 |
|
| Season | Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series (Season 24) · Spring at the lab & into the Ultra Class arc (JN061–JN067) |
| Episode | Season 24, episode 16 · English episode 1144 · Japanese episode 1150 · Bulbapedia code JN064 |
| English title | Absol Absolved! |
| Japanese title | 嫌われたアブソル Kirawareta Abusoru — “The Detested Absol” |
| First aired (Japan) | 30 April 2021 · TV Tokyo |
| First aired (US) | 21 January 2022 · Netflix |
| Screenplay | Yūko Kakihara |
| Opening / ending (Japan) | Wan, Tsū, Surī (One, Two, Three) – Karaage Sisters · Pokémon Shiritori (Pikachu → Mew Ver.) – Pokémon Music Club |
| English opening | Journey to Your Heart – Haven Paschall |
| Who’s That Pokémon? | Absol (US) · Absol (Japan) |
| Previous episode | On Land, In the Sea, and to the Future! (JN063) |
| Next episode | Thrash of the Titans! (JN065) |
Plot episodeGoh catches AbsolLavaridge Town
Absol Absolved! is the 16th episode of Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series, the twenty-fourth season of the Pokémon anime, and the 1144th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 1150, Bulbapedia code JN064). It first aired in Japan on 30 April 2021 and in the United States on 21 January 2022. It falls within the season’s Spring at the lab & into the Ultra Class stretch (EP61–EP67).
Released on Netflix in the US on Friday 21 January 2022 with the rest of Part 2; POP had premiered it in the UK on 22 September 2021, followed by Teletoon in Canada on 25 September 2021.
Synopsis
In Lavaridge Town, Ash and Goh discover that an Absol blamed for drying up the hot springs was really warning of a coming eruption, and Goh catches it while saving it from the blast. Hodge, a Trainer they met at the Battle Frontier’s Flute Cup, asks for their help: his uncle’s hot springs have dried up, and the townspeople, following an old superstition that Absol brings disaster, blame an Absol seen nearby. In Lavaridge Town the shops are closed for lack of tourists, and Hodge shows the boys an ancient stone tablet carved by his ancestors, depicting Absol amid disasters, including dried-up springs. At the inn, townspeople are preparing to hunt Absol down; Ash and Goh argue that harming it would be wrong and persuade Hodge’s sceptical uncle to give them two hours to find the real cause. At the dry springs, Goh’s Rotom Phone shows that the water comes from Mt. Chimney, where nobody has dared go since Absol appeared, so the boys climb the mountain while Hodge tries to talk his uncle out of the hunt.
On the mountain road, Absol blocks their path and attacks, felling trees that seal the road, so they follow the water pipes to the spring instead and find it buried in snow and ice. Goh’s Trapinch uses Dig to test the ground and returns shivering with frozen soil. A Glalie attacks with Ice Shard and Blizzard, and instead of fighting back the boys follow it to a cave where it lives with two more Glalie and a Snorunt; Goh suspects they have been freezing the mountain because it is too hot for them. Before they can catch the Glalie, Absol drives everyone back, and Ash wonders whether it is trying to warn them. Goh asks Hodge to study the tablet again, and Hodge reports that it shows the springs freezing and then the volcano erupting. Goh works out that 300 years ago Glalie froze the springs, and when the ice melted at once, a phreatic eruption followed. The same thing is happening now.
Steam is already jetting from the mountainside, and the boys find a huge boulder blocking one of the springs. Cinderace’s Pyro Ball and Pikachu’s Thunderbolt barely scratch it until Absol arrives and cracks it, and the three Pokémon pound it until, with time running out, Absol charges and shatters it completely. Superheated water bursts out, and Goh throws a Poké Ball to catch and shield Absol from the blast. After Cinderace cools the Ball, Goh releases Absol, thanks it for its warning and tells it that it is free to go, but Absol nudges the Ball from his hand and returns inside by choice. Back in Lavaridge Town, Ash, Goh and Hodge relax in the restored hot springs while the Glalie soak in a tub of ice water before being moved somewhere colder. Hodge’s uncle apologises for blaming Absol, pours icy water over himself in penance, and joins everyone in the springs.
Major Events
- Goh catches Absol. Lavaridge Town, Hoenn, with Hodge from the Flute Cup
- Glalie freezing Mt. Chimney’s springs threaten an eruption
- Goh catches the Absol the town blamed, which chooses to stay with him — the first pure Dark type caught by a main character
- Trapinch shows Dig
Captures and evolutions
Absol#0359 · Goh · after it warns Lavaridge Town of an eruption
Trivia
- The screenplay is by Yūko Kakihara.
- This is a plot episode: it advances the Kanto, Galar & beyond storyline.
Part of our Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.