You have got to be kidding me, that guy is twice my size!
Lt. Surge: Ha! What kind of a baby would do that? If you wanna be a real Pokémon master, you should have your Pokémon evolve as soon as you catch it.
Ash Ketchum: There's more to training a Pokémon than forcing it to evolve, and I like this Pikachu just the way it is.
Lt. Surge: Wrong, baby. Electric Pokémon are only useful once they've learned all their electric attacks. You keep it puny like that, it's no more than a little pet.
Japanese Title: Electric Shock Showdown! Kuchiba Gym
Original Airdate: July 1, 1997
US Airdate: September 25, 1998
The one where... Ash manages to beat a Gym Leader with no tricks or interruptions.
Ash and friends have finally made to Vermilion City, but they soon discover that the Vermilion Gym Leader is the brutal Lt. Surge, who is notorious for having a record of trainers running to the hospital with their injured Pokémon. After being mocked by Surge for being a weak baby, Pikachu decides to battle Surge's main Pokémon, Raichu, its evolved form. The match ends badly as Pikachu is badly crushed by its larger opponent (both figuratively and literally), and is taken the Pokémon Center for recovery.
After losing to Surge and hearing his harsh advice of evolving Pokémon as soon you can, Ash contemplates evolving Pikachu using a Thunderstone. What will he decide? Will he earn his Thunder Badge after all?
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Badass: Raichu doesn't need Electric-type moves to defeat Pikachu, something that Lt. Surge brags about in the original Japanese version, as it also knows Mega Punch, Mega Kick, Body Slam and Take Down. This is a far cry from its game counterpart which only knows Thunder Shock, Growl, and Thunderbolt, making it a complete pushover when faced with even a low-leveled Ground-type Pokémon.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Lt. Surge was a competitive, but otherwise decent guy in the games. Here, he and his Raichu are brutish thugs who delight in bullying their challengers before viciously stomping them into the ground.
- Adapted Out: In the games, Surge had a Voltorb and a Pikachu of his own. They are absent here so the episode can focus on Pikachu's rivalry with Raichu.
- Animation Bump: Some parts of the fight between Pikachu and Raichu have noticeably more fluid animation than the Limited Animation the series is known for.
- Bowdlerise: After Ash points out Raichu's weakness, Surge simply growls and shouts, "OK Raichu!" In the original Japanese version
, he actually says, "Goddamn!" It's obvious to see why it was changed. - Competitive Balance: Of the weight vs. mobility kind. Raichu is strong but slow, Pikachu is weaker but much faster and has much more stamina.
- David vs. Goliath: Pikachu vs. Raichu. Raichu is explicitly the evolved, and therefore more powerful version of a Pikachu, as well as being notably larger.
- Determinator: Despite being badly injured, Pikachu refuses to forfeit his first battle against Raichu.
- Did Not Do the Bloody Research: Lt. Surge curses in English in the Japanese version. It's simply an American stereotype and doesn't sound too offensive to Japanese ears, but to English speakers it's unusual to hear such an intense curse on a kodomo show.
- Disapproving Look: When Ash and Misty get into an argument in the hospital, the trainers who got beat by Lt. Surge give them this look.
- The Dreaded: The first mention of Lt. Surge's toughness involves a bunch of trainers running their injured Pokémon to the Pokémon Center. Pikachu, witnessing this, panics at the idea of going to the Vermilion Gym, to the point of shocking Ash.
- Eagle Land: Surge comes across as a solid Type II, before proving himself a Jerk with a Heart of Gold (so 1.5-ish).
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Ash, Misty, and Brock easily see-through Team Rocket's disguises, a far cry from subsequent episodes where they fail to recognize them every time. Justified in that Jessie and James start reciting the motto when they first meet up before being slapped by Meowth.
