Unfair-Weather Friends – Pokémon Season 7, Episode 43

Plot episodeTeam Aqua raid the Weather InstituteBrodie debuts

Unfair-Weather Friends is the 43rd episode of Pokémon: Advanced Challenge, the seventh season of the Pokémon anime, and the 356th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 359, Bulbapedia code AG083). It first aired in Japan on 1 July 2004 and in the United States on 18 June 2005. It falls within the season’s Towards Fortree: Swellow, Combusken & the Feather Badge stretch (EP79–EP85).

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

Synopsis

On the road to Fortree City, a sunny day suddenly turns to rain and then snow. A Castform drifts in, changing form as the weather shifts, and leads the group to its Trainer, Bart, a researcher at the Weather Institute, and his trainee Millie, who owns a Ditto. To everyone’s surprise, Brock’s usual flirting stops almost before it starts, and he cannot explain why. Bart takes the group to the Institute, where a giant satellite dish has been affecting the weather, and Millie gives them a tour. Team Rocket, snowed in nearby and blaming the twerps for the strange weather, spot the dish and plan to use it, but Team Aqua arrive in force under Shelly, seize the Institute and lock the researchers and Team Rocket in metal restraints.

Team Rocket escape their bonds by sucking in their stomachs, annoying Shelly with their noise. Team Aqua power up the weather machine to call down lightning, and Bart realises that they are after the Institute’s data on the Legendary Pokémon Groudon and Kyogre. He hands the access card to Castform, which escapes through an air duct with grunts in pursuit. Watching on the security cameras, Ash’s group and Millie predict where the duct leads, and when Castform arrives, Pikachu defeats the two grunts chasing it. Millie’s Ditto transforms into Castform to lure the guards away from the main computer, and Millie copies the data to a disc and erases the master file. Ash innocently carries the disguised Ditto back, leading the guards straight to them, and Torkoal’s smokescreen covers their escape.

Outside, Shelly threatens to use the weather machine on the captive scientists unless Millie hands over the key card. A bolt of lightning blasts Team Rocket away, and despite Bart’s pleas Millie gives the card up. But the data is already gone, and Millie taunts Shelly with the disc before revealing her true identity: Brodie of Team Magma, a male master of disguise, which explains Brock’s indifference. Shelly’s Crawdaunt attacks, but Brodie’s Ditto transforms into a Crawdaunt too, and when May sends out Combusken, Ditto knocks it out with Crabhammer. Brodie escapes with the data on a jetpack, and Shelly withdraws, vowing to beat Team Magma next time. Bart is crushed by the theft. The real Millie then arrives for her first day at work; Brock’s flirting resumes until Max pulls him away, and Bart sets her the task of re-entering all the stolen data by hand.

Major Events

• The Weather Institute
• Team Aqua (Shelly) raid it for data on Groudon and Kyogre
• The trainee “Millie” is Brodie of Team Magma
• New Japanese ending Full of Summer!!
• Castform debuts in all four forms

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Castform#0351 · AG083

Trivia

• The English title plays on "fair-weather friends" (and EP137’s Foul Weather Friends).
• The screenplay is by Junki Takegami.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Hoenn storyline.

Changes in the English Dub

• Pokémon Trainer’s Choice (dub only, in place of Who’s That Pokémon?): which Pokémon evolves into Weezing? Answer: Koffing
• New Japanese ending Full of Summer!!

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