Prepare for Trouble (And Hospital Bills): Episode 2 – "Pokémon Emergency!"

Welcome back to the digital archives of The Pokémon Snapshot! We survived our first episode, we weren't canceled, and we are back to continue our chronological journey through the classic anime.

If you are just joining us, this blog is where we take our podcast reviews of the original Pokémon anime and adapt them into comprehensive written guides. We are digging into the nostalgia, breaking down the bizarre logic of the Pokémon universe, and highlighting the behind-the-scenes trivia that makes this 25-year-old show so fascinating to watch as adults.

For our second entry, we are heading right into Viridian City to discuss episode two: "Pokémon Emergency!"

Before we dive in, a quick piece of trivia: when we originally recorded this podcast episode, we realized we were completely unintentionally celebrating an anniversary. In Japan, this episode aired on April 8, 1997 (under the much cooler title Showdown! Pokémon Center), and in the United States, it premiered on September 9, 1998. We recorded this episode exactly 22 years later. We'd love to say we planned that incredible synergy, but like Ash Ketchum's battle strategies, there was very little planning involved.

Let’s hit play on episode two.

Law, Order, and Bad Parenting in Viridian City

We open in Viridian City, where an announcement is blaring over the loudspeakers. A local police officer—the very first Officer Jenny we meet in the series—is warning the citizens to be on the lookout for suspicious strangers, as a gang of Pokémon thieves has been spotted in the area.

Officer Jenny warning the town about suspicious thieves, completely unaware that the real threat to public safety is a ten-year-old boy carrying a wounded electric mouse.

Right on cue, Ash Ketchum comes sprinting into the city limits carrying a severely wounded Pikachu in his arms. Officer Jenny immediately assumes he is the thief.

Jeff: "Which makes no sense! Because a ten-year-old boy running in with a hurt Pokémon—how does that look suspicious? Is that what's supposed to go on in this world?"

Tyler: "I mean, in this world, I do feel like it would draw some attention if somebody had a wounded animal and they're just sprinting down the interstate."

Officer Jenny stops Ash and asks for his identification to prove he isn't the wanted criminal. Ash, operating at his usual level of cluelessness, says he doesn't have an ID. Jenny points to his pocket, revealing that his Pokédex is his ID.

Ash discovering that his Pokédex doubles as a government ID. You would think Professor Oak might have mentioned this during orientation.

Ash openly admits he had no idea his Pokédex functioned as an ID card. We have to assume Professor Oak meant to tell him this during orientation, but since Ash showed up late in his pajamas, Oak just threw a Pikachu at him and shoved him out the door. However, the real failure here falls on Ash's mother. In our world, teenagers learn pretty quickly that a driver's license is an ID. In the Pokémon world, sending your ten-year-old out to wander the globe without explaining how to legally identify himself to the police is a massive oversight.

Tyler: "Watching this series as an adult, I've just determined that we are going to be seeing a lot of parenting fails. I never picked up on it as a kid... but we're two episodes in and I already would have long called CPS on this woman."

Also, if Jenny had just looked at the wanted poster she was holding, she would have realized Ash wasn't the culprit.

Jeff: "You see a background poster for the Pokémon thieves. Their names are not revealed to us yet, but Ash looks nothing like them. They are adults... or I think later on we find out they're like 16."

Tyler: "I never knew that! They're only supposed to be 16?! What is going on in this world? It's like one of these pre-agrarian societies where people only live to 40. What's going on with all these kids living adult lives?"

Once the Pokédex confirms Ash is just a rookie trainer from Pallet Town, Jenny decides to give him a police escort to the hospital.

Motorcycles in the ER

Officer Jenny loads Ash into the sidecar of her motorcycle and absolutely blows down the highway, right past a furious Misty who is carrying her charred, Pikachu-fried bicycle.

When they arrive at the Viridian City Pokémon Center, Officer Jenny does not pull into the parking lot. She does not use the emergency drop-off lane. Instead, she yells, "Hold on for this tricky maneuver!" and drives her motorcycle directly through the automatic front doors and into the lobby.

Why use the emergency drop-off lane when you can just jump the curb, blast through the automatic doors, and park at the front desk?

Tyler: "I get the feeling that this officer does what she wants when she wants. She's a force to be reckoned with and cannot be told 'no' in any situation. She apparently wanders around town in high heels, in what you have to imagine is a non-issued uniform, just driving her vehicle into random buildings."

Nurse Joy, making her series debut, rightfully scolds Ash for letting his Pokémon get into such a banged-up condition. As adults who have played thousands of hours of Pokémon video games, this scolding feels incredibly hypocritical.

Jeff: "She tells him not to let his Pokémon get into that condition, but I feel like that's the point of this world! You attack a Pokémon until they faint."

Tyler: "Exactly! And Pikachu wasn't even quite fainted yet. He was making little noises and whining. I've definitely rolled into Pokémon Centers in my own games with entire teams of wiped-out Pokémon. Nobody ever questioned me!"

Jeff: "Do you love how in the games Nurse Joy goes, 'We hope to see you here again!' They obviously don't have free healthcare because she needs to make that money."

