Ash and Liam Catch a Pokémon!

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**Ash and Liam Catch a Pokémon!** is the 3rd episode of *Liam's Adventures of Pokémon: Indigo League*.

## Plot

The episode opens where the first one left off, with Ash preparing to capture Caterpie. Ash throws the Pokéball, and after it struggles to get loose and fails, Caterpie is caught. Ash celebrates his first ever Pokémon catch, and Misty reveals her dislike/fear of bugs. Pikachu is happy to have Caterpie in the group, and Ash lets Caterpie out, scaring Misty away. Caterpie shows that it wants to be friends with Misty, but she prefers Pikachu. Ash is offended by Misty's behavior, and travels on without her.

However, Misty continues to follow them, saying that she wants repayment for her destroyed bike. The gang then settles down for the night, with their smart remarks upsetting both Pikachu and Caterpie. While the trainers sleep, Pikachu and Caterpie get to know each other better, with Caterpie explaining that it wants to evolve into a butterfly-like Pokémon. In the morning, Misty wakes up to find Caterpie sleeping next to her, frightening her. Misty ends up hurting Caterpie's feelings, and it sadly goes back into its Pokéball. Though Ash is angry, he soon spots a wild Pidgeotto.

Dexter identifies it as the evolved form of Pidgey, and Ash tries to catch it in one shot, like he did Caterpie. However, Pidgeotto knocks the Pokéball away. Misty reprobates him Ash for not weakening Pidgeotto first, adding that Caterpie was already weak, which made it easy to capture in one shot. Ash calls out Caterpie to battle, though its at a type disadvantage, which Pikachu and Misty are aware of. Ash recalls Caterpie, just in time as Pidgeotto gets its beak stuck in a tree. Ash sends Pikachu into battle after Pidgeotto frees itself, and Pikachu nails it with a Thunder Shock.

Ash throws a Pokéball, and after a little fight inside from Pidgeotto, the Pokémon is caught, making it the second Pokémon that Ash caught in the wild. Despite the success, Misty still berates him for not having any strategy. Suddenly, Team Rocket shows up and reveals their plan: capture Pikachu. Jessie and James send out their Pokémon for a two on one battle, and Ash sends out Pikachu. Koffing manages to blind Pikachu with its Sludge attack, so Ash hands Pikachu off to Misty while Ash sends out his newly caught Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto manages to dodge attacks from both Koffing and Ekans, and zooms in for a Quick Attack.

But Ekans manages to avoid the attack by using Dig. Koffing tries using Smog, but Pidgeotto splits it with its wings before dodging multiple Sludge attacks from Koffing and Ekans' sneak attack from below. Despite following Pidgeotto high into the sky, both Ekans and Koffing are unable to keep up with Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto tries to hit Koffing with a Gust attack, but misses and is defeated. Ash tries to fight Team Rocket himself, but James pushes him back. In a final attempt, Ash sends out Caterpie, who cowers when it sees Koffing and Ekans coming for it.

Ash tells Caterpie to use String Shot, which completely incapacitates Koffing and muzzles Ekans. Caterpie then uses Tackle to knock Koffing into Ekans, and defeats them both. Meowth tries to jump in by using Fury Swipes, but ends up getting wrapped up as well. Team Rocket retreats, but vows to return. Ash and the others congratulate Caterpie for beating Team Rocket single-handedly. Misty even pets Caterpie, before is sprays silk in the air and startles her.

Ash puts Caterpie down as the silk falls around him, and they're all in awe as Caterpie evolves into Metapod, along with Weedle evolving into Kakuna. Dexter remarks that this Metapod evolved faster than any Metapod or Caterpie on record. Misty shows approval for Ash's strengthening love for his Pokémon, but then, a bee like Pokémon called Beedrill frightens her, and the episode ends with the gang rushing off to find more Pokémon in the Viridian Forest, as well as a way out.

