Legend? Go! Friends? Go! – Pokémon Journeys Episode 2


Season	Pokémon Journeys: The Series (Season 23) · Beginnings & the Cerise Laboratory arc (JN001–JN003)
Episode	Season 23, episode 2 · English episode 1082 · Japanese episode 1088 · Bulbapedia code JN002
English title	Legend? Go! Friends? Go!
Japanese title	サトシとゴウ、ルギアでゴー！ Satoshi to Gō, Rugia de Gō! — “Satoshi and Go, Let’s Go by Lugia!”
First aired (Japan)	24 November 2019 · TV Tokyo
First aired (US)	12 June 2020 · Netflix
Screenplay	Shōji Yonemura
Opening / ending (Japan)	Wan, Tsū, Surī (One, Two, Three) – After the Rain · Pokémon Shiritori (Pikachu → Mew Ver.) – Pokémon Music Club
English opening	The Journey Starts Today – Walk off the Earth
Who’s That Pokémon?	Lugia (US) · Lugia (Japan)
Previous episode	Enter Pikachu! (JN001)
Next episode	Ivysaur’s Mysterious Tower! (JN003)

Plot episodeCerise Laboratory opensLugia

Legend? Go! Friends? Go! is the 2nd episode of Pokémon Journeys: The Series, the twenty-third season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1082nd episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1088, Bulbapedia code JN002). It first aired in Japan on 24 November 2019 and in the United States on 12 June 2020. It falls within the season’s Beginnings & the Cerise Laboratory stretch (EP1–EP3).

Released on Netflix on 12 June 2020 with the rest of the first batch; Teletoon had premiered it in Canada on 16 May and POP in the UK on 25 May 2020.

Synopsis

Ash travels to Vermilion City for the opening of Professor Cerise’s new research laboratory, rides a Lugia across the sky with a boy named Goh, and ends the day as one of the lab’s two new research fellows. The morning starts badly when a half-asleep Ash hurls his alarm clock at the wall, shrugs off Pikachu’s Thunder Shock and has to be roused by Delia. At Professor Oak’s lab he learns that a new professor is opening a laboratory in Vermilion City, and he, Delia and Mimey ride along in Oak’s car. On the steps of the Cerise Laboratory Ash meets Yamper, Professor Cerise’s yapping Electric-type puppy; he is so charmed that he grabs it and gets a painful jolt, though Yamper takes an instant liking to Pikachu. Cerise’s daughter Chloe, back from school, steps around Ash without a word. Inside, Cerise and his assistants Chrysa and Ren tell the press that the institute wants to understand everything about Pokémon, while Chloe waits in vain for her friend Goh, who texts that he is waiting for an important encounter.

On a rooftop Goh studies the weather, and Cerise, reading the same humidity and wind data, announces that a rare Pokémon will reach Vermilion Harbor in twenty minutes. Ash leads the crowd to the docks, where a dark cloud swirls over the water and Lugia appears. Several Trainers launch a Raid Battle, but Lugia brushes them all aside and lands on a pier. Ash challenges it; Lugia shrugs off Pikachu’s Thunderbolt, answers with Aeroblast and takes off, and Ash and Goh leap onto it from the ledges, Goh grabbing its tail and Ash and Pikachu a leg. Helping each other onto its back, the boys soar beside a flock of Fearow while Goh films its fins and silver feathers on his Rotom Phone. Lugia then dives and blasts a hole in the sea with Hydro Pump, carrying them through the depths among Horsea before bursting back into the sky. Overjoyed, Goh introduces himself and declares the two of them friends. Lugia drops them in a field of flowers and flies away, leaving the boys with no idea where they are.

By evening the pair make it back to the lab, where Chloe, still annoyed that Goh skipped the ceremony, dismisses his Lugia story and hands him a pile of school worksheets. Professor Cerise, however, is thrilled by Goh’s close-up footage and by the boys’ observation that Lugia seemed to like them, and he offers both of them posts as research fellows. Goh accepts at once; Ash hesitates until Cerise explains that the job means meeting Pokémon, then signs up too. When Delia points out that commuting from Pallet Town would be difficult, Cerise shows the boys a dorm room at the lab, and they immediately squabble over the top bunk. Delia leaves Mimey behind to keep Ash out of trouble, reminds him to eat his vegetables and brush his teeth, and asks an embarrassed Goh to keep an eye on him before driving home with Oak. Prompted by Chloe, Cerise then offers Goh a first partner—Charmander, Bulbasaur or Squirtle—but Goh stuns everyone by declaring that his first Pokémon will be Mew, showing his old photo of it. Cerise laughs and encourages both boys to uncover Mew’s secrets.

Major Events

The Cerise Laboratory opens. Ash meets Goh, Chloe and Professor Cerise in Vermilion City
Ash’s first Raid Battle, against Lugia
Ash and Goh ride Lugia
Both become research fellows
Delia leaves Mimey at the lab
Goh turns down Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle because he wants Mew as his first Pokémon
Ash’s trophy shelf shows every region except Johto
Lugia’s first appearance since DP143