Pikachu is rushed into the ER, leaving Ash alone in the waiting room. He decides to use the lobby's video phone to call his mother.

Side note: Watching this episode in 1998, the concept of a video phone felt like completely unattainable, futuristic sci-fi magic. Today, Jeff and Tyler literally record this podcast via video call. Technology caught up to the Pokémon universe.

When Ash's mom answers the phone, she is wearing a bathrobe and has a face mask on. Ash has been gone for less than 12 hours, and his mother has already converted the house into a day spa. Ash explains that he is at the Viridian City Pokémon Center. His mother completely ignores the fact that her son is calling from a hospital on his first day, and instead focuses on his speed.

Delia Ketchum: Completely unfazed that her son is calling from a hospital on his very first day out in the wild.

She proudly notes that it took Ash's father four whole days to get to Viridian City, but it only took Ash one!

Tyler: "What did Ash's father do? Four days is... I mean, literally, it was like going down the road."

Jeff: "If you play the games, you walk to Viridian City, go back to Pallet Town to give Professor Oak a package, and then go back to Viridian City in like ten minutes.

"Tyler: "Like, it's not a long distance. I don't know what he was doing for four days!"

This is the only episode in the entire original anime where any of Ash's male relatives are explicitly mentioned. His mother mentions his father, and in the Japanese dub, she also mentions his grandfather. It establishes a bizarre family dynamic. Ash's dad is apparently alive and "Ash is the apple of his eye," yet the man is nowhere to be found on the biggest day of his son's life.

For over two decades, this was the last we heard of Mr. Ketchum. However, fans finally got an update 25 years later in the 2022 special episode Pokémon: The Distant, Blue Sky! In that episode, Ash's mom tells him his dad is waiting to meet him at a Pokémon Center. True to form, his dad has to leave for an emergency before Ash arrives, but leaves him a brand new hat instead.

Ash begins to whine about how he is a failure, and his mother very quickly finds an excuse to hang up the phone. She clearly wanted to get back to her cucumbers and peace and quiet.

Professor Oak’s Million Dollar Bet

While waiting, Ash notices a massive mural on the wall of the Pokémon Center featuring engravings of four legendary Pokémon: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, and... Arcanine.

The legendary mural that caused a million childhood playground arguments over whether Arcanine was a true legendary.

Ash points at Articuno and mistakenly thinks it is the golden bird (Ho-Oh) he saw at the end of episode one. But the real trivia here is Arcanine's inclusion. Why is a standard Fire-type dog on a mural with the three legendary birds? Because in the official Pokédex, Arcanine’s specific species category is literally "The Legendary Pokémon." The anime creators took that classification a bit too literally in this early episode.

Suddenly, the phone in the hospital lobby rings. Ash, showing a blatant disregard for medical privacy laws, just walks up and answers it.

It is Professor Oak. Oak's first reaction is utter shock that Ash actually survived the trip to Viridian City.

Tyler: "Clearly, Professor Oak thought he was doomed from the start. In fact, he mentions that he actually bet Gary $1 million that Ash would not catch a Pokémon by the time he got to Viridian City."

Jeff: "Even if you convert that from Poké-dollars to Japanese Yen, one million Yen is still roughly $10,000. That is still a pretty big bet to make against a ten-year-old."

Oak is disappointed to learn he lost the bet, tells Ash that seeing a golden legendary bird is impossible, and then abruptly hangs up.

The reason Oak hangs up changes depending on where you watched the episode. In the English dub, Oak says he has to go because his pizza just arrived (complete with a doorbell sound effect). In the original Japanese version, Oak realizes his ramen is overcooking. The localization team frequently changed Japanese food references to things they thought American kids would understand better (a trend that will reach its peak when they start calling Brock's rice balls "jelly donuts").

Prepare for Trouble (And Make It Double)

Misty finally arrives at the Pokémon Center, completely exhausted and carrying her ruined bike. She spots Ash, corners him, and demands he pay for a new one. Ash promises to make it up to her, but their argument is cut short when the Center's emergency alarms begin to blare.

Misty is having a terrible day. You meet a kid, he steals your bike, he completely chars it with electricity, and then leaves it on the side of the road for you to carry into town yourself.

Outside, a Meowth-shaped hot air balloon descends from the sky. Two figures stand in the basket, admiring their own wanted posters and vowing to steal every rare Pokémon inside the building.

They crash their balloon straight through the glass roof of the hospital (because doors simply do not exist to the characters in this episode). Ash demands to know who they are.

The legendary debut of Jessie and James. For the very first time in anime history, it’s time to prepare for trouble.

For the very first time in anime history, Jessie and James recite their iconic motto.

“Prepare for trouble! And make it double! To protect the world from devastation! To unite all peoples within our nation! To denounce the evils of truth and love! To extend our reach to the stars above! Jessie! James! Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light! Surrender now, or prepare to fight!”

This introduction is legendary, but as Tyler points out, it is not exactly a stealthy way to commit a robbery.

Jeff: "How effective is that? You crash through the ceiling, you do a poem, and then you announce that you're here to steal things."

Tyler: "Yeah, it's like... 'Ta-da! Here to commit a felony!'"

