JN059

← JN058 : A Rollicking Roll… / Eyes on the Goal!

Pokémon Journeys: The Series

JN060 : Beyond Chivalry… Aiming to be a Leek Master! →

When a House is Not a Home!

JN059   EP1144 迷子のサルノリ！トレーナーは誰だ！？ The Lost Sarunori! Who is the Trainer!?

First broadcast Japan March 12, 2021 United States September 10, 2021

English themes Opening Journey to Your Heart Ending

Japanese themes Opening １・２・３ Ending ポケモンしりとり（ミュウ→ザマゼンタVer.）

Credits Animation Team Kato Screenplay 米村正二 Shōji Yonemura Storyboard 樋口香里 Kaori Higuchi Assistant director 水本葉月 Hazuki Mizumoto Animation directors さとう沙名栄 Sanae Satō 佐々木彩香 Ayaka Sasaki 永田有香 Yuka Nagata No additional credits are available at this time.

Screenshots on Filb.de Preview thread on BMGf Closed Original review thread on BMGf Dub review thread on BMGf

When a House is Not a Home! (Japanese: 迷子のサルノリ！トレーナーは誰だ！？ The Lost Sarunori! Who is the Trainer!?) is the 59th episode of Pokémon Journeys: The Series, and the 1,144th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on March 12, 2021, in Canada on August 21, 2021, and in the United States on September 10, 2021.

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

Plot

Goh wakes up in his house, only to see his father has transformed into a Rillaboom. Screaming, he rushes to see his mother, only to find out that she's become a Rillaboom too. She asks him to care for his little brother, a Grookey, whom he finds clinging to his arm. Goh then wakes up in his bunk bed at the Cerise Laboratory, relieved to see it was all a dream. However, he then notices a very real Grookey clinging to his arm, and screams in terror. Ash, woken up by the scream, uses his Rotom Phone to identify Grookey. Recovering from his initial shock, Goh picks up a Poké Ball and tries to catch Grookey, only for his Rotom Phone to inform him that Grookey has already been caught by someone else. Grookey then makes up and starts happily hitting everyone on the head with its stick. Mimey enters the room, and Grookey tries to do the same on it too, only for Mimey to dodge or block each of its attempts, until Grookey gets too hungry to continue.

Grookey joins Ash and Goh on their breakfast, only to start creating havoc when Pikachu stops it from stealing his food. Grookey runs off and ends up running into Chloe and Eevee as they try to leave for school. Both Pikachu and Yamper try to attack Grookey in retaliation, only to just end up shocking everyone except Grookey.

Goh proceeds to tell Professor Cerise, Chrysa, and Ren about how he found Grookey, with Ren momentarily suspecting Gengar's involvement. Ash and Goh resolve to find Grookey's Trainer, but Chrysa says there are no online notifications about a missing Grookey. Goh gets the idea to use Yamper's sense of smell to find where Grookey came from. They discover that it had entered the laboratory though an unclosed door on a tower, and proceed to follow Yamper's lead across the town. Along the way, Grookey gets into trouble with other Pokémon, until it gets hungry again. As the group takes a break to eat at a park, Grookey spots some wilting flowers and uses its stick to revitalize them, impressing Ash and Goh.

Eventually, the scent trail leads Ash and Goh in front of the Vermilion City Poké Mart. They get a permission from the Poké Mart clerk to view the surveillance camera footage in order to find out where Grookey came from. To their surprise, they notice the Rocket Prize Master falling from the sky and Grookey emerging from it, before Pelipper appears to pick up the machine, while failing to notice Grookey. Ash and Goh are shocked to realize that Grookey is Team Rocket's Pokémon.

As Ash and Goh step out of the store to think of what to do, the Team Rocket trio appears to steal Pikachu and Grookey, not knowing the latter Pokémon is already theirs. Ash has his Farfetch'd free Pikachu and Grookey with Night Slash before attacking Team Rocket with Brutal Swing, prompting them to call out the Rocket Prize Master. Pelipper obediently drops the vending machine down for them, but only one Poké Ball comes out. When Jessie throws it, the trio is dumbstruck to see that it's empty. The information leaflet dropping out of the Ball reveals that the Pokémon inside it is supposed to be Grookey. At first, Jessie doesn't believe that the Grookey before them is supposed to be theirs, but is proven wrong when the Ball recalls Grookey on her command. The trio decides to retreat, using a smoke bomb to cover their escape. Goh notices that Grookey had accidentally left its stick behind.

