A Venipede Stampede! – Pokémon Season 14, Episode 22

Plot episodePidove evolves into TranquillDub cuts the ending

A Venipede Stampede! is the 22nd episode of Pokémon: Black & White, the fourteenth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 675th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 680, Bulbapedia code BW022). It first aired in Japan on 10 March 2011 and in the United States on 2 July 2011. It falls within the season’s Pinwheel Forest to Castelia City stretch (EP18–EP23).

Premiered on 2 July 2011 with its last 47 seconds cut, removing the lead-in to the cancelled Team Rocket vs Team Plasma two-parter; the next English episode is the aired BW023. Read more about the unaired episodes.

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

Synopsis

A swarm of panicked Venipede invades Castelia City, and Ash helps Burgh lead them to safety while Pidove evolves into Tranquill. Team Rocket, Pierce and Dr. Zager use their stolen Meteonite fragment to locate a far larger one beneath the Desert Resort. In the sewers Ash frees a Venipede stuck in a pipe, gets poisoned by its Poison Point and wins its trust, just as the swarm floods the streets.

Officer Jenny orders an evacuation and local Trainers, among them Trip, attack the Venipede with Fire-types, but Burgh proposes herding them into Central Plaza while Professor Juniper investigates. When Trip’s new Lampent targets the swarm’s leader, Ash shields it from Shadow Ball, insisting the Venipede are gentle if left alone.

Burgh calms the leader with Audino’s Heal Pulse and leads the swarm away with his bug flute, while Ash, Iris, Cilan and Trip round up stragglers and Pidove evolves. Juniper traces an energy flow to the Desert Resort, and Giovanni arrives in Unova; the English dub cuts the friends’ decision to join Juniper and points Ash towards his Gym battle.

Major Events

• Pidove evolves into Tranquill. A Venipede stampede in Castelia City
• Burgh’s bug flute
• Trip’s Lampent
• Team Rocket, Pierce and Dr. Zager locate the Meteonite under the Desert Resort
• Giovanni flies to Unova
• Pierce’s last appearance
• The dub cuts the lead-in to the Desert Resort
• Aired in Japan the day before the Tōhoku earthquake
• TV debuts of Venipede and Lampent

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Venipede#0543 · BW022
• Lampent#0608 · BW022

Captures and evolutions

• Pidove → Tranquill#0520 · Ash · while herding the Venipede

Trivia

• The screenplay is by Shōji Yonemura.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Unova storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• 47 seconds are cut from the end — Ash asking to go with Professor Juniper and Officer Jenny to the Desert Resort, his flashback to the Venipede, Juniper agreeing and a shot of Ash and Iris at the helicopter window — and the closing narration points to Ash’s next Gym battle instead, hiding the lead-in to the cancelled two-parter
• Burgh’s line about electromagnetic waves is simplified
• Trip’s “another Gym first” no longer implies that he will come back

Part of our Pokémon: Black & White guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.