Caterpie's Big Dilemma – Pokémon Season 8 Episode 49 (AG142)


Season	Pokémon: Advanced Battle (Season 8) · On to Saffron City: May’s first Kanto Ribbon arc (AG137–AG145)
Episode	Season 8, episode 49 · English episode 414 · Japanese episode 418 · Bulbapedia code AG142
English title	Caterpie’s Big Dilemma
Japanese title	進化！その神秘と奇跡！！ Shinka! Sono Shinpi to Kiseki!! — “Evolution! That Mystery and Wonder!!”
First aired (Japan)	8 September 2005 · TV Tokyo
First aired (US)	10 June 2006 · Kids’ WB
Screenplay	Shinzō Fujita
Opening / ending (Japan)	Battle Frontier – Akina Takaya · Pokémon Kazoe Uta (Pokémon Counting Song) – Akiko Kanazawa
English opening	Unbeatable – David Rolfe
Pokémon Trainer’s Choice	Which one does not evolve? (Skitty / Sableye / Nincada) → Sableye
Previous episode	Hail to the Chef! (AG141)
Next episode	The Saffron Con (AG143)

Filler / stand-alone episodeGiant CaterpieFirst double evolution

Caterpie’s Big Dilemma is the 49th episode of Pokémon: Advanced Battle, the eighth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 414th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 418, Bulbapedia code AG142). It first aired in Japan on 8 September 2005 and in the United States on 10 June 2006. It falls within the season’s On to Saffron City: May’s first Kanto Ribbon stretch (EP137–EP145).

Synopsis

Walking toward Saffron City, Ash, May and Brock are surprised by an irritable Caterpie, and its young Trainer Zander accuses them of being thieves and has Caterpie tie them up with String Shot. His teacher, the inventor Dr. Gordon, arrives on a flying device and reads their intentions with a telepathy machine, clearing them, and Zander apologises. At Dr. Gordon’s laboratory the group admire his inventions, all based on Pokémon abilities, including a Jigglypuff-topped karaoke microphone that sends the doctor to sleep when he sings into it. Team Rocket arrive to steal the inventions, and in the scuffle Seviper bites through the String Shot and Pikachu’s Quick Attack knocks over an orange case that spills a pile of blue candies across the floor.

Caterpie eats one and instantly grows to enormous size, blasting Team Rocket away. Dr. Gordon identifies the sweets as his “Mystery Candy Complete”, the dub’s name for a Rare Candy. The giant Caterpie keeps growing, smashes through the ceiling, breaks a bridge and climbs a tower that collapses beneath it, in scenes that recall the Mothra monster films, then evolves into an equally giant Metapod on top of the ruins, hardening its shell high above the street. Dr. Gordon climbs into a mechanical Machoke suit and lumbers after the giant to help contain it, while Zander watches in alarm as his once tiny partner towers over the buildings, and nobody, not even its inventor, knows how long the candy’s effect will last.

It turns out Wobbuffet grabbed three candies, and Team Rocket feed them to Dustox and Cacnea, which grow giant too; Cacnea promptly flattens James, and the trio kidnap Dr. Gordon and fly off on the giant Dustox. Metapod evolves into a giant Butterfree and gives chase with Zander and Ash. Dustox suddenly shrinks back to normal, dropping Team Rocket into a lake, and Butterfree catches the falling doctor. When Officer Jenny arrives, Pikachu’s Thunder and Butterfree’s Whirlwind blow the villains away, and Butterfree returns to its normal size. Dr. Gordon admits the candy was an accident, and Zander looks forward to travelling with his Butterfree. It is the first episode in which a Pokémon evolves twice, and the only appearance of a Rare Candy in the anime.

Major Events

After eating a Rare Candy a giant Caterpie evolves into Metapod and Butterfree, the first double evolution in one episode and the anime’s only Rare Candy
Team Rocket’s Dustox and Cacnea grow giant too
New art and cloud styles in Japan