Going for a Spinda – Pokémon Season 7, Episode 17

Filler / stand-alone episodeRoute change for PetalburgSpinda debut

Going for a Spinda is the 17th episode of Pokémon: Advanced Challenge, the seventh season of the Pokémon anime, and the 330th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 333, Bulbapedia code AG057). It first aired in Japan on 25 December 2003 and in the United States on 27 November 2004. It falls within the season’s The long way round: Torkoal, Manectric & Verdanturf stretch (EP57–EP62).

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

With the Heat Badge won, the group debate their next move. Brock suggests Fortree City, but the route crosses a desert, so he proposes a detour via Mauville City. May and Max point out that their hometown, Petalburg City, is close by, and Ash realises he now has enough Badges to challenge Norman for real. On the way they spot a Spinda with a heart-shaped mark on its face, which runs off before they can approach. They then meet Claire and her butler, Royce. Claire explains that the Spinda is her lucky Pokémon, entrusted to her by someone dear to her, and she must find it quickly. Smitten, Brock vows to recover it and leads the search into a forest that turns out to be home to a whole colony of Spinda, each with its own unique pattern of spots.

Brock keeps running into one Spinda whose heart mark has a crack through it, an apt symbol of his luck with women. Team Rocket overhear the plan and decide to catch the lucky Spinda themselves. Their balloon vacuum sucks it up, but it escapes with Dizzy Punch and Hypnosis, knocking them out of the sky. Next they disguise a Teddiursa as a Spinda in distress, only for its furious mother, an Ursaring, to blast them away with Hyper Beam. Finally they dress Meowth up as a Spinda. The lucky Spinda comes to his rescue, but when the trio pounce, its Teeter Dance sends them over a cliff. The Spinda then climbs a mountain with May, Brock and Claire in pursuit, and at the summit, in a field of flowers, it presents Claire with a single bloom.

Claire remembers that this is where she met her fiancé and realises that the Spinda has been leading her here all along. Ash, Max and Royce catch up, and Royce reveals that the Spinda belongs to Claire’s fiancé, Kain, who promptly appears with flowers of his own. Claire happily returns his Pokémon, and Brock is crushed to learn that she is engaged. Team Rocket interrupt with a huge Spinda-shaped robot that sweeps up the whole colony and reflects Kain’s Spinda’s Hypnosis back at it. When the robot’s Dizzy Punch overwhelms Claire, an enraged Brock sends out all three of his Pokémon. Mudkip and Lotad are beaten, but Forretress’s Explosion destroys the robot and frees the Spinda, and Pikachu’s Thunder sends the trio flying. Brock catches a falling Spinda in his arms, only to find it is the one with the cracked heart, and trails sadly behind as the group head for Mauville.

Major Events

• The group change route, detouring via Mauville City to Petalburg City instead of crossing the desert to Fortree City
• Claire and Kain’s heart-marked Spinda
• Forretress’s Explosion
• Spinda debuts

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Spinda#0327 · AG057

Trivia

• The English title plays on "going for a spin".
• The screenplay is by Shinzō Fujita.
• This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Hoenn story.

Changes in the English Dub

• The Poké Ball emblem on Ash’s Badge case redrawn
• Pokémon Trainer’s Choice (dub only, in place of Who’s That Pokémon?): which Pokémon is best against Seedot? Answer: Surskit

Part of our Pokémon: Advanced Challenge guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.