Great Ep!

Goodbye old Team Rocket. How we won't miss you

Well, Ash's team of Pokemon grows by one. At this rate, he'll probably have twelve pokemon before he reaches the third gym. Also, it definitely looks like Team Rocket is getting better. Funny how it took them over thirteen seasons before they started learning from their mistakes. Also, I get the feeling that lead Sandile likes Ash and we haven't seen the last of it. What is it about Ash that draws the leaders of Pokemon groups to him?

Alright episode, but what happened to "Who's that Pokemon?"

Rather decent. Hold on, let me predict the future. Someone in the team will capture that Sandile

Team Rocket, I am impressed. You completely turned yourselves around

Awesome episode! Ash finally captures the Oshawott that has been following him for 2 episodes!

I thought this episode was good and I found it kinda cute when the sandile made that bridge.

There's one little beef I have, and it's not with the ep. It's idiots who post the ep online, and stupidly mirror it in the process to avoid copyright infringment or something. If they can't post it the correct way, don't post it online. Oh, and I have to watch them online because YTV is still on D/P eps. Yesterday's was the one with Marley and Shaymin.

The episode was good, but it's sad to see that they already got rid of "Who's That Pokemon" (infact I saw someone do a fake one using Sandile). Ash and Iris continue to Straiton City when they stumble upon Oshawott once more and finally decide to call Professor Juniper about it. But something more importent comes up as a group of Sandile have begun digging pitfalls all around the town and in a hot sand spa resort. As the leader of these Sandile grab Pikachu and Oshawott and takes them away, Ash and Iris have to solve what is wrong with the Sandiles though Team Rocket don't plan on letting a now captive Pikachu go unnoticed...

Them Water Starters Won't Leave You Alone:
So we begin with Ash and Iris walking to Straiton City, but just because Iris is accompanying Ash doesn't mean she's this generation's female companion because she hadn't had a bike which Pikachu can fr... *can feel people giving him angry glares* okay, okay, I'll stop that joke now. Ash asks why Iris is travelling with him when Iris says that it's Ash who's travelling with her and they begin trying to outpace each other. Iris stops Ash saying that she thought she would help Ash but hasn't received a thanks but Ash said he never asked her to come along (isn't that always the case with your female companion's Ash?).

Iris: You're such a kid.
Ash: Oh yeah! You're such a kid too!
Iris: You got some nerve saying that to me!
Comment: Why, because it's true? I mean if he said you acted like a kid... no, even if he said that it would also be true.

Oshawott then appears and upon remembering how it helped them with Team Rocket Ash asks why it's following them. It goes over and begins hugging his leg and by that point anyone with a brain would know Oshawott wants to travel with Ash, but Ash has Pokeballs instead rattling in his head so he's clueless. Iris says that Oshawott is actually following her and begins poking it, but after she said she'll keep it Oshawott jumps out of her hands, climbs Ash's back, and pushes Pikachu off his shoulder. Iris figures Oshawott must like Ash but before anything else could be done Pikachu, not quite happy it got shoved off Ash's shoulder, tries to shock Oshawott but it uses its shell to reflect the attack to Ash.

Recovering from the shock, Iris says Oshawott probably wants Ash to catch it so he does (with Pikachu giving a concerned look, probably because it's worried about it pushing it off Ash's shoulder each time it's sent out much like how Chikorita used to shove it around) but the Pokeball simply bounces off it. Ash is confused at first but comes to this conclusion:

*Flashbacks to Professor Juniper sending out Oshawott*
Ash: Are you the Oshawott from Professor Juniper's Lab?
Comment: NO DOH! Though this does answer why Ash didn't wonder why Oshawott was so far from Juniper's Lab.

They call Professor Juniper and tells them about Oshawott and she lets Ash keep it but as she sends over its Pokeball she tells Ash it likes to run off. Take a wild guess what happens next? Yes, it runs off and Ash and Iris run out to look for it, arguing about Ash needing Iris as she knows the landscape. But as they begin looking for Oshawott they fall into a pitfall. Despite the pitfall trap being Team Rocket's most used trap to catch Ash & co. you'd think Ash would at least presume this was Team Rocket's doing being he knows they're in Unova. However he doesn't but as it turns out it wasn't Team Rocket's doing but instead a boy tells them this pitfall was dug by a Pokemon called Sandile.

It's Like Relaxing On The Beach Minus The Water:
If Team Rocket didn't dig the pitfall though, where are they? Well it looks like they're far behind trying to catch up when they themselves fall into a pitfall however they flip themselves over and land on their feet (guess all these years falling into their own traps taught them how to handle falling into other's). They wonder who dug the pitfall when they see an angry Sandile wearing sunglasses (which is kind of redundant when you hear what Ash's Pokedex says about it:

Pokedex: ... A dark membrane protects its eyes from the sun...
Comment: So in other words it's already wearing sunglasses, I guess the writers/artists just wanted to point that out to us by having it wear actual sunglasses.

