Enlighten Up! (Japanese: ヤドンのさとり!サトシのさとり!Yadon's Comprehension! Satoshi's Comprehension!) is the 244th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on April 18, 2002 and in the United States on April 26, 2003.
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
Ash, Misty and Brock stop by a lake where they meet with Team Rocket. As they’re about to battle each other, a Slowpoke with a flag comes and sits on a rock fishing. This lady comes and says the Slowpoke is looking for "enlightenment." She offers to take everyone to Slowpoke Temple to learn this. There’s a giant gold statue of a Slowpoke. They go through tests, such as having to concentrate so hard they won’t move or else they’ll be hit by sticks! The next is cleaning the temple, which Ash and Team Rocket compete in.
Jessie and James go off to steal the statue, and Meowth distracts Ash by fishing with him. The same Slowpoke is fishing much better than Ash and friends, because the Pokémon know they won’t be captured. The gold statue is stolen by Jessie and James, but Slowpoke evolves into Slowbro and defeats them. Ash and friends head off, while Team Rocket stay at the temple, this time to truthfully learn enlightenment...
The guidebook that Brock is reading at the start of the episode is black in color, when it should be blue and yellow, as in previous episodes.
The color of the guidebook was probably changed by accident because of the second book that Brock reads, which is also black.
In the dub, Brock says that his hometown is "Flint City". He is actually from Pewter City. Flint is his father.
Brock's sexual fantasy
Madeleine mentions that "Slowpoke is just a name that humans invented". This may be true in the games, but is doubtful in the anime, where most Pokémon can say their names even right after being born. This implies that Pokémon in the anime were named after their "natural" cries.
It is said that when a Shellder clamps down on a Slowpoke's tail, it will change shape, and the Slowpoke will evolve into a Slowbro. The Slowpoke should evolve right when the Shellder makes contact with the Slowpoke's tail. The Slowpoke that was fishing at Lake Enlightenment caught a Shellder on its tail, but was not seen evolving until later.
Dub edits
During the meditation scene, Brock's sexual fantasy of Madeleine was cut from the English dub.
The close-up shot of the robed man with a wooden paddle hitting another robed man with that paddle was covered up by an impact animation for the dub.
The sound effects of the paddle hits during the meditation scene are much louder in the original Japanese version.