Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Pokeball: Episode 11 – "Charmander - The Stray Pokemon"

Welcome back to the official digital home of The Pokémon Snapshot! We are absolutely thrilled to dive into another week of our Kanto retrospective.

If you have been keeping up with the podcast recently, you might have noticed a slight shift in the energy. We are officially entering what might be our absolute favorite stretch of the entire original anime. After wading through a few filler episodes, the story is picking up, the classic team dynamic is starting to shine, and we are finally meeting some of the most iconic Pokémon in the franchise's history.

It is time to grab your raincoats and prepare for some heavy emotional damage. This week, we are reviewing Episode 11, "Charmander – The Stray Pokemon" (originally aired in Japan on June 10, 1997, as "Stray Pokemon Charmander"). Let's jump into the woods!

A Carbonara of Errors

We begin our episode with Ash, Misty, and Brock still trudging through the wilderness on their way to Vermilion City. Ash is peering through his binoculars, complaining that he can only see Spearow. Misty sarcastically tells him to enjoy himself, leading Ash to declare that just because they are lost doesn't mean he needs to stop trying to catch Pokémon.

Tyler: "My question here is how can he stop trying to catch Pokemon when he has barely started?"

Jeff: "That is a valid point. I mean, he's caught how many Pokemon so far? Three?"

Tyler: "Three, four counting Pikachu?"

Jeff: "And I don't even really count that because he was given Pikachu."

Misty then drops a bombshell that completely derails the podcast: she angrily points out that they have been wandering around looking for Vermilion City for ten days. Ten straight days! How are they not out of food or water? They don't exactly strike us as top-tier wilderness survivalists. At what point do you send out a Kanto search and rescue team? Misty treats being lost in the woods for a week and a half like a mild inconvenience, which triggers a deeply buried childhood memory for Tyler.

Tyler: "This reminds me of my own childhood. I once actually got lost in the woods on a school field trip for like three hours. We were doing a math activity where we had to read maps. I was not good at math. They knew this. Did that stop them from sending me into the woods to do a map math-reading activity? Absolutely not. So I ended up getting lost, ended up finding my way out after three panicked hours. And when I finally got back, everybody was sitting in the main lodge eating spaghetti and they didn't realize I was even gone. Including my friends and teachers. This was a defining moment in me becoming the way I am, Jeff."

Jeff: "My question is, did they not use the buddy system?"

Tyler: "We did have a buddy system, but I hated my buddy, so I abandoned him."

Jeff: "That sounds like typical Tyler. Because whenever I was a teacher or camp counselor, I mean I was always doing head counts with the fear that I would lose a kid."

As the gang continues their miserable, ten-day hike, Brock suddenly shouts that there is a bug on Misty. Misty, staying true to her established character traits, screams in sheer terror and physically jumps on top of Ash. Brock then realizes it was just a stray blade of grass and bursts out laughing. Misty does not find this funny. In response, she literally kicks Brock square in the face.

Brock learned the hard way that Misty does not appreciate the "bug on you" prank.

This brings up a fascinating point about 90s dub censorship. 4Kids Entertainment was notorious for cutting out scenes of characters hitting each other, yet this blatant, Walker, Texas Ranger-style boot to the face was left completely intact. You can literally see her footprint on Brock's cheek! We may never truly understand the metric the localization team used to decide what constituted "too violent" for American television.

Playing with Fire

Ash pulls out a map and confidently calculates that Route 24 is just up ahead. Given that he has kept them wandering in circles for nearly two weeks, we have absolutely no idea why Misty and Brock choose to trust him, but they excitedly march down the path anyway.

Suddenly, Misty stops dead in her tracks. A massive, intimidating shadow stretches across the road. Ash panics, assuming it's a giant Pokémon, and even Pikachu cowers in fear. (Jeff rightly points out that in broad daylight with zero clouds, the physics of this shadow make absolutely zero sense, but we digress). As they cautiously approach the rock, they realize it isn't a giant monster at all. It's just a tiny, shivering Charmander sitting alone on a boulder.

This is the exact moment where all of our hearts collectively shattered.

Ash whips out Dexter the Pokédex, which delivers a grim piece of lore: Charmander has a flame burning on the tip of its tail. If that flame ever goes out, the Pokémon will die. Ash, realizing this is his chance to finally get the Kanto starter he originally wanted from Professor Oak, prepares to catch it.

Jeff: "Misty chimes in and says that she should send out her water Pokemons as they are strong against it, but Brock notices the flame on Charmander's tail is not burning strongly. He says it doesn't have the strength to battle. That's a good call, Brock. Thank you for not letting Misty kill Charmander in the first 30 seconds that he shows up."

Tyler: "Yeah, that's what I put. So if Charmander dies if its flame goes out and this Charmander is already in bad shape, Misty's just like, let's kill it with water."

