ENGLISH NAME	JAPANESE NAME	POKEMOPOLIS NAME	DODGINESS RATING	ANIMATION	STORY	TEAM ROCKET	MORAL LEARNT
697: Meowth's Scrafty Tactics!	702: Nyagoshieta Nyasu! Zuruzukin Setoku Sakusen!	Twerpowth?			: The twerps bump into two homeless Pokémon - and one of them is Team Rocket's Meowth!	Actually for real broken up? For real for real!?!	Turns out people prefer being politely asked to do something rather than forced by kidnapping demands

Today finds the twerps stuffing their mouths with food in a forest clearing, the Pokémon doing the same - except for Tepig and Axew which are running around in a quasi-game of tag. They rush into a bush by a nearby tree and begin bleating in alarm, calling over the twerps. They check in the bushes and discover... Meowth!?! Somehow they know it's Team Rocket's Meowth (okay a little later on I'm shamefully reminded that Meowth is the only one in Unova), passed out and looking pretty beat up. Cilan checks his arms and eyes, then his belly before starting to reach down for the crotch before he remembers this is supposed to be a kid’s show. The others are wondering where Jesse and James are, but Cilan is quite rightly concerned about Meowth's health. What happened to him? How did he end up there? Is this just a ploy? Another example of....



Cilan settles Meowth on his nap and feeds him with a bottle like a baby. Iris has made up a herbal remedy which they feed to Meowth, laying him down to recover. Slowly he wakes up... and immediately leaps back in alarm upon seeing the twerps. He demands to know what he's doing there, and they explain they found him and gave him first aid, then ask where Team Rocket is. Angrily he yells that he's not a part of Team Rocket anymore!

Oh no he's temporarily left them for the dozenth time!

How come? they ask, but he doesn't want to elaborate. Miserably he thanks them helping him out then tries to rush away, but drops to his knees only a few feet away. Cilan tells him that he isn't strong enough to set off on his own just yet and reluctantly he agrees to tell them his story, since he owes them that much. He explains they were on a top secret mission, and we return in a flashback to Nimbasa Town. Meowth mentioned in the previous episode that he had a plan to distract people from Jesse and James', and now we get to see what it is.

It was running front of a bunch of police officers!

He zipped across the front of a brick wall, caught up in a police spotlight and he blew the whole mission. They had to report back to the Boss (Giovanni is taking their calls again?) and.... he got fired! Jesse and James said a less than warm farewell and... that was that! Meowth was out and on his own! He watched Jesse and James head away into the night, and then he.... got into a boat and rowed away before finding himself in a snowstorm fighting his way through a blizzard with a cane and scarf! Next thing he knew he was being rescued by the twerps, and he insists it is the truth, he would feel better if he was lying. Cilan says they should take him with them for a little while, he's the only Meowth in Unova and wandering off alone wouldn't be safe. Meowth says he's cool, he doesn't want to put them to any trouble. Iris says he can't go alone because he might collapse again, and Ash insists... though he does ask Meowth to promise not to do anything bad. Meowth snaps that he isn't in Team Rocket anymore so he doesn't HAVE TO do bad things. As they chat away and Meowth finally agrees to come along, a bush rustles carefully into the foreground and seems to pay particular attention to Axew and Tepig.

They continue on through the forest, Meowth never fucking shutting up the entire time... which also helps masks the sound of that bush rushing by on their side. Meowth asks Ash about his Gym Badges, compliments the "lady's" cute Axew and talks up the quality of the soup that Cilan made. Pikachu GLARES over his shoulder at Meowth as they walk along, while Axew spots a pretty shining bottlecap on a string and rushes to grab it. The string is pulled clear as the twerps stare on in confusion, and Axew chases after the cap... only to be grabbed up in a sack by.... an incredibly UGLY Pokémon!

What the hell is it? Iris chases after as the disgusting looking thing rushes off with Axew in the sack.... which is actually its pants! IT HAS AXEW IN ITS PANTS! The twerps give chase, as the Scrafty rushes into a shed in the rocky ground it has escaped too, and shouts a warning to Meowth who translates to the twerps. If they come any closer... then Scrafty will hurt Axew! Ash doesn't believe it and makes an odd duck-walking motion forwards only for Meowth to stop him again, insisting that Scrafty means it. Pikachu rushes up and appears to back up Meowth's story, and they realise they're going to have to hang back... for now.

