Plot
The smoke finally clears at the Teracotta Town Pokemon Contest and the winner is revealed--it is a tie between May and Ash! Both are declared the winner with only one prize medal between the two, so Sceptile cuts it neatly in half. That night, during dinner, May announces her intention to go to Johto and compete in Pokemon Contests. She doesn't want Max to come, though, because she'd depend on her brother too much. Max is sad, but Ash cheers him up by promising to battle someday.
May and Max board a ship headed to Hoenn and wave goodbye until the ship is out of view. Ash and Brock also separate, with Ash rushing home to eat. Team Rocket watches the two boys, but they are too demoralized to do anything. They psych themselves up just in time to catch an Electivire in a net. Ash runs over to help the Electric-type Pokemon, but Gary shows up and orders it to escape with Iron Tail. Gary sends the thieves blasting off, and though Ash wants to battle, Gary would just rather go back to Professor Oak's lab. Ash then heads home.
Back at the Ketchum household, no one is there to greet Ash, so he goes to Oak's lab instead. It seems quiet there until everyone jumps out to surprise him. Ash gives his Battle Frontier symbols to his mom Delia to keep, and challenges Gary to a battle. Outside, Electivire and Pikachu face off with similar move sets until Electivire manages to knock out Pikachu with a Protect and ThunderPunch combo. Gary then leaves, returning to Sinnoh. Ash decides he wants to go to Sinnoh as well. That night, Delia makes Ash some new clothes, and the next morning, he leaves with just Pikachu at his side. However, Ash's Aipom sneaks on board the boat to Sinnoh and meets up with him. Unknown to any of them, Team Rocket has stowed away as well.
Debuts
- Gary's Electivire (new)
Trivia
- There is no Trivia Quiz for this episode.
- This is the final episode of the Advanced Generation series.
- The instrumental version of 小さきもの A Small Thing from Jirachi: Wish Maker is used as background music.
- 前向きロケット団！ Face Forward Team Rocket! and an alternate cut of めざせポケモンマスター2001 Aim to Be a Pokémon Master 2001 are also used as background music.
- As in the final episode of the previous series, the usual To be continued is omitted and replaced with Next time... A new beginning!.
- The preview for Following a Maiden's Voyage! is narrated by the Pokémon Sunday narrator 木村匡也 Kyōya Kimura.
- This is the final episode to be played in 24 frames per second. The next season now plays in 30 frames per second.
- The English name of Sandgem Town was first revealed through the airing of this episode.
- This episode's title is a pun on the saying "home is where the heart is."
- When stowing away, Ash's Aipom fueled speculation of a new evolution for Aipom in Generation IV, and after this is confirmed with the Japanese release of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, speculation that Aipom would itself evolve into its new form during the Diamond & Pearl series. This as well would eventually be confirmed true with the airing of Journey to the Unown!.
- Meowth breaks the fourth wall when James asks upon blasting off if Team Rocket will ever learn. Meowth responds that they'll find out next season.
The overall episode number is the same as the debuting Pokémon Electivire's Pokédex number: 466.
- This episode marks the final appearance of Mimey in an episode of the anime.
Errors
- In one scene, Electivire's fingers are white instead of black.
- In several scenes, the black spot on Electivire's face is not there.
- When Gary calls Electivire to use ThunderPunch against Team Rocket, Gary's eyes were light blue.
- When Gary battles Ash, Electivire uses Iron Tail. Electivire's tail was yellow for a second before its tail glowed.
- In one scene, where Ash is talking to Gary, a close up is shown of Gary being outside, when he was inside.
Dub edits
- Much of the original background music was removed and replaced.
- When Ash is on the ship en route to Sinnoh, he refers to it as an island (The Sinnoh Island) instead of calling it a region. This may be due to the fact that, like Hoenn, it is visibly not connected to any other regions visited.
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