| Pokémon Double Trouble
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タッグバトル！さいごのジム！！
Tag Battle! The Final Gym!!
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First broadcast
| Japan
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August 12, 1999
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| United States
|
September 9, 2000
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|
English themes
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Japanese themes
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Credits
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Pokémon Double Trouble (Japanese: タッグバトル！さいごのジム！！ Tag Battle! The Final Gym!!) is the 108th episode of the Pokémon animated series. It was first broadcast in Japan on August 12, 1999, and in the United States on September 9, 2000.
Blurb
Ash is anxious to square off against the Gym Leader who holds the final badge of the Orange League. But then he learns that this Gym Leader is none other than the kindly townswoman who just helped him rally against a Team Rocket sneak attack.
Plot
Ash and his friends arrive at Kumquat Island for Ash's fourth and final Orange Crew battle. As they are walking on the beach, a woman rushes in and abruptly hugs Ash. She then realizes what is happening and apologizes, saying that she mistook Ash for her son Travis, who had, like Ash, started a Pokémon journey with a Pikachu. Just then, the beach is attacked by Team Rocket's Robo-Rhydon, driven by Arbok and Lickitung and weaponized by Weezing. Jessie tells Weezing to use Hyper Beam, but it instead uses Smog, to her disappointment. Nevertheless, the attack still causes beach-goers to flee in a panic.
Ash decides to stop Team Rocket, but Jessie has Arbok use Poison Sting on Ash and Pikachu. However, the woman has her Alakazam use Reflect to block the attack. She scolds Team Rocket, warning them to never return. Jessie tells the "grandma" to stay out of their way, but Misty retorts by calling Jessie old in return, enraging her and making her order another Smog attack. The woman introduces herself as the final Orange Crew Gym Leader, much to Ash's surprise, and has her Alakazam use its Psychic to seal the mechanical Rhydon's mouth shut, subsequently filling Team Rocket's control cabin with smog. Ash sends out Charizard, who uses Take Down on the robot. In the confusion, James inadvertently presses one of the buttons, causing Arbok to use Acid, which melts a hole in the Rhydon robot. Charizard responds by firing a Flamethrower on the new weak spot, which overloads the robot's machinery, causing it to explode and send Team Rocket flying.
The Gym Leader introduces herself as Luana, a local hotelier whose hotel includes a workout gym and an indoor Pokémon stadium that serves as the Kumquat Gym battlefield. Ash and his friends are invited to stay in her hotel's most exquisite suite free of charge, and they agree on a Double Battle, to be held the next day, for the final Orange League Badge. In the match, both leader and challenger will use two Pokémon simultaneously, and the match ends when the first Pokémon is unable to battle, wherein the opposing team is declared the winner. While in the hotel's hot spring, Ash and Tracey discuss strategies. Ash is committed to having Pikachu battle, but Tracey surmises that Alakazam will battle. Lacking any Ghost or Bug types that could deal an effective blow, Ash ponders who else could stand up to Alakazam's power.
The next day, the battle begins, with Luana sending out Alakazam and Marowak against Pikachu and Charizard. However, before the match begins, Pikachu and Charizard develop a grudge against one another following an innocuous stomp by Charizard that knocks Pikachu over. Sheldon calls for the match to begin and Pikachu rushes toward his opponents. However, Charizard's Flamethrower manages to hit Pikachu, burning the Mouse Pokémon's tail. Ash commands Charizard to try to use Tackle on Alakazam. However, Alakazam's Psychic attack stops Charizard in midair. As a result, Ash commands Pikachu to use Thunder Shock, but the attack hits Charizard instead. Ash scolds Pikachu, but the small Pokemon shrugs at his concerns.
After momentarily watching on as Charizard takes successive Bonemerang and Psychic attacks, Pikachu Thunder Shocks Alakazam, freeing Charizard from its Psychic hold. Luana has Marowak use Double-Edge on Pikachu, but Charizard manages to catch Pikachu with his wing. With the two now willing to cooperate, Charizard flies with Pikachu on his back, allowing Pikachu to use Thunderbolt on Marowak, disrupting its concentration despite not actually hurting the Ground type. Meanwhile, Charizard continues to fly towards Alakazam, who prepares to use a Hyper Beam at point-blank range. When Charizard pulls up at the last minute, Alakazam is hit with Marowak's wayward Bonemerang attack, sending it and the charged Hyper Beam backward. Much to Luana's shock, the Hyper Beam hits Marowak. Sheldon checks the two Pokémon and reveals they both have been knocked out, earning Ash the victory.