Back in Team Rocket's secret base, Grookey is feeling sad over losing its twig and misses Goh. At the Cerise Laboratory, Goh is also feeling lonely without Grookey. As the night falls, Grookey escapes from the hideout to reunite with Goh. In the morning, Goh heads out to find Grookey and return its stick to it, with Ash tagging along. Yamper's sense of smell leads them back to the park, where Grookey emerges from amongst the same flowers it had revitalized the day before. Grookey and Goh happily hug each other, but their happy reunion is cut short when Team Rocket appears, reminding the twerps that Grookey is still under their ownership. They intend to send it back to the Team Rocket HQ to be retrained and become more obedient, but Grookey avoids all the attempts to be recalled, before Pikachu knocks Grookey's Poké Ball out of Jessie's hand and Grookey breaks it in two, much to Team Rocket's shock. Meowth then unintentionally translates to Goh Grookey's request to be caught by him, and both sides throw a Poké Ball at Grookey. The Chimp Pokémon smacks Team Rocket's Ball back at them, before letting Goh's Poké Ball catch it, becoming his Pokémon. He sends Grookey back out, and as Meowth tries to snatch it and Pikachu with a net, Ash has Pikachu use Thunderbolt, sending the trio blasting off.

Back at the Cerise Laboratory, Goh introduces Grookey to all of his other Pokémon residing at the Cerise Park. Grookey even apologizes to Chloe's Eevee about hitting it earlier. However, it then immediately proceeds to ride to Evolution Pokémon, much to Eevee's dismay, prompting Goh to chase after them.

Major events

• A Grookey belonging to Team Rocket releases itself and joins Goh's team.

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

Debuts

Pokémon debuts

• Goh's Grookey

TV episode debuts

• Rillaboom

Characters

Humans

Dare da?

• Ash
• Goh
• Jessie
• James
• Chloe
• Professor Cerise
• Chrysa
• Ren
• Camille (voice; dream; Japanese version only)
• Walker (voice; dream; Japanese version only)
• Trainers
• Poké Mart clerk

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Grookey

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Mr. Mime (Ash's; Mimey)
• Gengar (Ash's)
• Farfetch'd (Ash's; Galarian)
• Venomoth (Goh's)
• Stantler (Goh's)
• Ekans (Goh's)
• Scatterbug (Goh's)
• Heracross (Goh's)
• Sobble (Goh's)
• Boldore (Goh's)
• Grookey (Goh's; new; formerly Team Rocket's)
• Eevee (Chloe's)
• Yamper (Professor Cerise's)
• Rotom (Professor Cerise's; Rotom Phone; ×2)
• Pelipper (Team Rocket)
• Dodrio (Trainer's)
• Marowak (Trainer's)
• Morpeko (anime; Hangry Mode)
• Rillaboom (×2; dream)
• Thwackey (image)

Trivia

• Get Inspired! Let's Solve a Poké Riddle!!: Grookey
• The English dub was released on the iTunes Store in Australia the day before the episode aired in Canada.
• At 59 episodes, this marks the longest time taken for a series to formally introduce all three of the regional starter Pokémon from the concurrent generation.
• This marks the first time one of Ash's friends has caught all the three starter Pokémon from the concurrent generation.
  • This is also the first time a protagonist has caught a Pokémon previously owned by a villainous team.
• When Goh attempts to catch Grookey while it's still in Team Rocket's ownership, his Rotom Phone says, "Don't be a thief!" This is a reference to the games, where the player receives the same message if they attempt to catch a Pokémon already owned by an NPC.
• The Poké Mart clerk seen in this episode resembles the ones seen in Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!.
• The English dub title is a reference to the phrase "a house is not a home".
• Ash, Goh, Farfetch'd, and Pikachu narrate the preview for the next episode.

Errors

• When Jessie throws Grookey's Poké Ball and it comes out empty, the Poké Balls in the Rocket Prize Master are missing.

Dub edits

• In the English dub, the Rillaboom in Goh's dream speak like normal Pokémon instead of using Walker and Camille's voices, thus removing the implication that they are transformed versions of Goh's parents.
  • Similarly, Goh asking Ash if he looks like a Rillaboom is changed to him simply saying that he had a nightmare about Rillaboom.
• In the Japanese version, Jessie makes a pun on Grookey's Grass-typing by saying they will leave no patch of grass unturned. James and Meowth explain the pun. In the English dub, Jessie says that they will leave no rock unturned. James tells her that it's a Grass type, and Meowth says that it bugs him.

In other languages

Language		Title
Danish		Hjem, kære, hjem, Grookey!
Dutch		Waneer een huis geen thuis is!
Finnish		Kotini ei ole täällä!
European French		Quand une maison n'est plus un foyer !
Italian		Casa, non dolce casa!
Norwegian		Når et hus ikke er et hjem!
Latin American Spanish		¡Cuando una casa no es un hogar!
Swedish		Grookeys resa hem

← JN058 : A Rollicking Roll… / Eyes on the Goal!

Pokémon Journeys: The Series

JN060 : Beyond Chivalry… Aiming to be a Leek Master! →

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