An Unexpected Picnic! – Pokémon Horizons Season 1 Episode 13


Season	Pokémon Horizons: The Series (Horizons Season 1) · Spinel’s heist arc (HZ013–HZ018)
Episode	Horizons Season 1, episode 13 · English episode 1237 · Japanese episode 1246 · Bulbapedia code HZ013
English title	An Unexpected Picnic!
Japanese title	ピクニックは突然に Pikunikku wa Totsuzen ni — “A Sudden Picnic”
First aired (Japan)	14 July 2023 · TV Tokyo
First aired (US)	10 May 2024 · Netflix
Screenplay	Kureha Matsuzawa
Opening / ending (Japan)	Dokimeki Daiārī (Heart-Pounding Diary) – asmi feat. Chinozo · RVR ~Raijingu Borutekkāzu Rappu~ (Rising Volt Tacklers Rap), Ludlow Ver. – Liko (Minori Suzuki) & Roy (Yuka Terasaki)
English opening	Becoming Me – Haven Paschall (version 1, with clips from Heart-Pounding Diary)
Previous episode	The Future I Choose (HZ012)
Next episode	Fly! Wattrel!! (HZ014)

Plot episodeRoy meets WattrelSpinel’s sabotage

An Unexpected Picnic! is the 13th episode of Pokémon Horizons: The Series, the first season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1237th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1246, Bulbapedia code HZ013). It first aired in Japan on 14 July 2023 and in the United States on 10 May 2024. It falls within the season’s Spinel’s heist stretch (EP13–EP18).

The first episode of Netflix’s Part 2 (HZ013–HZ023), released in the US on Friday 10 May 2024; BBC iPlayer had released it in the UK on 15 January 2024, and Cartoon Network Africa aired it on 10 April 2024.

Synopsis

While the Brave Olivine runs a system check near Levincia, the Rising Volt Tacklers hold a sandwich picnic, Roy meets a feisty, sandwich-stealing Wattrel, and Liko finds a way to include Dot and Ludlow, but Spinel uses the time to sabotage the airship. The ship’s tail fin is responding slowly, and the reboot will take half a day, so everyone except Ludlow sets up a table on a seaside cliff. Murdock lays out plenty of ingredients, and Orla and Mollie explain that everyone builds their own sandwich. Liko cannot decide on fillings, Roy’s tower collapses, and Friede piles on nothing but meat. Watching them, Liko feels grateful for the people she has come to know. Roy sends Dot a selfie of himself, Liko and their Pokémon, and Liko, respecting Dot’s privacy but sorry that she and Ludlow are missing out, asks Murdock to help her include them.

A Wattrel steals Fuecoco’s sandwich, and Roy chases it to a cliff, where it sets the food down and challenges him. Fuecoco’s Stomping Tantrum has no effect, and the Wattrel answers with Uproar, which Fuecoco counters with its own singing; the noise drives off the nearby Pokémon but ends in a stalemate. Roy realises the Wattrel is hungry and offers it half the sandwich, only for it to steal the rest as well, and on the way back he sees a flock of Wattrel flying off while the one he fought stays behind. On the airship, Dot cannot film a picnic video because she has never been on one, until Liko’s message brings her to the meeting room, where she finds sandwich ingredients and Ludlow, who tells her a picnic is about sharing time with others. Touched that Liko still treats her as a friend, Dot sends the team a photo of Nidothing eating sandwiches with Ludlow.

Liko is unsettled by the idea of Nidothing aboard the ship but decides that Dot must have worn the costume to cheer everyone up. Friede is amazed that Liko still has not realised they are the same person, but Murdock says Dot should reveal it herself. The team watches Nidothing’s new picnic video and agrees that both Dot and Liko have grown through their friendship. On the walk back, Roy cannot stop thinking about the lonely Wattrel and goes to check on it, and Friede notes privately that Liko and Dot are not the only ones who have changed. Meanwhile, Spinel arrives near the Brave Olivine with a squad of Magneton. On the bridge Friede finds the reboot progress bar frozen, and as he calls Dot every electronic system on the ship goes dark; Dot fears the airship may never fly again.