Ash spends the next few hours training Corphish by battling Pikachu, even though Pikachu uses a completely different battle style than Crawdaunt and thus experience against it is useless. Tiffany's grandmother tells Ash the same thing and sends out a Vaporeon. In the ensuing battle, Vaporeon purposefully tackles Corphish into some lakegrass to trap it, and then finishes it off. She then tells Ash that he can't counter power with power because he has less, which is a lesson he literally learned in the fourteenth episode of season 1, where Pikachu fought Lt. Surge's Raichu. This is literally one of the very first things Ash learned how to do, this is a lesson that predates Togepi's introduction, and he needs an old lady to remind him of it. What’s even more insulting is that the episode frames this as Ash learning to use the environment, specifically the lake, to his advantage, even though Ash’s entire thing is being able to improvise better than most other trainers. Remember the time he defeated a Blastoise with a Charizard by using the area to his advantage? And we’re supposed to believe that this old lady knows anything useful that she can teach Ash? Please.
Cut to the next day's battle, where Corphish is able to use the environment to its advantage and get the upper hand. Before the battle can end, Team Rocket steals Crawdaunt and Pikachu in a flying giant robot, so Squirtle and Corphish stage a daring rescue by launching Squirtle at Jessie and James using crab hammer, and hilariously, Squirtle's attack does literally nothing to the giant robot because, oh yeah, it's made out of metal and Squirtle is made out of turtle. Fortunately, the heroes rescue the pokemon anyway and blast Team Rocket off in a way that, oddly enough, doesn't involve volt tackle. I waited this entire episode for volt tackle to come up again, I legitimately thought Pikachu would defeat Team Rocket using it.
Mr. Saridakis falls into the lake and almost drowns, but Tiffany’s grandmother dives in and rescues him, and he regains his memory of the day, realizing that she saved him back when she was only middle-aged. When he asks why she saved him, she tells him that she only rescued him because of "my love for the lake," so I assume that means she just didn't want a skeleton on the bottom of her lake, with Magikarp adorably swimming between the bones and such. As Mr. Saridakis announces that he won't build a day spa here, all of the water pokemon return within twenty seconds and the lake is full of life again.
Do not watch this episode.
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Started: July 6, 2005