Inside of the shed, Axew has had enough of being up close and personal with Scrafty's ballsack and bursts loose with Dragon Rage. The smoke clears and it finds itself on a table with a shattered window before it. Before it can jump out the window to freedom though, Scrafty appears from underneath the table and shit gets freaky.



Outside, Cilan tells Ash that the Pokémon is a Scrafty, and Ash checks it out with his Pokédex - but it looks different to the one in the shed. Meowth tells them not to worry, Meowth is going to act as a negotiator, and thanks to being a Television Connoisseur, Cilan notes that this happens on television and thus is a viable strategy.

Meowth approaches with open and empty hands (Iris showing terrible timing by yelling angrily that he's a Pokémon so of COURSE his hands are open and empty) and asks Scrafty what it wants. He returns to the twerps to inform them - Scrafty needs trainers and their Pokémon to fight on his behalf! They want to know who it wants them to fight and why, but it didn't tell Meowth this, so they insist he go back in to find out... and Ash will take the opportunity to sneak in from behind and get a look at retrieving Axew himself.

Meowth heads up to the door and demands to see that Axew is safe, and discovers that Axew has been tied up. As he asks about who Scrafty wants to fight, Ash is coming up from atop the cliff and coming down behind the shed with Pikachu. They spot the open window and Axew inside, and head back to let the others know what is going on. Back with the twerps, Ash arrives just after Meowth finishes reporting back that Scrafty still won't let them know who they are meant to fight. Ash says they should try and rescue Axew themselves BEFORE this mysterious battle, and asks Meowth if he can get Scrafty to the door again. Meowth has an idea, he'd like to bring Scraggy along with him to get Scrafty's attention, and Cilan thinks this is a good idea. Ash agrees, but Iris seems determined to be the master of bad timing when she reminds Meowth he was just fired from Team Rocket due to his last plan being a miserable failure - much to Meowth's chagrin.

Cilan mollifies Meowth and Iris belatedly remembers to NOT destroy the confidence of her best hope. Ash calls out Scraggy which immediately headbutts the ground next to Meowth, and then Ash brings out Snivy to help them too... and she immediately Vine Whips the shit out of Meowth. The twerps decide NOW is the best time to explain that Meowth has become a buddy.

MEANWHILE! Jesse and James are in a train station collecting completely public information on automated train schedules. They get off of the pilot-less subway train as it passes through a junction, attaching a device that will reroute the train for them. What are they up to? We still don't know!

Back at the shed, Meowth proudly introduces Scraggy to Scrafty as the Pokémon who will be assisting it. It peeks its head mistrustfully out the door and then steps outside to watch the tiny, much weaker than itself Scraggy showcase how it is going to beat up whoever it is the much larger and stronger Scrafty can't beat alone. As Scrafty angrily shows it how the moves should be done and Meowth offers a happy running commentary and asks Scrafty to show off a new move to Scraggy - High Jump Kick! Meanwhile, Ash has snuck up above the shed and waits for just the right moment to have Snivy grab Axew. Meowth pretends to stretch in the doorway of the shed as Snivy reaches through the window with Vine Whip and tears off the ropes around Axew and pulls it out of the shed. Pikachu slips down while Meowth shouts a distraction to Scrafty and hauls Scraggy out of there, and then Pikachu confronts Scraggy - ready to fight! It blasts the fuck out of Scrafty and rejoins the twerps, where Iris is reunited joyfully with Axew and Ash recalls his other Pokémon. Scraggy doesn't go though, hiding behind Meowth and telling them that Scrafty is freaking it out. That's when Scrafty shows up and pulls away its mask to reveal it is actually... a Scrafty!



Wait... what?

Meowth translates, Scrafty claims it was only beaten because it underestimated them, and it wants a real battle! If the twerps lose then they have to help it out after all. Ash asks why it didn't just ask for this in the first place? He's always happy to fight! He calls out his sneezey pig, and Scraggy watches with wide eyes as Tepig batters the crap out of Scrafty, avoiding all its moves including a Focus Blast through an Ember... Tepig launching a Flame Charge and knocking Scrafty right the fuck out. The battle is over, Ash is victorious, and Scrafty.... is crying!?! They peer down in confusion at the weeping Pokémon, Iris still a bit too angry over Axew's kidnapping to feel much sympathy - but Meowth does. He says Scrafty is obviously upset about something, and suddenly Cilan appears in a trenchcoat to declare that it is INVESTIGATING TIME.... and we get the return of Interrogation Meowth! No suspenders and a Sipowicz moustache this time, sadly, but he does slam his paws against the table of the interrogation room they're now somehow inside to demand that Scrafty talk. Cilan and Meowth play good cop/bad cop, Cilan offering a meal to Scrafty and asking about its family, telling it that confession is good for the heart. The room disappears as they return to the rocks, where Meowth is learning that Scrafty had its den taken from it and came down looking for help - it asks Beartic, Scolipede and Darmanitan for assistance but they all fobbed it off.

