Can't Beat the Heat (Pokémon the Series: Original Series)

Can't Beat the Heat! (Japanese: ライバルたいけつ！カメックスＶＳリザードン！！ Rival Confrontation! Kamex VS Lizardon!!) is the 270th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on October 17, 2002 and in the United States on September 27, 2003.

Plot
Ash defeats his longtime rival, Gary, in the final match of the first round of the Johto League Silver Conference.

Why It Rocks!

 * 1) This episode picks off where the last episode left us, and it was awesome.
 * 2) The plot is very well done, as Ash and Gary continue their battle, which made this episode amazing form start to finish.
 * 3) This episode was a perfect way to end the Ash vs. Gary Two-Parter Arc.
 * 4) The music is amazing, and fits really well with the episode, as usual.
 * 5) This episode shows how strong Gary’s Blastoise is, as Ash’s Heracross tried to hide behind the rocks as defense, but the Hydro Pump was too strong and broke through, defeating Heracross.
 * 6) When Ash uses Muk against Blastoise, Muk’s Sludge Bomb was easily bounced away by Rapid Spin, so Ash had Muk used Body Slam against it, which was a nice call back to "The Fourth Round Rumble", when Muk used it against Jeanette’s Bellsprout.
 * 7) Great animation in its time, especially for early 2000 standards as usual.
 * 8) When Blastoise proved too strong for Muk, Ash made the smart choice of switching Pokémon, bringing out Bayleef to face Blastoise.
 * 9) Bayleef did some impressive stuff, like using her Vine Whip to jump high in the air, so she could come down with a powerful Body Slam.
 * 10) Even with Bayleef’s impressive stuff, it still wasn’t enough and she was also defeated by Blastoise, and since Ash lost 3 Pokémon first, the battle takes a break so he can think.
 * 11) The battle really heats up when Ash reveals that he’s NOT using Pikachu! This is shocking to everyone, as so far this is the only full battle where Ash didn’t use him, his strong, speedy Buddy. But it makes sense, as Ash relies on power Pokemon so he can beat Gary, and that Gary can be a tricky opponent.
 * 12) Ash’s power strategy does help him make a comeback, as the very lovable and awesome Snorlax retuns! And even after getting hit with Gary’s Arcanine’s Fire Spin, he was still able to fire off a powerful Hyper Beam, which knocked out Arcanine in one hit. Way to go, Snorlax!
 * 13) When Ash’s Snorlax faced against Gary’s Nidoqueen, she used her tail to jump, which was nice that Gary adapted Ash’s strategy, and the Double Kick Snorlax got hit with makes sense, as Snorlax couldn’t move after Hyper Beam.
 * 14) In the end though, Snorlax got 2 wins in a row! Quickly recovering, he dodged Nidoqueen’s Hyper Beam, and knocked her out with a super-effective Ice Punch, once again in one hit, evening the score and helping Ash make a comeback.
 * 15) Even so, Gary is still no pushover, as he brings out Scizor, and with his speed and power, Scizor makes one of the few times Ash’s Snorlax is actually defeated.
 * 16) Ash brings out Muk next, and even though at a disadvantage, Ash uses it taking the Quick Attack and Metal Claw with its body, which was a nice call back to the above mentioned episode, recalling it able to take those kinds of attacks.
 * 17) Even with this defense, Scizor used this to throw Muk up, and defeat it with Swift, meaning Ash has to defeat the rest of Gary’s team with just Charizard.
 * 18) It went well in the beginning, as Ash’s Charizard quickly took out Gary’s Scizor with a Flamethrower, in one hit, thanks to the double type advantage.
 * 19) Then came Gary’s Golem, which was a problem, but Ash’s Charizard still tried his best, but Seismic Toss failed as Golem was too heavy for Charizard to carry.
 * 20) Even though Rollout would have been really bad against Ash’s Charizard, he thankfully defended himself using a powerful Dragon Rage, which stopped Rollout and knocked out Golem in one hit, evening the score and giving Ash some hope.
 * 21) Charizard Vs Blastoise, battle of the Kanto starters, and the mascots of Pokémon Red and Blue! It started off rough for Ash, as Charizard took 2 hard hits, and Blastoise wasn’t having any problems, forcing Charizard to attack from the sky while avoiding other attacks.
 * 22) During that though, Ash realized that the battlefield could get heated up, so he had Charizard use Flamethrower to melt the field into a hot mess, trapping Gary’s Blastoise.
 * 23) Gary’s Blastoise was forced to use Hydro Pump to cool the field down, giving Ash’s Charizard time to come in close for a close range fight.
 * 24) When Dragon Rage was dodged by Gary’s Blastoise, Ash’s Charizard took high into the air holding onto Blastoise. Even after getting attacked with Bite, Charizard hold on and did a successful powerful Seismic Toss.
 * 25) After the awesome stare down between the starters, Blastoise went down and Gary is finally defeated. Way to go, Charizard and Ash! You finally beat them! As Ash and Charizard cheer for victory, and Misty, Brock and the Pokémon squad congratulated them.
 * 26) Team Rocket had a small appearance, but not enough to make them a boring moment unlike the last episode.
 * 27) Ash and Gary had a good moment where they shakes hands, Gary wished Ash luck in the next match, and they both became stronger thanks to battling each other.
 * 28) The ending is really good. Ash moves on to face Harrison in the next round, and they start off with Pikachu and Kecleon, respectively.

Reception
This episode received largely positive reviews from critics, audiences and fans of the Pokémon franchise. Is one of the episodes that YouTuber Lumiose Trainer Zac gave a 10/10, and it has a 8.3/10 rating on IMDb.

Trivia

 * When Charizard uses Seismic Toss on Blastoise, the globe appears as usual, but, whereas normally specific shapes on the globe cannot be made out, Asia and Australia are prominently seen.
 * This is the only time that the move Magnitude is used in the anime. Due to an incident with a banned Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire episode featuring the move Earthquake, Magnitude would never be used again in the anime due to its extreme similarity to Earthquake.
 * Parts of this episode were reanimated and used for flashback material for The Fires of a Red-Hot Reunion!.
 * Although Who's That Pokémon was random by this point in the dub, the Pokémon featured was Bayleef which did play a significant role in this episode.