Take the Lombre Home – Pokémon Season 7, Episode 23

Plot episodeLotad evolves into Lombre

Take the Lombre Home is the 23rd episode of Pokémon: Advanced Challenge, the seventh season of the Pokémon anime, and the 336th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 339, Bulbapedia code AG063). It first aired in Japan on 12 February 2004 and in the United States on 29 January 2005. It falls within the season’s Road to Petalburg: Lombre, Grovyle & the Balance Badge stretch (EP63–EP70).

The first new episode after the winter break, on 29 January 2005, a week after the Kids’ WB premiere of Destiny Deoxys.

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

Synopsis

On the way to Petalburg City for Ash’s fifth Badge, the group run out of water and head for a famous freshwater spring, unaware that Team Rocket have set a trap there. In the dense forest a Zubat startles May and Max, and a Solrock drifts silently past. Following it, the group tumble into a pit. Team Rocket net Pikachu and haul it out, but Solrock’s Fire Spin knocks them over and Pikachu drops back in. While the villains are distracted, the heroes climb out, and Ash’s Pokédex notes that Solrock can read minds. Cacnea’s Pin Missile has no effect on it, and Solrock’s Solar Beam blasts the trio away before it vanishes. The spring itself turns out to be bone dry, and so is the river in a nearby deserted village, where the group send out their Water-types to sense any hidden water.

Corphish digs up only an old pot and Mudkip finds a dry well. Lotad loses its balance on the bucket and falls in, and when Brock pulls it out it evolves into Lombre. An old woman, Tallulah, hails Lombre as the “Great Water Lord” and blames the drought on Solrock. Her granddaughter Mary, who instantly captures Brock’s heart, explains that the spring stopped flowing after a meteorite landed near the village’s Lombre shrine; since then a Solrock has roamed the area and no rain has fallen. Mary suspects a scientific cause, but the villagers keep performing a rain dance to drive Solrock away. Ash defends Solrock for saving Pikachu, and Brock reasons that a mind-reading Pokémon would avoid an angry crowd, so Lombre dances alone, and Solrock comes out to join it.

Skitty suddenly bolts into a cave, and May and Mary follow it to a huge pump: Team Rocket have been draining the village’s water to bottle and sell. Meanwhile Tallulah rallies the villagers against Solrock, which stops them with Confusion until Ash and Lombre persuade it to let them go. Team Rocket then burst out in a mecha with a capture net. Lombre’s Razor Leaf cuts the net, but the robot answers Pikachu’s Thunderbolt with a powerful jet of water. Solrock shields the villagers with its body, its heat neutralising the water and its spinning damaging the mecha, before a second Thunderbolt destroys it. Overcharged, Solrock becomes a fireball heading for the village until Lombre and Mudkip’s Water Guns create steam that forms rain clouds. Rain refills the spring, and the grateful villagers name Solrock the spring’s Sacred Guardian.

Major Events

• A drought-stricken village and its Lombre shrine
• Brock’s Lotad evolves into Lombre
• Team Rocket are pumping the spring dry
• Solrock becomes the spring’s Sacred Guardian
• First US episode after the winter break
• Solrock’s TV debut

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Lombre#0271 · AG063
• Solrock#0338 · AG063

Captures and evolutions

• Lotad → Lombre#0271 · Brock

Trivia

• The English title plays on Supertramp’s "Take the Long Way Home".
• The screenplay is by Shōji Yonemura.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Hoenn storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• Solrock’s Fire Spin called “Ember”
• Pokémon Trainer’s Choice (dub only, in place of Who’s That Pokémon?): which Pokémon is best against Roselia? Answer: Camerupt

Part of our Pokémon: Advanced Challenge guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.