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Caterpie's Big Dilemma (Japanese: 進化！その神秘と奇跡!! Evolution! That Mystery and Wonder!!) is episode 142 of Advanced Generation. It was first broadcast in Japan on September 8, 2005 and in the United States on June 10, 2006.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Synopsis

Another beautiful day in the Kanto Region, as our heroes head towards their next destination. A frustrated Caterpie and a young boy appear as the boy commands Caterpie to use String Shot on Ash and the gang. Caterpie then continues blasting them with another barrage of String Shot encasing everyone in the sticky fluid. There seems to have been a mixup with everyone as the young boy apologizes to them for his actions.

Introductions are then exchanged as everyone recites their name and hometown. The young boy's sensei then appears from which he calls a strange contraption from a nearby pool of water. It raises to the top and opens up to which appears to be a chair, table, and several pedestals. He then reveals a microphone with a Jigglypuff figurine on top of it. He then starts singing into it as the Jigglypuff figure also starts singing its melody and soon after the sensei falls fast asleep.

Just a few hundred feet away, Jessie and James are investigating the situation as Jessie brings up the idea of capturing Caterpie. She then recalls them encountering this strange Pokémon before as they were encased in its sticky string shot and hurried off into the distance.

As the sensei wishes them luck towards their Pokémon Contest, Caterpie starts acting strange and heads off down the trail. Jessie, James, and Meowth are rampaging through the sensei's building as Caterpie appears in the doorway. Everyone else then appears just seconds after as they are caught with the evidence in hand. A Pokémon battle is about to take place as Caterpie heads into battle as Jessie calls upon Seviper. The sensei seems to not have really cared about what Jessie and James had before, but when James picks up a orange case, he then seems to be concerned. Caterpie snatches the case with its String Shot but Seviper turns around and grasps it with its fangs. Pikachu delivers a swift Quick Attack into Seviper which throws the case towards the ground and forces it open which reveals it to have seven small blue balls.

Caterpie then eats one and a mysterious light appears around its body. Caterpie's body seems to have increased in size by at least ten times as it now easily towers over Jessie and James. They are then ejected from the building and their stolen objects hit the ground. Those small round blue balls seem to increase a Pokémon's size by a gigantic ratio. The mysterious light appears again as Caterpie then grows in size even more and breaks through the ceiling.

Caterpie heads towards the nearby city stampeding through and managing to crush a bridge. The sensei pulls everyone into a hot air balloon with a Machoke suit on and heads towards Caterpie's location. Caterpie then arrives at a huge tower in the city and starts to climb atop. After it reaches the halfway point of the tower, the weaker half of the tower fails due to Caterpie's weight and falls on top of the lower city. A mysterious evolution seems to be taking place. As the light emits from Caterpie's body, it starts to evolve into Metapod.

Jessie and James seem to be surprised at the pills effect as Wobbuffet reveals that it recovered three of them when they were blasted out of the lab. Jessie, James, and Meowth appear giving their usual entrance theme. Meowth then grasps onto the sensei and forces him toward Team Rocket. Jessie then throws the three pills towards Dustox and Cacnea as Dustox catches two and Cacnea catches one. They both grow in size until both are easily ten times their normal size. James tries to tell Cacnea a command but it just turns around and jumps onto James's small and fragile body. Cacnea then gets back up and reveals James's body which is smashed into the ground. Jessie has captured the sensei as both Meowth and James head for Dustox which has landed on the ground. They lift off and start ascending towards the city.

The mysterious light appears again around Metapod's body and it begins metamorphisis into Butterfree. May queries Butterfree's data up on her Pokédex. Flying through the sky, the Sensei seems to be surprised at his pill's power. Ash and the young boy head toward Butterfree and Team Rocket. After seeing them in sight, Team Rocket then starts attacking Butterfree with pin missles as Butterfree tries to dodge them. Down below on the ground, the rest of the gang is heading down a road as the missles head towards their vehicle.

Pikachu launches a Thunderbolt at Team Rocket but they easily dodge its attack. There are several electrical poles in front of them as they start flying closer. Pikachu then launches another thunderbolt at the poles electrifing them. Butterfree then launches a Confusion attack towards Team Rocket which knocks everyone unconscious. The mysterious light appears around Dustox again as it then returns back to normal size. This leaves Team Rocket without anything to hold them aflight, sending the sensei and everyone hurling towards the ground. Butterfree comes to the rescue and saves the sensei from the fall.

James, Jessie, and Meowth hurl towards the ground and splash into a nearby lake. The team on the ground consisting of Joy, Brock, and Max finally arrive at the scene. Still standing in the nearby water, this leaves an easily conductable surface as Pikachu sends many volts surging through the water electrifying the whole team. Butterfree then starts flapping its wings and creates a giant gust of wind sending Team Rocket blasting off into the sky.

They mysterious light then appears around Butterfree as it then returns back to normal size. After expieriencing a mysterious evolution and another amazing day in the Kanto Region, the gang head towards the Saffron City Contest.

Major events

Debuts

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• May
• Brock
• Max
• Jessie
• James
• Officer Jenny
• Zander
• Dr. Gordon

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Wobbuffet (Jessie's)
• Chimecho (James's)
• Seviper (Jessie's)
• Dustox (Jessie's)
• Cacnea (James's)
• Caterpie (Zander's; evolves)
• Metapod (Zander's; newly evolved, evolves)
• Butterfree (Zander's; newly evolved)

Trivia

• Chinami Nishimura returns as Junsā.
• Battle Frontier plays during the rescue scene.
• The Jigglypuff on the karaoke mike has a tiny marker like the one that the anime Jigglypuff carries with it.

Pokémon Trainer's Choice

• Question: Trainers, Which of these Pokémon does not evolve?
• Choices: Skitty, Sableye, Nincada
• Answer: OK trainers! If you chose Sableye, you were right!
• This is the last episode where Jenny is voiced by Jamie Davyous Owens.

Errors

Dub edits

In other languages

• French: La grosse évolution de Chenipan

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This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of the Pokémon anime.