A Parent Trapped! (Pokémon the Series: Original Series)

"A Parent Trapped!" (Japanese: とらわれのルギア！"Captive Lugia!") is the 221st episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on October 25, 2001, and in the United States on November 30, 2002.

Plot
Ash and friends help rescue a Lugia named Silver who has fallen into the hands of Butch and Cassidy of Team Rocket.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The plot is very well done just like last episode and the episode afterward. It continues off from where the last episode left off and shows that Team Rocket captured the Silver to lead the more powerful parent Lugia right to them.
 * 2) While the gang were thinking of a way to get Silver back, the parent came back and was outraged that it’s baby was taken by Team Rocket, and so started up a storm and started to attack everything in sight.
 * 3) The music is amazing from both 4Kids and SHinji Miyazaki, and fits really well with the episode, as usual.
 * 4) While the parent Lugia was in blind rage, Team Rocket, Dr. Namba’s unit, were researching its power as they were watching.
 * 5) Ash and Ritchie, with Luka’s help, all went to Lugia, and managed to calm it down by saying they will get its baby, Silver back, with Lugia regaining their trust, and so the storms stopped.
 * 6) Great animation in its time, especially for the Master Quest season (season 5) as usual.
 * 7) The heroes used their flying Pokémon, Ash’s Noctowl and Brock’s Crobat, as well as Oliver’s Lanturn, to find them, while they thought of where they could be.
 * 8) The heroes eventually thought that they could be underwater, so with Oliver’s Lanturn, they used Misty’s water Pokémon: Goldeen, Staryu, Poliwhirl, and Corsola, as well as Ash’s Totodile, to search underwater and they managed to find Team Rocket.
 * 9) Jessie, James, and Meowth are still funny in this episode, and their sub was what the heroes found, but thanks to them, they were able to lead the heroes to Team Rocket’s underwater base.
 * 10) Team Rocket moved on to their next plan by rising their underwater base to the surface, as well as the trapped Silver to attract Lugia.
 * 11) While the heroes tried to free Silver and stop Lugia from being tricked with their Pokémon, Cassidy and Butch stop them with their a Pokémon using a powering up device.
 * 12) Surprising twist that it’s not Team Rocket that defeated our heroes, but the parent Lugia itself, as Ash and crew failed to stop them and got knocked out.
 * 13) Team Rocket’s plan worked as the parent Lugia got to Silver, but then also got trapped.
 * 14) Really intriguing cliffhanger ending: Team Rocket has got Lugia, and all three decided to kidnap Ash, Misty, Brock and Ritchie, along with their Pokémon, to stop them from interfering with their plans any further.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Jessie, James and Meowth were given a some unfair torture in a few scenes. They even get to blast off twice in the same episode.
 * 2) *One is from Lugia’s attack.
 * 3) *Another was from a fake Lugia balloon Meowth accidentally popped, and they almost drowned in their own team’s underwater base, which is kind of messed up.
 * 4) Jessie, James and Meowth’s plan with their fake balloon Lugia, while funny, wasn’t really their most well known idea, since the main Team Rocket already got Lugia.
 * 5) There was a very noticeable animation error with Brock’s Crobat, its colors are reversed, and its body is blue while its wings are purple.

Reception
"A Parent Trapped!" was met with positive reception and critical acclaim among fans and critics. It was scored an 7.3/10 on iMDB.com.

Trivia

 * The episode's English dub title is a pun of the title of the 1961 family-comedy film The Parent Trap.
 * The device Butch uses to power up the abilities of their Pokémon might be the starting concept of the Miniremos from Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, or the Shadow Pokémon from Pokémon Colosseum.
 * This episode is featured on Volume 8: Lugia from Viz Media's Pokémon All-Stars series.
 * Dr. Namba's device, the "Namba No. 5", could be a reference to the popular song Mambo No. 5.