AG089

← AG088 : The Garden of Eatin'

Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

AG090 : Pokéblock, Stock, and Berry →

A Scare to Remember

AG089   EP363 ピカチュウ、ロケット団に入る！？ Pikachu, Joining Rocket-dan!?

First broadcast Japan August 12, 2004 United States September 3, 2005

English themes Opening This Dream Ending

Japanese themes Opening チャレンジャー！！ Ending いっぱいサマー！！

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 十川誠志 Masashi Sogo Storyboard 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Assistant director 浅田裕二 Yūji Asada Animation director 岩根雅明 Masaaki Iwane Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

A Scare to Remember (Japanese: ピカチュウ、ロケット団に入る！？ Pikachu, Joining Rocket-dan!?) is the 89th episode of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and the 363rd episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on August 12, 2004, and in the United States on September 3, 2005.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Blurb

As Ash and friends walk to Lilycove City, a tree comes crashing down in front of them—pushed over by Team Rocket in their newest giant robot! They have Pikachu in hand, when the robot begins to sink into the ground and crumple. It explodes, sending everyone flying.

The kids find themselves stuck in a tree—without Pikachu. Team Rocket is lost, and Meowth is nowhere to be found. Pikachu and Meowth wake up next to each other, and to Meowth's delight, Pikachu has no memory. Meowth convinces Pikachu that it was a part of Team Rocket and that the two of them are best friends.

While the pair makes it may back to Team Rocket's secret base, Meowth witnesses Pikachu saving a Zigzagoon, not being scared of a high ledge, and even sharing an apple with Meowth. Eventually they make it back to the base, and Meowth updates Jessie and James.

Ash and friends track down Pikachu to the cabin, where Team Rocket has Pikachu attack Ash. They try to get away in a balloon, but Ash grabs on. James orders Pikachu to use Thunderbolt, and they end up crashing. Ash and Pikachu land in the river and wash ashore. When they awake, Pikachu has its memory back.

Team Rocket lands in the water nearby, and Pikachu sends them blasting off.

Plot

As Ash and his friends are walking in the woods on their way to the ferry port in Lilycove City, Pikachu is exceptionally happy. However, the ground starts shaking, and a tree starts falling down and almost hits Pikachu. After the sand clouds clear, a big machine appears and is holding Pikachu. It is a contraption belonging to Team Rocket, which they call the Mean and Nasty, Grumpy Grabber Mark One. Ash orders Pikachu to use Thunderbolt, but the attack doesn't even phase the machine because it is made of a bunch of insulated recyclables mixed in with a bunch of rubber hoses. Ash and friends charge at the machine; however, they fall into a pitfall dug by Team Rocket. Team Rocket's machine starts sinking into the soft sand. After a short time, the machine itself starts crumbling and then explodes, causing everyone to fly in the air. Ash tries desperately to catch Pikachu, but he is much lighter than Ash, and so he flies through the air much faster.

In the next scene, it appears Ash had blacked out and is starting to come around when he asks if everyone is alright. Everyone else starts coming around as well and says that they are okay as well. Max asks what happened and May thinks that Team Rocket's machine blew up. Then, Ash remembers what happened and starts frantically calling for Pikachu. Ash tries to make a run for it; however, he is stuck in a tree. Meanwhile, Jessie and James are pasted to a tree themselves, having lost Meowth. Jessie thinks they should go back to base, but James thinks otherwise, since Meowth might be lost. Meanwhile, Pikachu regains consciousness and finds himself sitting on top of Meowth's head. Meowth panics when he sees Pikachu, realizing that he might get zapped by him, but Pikachu doesn't do so. Meowth brings out his claws to attack Pikachu, but Pikachu doesn't do anything except stand there. Soon, Meowth realizes that Pikachu must have amnesia. As a result, Meowth plots to convince Pikachu that he belongs to Team Rocket and has been since the day he was born and how much he's been through. Pikachu believes Meowth's claims.

Ash orders Swellow to go look for Pikachu, while Brock orders Mudkip to look as well. Meanwhile, Meowth and Pikachu are strolling happily through the woods, looking for the Team Rocket base. Then, a Zigzagoon appears out of the bushes along with a Beedrill. Pikachu uses Thunderbolt on the Beedrill and it flies away, rescuing Meowth. Next, they walk along a narrow ledge; Pikachu has no problem but Meowth is afraid. Meowth tells Pikachu a lie on how he once saved Pikachu's life when he was burning up with fever and Meowth was nursing him back to health. Meowth steps on a weak part of the ledge and falls through. Pikachu grabs Meowth by the tail and tries to pull him back up. Meanwhile, Mudkip detects a vibration to the right. They see footprints and recognize them as the tracks of Pikachu, Meowth, and a Zigzagoon.

Meowth is seen sitting on the edge of a pond, looking down at his reflection and thinking that the explosion must have knocked them halfway across Hoenn and nowhere near home base. Pikachu comes with an apple and is willing to give it to Meowth, having realized that Meowth was hungry. Meowth learns that this was the only apple and Pikachu wouldn't have had any, so he decided to split it with Pikachu. Meanwhile, Ash and his friends are walking along the narrow ledge that Meowth and Pikachu crossed moments before. As they do so, Brock mentions that Pikachu doesn't seem to be putting up any type of struggle. Eventually, Swellow passes over Pikachu and Meowth while they are walking up a steep bank. Meowth starts feeling guilty on how it would be wrong to deprive Pikachu of his freedom. Pikachu loses his balance and falls down the hill, but Meowth catches him.