- In a bit of
Values Dissonance, Ash at one point gets so fed up with Misty's teasing remarks and putdowns that he's visibly about to punch her in the face (Nurse Joy stops him). You can't really blame him, but this sort of thing would not go over well in modern day episodes. - Most later Gym leaders are generally nice people, but Surge seems proud of his Raichu straight up destroying opponents.
- Pikachu slaps away a Thunder Stone in his refusal to evolve. Later episodes have it so that simply touching an evolutionary stone induces evolution.
- End-of-Episode Silliness: The episode ends with Team Rocket congratulating themselves for cheering on Pikachu to defeat Raichu, only to realize that they missed a perfect opportunity to steal him.
- Enemy Mine: Team Rocket wants to see Pikachu win because they want to continue believing he is something special (and that they have not been wasting their time trying to take him). To this end they show up to cheer Ash on in his second fight with Lt. Surge.
- Flat "What": In the dub, Lt. Surge gives a hilarious one when he sees that Pikachu used his tail to dodge Raichu's Thunderbolt.
- Foreign Cuss Word: In the Japanese Version, Lt. Surge swears in English.
- Foreshadowing: Surge's early dialogue establishes his philosophy, how he evolved his Raichu as rapidly as possible, and how he focused exclusively on powerful, brute force attacks. When Ash is trying to figure out his strategy for the rematch, Brock recalls this boasting...and deduces that's Surge's Achilles' Heel: Raichu evolved too fast and it never learned the speed attacks it can only learn in the Pikachu stage.
- Friendly Enemy: The first display of Team Rocket's on-off respect and sympathy for Pikachu. The heroes don't spurn it, but are left rather bewildered by the whole thing.
- Graceful Loser: One might expect an obnoxious braggart like Lt. Surge to be a sore loser but he's surprisingly respectful and gracious when Ash and Pikachu get the better of him.
- Gratuitous English: Originally, some of Surge's dialogue is in English, as he is called the Lightning American.
- Ash gets into it at the beginning, saying "Let's go!" in English as he prepares to rush right to the gym before noticing Pikachu was exhausted from their travels.
- Growling Gut: At the start of the episode, Ash and Pikachu's stomachs growl thanks to being on the road for so long without any decent food.
- Harmless Electrocution: Pikachu shocks Ash a few times in this episode. The prominent example is their victory hug, which causes both Ash and Pikachu to see stars.
- Hurricane of Puns: Team Rocket's commentary on Pikachu using his tail to avoid damage of Raichu's Thunderbolt:Jessie: What a shocking story.
James: That was quite... a tail.
Meowth: Me-owth! And now, you've both been...pun-ished. - Ironic Echo: After Pikachu's recovery, Ash declares their lucky star is shining today, even though Pikachu and Misty do not see it. After beating Surge, Ash and Pikachu give each other an electrical hug, which actually causes them to see their lucky stars.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Surge and his Raichu may be douchebags who love to lord their power over others, but they respect strength and congratulate Ash and Pikachu for a job well done when they're defeated.
- Large and in Charge: Lt. Surge and his aides makes the heroes look positively tiny by comparison◊.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Notably, this is the first time Ash manages to successfully beat an opponent that's far stronger than him and his team in battle.note
- Lost in Translation: Jessie and James's Hurricane of Puns in the original had a pun relating to ground and Koffing that was lost due to the Japanese wordplay. Jessie says that Pikachu uses its tail on the ground (aasu), to which James holds Koffing replying Dogaasu Explanation, and then Meowth hits them both on the head, scolding them for not taking him seriously before capping off the sentence with a Nyaasu.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Lt. Surge's signature battle method as evident by the hospital scenes.
- After showing off Raichu's power and toying with Pikachu's attempts to hurt it, Surge declares that playtime's over and orders Raichu to use normal attacks, Mega Punch and Mega Kick, on Pikachu before finishing him off with the grand finale, Thunderbolt.
- In the rematch, Surge did not waste anytime having his Raichu whipping Pikachu with its tail several times and then performing two body slams on to Pikachu. However, on the second Body Slam, Pikachu evades it at the last moment and then proceeds to turn the tide of the battle.
