotic in particular egg each other on, but eventually they all drop out along with Froslass and Vanilluxe. Tropius, Dragonite, Altaria, Masquerain, Snorlax, and Togekiss drop out respectively. Purugly wants to prove to Persian that she hasn’t “gone soft,” so she tells him to follow her. Pachirisu notices this and wonders what they’re up to. Metang quits and Lopunny’s whining drives Cherrim to quitting too. Ninetales tells Lopunny to pick up a shovel or leave, so she and Hitmonlee decide to leave. While digging, Arcanine and Smeargle notice a couple of shiny Skorupis which chase Smeargle off the desert set, eliminating him from the challenge. At the time, they figure Jellicent just went all out for the challenge. A concerned Leavanny checks on Parasect after noticing something was on his mind and they agree to talk after the challenge. Two Dittos, who posed as Skorupis, return to Purugly and Persian saying they got the job done. Drifblim, confused about what’s going on, asks Pachirisu what they were looking at, but Pachirisu doesn’t get her involved. Absol, Flaaffy, and Ninetales encourage Chimecho to talk to Kirlia who he’d been crushing on. Sudowoodo, Kirlia’s best friend, walks over and Flaaffy asks her to tell Chimecho to talk to Kirlia. He finally caves and walks over to Kirlia, trying to flirt. Kirlia appreciates the effort. Carnivine, Chimecho, Delcatty, Drifblim, Flaaffy, Jynx, Kirlia, Leafeon, Pachirisu, Parasect, Persian, Purugly, and Unown have all dropped out. Arbok, Claydol, Gothitelle are shown to be scheming against Arcanine. They make him think that the heat is getting to him by filling and unfilling the hole he dug and moving his shovel. Leavanny tells him to get out of the heat. Problem is, it’s disappointing as a fire type to see him drop out. After succeeding at their plan, Arbok, Claydol, and Gothitelle all drop out. Then, Absol, Ambipom, Banette, and Porygon-Z. Leavanny can’t go on, then the work becomes too much for Houndoom and he falls to the ground. Gliscor, Ninetales, Simisear, and Sudowoodo all collectively win it for Team Ribombee. Kirlia meets Chimecho after the challenge, gives him a kiss, and tells him to keep up the confidence. Chimecho is left speechless. Leavanny and Parasect share a tender moment where they come out as transgender to each other. First ones in the series. At the awards ceremony, Arcanine and Clamperl find themselves in the bottom two. Clamperl was the first to drop out of the challenge and does nothing but complain while the team expected more from Arcanine. However, it’s the season one winner that gets the boot. He gives a sad goodbye to his friends and boyfriend.