Jessie and James finally reach home base, where they debate whether they should go out and look for Meowth or stay in their current position. At that moment, Swellow comes in, sees Team Rocket's base, and goes back to tell Ash. Meowth and Pikachu also arrive at home base. There, Pikachu is unconvinced of Jessie and James's trustworthiness, but eventually believes Meowth's claims that they are friendly. Ash arrives and sees what is happening. He tells Pikachu how worried he was about him and asks Pikachu if he remembers him. Pikachu decides to go to Team Rocket rather than Ash, stunning him. Team Rocket performs the motto, this time with Pikachu participating at the end along with Meowth. Ash continues trying to convince Pikachu that he is Pikachu's friend. James commands Pikachu to use Thunderbolt, which sends him flying. Brock finally comes to the conclusion that Pikachu has amnesia. Team Rocket runs into their base, it explodes, and they come out with their balloon. Ash grabs onto the basket, determined to rescue Pikachu. James orders Pikachu to use Thunderbolt, but it shocks everyone. Ash and Pikachu start falling, and Ash grabs on to him but they fall into a rushing river.

The two eventually wash up ashore. Pikachu examines Ash and licks him on the face, causing him to regain consciousness. Ash sees Pikachu, realizes he remembers him, and hugs him. Brock, May, and Max finally catch up to Ash and Pikachu. Team Rocket falls from the sky and lands in the water. They asks them to help them out because they can't swim, but they tell Team Rocket to help themselves, only for Ash to command Pikachu to blast Jessie, James and Meowth off using Thunderbolt. Brock remarks on how great it is to have anyone back again, and May comments that it is times like these that make one appreciate your friends. Now that Ash has promised that they would be friends forever, It's off to Lilycove City, as the journey continues.

Major events

• Ash's Pikachu, during a bout of amnesia, temporarily joins Team Rocket.

For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• May
• Brock
• Max
• Jessie
• James
• Norman (flashback; Japanese version only)
• Kenny (flashback; Japanese version only)

Pokémon

Pokémon Trainer's Choice

Pokémon Trainer's Choice: Pikachu

• Pikachu (Ash's; temporarily Team Rocket's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Chimecho (James's)
• Swellow (Ash's)
• Mudkip (Brock's)
• Vigoroth (Norman's; flashback; Japanese version only)
• Nosepass (Roxanne's; flashback; Japanese version only)
• Beedrill
• Zigzagoon

Trivia

• Smile is used as an insert song when Ash has flashbacks of his times with Pikachu. Music from Pikachu's Vacation, Gotta Dance!, Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias, and Jirachi: Wish Maker can be heard in this episode.
• This episode marks the first, and so far only, instance of Team Rocket reciting their motto more than once in an episode without any interruption.
• Meowth returns the favor to Pikachu by splitting the apple between them, as Pikachu did the same to Meowth in Bound for Trouble.
• The English dub title is a reference to the 1999 Nicholas Sparks romance novel A Walk to Remember and its 2002 film adaptation.
• This episode is featured on Pokémon All-Stars: Pikachu from Magna Pacific's Pokémon All-Stars series.
• The Hindi title of this episode is based on a song from the 1975 blockbuster film Sholay.

Errors

• The size of Team Rocket's mecha increases between shots.

Dub edits

• The English dub features a song written especially for this episode, titled You Can't Remember.
• Ash reminiscing about his Gym battles with Roxanne and Norman, and Pikachu getting sick is cut in the dub. The English dub instead adds a number of new scenes:
  • Pikachu runs towards Team Rocket.
  • Ash tries to get Pikachu back on their side.
  • Ash and Pikachu sleep on the boat from Hoenn Alone!.
  • Pikachu and Ash eat watermelons.
  • Ash cheers about winning his Feather Badge.
  • Ash and Pikachu are with their wings in True Blue Swablu.
  • Pikachu wakes Ash up.
• In the English dub, the fruit is called an apple. In the original Japanese version, it is simply called fruit.
• In the English dub, when Team Rocket lands in the river, Ash and his friends say they won't help them. In the original, they simply exclaim "Team Rocket!"

Pokémon Trainer's Choice

• Question: Trainers, which one of these Pokémon evolves into Raichu?
• Choices: Pichu, Pikachu, Torchic
• Answer: OK, Trainers! If you chose Pikachu, you were right!

In other languages

Language		Title
Mandarin Chinese		皮卡丘加入火箭隊！？
Danish		Et Chok Man Husker
Dutch		De schrik van je leven
Finnish		Pikachu harhapoluilla
European French		Trou de mémoire
German		Freunde für´s Leben!
Hebrew		רגע של פחדrega shel pakhad
Hindi		ये दोस्ती हम नहीं तोड़ेंगे! Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge! *
Italian		Amnesia
Korean		피카츄! 로켓단에 들어가다!?
Portuguese	Brazil	Um Susto Inesquecível
	Portugal	Um Susto a Não Esquecer
Russian		Напугать, чтобы вспомнить
Spanish	Latin America	¡Un susto para recordar!
	Spain	Un susto para recordar
Swedish		Minnesförlust!

← AG088 : The Garden of Eatin'

Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire

AG090 : Pokéblock, Stock, and Berry →

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.