- No-Sell: Pikachu's Thunderbolt doesn't faze Lt. Surge's Raichu, who, in turn, delivers a powerful Thunderbolt that nearly incapacitates Pikachu.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: One of the first that Team Rocket use, and one of the few that the protagonists see through. Ironically, it's nowhere near as thin as some they use later, though saying the first line of their motto doesn't help them.
- Pet the Dog: Instead of trying to steal Pikachu or cause trouble, Team Rocket shows up to cheer Pikachu on after being moved by its determination to beat Raichu without evolving. This is the first time the audience is shown that they're more than just a bunch of evil troublemakers.
- Pig Latin: Just as Jessie and James said the first line of their motto, Meowth interrupts them by shouting "IXNAY!" and smacking them with a paper fan.Jessie and James: We forgot!
- Power-Up Letdown: Lt. Surge's philosophy of evolving your Pokémon as quickly as possible comes to bite him in the ass during the rematch. Raichu, although much stronger than Pikachu, didn't have the chance of learning the speed moves it could only get in its Pikachu stage. This makes Raichu unable to land a hit on the now-evasive Pikachu, whether it is Body Slam or Thunderbolt. Eventually, Raichu exhausts itself and becomes vulnerable to Pikachu's new moves, Quick Attack and Agility.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Downplayed; Surge isn't anything worse than an obnoxious meathead, but his love of brutally beating down his opponents while hurling insults like "Babies" at them make him come across as an overgrown schoolyard bully.
- Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: In the rematch, Raichu eventually becomes unable to use Thunderbolt in what could best be described as an equivalent to running out of Power Points (PP) in the games.
- Serious Business: Pikachu gives a speech in which, according to Meowth, he says he'll battle Raichu once again in the name of all Pikachu, which moves Meowth and James to tears.
- Shown Their Work: This episode actually teaches newbie players an important lesson by properly following in-game logic: just because you can evolve a Pokemon right away doesn't mean you should. Pokemon that evolve when exposed to elemental stones may get an immediate power boost, but will often lose out on moves they would have learned in their base forms or learn stronger moves noticeably later. This proves to be Surge's undoing, because him immediately evolving his Pikachu into Raichu meant that it missed out on learning moves like Quick Attack and Agility, meaning that it couldn't keep up with Pikachu's superior speed.
- Yes, this actually applies to this battle in the Gen 1 games. Surge's Raichu doesn't learn a speed related move until Gen 2 and the remakes, despite occasionally having a free slot for one.
- Similar Squad: Lt.Surge not only has an evolved Pikachu as his main Pokemon, but male and female assistants, ala Misty and Brock.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: In the Japanese version, Lt. Surge says "GODDAMN!", following the common Japanese stereotype that Americans curse frequently.
- Team Power Walk: The twerps and Pikachu pull one off before the second battle with Lt. Surge.
- Trademark Favorite Food: This episode establishes that apples are one of Pikachu's favorite treats.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Raichu blows Pikachu out of the water with his larger size and stronger electrical attacks. Eventually Pikachu beats it with strategy and superior speed.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Whether Ash rightfully earned his first two badges or not, there's no denying that Lt. Surge is the first Gym Leader that Ash has to defeat in a clean cut battle, no sprinklers or Team Rocket interruption whatsoever.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Unlike in the games, Surge walks around with an open shirt to show off his chiseled physique.
- Weak, but Skilled: Pikachu is weaker than his evolved form Raichu, but Brock notes that Pikachu can learn speed moves while Raichu can't if it evolves too quickly. Pikachu wins by exploiting this. This is true in the video games as well. While Raichu has superior stats compare to Pikachu, it cannot learn any moves naturally once it evolves, including Agility, the move that allows Pikachu to increase its speed stat. This experience may also be what inspired Ash to center his battle style in general on speed and maneuverability.
- Worthy Opponent: Surge comes to see Ash as this.