After Ash receives the Jade Star Badge for the victory, Luana tells Ash that he is finally able to compete in the Orange League against the Orange Crew Supreme Gym Leader for the Winner's Trophy. Leaving Kumquat Island, Luana tells Ash that if he encounters Travis, he should deliver him a warm message from home. Ash and his friends sail away on Lapras's back, waving to Luana and her hotel staff. Elsewhere, Team Rocket's cries for help remain unanswered and they are forced to wait out at sea on the remains of their Robo-Rhydon.
Major events
Ash holding the Jade Star Badge
- For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.
Debuts
Humans
Pokémon debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: Dodrio (US and international) Alakazam (Japan)
Trivia
- This episode features the first Double Battle in the Pokémon canon, if some of the battles with Jessie and James are excluded from earlier in the anime. However, it should be noted that this battle ends when either one of the Trainer's Pokémon faints as opposed to the Double Battles introduced later in the games, in which both opposing Pokémon would need to be knocked out to earn the win.
- This is the first of two episodes that featured Tracey without his headband on.
- This is the first episode to have a referee in one of Ash's Gym battles. The only previously appearing referees judged Gary's Viridian Gym battle with Giovanni in The Battle of the Badge, but were absent when Ash challenged the same Gym later in the same episode. Almost every Gym battle has a referee from this point on.
- Although James reveals that he had intended to teach his Weezing Hyper Beam, he never does get around to actually teaching it.
- After Luana reveals her status as Gym Leader in the English dub, Jessie comments "I don't care if you're in the Orange Crew or the Grapefruit League", possibly a stealth reference to Major League Baseball's Spring Training league in Florida.
- This is the second episode in which Ash is mistaken for a woman's son, the first being Hypno's Naptime.
Errors
- Before the characters enter the Gym, Luana moves her mouth as if speaking but doesn't actually say anything.
- In the training room of the hotel, a Sandslash has the voice of a Sandshrew.
- When Ash sends out Charizard to face Team Rocket, his backpack disappears.
- When Charizard uses Take Down on the Rhydon robot, the cream-colored spots on his soles disappear.
- When Team Rocket blasts off, Arbok, Lickitung, and Weezing disappear.
- During the battle, Charizard is affected by Bonemerang, a move that shouldn't affect him because he is part Flying type.
- Charizard uses Tackle, a move which neither he nor his pre-evolved forms can learn in the games.
- In the Polish dub, after Weezing uses Smog, Meowth states that James can't learn Hyper Beam by himself.
- Ash thinks about using a Ghost or Bug type to fight Alakazam. However, Psychic types are unaffected by Ghost-type moves in Generation I.
- However, it was intended for Ghost to be super effective against Ghost in Generation I, and it has been so since Generation II onward.
- In the English dub, Luana says that Ash will get to battle other qualified Trainers at the Orange League competition. However, as revealed later, the Orange League does not feature a Pokémon League Conference.
Dub edits
- Pikachu's Jukebox: Together Forever
- Part of the scene where Luana hugs Ash and squishes his face in-between her breasts, thinking that he is her son, is removed from the dub.
- Jessie's comment regarding Luana's Gym Leader status in the dub was originally her continuing to get agitated at the use of the term "old lady" when Ash uses it to describe Luana.
- Meowth's comment about the Boss not "coughing up" the money for exhaust fans is dub-only.
- Tracey's comment about Charizard obeying Ash, which comes off as him being surprised of the fact in the dub, is him simply remarking that Ash is getting used to handling Charizard in the original version.
- A scene with a Jynx on a treadmill, a Pinsir attacking a punchbag, and a Venusaur lifting dumbbells is removed, likely because it contains Jynx in its original design.
- During Ash's Gym battle, Luana commands her Marowak to use Body Slam on Pikachu in the English dub. In the original Japanese version, she commands Marowak to use Double-Edge.
- In the dub, Sheldon declares both Marowak and Alakazam to be unable to battle. In the original Japanese version, this declaration only includes Marowak.
- In the Japanese version, Luana tells Ash that the battle against the Orange Crew Supreme Gym Leader takes place at Pummelo Stadium on Pummelo Island instead of emphasizing the importance of teamwork, leaving it unknown how Ash learns of the location in the dub.
In other languages
Arabic
Bulgarian
Czech
Dutch
European French
German
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Italian
Polish
Brazil
Portugal
Romanian
Latin America
Spain
