The Keystone Pops! (Japanese: ミカルゲの要石！Mikaruge's Keystone!) is the 56th episode of the Diamond & Pearl series, and the 522nd episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on November 29, 2007 and in the United States on May 10, 2008.
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
Template:Incomplete synopsis
After having traded, Ash and Dawn decide to get used to their new Pokémon. After a few minutes of battlingAsh's Buizel uses SonicBoom which is then deflected by Dawn's Aipom's tail and sent into a Hallowed Stone Tower. The tower immediately crumbles into bricks. The sky turns black and clouds roll in. The bricks of the Hallowed Stone Tower then begin to glow. In the rubble lies an Odd Keystone. From this keystone emerges Spiritomb who then proceeds to attack the group with Shadow Ball and Ominous Wind. The group try to counter with Pikachu's Thunderbolt however the attack goes straight through Spiritomb. Spiritomb then flies away, it encounters Jessie, James and Meowth and attacks them with Hyper Beam. It then proceeds to attack a nearby village.
The next day Ash and friends arrive in the village to find it derelict. They hear stories about a strange Template:Type2Pokémon that attacked the village in the night. They immediately connect this with Spiritomb. They meet an old woman who tells them the story of Spiritomb and how an Aura Guardian with a Pikachu sealed away Spiritomb} in the Hallowed Stone Tower 500 years ago. The Aura Guardian has a Pikachu, just like Ash has.
Team Rocket comes up with a plan to steal Ash's Pikachu and nearly succeeds. However, Team Rocket is uncovered and Spiritomb reveals that it wants revenge on the Aura Guardian whilst the Ash and friends plans to lure Spiritomb.
Team Rocket managed to convince the Spiritomb that Ash is a descendant of the Aura Guardian who trapped Spiritomb him. Ash and Pikachu battles the Spiritomb and Team Rocket are sent 'blasting off again' by Spiritomb's attack.
Pikachu is on the floor, weakened, but Ash orders Pikachu to send a Thunder up towards the sky, which re-charges Pikachu's energy. Pikachu uses a Volt Tackle, then Thunderbolt- which defeats the Spiritomb. Ash and friends then seal the Spiritomb away in the Keystone.
Team Rocket's final pose for their motto in this episode refers to Hindi/Chinese myth of world creation: the world is held by four elephants (Phanpy), which stand on a turtle (Torkoal), which stands on a snake that bites its own tail (Arbok).
Each of these Pokémon were on a main character's team at some point in the anime. Arbok belonged to Jessie, while Phanpy and Torkoal belonged to Ash.
This is the first episode of the anime to mention Aura (and Ash's proficiency in it), which was a major plot point in Lucario and the Mystery of Mew and as a result the movie is made canon by this episode.
Buizel and Aipom switched places in Ash's and Dawn's teams in the opening and ending, respectively, corresponding with their trade that happened in the previous episode.
Music from Lucario and the Mystery of Mew was used as background music during the old woman's story and the ending scene.
The episode was originally scheduled to first air in the United States on May 3, 2008, but was pulled due to unknown reasons. Due to this, some fans were initially led to believe this episode was being skipped in the dub.
The title for this episode comes from the movie series Keystone Kops.
This episode marks the only time Dawn is seen using Aipom between the last episode (when she was traded) and Journey to the Unown! (which is the episode where she evolves into Ambipom).
Jessie calls Spiritomb "Iron Chef", referring to the Japanese TV show of the same name.
Errors
When Spiritomb is chasing Team Rocket, at one point, Jessie tells it to look "there". When Spiritomb looks back, Team Rocket has run away. Looking startled, Spiritomb's eyes both have a spiral in them, when originally, only its left eye has a spiral in it.
Dub edits
In other languages
German: Die Legende lebt!
Latin American Spanish: ¡La reaparición de Spiritomb!
