Ah, after a long spell of reruns, it's good to be back in the pilot's seat. Let's rock.... 

POK JJ: "Chikorita's Big Upset".
The setup to this one was actually rather amusing: during a heated battle with a Raticate, Chikorita gets knocked on her bum, and Ash is about to tag off to Pikachu. Stubborn little leaf-head won't have it, so she refuses to come when called. Cut to a night scene, with Ash *still* trying to recall Chikorita. His opponent's mother is calling her son for dinner, and the boy gets off a parting shot about not being able to wait around for Ash to teach his Pokemon to obey. This hurts.
Now does Ash sit down and talk to Chikorita, or at worst spank her naughty little a** with a rolled-up newspaper ?Nope....it seems disobedience is a *medical* condition, so it's off to the nearest Pokemon center with her. Which leads me to two questions: when Charizard cut up and didn't do what he was told, why wasn't *he* shipped off to a center, and where does Ash get the money to pay for the treatment? I suspect Prof. Oak has a tab going with every Nurse Joy from here to poke-Kalamazoo, and Ash's bill must run into 6-7 figures by ths time.
This Nurse Joy has a degree in Pokepsychology...but it doesn't take a doctor, hon, to see that Chikorita is jealous--I've known that since her first appearance. Pokemon, like I've said many times, are like dogs, and you can't pet one or bounce one on your knee without the other(s) wanting a piece of the lovin' too.
Speaking of doglike behavior, Heracross tries to nurse off Bulbasaur again. In Bulba-talk, he screams, "I am not your mother!" and slaps the big blue ugly across the kisser.
Also, watch Muk attempt to dominate Prof. Oak.
Chikorita pitches a hissy, won't even eat the bit of what I'm pretty sure is cat food from a tin that Pikachu kindly offers her, and runs away from the Pokemon center.
Team Rocket makes their usual grand entrance. They grab for Pikachu and Chikorita, and through their usual bungling, end up dangling from their balloon on a couple of spaghetti-thin strand of rope, begging Meowth to reel them in.
What does the feline felon do? He cuts the rope--but before he does it, he flips Jesse and James a double barrel bird! Talk about adding insult to injury! Jesse and James don't know whether to admire Meowth or strangle the little bugger for his vicious yet stylish act of backstabbing.
When all is said and done, Ash has Chikorita back, successfully run up another $500 charge on Oak's tab for Poketherapy, and learned to be a little more sensitive to his pets' needs.
I have actually heard of therapists for dogs, which is what makes this episode so scary. If your dog piddles the carpet, chews your slipper, or his door swings the other way, it may be due to some sort of emotional/psychological problem, and it's time to see the doggie psychologist. Call me old-fashioned, but when people start caring about their dog *that* much, maybe *they* should be spayed/neutered.

POK JJ: "For Cryin' Out Loud!"
Ash and co. are on their way to Ash's second Johto gym match when they meet up with a crybaby Merril. This thing bawls at supersonic levels. Man, I don't believe Tracey's Marill ever did that. DYN the looks on Pikachu's face when that little blue mouse let go? Priceless!
Team Twerp is approached by two familiar-looking rednecks in a pickup (Team Rocket, who pretty much phoned their part in this ep in--though I have to admit Southern Jesse is a sexy piece of patch, baby) who offer them a ride in their hay wagon.. and then makes a grab for the bawlbag mouse and the electric rat. Instantly Marill lets go like Lucille Ball when Ricky says she can't be in the show, and The Rocketeers decide they bit off more than they could chew...so five minutes into the ep, they blast off again.
Enter a lass standing on the edge of a cliff like a heroine in a Jane Austin novel. Brock decides to ply his charms; Misty says that's a good thing she's standing near a precipice, so she can jump off. Whether she means that as an insult to Brock's Lothario ways or a deep-seated desire for anyone else who threatens to get between her and her deep-seated lusts for Brock to die a gruesome death is anyone's guess.
Her name is Willhemina Brock, and our tanned friend takes this as kismet. But a moral dilemma arises: her Marill is lost, and finding it means Brock will never see her again, but not finding it will make Willemina sad, albeit in Brock's arms. Brock spends half this episode thinking with Lil' Brock, while Misty wanders the woods with Crybaby,
Watch Misty lose her temper with the Marill at least twice. Some mother she'll make. Then Marill stirs up a whole nest of bug Pokemon by spitting on them, and Misty runs like her head is on fire and her butt is catching.
Marrill causes Misty no end of trouble...but when Team Rocket pops back up, she realizes just how much she cares for the little walking waterworks--especially when its water gun deflects Arbok's poison sting attack. Ash brings out Chikorita to blast them off again.
Sentimental ending: Misty is trying not to cry over saying goodbye to Marill, and Brock the Rock is trying to keep his emotions (and other things I can't mention here) in check at the though of saying goodbye to Wilhemmina (the worst-named and hardest-to-spell character in this script; why not just shorten it to Billie?) As for Ash, he pets Pikachu briefly, and Chikorita gets a little snotty about it. Poor Ash. If he can't control a little girl Pokemon, how will he ever deal with the jealous rages of a full-blooded and -bodied woman?

Max Steel is moving to the seven a.m. red-eye slot, which basically dug a greave for Batman Beyond. I wonder if this'll be Maxie's final season on KWB?
This one concerned Berto getting stars in his eyes when he joins the space program, looking to carve his name in ten-foot-tall letters and not be simply the bug in Max's ear all his life. But his dreams go sour when it turns out the whole thing is a blackmail plot by Dragonelle, and her price is John Dread's freedom. I fell asleep after the first ten minutes.

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