Finally it decided to snatch Axew when it saw them to force them to help, but now what does it do? Ash says they have no choice but to help, surprising Scrafty, and they head up towards its former den, asking what type of Pokémon took its den..... the badass kind apparently!

It's a Mandibuzz, a pink vulture looking thing that blasts a Shadowball at Scrafty when it tries to talk to it about squatting in its home. Scrafty is sent crashing back to the ground, and Ash decides to send in Pikachu to help... but Scraggy stops it, Scraggy wants to fight! Ash can't see anything wrong with sending in his toddler Pokémon that is far weaker than the evolved form that just got its ass kicked, so in it goes. Mandibuzz tries to strike, but Scraggy is able to avoid the attack, leaping aside when Mandibuzz tries to divebomb and.... Mandibuzz gets its head stuck in the rocks! As it tries to pull clear, Scrafty gives Scraggy the word and it rushes in and scores a direct shot of High Jumping Knee straight into Mandibuzz's upper chest (it looks for all the world like a nutshot!) and knocks Mandibuzz out of the ground, into the air, back down to the ground and knocked the fuck out!

Everyone congratulates Scraggy on such a great job, and Meowth explains that Scrafty taught Scraggy the move earlier outside of the shed. But when Mandibuzz wakes up, it is less than delighted to have had the shit kicked out of it by a toddler with pants too big for it, and bursts into tears in front of their astonished eyes. Meowth translates, Mandibuzz was living with a good buddy but they had a fight and now it has no place to go.

Oh.... one of THOSE kinds of relationships!

Meowth asks what exactly caused the fight and learns that Mandibuzz stole the food of the other one. He quite rightly notes that this really wasn't the best thing to do, and offers to go along with Mandibuzz to apologise. Collecting some fruit, they head up to the nest together where the other Mandibuzz is settled down inside a next barely big enough for itself let alone two of them. They approach carefully and diplomatically but the other Mandibuzz still blasts at them, but Meowth isn't done and continues to offer words of friendship and forgiveness, talking from the heart about what is clearly HIS situation - friends should stick together no matter what, they might screw up sometimes and do the wrong thing but they need to forgive and forget and continue that friendship. He begs Mandibuzz to agree and finally it does.... and both Mandibuzz are reunited in their too small nest once more!

The sun setting, the twerps continue on happily talking up what great work Meowth did today. He happily basks in their approval, but then things get just a little TOO friendly, as Iris suddenly declares out of the blue that she is going to catch Meowth! Turning around before the startled Meowth, she throws a Pokéball and Meowth finds himself sucked inside. The ball beeps and shakes as the twerps gather around to watch with great interest, not a one of them questioning Iris for this brusque and presumptuous behaviour. The beeping stops, the shaking stops, the Pokéball sits still and quiet.....



NOT ON YOUR FUCKING NELLY, MADAM!

Oh thank Christ.

Bursting out of the Pokéball, he rants in a fury at not just Iris but ALL the twerps that he doesn't belong to ANYBODY! Iris (rather offensively) casually apologizes for it, and Meowth calms down before grumping that he's going to continue helping them out and travelling with them on his OWN accord, not because they jammed him inside of a small metal ball. They all seem quite happy with this... except for Pikachu which glares through narrowed eyes at Meowth, still not at all convinced since it is the only one who seems to remember all the shit Meowth has put them through.

So off they go together, Meowth somehow STILL separated from Team Rocket. Where are Jesse and James? At the Anvil City Train Station where trains move between that city and Nimbasa City - it's the perfect base for their current operation, it's time to contact Doctor Zager.

But.... what about Meowth!?!

BEST QUOTES

"This lovely lady's Axew sure is cute!" "....lady?"

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