EP242
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As Clear as Crystal
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First broadcast
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English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
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As Clear as Crystal (Japanese: サンダーとクリスタル！みずうみのひみつ！ Thunder and the Crystal! Secret of the Lake!) is the 242nd episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on March 28, 2002 and in the United States on April 12, 2003.
Synopsis
As Ash and his friends continue to Blackthorn City, we see them still in the forest looking for a way out. Ash is still under Lily's Ashachu spell, but soon the spell wears off, Ash becomes human again, and everyone is relieved. Now, however, they still have a small problem; they are completely lost in the woods. Of course, Misty blames it on Ash as usual and insults him by saying she liked him a whole lot better when he was still a Pikachu.
While walking through the woods, Ash and his friends meet up with Jessie, James and Meowth in disguise. They proceed to tell Ash that his Pikachu loses energy because it's lost and they can recharge it with their new invention, the PikaPower Mach III. Jessie then rips Pikachu off Ash's shoulder and straps it in and radios to Meowth who swoops down in their balloon and takes Pikachu, Jessie, and James into the sky. Jessie then tells Ash to command Pikachu to use Thunderbolt. But what Ash and his friends don't know is that, as opposed to recharging Pikachu, the chair actually saps Pikachu of its energy. Ash tells Pikachu to give it all he's got and eventually the chair releases Pikachu and Team Rocket goes blasting off again.
Just then a girl named Krystal meets up with Ash and his friends. Brock, of course, falls in love with her at first sight. However, Ash goes on telling her that Pikachu is badly hurt and that there isn't a Pokémon Center for miles around. She asks them to keep a very big secret for her if she helps them out.
Krystal takes our heroes up a large hill where they soon notice that Electric-type Pokémon are also climbing up the hill. Krystal tells them that they're all going there for a special reason. When they get to the top of the hill they come to a big lake, and Krystal tells them that Electric-type Pokémon come to rest in there if they're worn out and tells them that the water has magical healing powers. She then orders Ash to put Pikachu into the water.
After Pikachu is healed, Krystal takes Ash and his friends out to the middle of the lake in a speedboat to show them the secret to the lake's power. When they look down from the bottom of the boat they see what looks like an underwater temple with a crystal at the bottom. Krystal tells them how the electric Pokémon have been coming to the lake for years and how they are healed by the lake's power. Jessie and James are eavesdropping in on the conversation and plot to steal the crystal.
Meanwhile, Ash and his friends are talking about how the lake needs to be kept secret and how bad it would be if the wrong people got a hold of the crystal.
Then Team Rocket goes underwater in a giant mechanical Tentacruel and gets a hold of the crystal. At first they're happy, but then unbeknownst to them the crystal stops glowing. Ash and his friends notice that the glowing where the crystal once stood is gone and they panic. Team Rocket reveals themselves, recite their motto, and then float away in their balloon. Our heroes are furious about this occurrence. However the Electric Pokémon start to follow Team Rocket in attempt to get the crystal back. Ash orders Pikachu to Thunderbolt them, and the other Electric Pokémon join in the attack. However, Team Rocket sucks in their energy with the PikaPower Mach III. They then make the machine forcibly draw energy from the Electric Pokémon to drain their power. Just then a scream and black clouds appears in the sky and a huge bolt of lightning breaks the circuit between the electric Pokémon and the machine.
Everyone wonders what this was. The sky suddenly gets dark and the clouds part to reveal the legendary bird Zapdos! Zapdos is extremely angry and flies toward Team Rocket and zaps their PikaPower Mach III. However, even Zapdos loses energy and the heroes start to wonder why it doesn't seem to have much power in the first place. Zapdos turns it up to full power and overloads the PikaPower Mach III, sending Team Rocket blasting off again. But then Zapdos falls out of the sky to the ground. Still angry and flailing about it finally faints because of its weakness and the process of healing.