Jeff: "Misty, you're not having some bright moments during this episode. She's really let me down. She was the smart one at first, and now she's Ash levels of dumb."

Ignoring the warning signs, Ash lobs a Pokéball at the stray lizard. Charmander effortlessly swats the metal sphere right back into Ash's face with its tail. Realizing this requires a diplomatic approach, Pikachu steps up and has a quick game of charades with Charmander. Astonishingly, Ash actually manages to understand Pikachu's translations this time around! Pikachu reports that Charmander is waiting for its trainer to return. Respecting its loyalty, the gang leaves Charmander on the rock and heads off toward the Pokémon Center as a dark, ominous rainstorm begins to roll in.

No Joy for Damien

Safely inside the Pokémon Center, Ash and the gang are drying off around a cozy fireplace. The lobby is bustling with other trainers taking shelter from the heavy rain. While Misty serves up some hot soup, Brock is visibly distressed, staring out the window and worrying about the Charmander left out in the storm.

Across the room, a group of obnoxious teenage trainers are laughing around a table covered in Pokéballs. The leader of the group is a blue-haired jerk named Damien, who speaks with a distinct British accent (which leads Tyler to brilliantly theorize that Damien might be an early traveler from the Galar region).

Nothing says "tough trainer" quite like bragging about abandoning your Pokémon in a rainstorm.

Damien is loudly bragging to his cronies about a weak Pokémon he recently abandoned. He complains that the Pokémon was so pathetic it couldn't even beat the weakest opponents. When it wouldn't stop following him, he finally lied to it, telling it to wait on a rock and promising he would come back for it. The entire table erupts into cruel laughter at the idea of the gullible Pokémon waiting in the freezing rain.

Tyler: "I just want to point out that out of all the bad characters we have met, this guy might be the worst yet. Even worse than the Pokemon abuser guy, A.J., who would abuse his Pokemon to love him. This Damien guy was literally going to let this Charmander die."

Jeff: "You know, this is making me think... maybe we need to have a Pokemon Snapshot Hall of Shame. And we'll just keep a list. I mean right now I guess it would just be A.J. for emotionally abusing his Pokemon and Damien for literally sending Charmander out to die. After this recording I am going to make the Wall of Shame and put it into our shared drive because I think that would be fun to look back on."

A quick piece of localization trivia here: In the English dub, Brock overhears Damien and angrily mutters that "fire Pokémon are naturally weak to water Pokémon," which makes absolutely no sense in context since Damien never mentioned water types. In the original Japanese version, Damien specifically bragged that his Charmander was so weak it couldn't even defeat a Poliwag! The dub completely scrubbed the Poliwag mention but kept Brock's response, resulting in a very confusing exchange.

Putting two and two together, Ash, Misty, and Brock realize Damien is talking about the Charmander on the rock. Brock snaps. He marches over, grabs Damien by his shirt collar, and screams at him to go back and get his Pokémon before it dies.

Brock is demonstrating the only appropriate way to handle someone who brags about animal abandonment.

Damien brushes him off, completely apathetic to the creature's fate. Before fists can start flying, Nurse Joy intervenes over the loudspeaker, reminding them that Pokémon Centers are a place of healing, not personal brawls. Damien and his gang strut away, leaving Team Ash to take matters into their own hands.

Untitled Spearow Game

Donning their yellow raincoats, Ash, Misty, and Brock sprint back out into the raging storm. They find Charmander still clinging to the rock, using a single, soggy leaf as a makeshift umbrella to shield its rapidly shrinking tail flame. To make matters infinitely worse, a flock of angry Spearow has descended upon the defenseless lizard and is aggressively pecking at it.

If you ever wondered why Spearow have such a bad reputation, this image is all the explanation you need.

Jeff: "So I feel like Spearow are the geese of the Pokemon world."

Tyler: "I don't think there's a goose Pokemon. There's duck Pokemon for sure. But they will strike at a moment's notice without any rhyme or reason. I don't know if you've ever played the game Untitled Goose Game? You pretty much play as a jerk goose going around messing with people and I feel like that's what Spearow would do."

Ash, clearly having learned absolutely nothing from Episode 1, attempts to solve the bird problem by throwing a rock. He misses. Finally, he orders Pikachu to use Thunder Shock. A massive bolt of electricity zaps the Spearow away, but in typical Pikachu fashion, the area-of-effect blast also deeply fries Ash, Misty, and Brock.

With no time to waste, they wrap the shivering, unconscious Charmander in their raincoats and sprint back to the Pokémon Center. Nurse Joy rushes the dying Pokémon into the emergency room. As dramatic, 90s soap-opera music swells in the background, Ash and the gang wait nervously in the hallway. Thankfully, this is a children's show, and Nurse Joy emerges shortly after to announce that Charmander's flame has stabilized and it will make a full recovery by morning.

