Snow Way Out – Pokémon Season 1, Episode 38

Filler / stand-alone episodeWinter specialFiller

Snow Way Out is the 38th episode of Pokémon: Indigo League, the first season of the Pokémon anime, and the 38th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 40, a Japanese TV special without a Bulbapedia EP code). It first aired in Japan on 5 October 1998 and in the United States on 18 December 1999.

A Japanese TV special first shown on 5 October 1998, the week after Snorlax’s debut, and aired in the US on 18 December 1999 as the final new Kids’ WB episode of the season.

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

Synopsis

As Ash and his friends continue on their journey they figure their future is favourable but the foursome is about to find a fateful fork in the road and they aren’t 100% sure which way to go. Ash randomly decides a direction, a trail that heads up a mountain, Ash says “whats a little hill?” and him and Pikachu start up the path with Ash and Brock reluctantly following.

The friends reach the end of the trail and arrive at the foot of a snowy mountain, it’s no hill thats for sure. Brock and Misty suggest turning back but Ash says no Pokemon Master would turn back because of a mountain and is determined to continue. They proceed up the mountain, it’s getting really cold, Brocks compass has gone haywire and he can no longer use it to navigate. Misty starts getting angry that Ash has got them into this, Ash sends Pidgeotto to find a path down the mountain and it returns, successful, indicating the way they should go. The group continue along the mountain path.

Not far away, at a lower part of the mountain James and Meowth are clinging to each other Freezing, while Jessie is dancing in the snow, singing about it. She asks James and Meowth if they’ve ever had a “snowgasboard”, one of the true happy memories of her otherwise wretched childhood, she reminisces about a younger version of herself being called by her mother who then served her lots of different types of foods, made entirely with snow. James and Meowth are a bit shocked that her mother fed her on snow, and she explains that they were poor and had to make do. She then also explains that the snow food is extremely low calorie and helped her keep her incredible figure, adding that it was even better if you added a small amount of soy sauce.

Team Rocket decide to get going and try to head off Ash and co using their balloon, but the balloon has other ideas and has started to drift away, with Team Rocket desperately chasing it. Meanwhile Ash and co continue up the mountain, they’ve been walking all day and aren’t even at the top yet, a storm closes in around Ash and the gang who are getting really cold now. Brock suggests they stop and set up camp for the night, and tells Ash they should dig in and let the storm pass, adding that not even the bravest Pokemon master would run around in a snowstorm in the dark. Ash see’s Brocks point and agrees, just then a strong breeze knocks Pikachu out of Ash’s arms and Ash runs off into the Blizzard to find Pikachu. As Ash wades through the snow he is knocked to the ground by another strong wind, but he hears Pikachu’s voice and follows the sound, finding Pikachu hanging off a cliff edge over a sheer drop. Ash can’t quite reach Pikachu and sends out Bulbasaur to grab him with his vine whip, Bulbasaur tries to grab him but fails and Pikachu begins falling, it looks bad but Bulbasaur tries one more time and manages to catch Pikachu, with Ash’s help pulling him up to the surface.

Ash and Pikachu realise they should probably get back to Brock and Misty but they’re unable to climb back up the slope, with the icy breezes getting even colder they realise they’re going to have to stay put. Ash begins digging a cave into the mountainside but his hands get too cold to continue digging, Ash then has the idea to use Charmander to create a cave by melting the snow with it’s flames. Once they get inside Ash uses Squirtle, Pikachu, Charmander and Bulbasaur to seal the cave entrance and they all gather around Charmanders flame to try and keep warm.

Team Rocket are in a similar predicament and find themselves in a freezing cold igloo, with no matches left. But Jessie has prepared them some fresh snow rolls using her moms “secret recipe” so it’s not all bad. The three of them take one burned out match each and try using their imaginations to keep warm, each of them imagining themselves in hot locations. Meowth and James fall asleep, Jessie slaps them til they wake up, telling them they’ll freeze if they fall asleep.

Ash and friends are doing comparatively quite well, but Charmander has been using the flame on it’s tail for too long and has run out of energy. Ash tells him to return and conserve his strength, Charmander doesn’t want to but Ash returns him anyway, deciding it will be warmer for his Pokemon in their balls he then returns Squirtle and Bulbasaur too. Just as he is about to return Pikachu to his ball, Pikachu jumps on him and tells Ash he wants to stay out to help keep him warm. Ash hope’s that his Pokemon in the balls are warm enough and takes off his jacket, wrapping up his Pokéballs to make sure. The blizzard then blasts a whole through the cave entrance, Ash blocks it with his body to prevent anymore freezing cold air breaching the cave and tells Pikachu that he must get in his Pokéball now, Pikachu doesn’t want to and disobeys Ash’s order directly. Seconds later all of Ash’s Pokemon come out of their Pokéballs and huddle together to keep him and each other warm.

The next morning the sun rises, the blizzard is over and Charmander melts away the caves entrance, Misty and Brock shout Ash, they happen to be directly above the cave looking for them. Brock’s Onix lifts Ash and his Pokemon up the slope and the group is reunited. After questioning how Ash survived the night Ash explains he made a cave just like Brock said, Misty then drops the bombshell that they didn’t have to stay in a cave afterall because Onix burrowed into an underground hotspring and were really warm and comfortable all night (much to Ash’s shock and dismay). The friends then stumble across Team Rocket’s balloon crashed in the mountains, they fix it up and then use Vulpix’s flames to fuel the balloon, using it to continue on their journey. Team Rocket are still pinching each other to stay awake and they see the Balloon passing overhead, they start to give chase but accidentally fall into a hotspring, potentially the one Misty and Brock spent the night in!

Major Events

• Last confirmed appearance of Pikachu’s Poké Ball in the OS
• First Pikachu impression. 23 s cut in the dub (matches). All-Stars Vol. 9.

Trivia

• The screenplay is by Shōji Yonemura.
• This is a stand-alone episode: it can be skipped without losing the thread of the Kanto story.
• The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Pidgeotto in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Muk in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• 23 s cut — 16-s snow-sushi vendor scene (Meowth striking matches), 3 s match shot (+3 s looped), 4 s of Jessie’s lit match
• The remaining match painted into a candle
• Snow sushi becomes “snow loaf” and “snow pudding”
• A freezing-to-death line softened
• Dub ending: Pikachu’s Jukebox — 2.B.A. Master
• The Japanese post-credits slot carries the Kaze to Issho ni music video (cut from the dub)
• The dub adds music where Japan used silence

Part of our Pokémon: Indigo League guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.