The kid who told Ash and Iris about the Sandile is named Dan who's family runs a resort spa but they're closed due to Sandiles, who uses to live at the resort until they started acting up, began digging holes in the resort's main attraction: a hot sand spa (so I guess you can say that it's there hottest attraction *hears loud booing*). Ash decides to help Dan with the Sandiles... by burying himself and Pikachu in the sand to relax (our heroes, ladies and gentlemen). Iris asks what's Ash is doing and he's saying he's getting "research" (like how Professor Oak was doing in his Hawaiian shirt when they were heading to Unova) and as Iris criticizes him Axew digs up from under the sand and begins relaxing too. Team Rocket is watching them however with the Sandile wearing the sunglasses bothering them, but they tell it to go away and it begins digging toward the resort. Iris then reminds Ash they're suppose to be looking for Oshawott but find it a few yards away also relaxing in the sand.

Crocodiles Are a Good Source Of Iron:
The Sandile with sunglasses digs up to Ash, Iris, and Dan which Dan then says it's the leader of the Sandile (speaking of whom, where are the others, this is the only Sandile we've seen so far) and it bits Axew. Ash tells Pikachu to shock it but Iris says Axew would also get hurt (Iris, considering who you are, I think you should at least know Dragon-types are resistant to Electric-type attacks so it wouldn't get hurt that much... not that it would hurt Sandile being it's part Ground-type). Iris runs over to Sandile and begins squeezing it to open its mouth as Ash runs over to do the same as Pikachu and Oshawott try pulling Axew out of Sandile's mouth (being it's part Ground-type, you could just have Oshawott spray it a little). However Pikachu's ear is in Sandile's nose (eww) which causes Sandile to sneeze sending Axew and everyone falling back. But as soon as Axew is free Sandile bites Pikachu and Oshawott and begins running off with them until Team Rocket picks it up with a... magnet?

They say they're motto, Ash demands them to let go of his Pokemon even though every other time he told them to they never listen so he might as well not try anymore, and they begin driving off as Meowth throws a grenade which causes a scene transition of them going up a mountainside. But before Team Rocket could go on any further their vehicle falls into a pitfall as the other Sandiles surround them as Ash, Iris, and Dan spot them (and I see the writer's aren't wasting anytime in ignoring Ash's Flying-type bird. I would say its name (or species name as Ash doesn't nickname his Pokemon) but if the writer's don't care then why should we?). The Sandile Leader commands the other Sandile to further bury Team Rocket's vehicle as they jump out and the magnet remembers Sandile isn't made of metal and releases it. With a group of Sandile heading toward them, Team Rocket decide to retreat and finally Sandile releases Pikachu and Oshawott in front of a group of worried Deerling, Patrat, and the Flying-type bird which Ash has one of.

Boiling Water, Good For Cooking, Bad For Pokemon:
Ash, Iris, and Dan catch up to see the Sandile Leader start giving out commands to the wild Pokemon when geysers began bursting out. Seeing the Sandile Leader commanding the wild Pokemon away, Dan theorizes that Sandile is protecting the wild Pokemon from the geysers and was trying to warn people about it.

Iris: Is that why Sandile grabbed Axew?
Ash: It was trying to save Axew!
Comment: No, I think it grabbed Axew, and then Pikachu and Oshawott, was to bring you there to see the geysers so you could warn people about it.

Ash runs to Pikachu and Oshawott and a series of geysers erupt and break the ground around the non-Sandile wild Pokemon trapping them on an island surrounded by boiling water. Note that this is boiling water and all our characters know this is boiling water. Why do I say this? Because hearing the next eruption Ash tries to save the wild Pokemon by RUNNING INTO THE BOILING WATER! After realizing he's not immune to third degree burns (despite all the years Charizard burned him), Ash rushes out as the Sandile began to stack themselves until they were tall enough to form a bridge for the Deerling and Patrat, and no, I'm not mentioning the Flying-type bird Pokemon which Ash has one of because those things could FLY OFF ANYTIME THEY WANTED.

However the Pokemon are scared to cross so Ash runs over and begins to have them go across. Ash tells Pikachu to go on ahead and once it does the ground under the end Sandile begins breaking and Ash grabs it before it fell into the boiling water (Ash, have you been reading ahead in the script?). A geyser then bursts right next to Ash and arcs toward him (yay, I don't think geysers work that way) but Oshawott runs across and jumps using a Water Gun to stop the geyser from falling onto Ash. But once the geyser stops Oshawott begins to fall into the boiling water until Ash, showing a rare case of characters remembering how they carry around all their Pokemon, uses Oshawott's Pokeball to return it. Ash then begins losing his grip on the Sandile he was holding but as soon as he lets go Iris grabs his arm having run across because apparently she read ahead in the script too. Deciding they don't want to see what other twists the writers could come up with the Sandile lift them off the island... and then collapse due to Ash and Iris weight on top of the stack.

We end this episode seeing Ash and Iris enjoying the hot spring which Dan's family resort has gotten due to the geysers filling up the hot sand spa (um, wasn't there a chain of geysers heading toward the resort? What, did once all the wild Pokemon were saved the geysers had nothing else to be an antagonist to and decided to just stop?). We end the episode seeing the Sandile Leader popping out and giving a laugh despite now it and it's following Sandiles have lost their home... and if at least the Sandile Leader begins to follow Ash I swear I'll scream a rant (how's that different then what I do now? Well imagine having to read a whole paragraph IN ALL CAPITOL LETTERS)!

Why would you rant about that, Pikachu?

Good episode.

Not a bad episode. Missed "Who's that pokemon". But I loved that Oshawott (however you spell it ;P) went with Ash. (: