DP087

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Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl

DP088 : Camping It Up! →

The Psyduck Stops Here!

DP087   EP553 コダックの通せんぼ！ The Koduck Roadblock!

First broadcast Japan July 24, 2008 United States December 27, 2008

English themes Opening We Will Be Heroes Ending

Japanese themes Opening Together2008 Ending 風のメッセージ

Credits Animation Team Iguchi Screenplay 大橋志吉 Yukiyoshi Ōhashi Storyboard 秦義人 Yoshito Hata Assistant director 秦義人 Yoshito Hata Animation director 木下和栄 Kazue Kinoshita Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

The Psyduck Stops Here! (Japanese: コダックの通せんぼ！ The Koduck Roadblock!) is the 87th episode of Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, and the 553rd episode of the Pokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on July 24, 2008, and in the United States on December 27, 2008.

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

Blurb

Our heroes are on the path to Celestic Town, but the road runs through a narrow pass that's blocked by three irritable Psyduck. If Ash and his friends take a detour, they'll miss the Celestic Town Contest, but the Psyduck's Psychic-type attacks repel anyone who tries to get through. Ash and his friends do their best to force the Psyduck out of the way, but none of their Pokémon can get in an effective attack. The Psyduck aren't interested in negotiating with Piplup, either! Team Rocket pops in to try and recruit the Psyduck for Team Rocket, but they too are blasted out of the way.

There must be a reason for the Psyduck's behavior, so Ash hitches a risky ride on Gliscor and flies ahead to scout the path. While Ash is on his mission, Brock sings and dances to distract the Psyduck. Ash and Gliscor crash-land near a pond filled with more Psyduck, nursing their Eggs—that's why the Psyduck in the pass are on guard! Ash returns and reports to the others just before Team Rocket returns in an attempt to steal the Psyduck. Ash and his friends team up with the Psyduck to beat Team Rocket, earning some trust from the Psyduck.

A Psyduck messenger summons the Psyduck in the pass, and everyone runs to the pond in time to see the Psyduck Eggs hatch. As Brock dishes up Pokémon food to help earn the Psyduck's trust, he wonders why the Psyduck are in a small pond instead of nearby Lake Psyduck. When our heroes investigate Lake Psyduck, they're attacked by Muk that have taken over the lake! Ash and his friends send the Muk flying into another pond, which just happens to be inhabited by female Muk. The Muk happily pair up and the Psyduck families return to Lake Psyduck, so the road ahead is clear for the trip to Celestic Town!

Plot

Ash and his friends are traveling through a valley on the way to Dawn's next Contest in Celestic Town. They encounter three Psyduck in the middle of the road, which Dawn scans with her Pokédex. As they walk closer to them the Psyduck's eyes glow pink and they toss the group away with Psychic. Ash decides force is the solution, though he and Pikachu are struck back by the Psyduck using Hidden Power. Brock checks his map for an alternative route, but Dawn fears that she will miss the Contest if they decide to go around. Determined to clear the roadblock, Ash sends out Turtwig who attacks with Razor Leaf and Bite, but the three Psyduck are too powerful and Ash calls Turtwig back. The Psyduck also overcome Piplup and Croagunk's advances. Ash calls on Chimchar, but its Flamethrower fails against the Psyduck's Water Gun attacks, forcing Ash to recall it.

Team Rocket makes an unwanted appearance and laugh at the twerps pathetic attempts to get past the Psyduck. They haughtily state that they can do a better job of getting the Psyduck out of the way than the twerps can. Meowth walks up to the Psyduck and attempts to bargain with them. However it backfires and Team Rocket is sent blasting off into the distance by Psychic. Team Rocket quickly recover and are now determined to deliver the Psyduck to Giovanni.

Later, Brock's Happiny comes out and uses Pound while the Psyduck retaliate, and she crashes into the ground. Happiny gets angry and lifts up a gigantic boulder to throw onto the Psyduck, but she loses her balance and swerves around while Ash, Dawn, and Brock try not to get hit. Eventually, Happiny crashes and breaks the boulder, fainting. Dawn's Swinub is sent out to Dig underground, but gets defeated as well. They come up with a plan for Staravia and Gliscor to fly around with Ash while Dawn and Brock distract the Psyduck. Brock begins to perform Brock's Paradise, and Dawn joins in while not totally impressed by the maracas routine. With the help of Staravia’s flapping, Ash and Gliscor soon take off. Gliscor flies into the cliff face a little farther down the valley. Ash walks a little further and sees a few Psyduck holding Eggs, and realizes that the Psyduck are protecting their babies. Ash returns to his friends and informs them that the Psyduck are simply defending their Eggs.