## Major events

* Ash catches a Caterpie, making it his first caught Pokémon.
* Ash also catches a Pidgeotto.
* Team Rocket reveals to Ash their intention to steal his Pikachu.
* Meowth is revealed to know Fury Swipes.
* Ash has his first, although unofficial, battle, and wins.
* James's Koffing is revealed to know Sludge.
* Jessie's Ekans is revealed to know Dig.
* Ash's Caterpie evolves into Metapod.
* Liam catches a Weedle.
* Liam's Mankey is revealed to know Fury Swipes and Low Kick.
* Liam's Charmander is revealed to know Ember.
* Liam's Spearow is revealed to know Peck and Pursuit.
* Liam's Weedle is revealed to know Poison Sting, String Shot and Bug Bite.
* Liam's Weedle evolves into Kakuna.

## Characters

### Humans

* Liam
* Ash
* Misty
* Jessie
* James
* Agent Ben

### Pokémon

* Pikachu (Ash's)
* Caterpie (Ash's; new; evolves)
* Metapod (Ash's; newly evolved; debut)
* Pidgeotto (Ash's; new; debut)
* Charmander (Liam's)
* Spearow (Liam's)
* Mankey (Liam's)
* Weedle (Liam's; new; evolves)
* Kakuna (Liam's; newly evolved; debut)
* Rapidash (Ben's; Cinder)
* Meowth (Team Rocket)
* Ekans (Jessie's)
* Koffing (James's)
* Butterfree (fantasy; debut)
* Beedrill (debut)

## Trivia

* In *Pokémon Emergency!*, Ash says "Poké Ball, go!" while throwing a Poké Ball at Caterpie. In this episode, instead he says, "Caterpie, you're mine!"
* This is the first episode in which evolution is shown.
	+ This is the first time a main character catches a Pokémon that would later evolve in the same episode. This scenario would not be repeated until more than 500 episodes later, in *The Thief that Keeps on Thieving!.*
* This is the first episode in which a main character catches more than one Pokémon of different species. This wouldn't occur again until *Working My Way Back to Mew!**,* 1,088 episodes later.
* According to this episode, Misty cannot stand carrots or peppers, and her fear of Bug-type Pokémon is established here.
* Misty mentions in the Japanese version that she is ten years old.
* Misty owns a red sleeping bag decorated with bubbles, while Ash owns a blue sleeping bag with "Satoshi" (Ash's Japanese name) appearing on the name-tag.
* This is the first episode where type advantages are mentioned: Flying-type moves are effective against Bug-type Pokémon.
* A real-world animal appears in this episode, as Pidgeotto is seen eating a regular worm.
* Despite the episode title saying "*a* Pokémon", Ash catches *two* Pokémon.
* Both of the Pokémon Ash catches in this episode are released by the time Ash travels to the Orange Islands.
* This is the first episode where Ash uses his signature catchphrase and pose when successfully catching a Pokémon.
	+ Each of Ash's traveling companions would attempt to copy this during the original series.
* Caterpie's fight with Pidgeotto and Ash's capturing of the latter was shown on the VHS A Sneak Peek at Pokémon.
* In this episode, when Caterpie evolves into Metapod, it shoots a shower of white silk string from its mouth onto itself and sheds its skin in the process, similar to a real caterpillar going into pupation. Later episodes show Caterpie evolving like the rest of the Pokémon do.
* Ash mentions that the Pokémon League has regulations stating that Trainers may only use one Pokémon at a time in battles. This rule may have changed years later in *Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire*, in which two-on-two battles are not considered unusual.
* This was for a long time the episode with the lowest number of human characters appearing, featuring only Ash, Misty, Jessie, and James. 672 episodes later, *Sewaddle and Burgh in Pinwheel Forest!* matched this record.
	+ Coincidentally, both of these episodes take place in a forest and feature Ash catching a Bug-type Pokémon.
	+ 1,013 episodes later, the record was broken *Guiding an Awakening!*, which features only three human characters.

## Gallery

Ash Caterpie Tackle.pngAsh Caterpie.pngAsh Caterpie String Shot.pngAsh and Liam Catches a Pokémon!?.jpg
## Transcript

*Main article: Ash and Liam Catch a Pokémon!/Transcript*