Original Title: Thunder and the Crystal! Secret of the Lake!
Original Airdate: March 28, 2002
US Airdate: April 12, 2003
When a tangle with Team Rocket leaves Pikachu desperately exhausted, a young passerby offers to restore Pikachu's energy, but only if the humans present promise never to reveal to another soul what they are about to see. This trainer then proceeds to guide Ash and friends to a legendary lake that somehow seems to restore energy to the Electric Pokémon that live along its banks. Unfortunately, however, Team Rocket manages to tail the young trainers as they enter. Jessie and James are quick to make plans to lay waste to the serene lake, trading its pristine essence for personal gain.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- MacGuffin: The titular crystal, which has healing properties for electric types.
- No Sense of Direction: The episode starts with the heroes getting lost yet again.
- Olympus Mons: Zapdos appears and quickly shows itself to be on a completely different level to the small army of electric types fighting Team Rocket.
- Phlebotinum Overload: Much like past episodes, Team Rocket traps Pikachu in a device that siphons his electricity. Unlike past episodes, Pikachu can get out of it by overloading it with electricity.
- Rule of Three: Team Rocket goes blasting off three times this episode.
- Tempting Fate: "I would've thought a legendary pokemon would have had a lot more to give" said shortly before Zapdos destroys Team Rocket's second electricity absorption device.
- Worf Had the Flu: Ordinarily Zapdos would have easily been able to take out Team Rocket but the reason it was at the lake in the first place was because it was already running low on energy and needed to recharge.