Nurse Joy works wonders, though we still have questions about the fire safety of those hospital blankets.

Which brings Jeff to a very important, highly analytical "Safety Dad" question: Nurse Joy placed Charmander in a standard hospital bed, resting on cotton sheets, with an open, burning flame on its tail. Did no one stop to consider the massive fire hazard of placing a live campfire in a room full of highly flammable linens? We're just glad the Viridian City hospital didn't burn down for a second time.

Damien Gets Roasted

Morning arrives, and Ash, Misty, and Brock wake up from sleeping on the lobby couches, only to discover Charmander's hospital bed is empty. The loyal Pokémon has snuck out to return to its rock, still clinging to the false hope that Damien will return. Heartbroken, Brock assumes Charmander simply didn't realize how much they cared. Ash insists Charmander knows, but its loyalty to its original trainer is just too strong.

Strangely, instead of walking ten minutes down the road to check on the lizard, the gang just sighs, throws their hands up, and starts hiking toward Vermilion City. Team Ash is really toeing the line for their own spot on the Wall of Shame this week!

Meanwhile, Team Rocket is lurking in the woods, preparing their latest overly complicated trap to steal Pikachu. They are operating a bizarre, cone-shaped drilling machine that Tyler immediately equates to a Dalek from Doctor Who. They use the machine to perfectly excavate a massive pit trap in the middle of the road, casually cover it with foliage, and hide in the bushes.

Team Rocket's latest budget-draining invention: a giant, drilling Dalek with zero practical application.

Ash, Misty, and Brock come strolling down the path. Pikachu, being incredibly light, walks right over the trap without triggering it. However, the three humans plummet straight into the abyss. Meowth pops out of the bushes, gleefully cheering that they actually fell for it. Jessie and James step forward, clad head-to-toe in thick, insulated rubber suits. Pikachu attempts to unleash a Thunder Shock, but the "Anti-Pikachu Suits" absorb the blast effortlessly.

James then pulls out his ultimate weapon: an "Anti-Pikachu Rubber Balloon Bazooka." Instead of a high-speed projectile, the bazooka slowly and pathetically inflates a large rubber balloon that casually drifts through the air and envelops Pikachu. It's ridiculous, but it is highly effective. Down in the pit, Ash attempts to scramble out by literally standing on top of Misty and Brock's faces.

Just as Team Rocket prepares to walk away with their prize, Charmander emerges from the brush! Meowth translates Charmander's aggressive demands to drop Pikachu. When Team Rocket laughs it off, Charmander unleashes a massive Flamethrower. The rubber suits might be immune to electricity, but they act like a wearable sauna against fire! Team Rocket screams in agony and sprints off into the distance, dropping Pikachu in the process.

The moment Team Rocket realized they should have invested in fireproof suits instead of just rubber ones.

Tyler: "I just want to point out that I was actually kind of proud of Team Rocket in this situation. They had a plan, it worked. Things went awry when this unknown Charmander showed up... If they would have listened to James's plan and actually gotten fireproof suits as well as rubber suits, they might have actually gotten away with Pikachu right here."

As Team Ash climbs out of the pit to thank their savior, Damien conveniently strolls out from behind a tree. He explains that he was watching the whole thing and is thrilled that Charmander has "toughened up." With zero remorse, he claims that abandoning the Pokémon was actually a brilliant training strategy all along. He throws a Pokéball to recall it, fully expecting his abused pet to fall back in line.

Instead, Charmander viciously whips the Pokéball right back into Damien's face.

Furious that his property is acting up, Damien pulls out a handful of Pokéballs, threatening to crush the lizard with his entire team. But before he can throw them, Pikachu unleashes a Thunder Shock while Charmander simultaneously blasts him with a Flamethrower. Thoroughly roasted and electrocuted, Damien turns tail and literally runs away screaming for his "Mommy."

Nothing says justice quite like a combined electric shock and Flamethrower to the face.

Tyler: "That was actually a beautiful scene. I sat back and did a little clap. I'm like, thank you so much for injuring this child for the way he's been acting."

Jeff: "Yes, and he deserved it."

With the toxic trainer finally out of the picture, Brock encourages Ash to catch the newly freed Pokémon. Ash pulls out an empty Pokéball, and Charmander happily dives inside. Misty smiles, noting that Ash didn't just get a new Pokémon; he got a new friend.

It is a fantastic, emotional end to one of the most iconic episodes in Kanto history, firmly establishing Charizard’s evolutionary line as a powerhouse with a deeply traumatic backstory. We are absolutely loving this current streak of high-quality, story-driven episodes, and the momentum isn't slowing down anytime soon. We can't wait to see what trouble the gang gets into next week, so make sure to tune in as we investigate a wave of local pranks and declare, Here Comes the Squirtle Squad.