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| 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
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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 anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on August 12, 1999 and in the United States on September 9, 2000.
Synopsis
The episode begins as Ash and his friends arrive at Kumquat Island, a resort island where Ash will also compete in his fourth and final Orange Crew battle. Misty and Tracey plan to enjoy their time while Ash battles. They are interrupted by a lady, who mistakes Ash for her son, Travis, who had, like Ash, started a Pokémon journey with a Pikachu. After clearing the confusion, though, the beach is attacked by a Team Rocket Rhydon robot, driven by Arbok and Lickitung and weaponized by Weezing. Jessie tells Weezing to use Hyper Beam, but it instead uses Smog. It becomes clear that James had never gotten around to teaching Hyper Beam to Weezing. Ash then decides to put a stop to Team Rocket. In retaliation, Jessie has Arbok use Poison Sting on Ash and Pikachu, which is stopped thanks to the woman, whose Alakazam had used Reflect to block the attack, and then Psychic to seal the mechanical Rhydon's mouth shut while another Smog attack is fired. This allows Ash to send out Charizard amidst Team Rocket confusion, who uses Take Down to deal a blow to the robot. When Arbok accidentally uses Acid to tear a hole in the Rhydon robot, Charizard uses Flamethrower to overload the Rhydon robot's machinery, causing the robot to explode and send Team Rocket flying.
In the middle of the ordeal, the woman is revealed to be Luana, the final member of the Orange Crew, and a local hotelier whose hotel includes a workout Gym and an indoor Pokémon stadium. 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. However, the match ends when the first Pokémon is unable to battle, wherein the opposing team are declared the winners.
While in the hotel's hot spring, Ash and Tracey discuss strategy. Ash is committed to have Pikachu battle, but Tracey surmises that Alakazam will battle. Lacking Ghost types 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, even before the match begins, Pikachu and Charizard are at each other; an innocuous stomp by Charizard had knocked Pikachu over, and the argument between the two escalated until the two were trading attacks, forcing Ash to break up the fight. Even as the match begins, Charizard's Flamethrower manages to hit Pikachu while Pikachu was rushing towards the opponents. When Charizard tries Tackle on Alakazam, and gets hit with Psychic in result, Ash has Pikachu assist Charizard by using ThunderShock—which promptly hits Charizard. This gives Marowak and Alakazam an opening to land successive Bonemerang and Psychic attacks on Charizard.
With Charizard on the ropes (about to eat up another Psychic), Ash warns Pikachu, standing still amidst the beating Charizard is taking, that if Charizard is unable to continue, they will lose the match. Pikachu finally ThunderShocks Alakazam, freeing Charizard. In return, Charizard catches Pikachu after Pikachu is hit by a Body Slam from Marowak soon after. With the two now willing to cooperate, Charizard takes to the skies with Pikachu in tow, allowing Pikachu to land Thunderbolt on Marowak, who had just launched another Bonemerang. The attack does not faze Marowak, but it manages to knock off its concentration. Meanwhile, Charizard continues to fly towards Alakazam, who was preparing a Hyper Beam to land point-blank on Charizard. When Charizard pulls up at the last minute, Alakazam is hit with the wayward Bonemerang attack, sending it and the charged Hyper Beam backwards. The Hyper Beam tears across the battlefield and into Marowak, knocking both of Luana's Pokémon out, and giving 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 other qualified Trainers for the right to challenge the leader of the Orange Crew for the League Championship trophy. Leaving Kumquat Island, Luana tells Ash that if should he encounter Travis, he should deliver some greetings from home for him.
Major events
- For a list of all major events in Pokémon the Series, please see the timeline page.
Debuts
Pokémon debuts
Characters
Humans
Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: Dodrio (U.S. and international) Alakazam (Japan)
Trivia
- This episode has the first Double Battle in the Pokémon anime, if the battles with Jessie and James are excluded. However, it should be noted that this battle ends when either one of the Trainer's Pokémon as opposed to future Double Battles when both 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.
- Although James revealed 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", quite possibly a stealth reference to Major League Baseball's Spring Training league in Florida.
- This is the second episode that 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 same scene, Luana's lipstick is gone.
- In the training room of the hotel, a Sandslash has the voice of a Sandshrew.
- When Ash's Charizard uses Take Down on the Rhydon robot, the cream-colored spots on its soles disappears.
- During the battle, Ash's Charizard is affected by Bonemerang, a move that shouldn't it because its part Flying.
- Ash's Charizard uses Tackle, which he and his pre-evolutions can't learn in the games.
- Marowak was affected by Pikachu's Thunderbolt, but it shouldn't have affected Marowak since it is a Ground-type.
Dub edits
- A scene where Luana squishes Ash's face in between her breasts, thinking that he is her son, is removed from the dub.
- A scene with a Jynx on a treadmill, a Pinsir attacking a punchbag and a Venusaur lifting dumbbells was removed, possibly because it contained Jynx in its original design.
- During Ash's Gym match, Luana commanded her Marowak to use Body Slam on Pikachu in the English dub. In the original Japanese version, she commanded Marowak to use Double-Edge.
In other languages
Czech
Dutch
European French
German
Hebrew
Hungarian
Italian
Polish
Brazil
Portugal
Romanian
Latin America
Spain
