Family Determination! – Pokémon Season 21 Episode 8 (SM051)


Season	Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Adventures (Season 21) · Lusamine & the Ultra Deep Sea arc (SM050–SM055)
Episode	Season 21, episode 8 · English episode 986 · Japanese episode 991 · Bulbapedia code SM051
English title	Family Determination!
Japanese title	がんばリーリエ！決意の家出！！ Ganba-Rīrie! Ketsui no Iede!! — “Lively Lilie! A Determined Runaway!!”
First aired (Japan)	23 November 2017 · TV Tokyo
First aired (US)	31 March 2018 · Disney XD
Screenplay	Jun’ichi Fujisaku
Opening / ending (Japan)	Arōra!! (Alola!!) – Satoshi (Rica Matsumoto) with Pikachu (Ikue Ōtani) · Pōzu (Pose) – Taiiku Okazaki
English opening	Under the Alolan Moon – Haven Paschall and Ben Dixon
Who’s That Pokémon?	Hariyama (US)
Previous episode	Faba’s Revenge! (SM050)
Next episode	Revealing the Stuff of Legend! (SM052)

Plot episodeLillie’s new outfitTotem Kommo-o

Family Determination! is the 8th episode of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Adventures, the twenty-first season of the Pokémon anime, and the 986th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 991, Bulbapedia code SM051). It first aired in Japan on 23 November 2017 and in the United States on 31 March 2018. It falls within the season’s Lusamine & the Ultra Deep Sea stretch (EP50–EP55).

Premiered on Saturday 31 March 2018, the last of the eight launch-week episodes; weekly Saturday premieres followed from 7 April.

Synopsis

Determined to rescue their mother, Lillie and Gladion set out for the Altar of the Sunne on Poni Island, and Ash, Professor Kukui and the class follow them past a Totem Kommo-o to a meeting with Alola’s four guardian deities. In the aftermath of Lusamine’s abduction, Faba tries to blame Lusamine herself, and Lillie and Gladion vow to bring their mother home. Professor Burnet warns that there is no guaranteed way to reopen the Ultra Wormhole and asks Ash to keep watching over the newly evolved Nebby. At the mansion, Lillie changes into a new outfit and returns Snowy to its Poké Ball just as Gladion arrives: he knows how to open a wormhole and means to go alone, but he relents when Lillie asks to come, and the siblings ride away on Silvally.

The next day, Ash shows his classmates Nebby and explains what happened, and Professor Kukui arrives with Hobbes to report that Lillie and Gladion have vanished. The group visits Hala, whose telling of an Alolan legend jogs Ash’s memory of his dream, and Hala names the place it describes: the Altar of the Sunne. Realising that they must ask Solgaleo for help, the group sets sail for Poni Island in a boat Hobbes borrows from Wicke. Meanwhile, Lillie and Gladion reach Vast Poni Canyon. Using Aether Foundation research, Gladion has Silvally rearrange three first-partner statues to open a door, and when Lillie moves one herself, tall spikes rise from the floor; later she scatters sand to reveal an invisible bridge.

The siblings enter a chamber guarded by Jangmo-o, Hakamo-o and a towering Totem Kommo-o, and with Snowy and Silvally—now a Fairy type—they defeat the group. The ceiling then starts to cave in, but Ash and the others arrive just in time to smash the falling debris and save them. Gladion is annoyed by the interference at first but eventually accepts their help, and the reunited party presses on through the canyon. At the Altar of the Sunne, Tapu Koko is waiting for them. It calls out to the island guardians, and Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu and Tapu Fini appear one after another, gathering above the altar. As the four guardian deities look down on the young Trainers, the episode ends with everyone uncertain about what will happen next.

Major Events

To Poni Island. Lillie changes into a new outfit and leaves with Gladion on Silvally
Hala tells the legend of the Altar of the Sunne
Ash’s first visit to Poni Island
Lillie and Gladion beat a Totem Kommo-o, Silvally now a Fairy type
The four guardian deities gather at the Altar of the Sunne
The first episode after Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
An Indiana Jones-style invisible sand bridge
Anime debuts of Jangmo-o, Hakamo-o and Kommo-o