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| Season | Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series (Season 24) · Project Mew & James’s Morpeko arc (JN068–JN073) |
| Episode | Season 24, episode 22 · English episode 1150 · Japanese episode 1156 · Bulbapedia code JN070 |
| English title | Take My Thief! Please! |
| Japanese title | おねがい！モルペコゲットして！！ Onegai! Morupeko Getto Shite!! — “Please! Catch Morpeko!!” |
| First aired (Japan) | 11 June 2021 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 21 January 2022 · Netflix |
| Screenplay | Akemi Omode |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Wan, Tsū, Surī (One, Two, Three) – Karaage Sisters · Pokémon Shiritori (Pikachu → Mew Ver.) – Pokémon Music Club |
| English opening | Journey to Your Heart – Haven Paschall |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Pidgeotto (US) · Pidgeotto (Japan) |
| Previous episode | Errand Endurance! (JN069) |
| Next episode | Leaping Toward the Dream! (JN071) |
Plot episodeJames catches Morpeko
Take My Thief! Please! is the 22nd episode of Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series, the twenty-fourth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1150th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1156, Bulbapedia code JN070). It first aired in Japan on 11 June 2021 and in the United States on 21 January 2022. It falls within the season’s Project Mew & James’s Morpeko stretch (EP68–EP73).
Released on Netflix in the US on Friday 21 January 2022 with the rest of Part 2; Teletoon had premiered it in Canada on 6 November 2021, followed by e.tv in South Africa on 28 December 2021 and POP in the UK on 7 January 2022.
Synopsis
Fed up with Morpeko eating all their food, Team Rocket try to get rid of it and even scheme to make Goh catch it, but after it follows them everywhere, James catches it himself. Morpeko has once again eaten all of Team Rocket’s food, even cracking a safe to reach James’s hidden snacks. Meowth suggests catching it so it will obey them, but Jessie decides to release it into the wild and sends James to take it away. James grows guilty when Morpeko, in its Full Belly Mode, shares its seeds with him, and every attempt to lose it fails. Back in Vermilion City it runs out of seeds and turns Hangry, so James buys out a food stall and slips away while it eats, but Morpeko follows a trail of dropped seeds back to the base, snatches the trio’s shopping and blasts them off with Aura Wheel. The next day, with Morpeko still trailing them, Team Rocket see Goh catching a Raticate and decide that Goh should catch Morpeko instead.
Their schemes fail, including Jessie’s turn as a fortune teller sending the boys towards Morpeko. Then Morpeko sneaks into a Pokémon food delivery van, eats its fill and falls asleep in a delivery box, which ends up at the Cerise Laboratory. When Ash and Goh open it, Morpeko wakes in Hangry Mode and starts an eating contest with Goh’s Greedent, even raiding Greedent’s stash, until Raichu brings Berries for both. Goh’s Poké Ball fails to hold Morpeko, which pops straight out and keeps eating, so Ash suggests trying again when it is calmer. The next day the boys hear a commotion at the shopping mall, where a well-fed Team Rocket are vacuuming up Pokémon, all of which turn out to be Goh’s. The Prize Master produces a disappointing Natu and Zigzagoon, and when Cinderace’s Pyro Ball sends Natu flying into Morpeko just as it reaches the trio’s food cart, the furious Morpeko hits Pikachu and Cinderace with Stomping Tantrum.
Jessie is thrilled by its power, until Morpeko blasts Team Rocket off with Aura Wheel as well. The stolen Pokémon are freed, Morpeko empties the food cart and wanders off, and Goh spots a Pidgeotto and finally catches the species that has eluded him twice. Team Rocket are left hanging upside down from a tree when Morpeko comes looking for them. Jessie and Meowth hide, but James, touched that it searched for them, climbs down, throws a Poké Ball and catches Morpeko, then releases it and welcomes it to the team. It is his first capture since Mareanie in Alola, ending a long stretch without a Pokémon of his own. The celebration is short-lived: as they prepare to leave, Morpeko turns Hangry again and sends all three blasting off with Aura Wheel for the third time that day.
Major Events
- James catches Morpeko. Team Rocket try to get rid of Morpeko and even to make Goh catch it
- Goh catches a Raticate and a Pidgeotto
- Morpeko shows Stomping Tantrum
- James catches Morpeko, his first capture since Mareanie and the only Team Rocket capture in Journeys
- Team Rocket blast off three times
- The last episode with Pokémon Shiritori as the Japanese ending
Captures and evolutions
Raticate#0020 · Goh · in Vermilion City
Pidgeotto#0017 · Goh · the species that had eluded him twice
Morpeko#0877 · James · his first capture since Mareanie in Alola, the only Team Rocket capture in Journeys
Trivia
- The English title plays on Henny Youngman’s one-liner “Take my wife, please!”.
- The screenplay is by Akemi Omode.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Kanto, Galar & beyond storyline.
Changes in the English Dub
- The captions naming the Rocket Prize Master’s Natu and Zigzagoon are removed
- The last episode with Pokémon Shiritori as the Japanese ending
Part of our Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.