We couldn't let Team Rocket's debut pass without bringing up a hilarious real-world coincidence. Both Jeff and Tyler are actually married to women named Jessie. Only one of them is evil in real life. We will let the listeners decide who.

Jessie and James send out Ekans and Koffing to attack the lobby. Ash, Misty, and Nurse Joy flee into the back rooms to try and save Pikachu.

The Pikachu Generator

The trio runs into a back room where a shocking medical reality is revealed: the Viridian City hospital's backup generator is entirely powered by a massive herd of Pikachu running on treadmills.

Tyler: "They've got this crank generator thing going with a bunch of Pikachu working. This must be a common practice in this universe to use the labor of Pikachu to power things."

Nurse Joy's emergency backup generator: 100% adorable, 100% ethically questionable.

Nurse Joy begins tossing Pokéballs onto a conveyor belt to evacuate the patients to Pewter City. Team Rocket bursts through the door. Ash, desperate to fight back, grabs a random Pokéball off the medical belt and throws it.

It’s a Pidgey. It looks around, confused, and Team Rocket laughs at him. Ash grabs another one. It’s a Rattata. More laughter. (We just want to pause and note how messed up it is that Ash is taking actively hospitalized, sick Pokémon and throwing them onto the front lines of a terrorist attack).

Realizing Ash is useless, Misty steps up. She confidently tells Ash to run and throws her own Pokéball, promising to distract Team Rocket. The ball opens... and it's a Goldeen.

Because they are standing on a tile floor inside a hospital, Goldeen can do nothing but helplessly flop around like a dying fish.

Tyler: "I had good feelings about Misty at this point. She steps up, she's ready to go. I'm feeling good. And then she completely lets me down in every way. And then Misty, just out of nowhere, while everyone's standing there in shocked silence goes, 'He can't do anything because he can't fight on land!'"

Jeff: "Then why did you throw it out?!"

Tyler: "Nobody knew what she was doing. But in a sense, maybe it was the perfect distraction, because it was distracting in an awkward kind of way."

Misty essentially paralyzed Team Rocket with second-hand embarrassment.

Misty, confidently stepping up to defend a hospital from terrorists by aggressively deploying a fish that cannot breathe.

Bikes, Explosions, and an Edit for Seizures

While Team Rocket is confused by the flopping fish, Ash's Pikachu wakes up and rallies the hospital's Pikachu workforce. The swarm of electric mice unleashes a massive thundershock on Team Rocket.

It is super effective, but Meowth pushes through the electricity, ready to attack. Pikachu points at Misty's destroyed bicycle. Ash, finally understanding his Pokémon, jumps onto the bike upside down and begins hand-pedaling the wheel as fast as he can. Pikachu uses the spinning tire to amplify his electricity, unleashing a blast so massive it blows the roof off the Pokémon Center.

Imagine being Team Rocket right now. You crash in to steal rare Pokémon, and you get defeated by a kid hand-pedaling an upside-down bicycle.

If you watched this episode in the United States, the sequence where Pikachu shocks Team Rocket features the screen flashing red and blue at a moderate pace. However, in the original Japanese broadcast, this flashing was incredibly fast. After the infamous "Porygon episode" (Episode 38) caused hundreds of children in Japan to experience photosensitive epileptic seizures, the animation studio went back and slowed down the frame rate of flashing lights in all previous episodes before broadcasting them internationally.

The explosion sends Jessie, James, and Meowth blasting off into the sky in their damaged balloon. Having witnessed the sheer destructive power of Ash's Pikachu, they vow to make it their life's mission to capture it. We finally have our core villain motivation for the next thousand episodes!

The Aftermath and a Bug in the Woods

The smoke clears to reveal the Viridian City Pokémon Center is completely demolished. Nurse Joy is sitting safely behind her desk in the rubble, calmly video-chatting with her sister (the Nurse Joy of Pewter City) to confirm the Pokémon were safely evacuated.

Nurse Joy tells her sister that Ash and Misty are heading her way through the Viridian Forest and that they "can take care of themselves." Based on the fact that Ash just blew up her hospital, we have no idea where she got this confidence.

The episode ends with Ash, Pikachu, and Misty walking into the deep, shaded woods of the Viridian Forest. A Caterpie crawls out of the brush. Misty, despite being surrounded by magical monsters, is absolutely terrified of this little green bug.

Ash, having apparently learned absolutely nothing from his Pidgey and Spearow encounters in episode one, declares this will be a piece of cake. He doesn't battle it. He doesn't weaken it. He just pulls out an empty Pokéball, throws it directly at the Caterpie's face, and the screen freezes as the "To Be Continued" text appears.

Will Ash finally catch a Pokémon? Will Misty ever get paid for her bike? We will find out next time.

That wraps up our breakdown of Episode 2: "Pokémon Emergency!" Thank you for checking out the written archives of The Pokémon Snapshot. Make sure you are subscribed to the podcast feed so you never miss a new episode!

Let us know what you thought of Team Rocket's explosive debut, and be sure to check back next time as Ash finally tries to live up to the franchise's catchphrase in Episode 3: "Ash Catches a Pokémon"!