Team Rocket reappears again in their Meowth Balloon, this time capturing the Psyduck trio, and performing their motto again. James takes Staravia out with a mechanical punch, though Croagunk punctures the balloon and brings it down with a Poison Jab. As Team Rocket call on Carnivine and Yanmega for assistance, Dawn sends out Buneary who uses Ice Beam to counter Yanmega’s Sonic Boom. Ash rushes Chimchar into the match, and it scorches Carnivine's Bullet Seed with Flamethrower. As Chimchar Flame Wheels towards Team Rocket, the Psyduck add Water Gun to the mix, sending the trio blasting off again.

A fourth Psyduck appears, alerting the others to something down by the pond. Ash and his friends follow and reach the pond in time to see two of the three Eggs hatch. Wanting to see the hatchlings up close, Brock whips up a batch of his Pokémon food, which goes over well. Brock notices something odd, the pond they are standing at is too small for all of the Psyduck. He checks his map and realizes that the nearby Lake Psyduck would offer them much more space. The Psyduck affirm that something is amiss with Lake Psyduck, so the group walk over to investigate further. The issue becomes apparent when several Muk emerge from the lakewater. The trio of Muk go on the attack, so Ash and his friends send out Buizel, Ambipom and Croagunk to combat their Sludge Bomb assault. Pikachu finally uses Thunderbolt to send the Muk blasting off. Upon landing, the Muk are pleased with their new sludge-filled surroundings and soon fall in love with the other Muk already living there. Meanwhile, the Psyduck return to Lake Psyduck and quickly take to the water, which pleases Ash, Dawn and Brock as they continue their journey to Celestic Town.

Major events

• Dawn's Swinub is revealed to know Dig.

For a list of all major events in Pokémon the Series, please see the timeline page.

Characters

Humans

• Ash
• Dawn
• Brock
• Jessie
• James

Pokémon

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Piplup (Dawn's)
• Staravia (Ash's)
• Turtwig (Ash's)
• Chimchar (Ash's)
• Buizel (Ash's)
• Gliscor (Ash's)
• Buneary (Dawn's)
• Ambipom (Dawn's)
• Swinub (Dawn's)
• Croagunk (Brock's)
• Happiny (Brock's)
• Yanmega (Jessie's)
• Carnivine (James's)
• Psyduck (×11; three newly hatched)
• Muk (×6)

Trivia

• Brock wears his outfit from Takeshi's Paradise in this episode, and music from that song is used as well in the original Japanese version.
• This episode marks the first and only time that Brock's Happiny got knocked out.
• In this episode, Team Rocket uses a variation of their motto.
• Jessie's Wobbuffet doesn't appear in this episode.
• Pocket-ering Monster-ing is used as background music in this episode.
  • For the first time, this song is left intact in the dub.
• An earlier episode had a similar title to this episode. Both are references to the famous saying "the buck stops here".
• The episode's plot is a reference to the Psyduck trio that blocked Route 210 to Celestic Town in the Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum games.
• This episode was the first to air in Japan after the theatrical release of M11.

Errors

• When Dawn gets her "Psyducklings" idea, Brock's hair is colored black instead of brown.
• In the Polish dub, Brock orders Croagunk to use Poison Jab twice. However, the first move that Croagunk uses was Poison Sting.

• 

  Brock's miscolored hair

Dub edits

• As Brock performs Takeshi's Paradise, the song's background music is removed.
• The beginning of the episode uses a remixed version of the Underground Path theme from Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.

In other languages

Language		Title
Bulgarian		ПсиПатето Спира Тук!
Mandarin Chinese		路霸可達鴨！
Czech		Psyduckčí zátaras
Danish		Psyduck spærrer vejen
Dutch		Tegengehouden door Psyducks!
Finnish		Kuin vesi Psyduckin selästä!
European French		Psykokwak protège les siens!
German		Ein Enton kommt selten allein!
Italian		Con gli Psyduck non si passa!
Korean		고라파덕! 길을 비켜라!
Norwegian		Psyduck stopper her!
Polish		Miejsce postoju Psyducków
Portuguese	Brazil	Os Psyducks param aqui!
	Portugal	Ninguém Passa pelos Psyduck!
Russian		Психоутка говорит «стоп»!
Spanish	Latin America	¡Los Psyduck llegaron ya!
	Spain	La Barrera de los Psyduck
Swedish		Hit men inte längre!

← DP086 : Arriving in Style!

Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl

DP088 : Camping It Up! →

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