"Prepare for trouble, little miss smarty-pants! Make it double, your Ralts has no chance!"
Score: 7/10
The heroes are derping around when Max hears someone cry for help. Rather than tell the others this, he runs off while thinking to himself "No time to explain!" even though he can easily explain as he runs. He eventually comes to a sick Ralts (don't worry, we'll never get an explanation as to why only Max could hear it cry out), and they decide to take it to a pokemon center. Team Rocket tries to steal it by pretending to be its trainer and family,
But when Ash scans Kirlia with his pokedex, it reveals Kirlia is actually a Meowth. I have to admit that this is actually a fairly clever reveal. They have a battle, and it was at this point that I realized that Team Rocket officially has too many recurring jokes. There's the Team Rocket motto, blasting off again, Wobbuffet popping up at inopportune times, Chimecho coming in on the motto at the end, Cacnea attacking James... they really need to weed out some of these jokes.
Team Rocket proves to be more on the ball than usual and actually puts up a real fight, so Ash sends Max and Snorunt ahead to the pokemon center while the rest of the heroes hold Team Rocket off. Even though Brock is the logical choice because he's the oldest, can run the fastest (remember that he and Ash once caught up to a truck), and knows something about pokemon medicine.
Eventually, the real Gardevoir and Kirlia show up to take it away, but Max persuades them to let him take it to a doctor even though he'll be taking it to a nurse. They then teleport away even though they could just take Ralts and teleport to the pokemon center, and we know pokemon know what pokemon centers do because of the episode where a Shiftry kidnaps a Nurse Joy.
Max finally makes it to the pokemon center, but in a stunning twist, Ralts dies. Max tried his best, and he learns that some things are just out of his control, and that while he can always do what he can do, he can't alwaysno I'm just screwing with you, of course it survives and is completely cured in a few hours.
Max gives Ralts back to Gardevoir and Kirlia, and they sadly part ways in the fifty-third "Someone bonds with a wild pokemon and forces it to leave him for its own good" plotline. What's especially confusing is that Max offers to catch it when he's older and officially a trainer, even though we know children younger than Max can still catch pokemon and they still qualify as trainers, like that one kid who accidentally caught a Bellsprout. Ralts then telepathically says "Promise me, Max, promise me you'll come back and get me" even though it never displayed the ability to speak before, the Gardevoir and Kirlia weren't able to speak, and it's my understanding that it takes a tremendous amount of effort to learn to speak, to a point where even most legendary pokemon don't possess the ability. So now the list is: Meowth, who spent years learning how to speak, a Slowking and Lugia in charge of watching over the balance of the elements in the world, Mewtwo, and random-ass Ralts. Okay then.
This is actually a surprisingly good episode, especially considering that it focuses on Max, who is generally the most annoying protagonist on the show. You really get a sense of bonding between him and Ralts as he tries to save it, and even though it doesn't really make sense that he leaves it in the end, it's still a solid episode.
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Started: July 6, 2005