missed it!

crap...

hey did they still say that togepi was a female!?

already knew that

but yanmega was the only real surprise out of them

pachirisu was also hinted at being male

but seriously japan just do what you did with aipom and say the genders for once

This was certainly an interesting episode with a nice little twist which we kind of saw before in EP186 "UnBEARable" but instead of a debut (as EP186 "UnBEARable" was for Teddiursa), this time it was with a Pokemon we all thought we knew pretty well: Togepi! Also I totally forgot about a certain Legendary Pokemon that appears when I made my joke, though you do have to wonder how astronauts don't get attacked by it upon leaving and coming back to Earth. Oh, and how can we forget about the most importent thing this episode has to offer: Pikachu's gender confirmation! Anyway it was a nice episode and certainly a filler which you wish there was more of with those odd twists.

Evil Never Looked So Cute:
* Look at wha... huh? It looks like a tower which is made up of "play houses" balanced on top of each other... and here's Team Rocket.
* Pokemon Trainer's Tower? Is that suppose to be a spoof on the Trainer Tower is FireRed and LeafGreen? Anyway looks like Team Rocket didn't waste anytime trapping Ash & co..
* And to wrap it all off they even made a Mt. Rushmore-esque sculpture with their and Giovanni's head. Well they make the same-as-all-villians mistake of leaving the heroes...
* ... And suddenly we have a Togepi walk on scree... GAH! A Togepi with a sinister laugh and slasher face to match!
* Wait, so this is suppose to be Team Rocket's Sinnoh SECRET Base? Apparently they built this with the Twinleaf Festival money they made and there's that Togepi, where did it come from again?
* Don't know why they have two emergancy rooms stocked with food (they really think a battle with Ash & co. will take what looks to be a week or two of battling?) and find the Togepi eating it all.
* Teleport? No, that looked more like Substitute which they can learn from Generation III Move Tutors and Breeding. Anyone they soon find it but it plays them for saps saying that its "father" was the one causing the problems (too bad Team Rocket didn't do their research as Togepi cannot Breed unti lthey evolve).
* The Togepi wanders off and comes down the elevator in front of Ash & co. as Dawn scans it. Though maybe the Pokedex entry should replace "kindness" with "cruely" for this specific Togepi...
* Togepi frees Ash & co. from their cage and takes them up in the elevator... only to lead them to another pit fall trap. Meanwhile Team Rocket are still on a wild goose chase. But comes back to them and leads them to James's room.

Messing Around Before Getting Down To Business:
* As James thanks Arceus his bottle cap collection is safe, the Togepi messes with im by using Psychic (it can learn via TM29) to play keep away. ith seeing this, Jessie and Meowth go to their rooms.
* In Jessie's room the Togepi dips Jessie's Pokemon Contest dresses into a Octillery Ink Beauty Bath... what, was there something wrong with a Mudkip Mud Beauty Bath?
* As for Meowth (did I mention each one of their rooms has their face painted on the door), Togepi causes Meowth's "Boss Bot" to pet him so fast it put Meowth on fire.
* Ash & co. are trapped once again and once again Togepi frees them, takes them to a floor (the roof this time) where Ash & co. walk out and fall into a pit trap (apparently it hasn't occured to them each floor is set with a pit trap in front of the elevator).
* Dawn concludes that Togepi might not be so innocent as they followed it two times and fell into the trap with Brock noticing it never falls with them. However Togepi soon re-appears and play innocent like it did with Team Rocket to gain their trust.
* And as you expect, it frees them, points them to a direction to run, and they fall into a pit trap which somehow loops them several times until they land back into the same cell they were in.
* Team Rocket re-gathers with James coming out the best (Jessie's clothed are inked beyond washing and Meowth's "Boss Bot" is on broke) when Togepi comes down the elevator not hiding its evilness (real word?) to them. But as they charge Togepi does a Flamethrower (can learn via TM35) and has them fall down a pit fall.
* Team Rocket explain about the evil Togepi to Ash & co. as it appears down the elevator with Jessie sending out Tanmega to attack it (BTW, since Pokemon appear out of their Pokeballs as beams of energy, why didn't Ash & co. send a Pokemon of theirs out of the cage that way to pull the switch?).
* Togepi uses the Substitute trick (though they are still calling it Teleport) and once again is acting as a different "nice" Togepi. However Brock knows this and points out it's Substitute and Togepi drops its ploy and uses Attract having all the males (being Croagunk, Piplup, Meowth, and Pikachu) under its control.
* Before we go on, let's all celebrate on finally having Pikachu's gender confirmed (along with Croagunk's)! In addition we also know Yanmega is female as it didn't fall under Attract's effect. And apparently Jessie didn't even know Yanmega was a female embarressing it.

Taking Your Team's Name A Bit Too Literal:
* Team Rocket built an emergancy escape stairwell just incase they lost control of the tower and we also find out that the tower is also a rocket (I guess to play along with that "enough money to buy a rocket" joke at the end of the Twinleaf Festival when they got paid).
* If you can believe, they do actually get into space (they better be careful of any territorial Rayquaza in the ozone ) as Ash & co. and Team Rocket but in. Brock sends out Happiny to Pound everyone to their senses but Togepi uses Attract again. Togepi and Happiny then get into a Baby Pokemon Fight.
* Pikachu spots a target floating at them upon putting it on screen... it's a Rayqauza... I'm not to sure whether this makes my above joke more funny or less funny... But as expected, Rayquaza attacks them with Hyper Beam and send them pummeling back to Earth.
* The exploding controls wakes Meowth, Pikachu, Croagunk, and Piplup up from Attract and James takes the control of the rocket saying he knows how to fly one as his parents bought him one when he was a kid (and silly me thought it was all those mechs we see Team Rocket constantly use).
* Ash & co. help by having Pikachu recharge the power supply, Buneary uses Ice Beam to cool down the ship, and Grotle & Piplup use Energy Ball & BubbleBeam to cuase explosions outside to balance out the rocket (somehow).
* With the rocket stable, James activate the parachute (and I must say a 2D parachute kinds of looks weird slowing down a 3D rocket) but the rocket is soon burned away but Happiny using Pound to reflect Togepi's Flamethrower.
* When James said "Okay, Altogether now" I was kind of expecting Ash & co. and Team Rocket to say they are "Blasting Off" or something like that, kind of disappointed that they just screamed. Anyway they don't crash as Togepi uses its Psychic to float the ship down to a soft landing back where it launched off from.
* Togepi decides it's tired and so leaves right before the rocket explodes (though I'm not to sure whether it was because of Togepi or is just left in the nick of time).
* We end the episode with Ash & co. perfectly okay with a few comments about the odd Togepi and how exciting it was going into space, Team Rocket being trapped in their cage in the rubble, and the Togepi giving off one final slasher face as we "fade out" with it.

ok youtube decided to not fail me for once

and I just remembered my favorite thing in this episode

yanmega's gender revealed...

I just love the "yan yan ma" she says while blushing

I find it cute even though she's voiced by a female it's a good thing yanmega kept her japanese voice

Well here is one thing to think about...

!!! WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW !!!

We do know Dawn is going to get a Togekiss, who's to say that it might be the Evil Togepi, having evolved to a Togetic/Togekiss and running back into Ash and co. decides to bother them once more and challenge Brock's Happiny. But this time Dawn somehow be-friends it and it decides to join her party.

!!! WARNING: SPOILERS ABOVE !!!