Holy Matrimony! – Pokémon Season 1, Episode 48

Plot episodeJames’s backstory

Holy Matrimony! is the 48th episode of Pokémon: Indigo League, the first season of the Pokémon anime, and the 48th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 50, Bulbapedia code EP048). It first aired in Japan on 11 June 1998 and in the United States on 13 March 1999. It falls within the season’s The comeback, Charizard & the Egg stretch (EP39–EP51).

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

Synopsis

Ash continues his journey with Misty, Brock, Pikachu and their Eggscelent new companion when they come across a missing poster, with a picture of a young James on it, just then a posh car pulls up and the driver asks if they’ve seen the boy from the photo, Ash replies that they have if its James from Team Rocket, the driver bundles them into the car and rushes them to the Estate and it’s revealed that he is infact James’ Butler; Hopkins.

Meanwhile Team Rocket had been watching in the bushes, with Jessie noting that the kid in the picture looks like James. Jessie and Meowth want to head to the estate but James is reluctant. Ash and Co arrive within the huge grounds after eventually getting down the very long driveway, they are in true awe at the Mansion when the driver corrects them, the building they were looking at was the Doghouse belonging to Master James’ (the missing boy) favourite Growlithe, the real Mansion was just behind it and much larger!

The gang go inside with the driver, where they find two coffins apparently it was Master James’s parents who didn’t have the strength to go on after he left. Jessie and James are eavesdropping and watching through a window getting excited at the thought of James inheriting the estate. But unfortunately there is a catch, James has to marry his Fiancé within 24 hours to claim his inheritance, or the lot gets given to charity. Team Rocket arrive shortly after, and start arguing amongst themselves, Jessie and James getting frustrated at James’ reluctance to claim his estate and become rich. James has some flashbacks of being a young boy, him and Growly walking in the snow, hungry until young James collapsed and died, clearly he misremembered it, because he isn’t dead. James still absolutely does not want to get married but Jessie and Meowth are intent that he does, they wear invisible suits and force him into the building. At that point laughter can be heard from the coffins, his parents jump out and are very much alive, they’d set the whole thing up to get him home. Preparations begin immediately and against James’ will for his wedding, his parents stating that he is the heir and has a duty to marry and continue the family line. They then reveal his wife to be, Jessebell, who looks exactly like Jessie but is more softly spoken.

James still doesn’t want to marry and Jessie and Meowth pressure him to do it for the Team, meanwhile Ash and co are peering through the door watching the whole thing unfold and wondering why it seems like no one can see Jessie and Meowth, even though they’re right in front of their eyes. Jessebell suggests that her and James go down to the vault to count all the money he’ll inherit, Ash and gang discreetly following. It turns out Jessebell and co could actually see Jessie and Meowth the whole time, and they are all led into a gym more than a vault, where his parents are waiting and Jessebell is now armed with a whip. The parents and Jessebell surround Team Rocket, Jessie drops a smokebomb and her and Meowth escape, leaving James being chased around a room by a whip-wielding-Jessebell who vows to never let him get away, she knocks him to the ground with a whip and then uses her Vileplumes stun spore to stop him from escaping. Ash and co along with Jessie and Meowth are also knocked out and then removed from the Mansion by Hopkins where they overhear Growlithe trying to get out of the doghouse (Smaller mansion) and open the door for it. Growlithe bursts into the main mansion and runs to the aid of his master, Jessebell orders Vileplume to attack but Growly gets James and rescues him, everyone takes sanctuary in Growly’s doghouse and James reveals that Jessebell is the reason he ran away, when they got engaged initially she followed him about trying to change and correct everything he did, so he ran away. As he’s telling the story Vileplume and Jessebell burst in, she orders a stunespore attack but Growly incincerates it and then Pikachu sends them packing. Jessebell flees the mansion, knocking James’ parents into the pond in the process.

James tells Growly to look after his parents and bids him a sad farewell. Meanwhile Jessie and Meowth are walking away thinking that James has quit Team Rocket but he catches them up and they leave together. Ash and gang are chased out of town by Jessebell who wants them to help her find James.

Major Events

• — James’s aristocratic past, fiancée Jessebelle and pet Growlithe “Growlie” revealed
• Team Rocket don’t blast off. Debuts: Jessebelle, James’s parents
• Growlie.

Trivia

• James gets amnesia when he falls off the roof and hits his head, and mentions it’s all a blur and all he remembers is flunking out of Pokemon Tech (PokéTech) and joining a Bicycle gang. References to events we saw in Episode #9 and episode #35 respectively.
• The English title plays on the exclamation, for James’s arranged marriage.
• The screenplay is by Junki Takegami.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Kanto storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• たずね人 poster → “Missing” (4 frames) — death references, angels and crosses kept
• “Thank God” becomes “Eureka” and a Heaven line “the ends of the Earth” — though the funeral imagery survives
• Jessebelle’s third-person speech lost
• Dub ending: the Kanto Pokérap (Wednesday segment)

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