Krystal tells them this is the real secret. But without the crystal in the water Zapdos can't get healed so our heroes set off to find Team Rocket and the crystal. Pikachu senses the crystal is nearby so they follow Pikachu to where Team Rocket had crashed. Jessie sends out her Arbok to stop Ash and his friends as soon as they arrive in attempt to keep the crystal in Team Rocket's possession; James sends out his Victreebel at this time, too, but of course Victreebel is more interested in eating James rather than attacking Ash. Jessie orders Arbok to use Poison Sting and Ash orders Pikachu to dodge and use Quick Attack. Arbok is then thrown into Jessie and James orders Victreebel to use Razor Leaf and Ash tells Pikachu to use Quick Attack again. Pikachu hits Victreebel and it lands on James. Ash tells Team Rocket to hand over the crystal and Jessie throws Ash a Wobbuffet balloon which inflates and bursts causing a lot of dust to fly in the air. Team Rocket now gets away in a new Wobbuffet balloon. Ash throws Bayleef's Poké Ball and orders it to use its Vine Whip to get back the crystal. It gets it back. However, James orders Victreebel to use Vine Whip, too, to get the crystal back and they both struggle to get it and Jessie orders Arbok to use Poison Sting but Pikachu uses Thunderbolt and makes Team Rocket blast off again. The crystal falls from their grasp, so Ash runs off after it to catch it. He dives off a cliff to keep it safe, and Bayleef uses her Vine Whip to catch Ash just in time, saving him from a crash into the trees below.
Ash and his friends now go back to the lake with the crystal. Ash dives underwater with it and puts it back in its rightful place. He rises to the surface but the crystal still doesn't glow. The electric Pokémon swim over to the crystal and they all use their ThunderShock attacks on the crystal which causes it to glow. They then put the injured Zapdos into the lake where it sinks to the bottom but in the midst of it the crystal stops glowing again. The electric Pokémon use ThunderShock on the crystal again which helps power up Zapdos as well. Zapdos recharges and flies out of the water, then gives the crystal full power with its Thunderbolt attack, causing the crystal to glow again. The lake is now back to normal like before, and Zapdos flies off into the clearing as everyone waves goodbye.
Ash and his friends are then shown ready to leave, promising Krystal that they won't tell anyone about the lake or Zapdos. Once again Brock tries to score with her but Misty pulls him away by the ear and the episode ends with everyone waving goodbye to each other.
Major events
- Ash reverts to human form after his transformation.
- Ash sees Zapdos, one of the legendary birds.
- For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.
Debuts
Pokémon debuts
TV episode debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: Kingdra (US and international), Zapdos (Japan)
- Pikachu (Ash's)
- Pikachu (Ash Ketchum, reverts)
- Meowth (Team Rocket)
- Togepi (Misty's)
- Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
- Bayleef (Ash's)
- Arbok (Jessie's)
- Victreebel (James's)
- Raichu
- Magnemite
- Voltorb
- Electabuzz
- Jolteon
- Zapdos
- Chinchou
- Ampharos
Trivia
- When James says, "Time to say adieu!" Meowth sings, "To you, and you, and you and you and you!" to the tune of the song So Long, Farewell from The Sound of Music.
- The concept of this episode, as well as the appearance of the Electric-type member of a legendary trio, is somewhat similar to the special episode The Legend of Thunder!, which focused on Raikou.
- This episode is featured on the Volume 4: Electric copy of Pokémon Elements.
- Jessie breaks the fourth wall in this episode by asking James to explain their mecha to their viewing audience.
- Music from Mewtwo Strikes Back is used in this episode.
Errors
- Voltorb is one of the Pokémon seen in the water, but throughout the episode, it says "Electrode".
- When Pikachu collapses from exhaustion, Brock attributes it to all the ThunderShocks it used against Team Rocket. However, Pikachu had used Thunderbolt.
- During one scene, all the Electric-type Pokémon in the lake shock the crystal. Ash was unaffected by this, even though he was in the lake at the time.
- Oddly enough, Ash and Misty do not know what a Zapdos is, despite having seen one in The Power of One. What makes this even more unusual is that the movie is canon, as during EP219, EP220 and EP221, Ash makes plenty of references to that movie, even going so far as to mention the Lugia he encountered in that movie. Even more confusingly, Team Rocket recognise Zapdos.
Dub edits
In other languages
| Language | Title | |
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| Mandarin Chinese | 閃電鳥跟水晶，湖的秘密 | |
 Dutch
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Zo Helder als Kristal | |
 European French
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Le lac magique | |
 German
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Kristallklare Sache | |
 Hebrew
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בהיר כבדולח bahir kabdolakh | |
 Italian
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Il cristallo magico | |
 Polish
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Czysty jak kryształ | |
| Portuguese |  Brazil
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Tão Claro quanto um Cristal |
 Portugal
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Claro como Cristal | |
| Spanish |  Latin America
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¡Tan claro como el cristal! |
 Spain
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El cristal poderoso | |
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This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |
