EP003

Ash Catches a Pokémon (Japanese: ポケモン ゲットだぜ！ I Caught a Pokémon!) is the third episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on April 15, 1997 and in United States on September 10, 1998.

Blurb
Ash discovers and catches a Caterpie—his first Pokémon capture! Though Ash is excited, Misty is grossed out by Bug-type Pokémon, so she is repulsed by its attempts to be friends with her. At night, as Ash and Misty sleep, Caterpie shares with Pikachu its dream of evolving into a Butterfree.

The next day, Ash is able to capture a Pidgeotto after battling it with Pikachu. Before Ash can celebrate too wildly, Misty reminds him that his success is due more to luck than skill.

Team Rocket shows up to steal Pikachu—they realize that there's really something special about this Pokémon—and Ash vows to defend himself. Pikachu and Pidgeotto are weakened by Koffing and Ekans, so he reluctantly sends out Caterpie. To the surprise of Jessie and James—not to mention Ash—Caterpie's String Shot is able to defeat the Team Rocket Pokémon, including Meowth!

When Misty tries to make nice with Caterpie, it evolves into a Metapod. Could a Butterfree Evolution be far behind?

Plot
Picking up right where the previous episode left off, throws his  at a  in Viridian Forest. It attempts to break free but is unsuccessful. Ash celebrates catching, holding the Poké Ball and running in circles out of joy. When Ash holds the Poké Ball closer to 's face, she reveals that she has a fear of bugs, even if they are contained in a Poké Ball. Pikachu is happy to have Caterpie along, and Ash decides to bring Caterpie out, scaring Misty away. Caterpie wants to make friends with Misty, but she prefers Pikachu. Ash is offended by Misty's discomfort and complaints, which hurt Caterpie's feelings. Ash reassures Caterpie and continues traveling without Misty. Misty, however, has other plans, as she is still upset about her ruined bicycle and wants Ash to replace it. Because of this, she continues following Ash.

Later that night, Ash sets up camp for the night. Misty, also getting ready to go to sleep, exchanges a few smart remarks with Ash, upsetting Pikachu and Caterpie. While Ash and Misty sleep, Pikachu and Caterpie get to know each other a little better. In the morning, Misty remains frightened of Caterpie, causing the Pokémon to become subdued and return to his Poké Ball. Although Ash is angry, a wild captures his attention.

Wanting to catch Pidgeotto, Ash throws a Poké Ball, but Pidgeotto simply swats it away. Misty retorts that a needs to battle and weaken a wild Pokémon to capture it. She then mentions that he caught Caterpie only because it was weak, irritating Ash, who summons Caterpie to battle it despite the type disadvantage against Pidgeotto, of which both Misty and Pikachu are aware. Ash recalls Caterpie just in time, causing Pidgeotto to get its beak stuck in a tree.

Ash sends Pikachu after Pidgeotto just as it frees itself. Pikachu uses to hit Pidgeotto, weakening it and allowing Ash to toss a Poké Ball. The Ball takes Pidgeotto in and drops to the ground and starts swaying. After a few moments, the Ball stops moving; Ash has captured the. Despite the success, Misty continues to berate him for his lack of knowledge about strategy.

intrudes on their argument, reciting their. They decide to target his Pikachu, mentioning his incredible power, which causes them to become distracted in a short internal argument before they decide to attack. They then send out and  to battle, despite a double-team being unfair. Misty wants to jump in, but Ash does not want to break the rules. Koffing's attack blinds Pikachu, taking him out of the battle. While he hands Pikachu off to Misty, he decides to send out his newly caught Pidgeotto, which dodges both Koffing and Ekans's attacks before going into a. Ekans avoids the attack by, forcing Pidgeotto to come to a sudden stop. Koffing fires a attack, which Pidgeotto splits with its wings before dodging multiple Sludge attacks and Ekans's retaliation. Despite soaring high into the sky, both Ekans and Koffing are able to keep up with Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto tries to hit Koffing with, but misses and is defeated.

Ash recalls Pidgeotto and tries to fight Team Rocket with his fists, but James easily holds him back. In a final attempt, Ash sends out Caterpie, which only amuses Team Rocket. Ekans and Koffing attack and Caterpie cowers, but Ash orders him to use. The attack completely incapacitates Koffing before Caterpie muzzles Ekans. Caterpie s Koffing, knocking it into Ekans and taking them both out. tries to intervene, but he is also wrapped in String Shot. Taken by surprise, Team Rocket flee, but promise that they will be back.

Ash congratulates Caterpie on coming through, and after some encouragement, Misty pats Caterpie's head. At that moment, Caterpie begins to spray silk from his mouth, startling her. Ash puts Caterpie down as the thread covers its body, signaling its evolution. Caterpie evolves into, and Ash's Pokédex notes that it has reached this stage more quickly than any other Caterpie on record. In addition, Misty shows approval of Ash's strengthening bonds with his Pokémon. Despite having fewer reservations about, the sight of a scares Misty, who looks forward to leaving the forest.

Major events

 * catches a, making it his first caught Pokémon.
 * Ash also catches a.
 * reveals to Ash their intention to steal his.
 * is revealed to know.
 * Ash has his first, although unofficial,, and wins.
 * James's Koffing is revealed to know.
 * Jessie's Ekans is revealed to know.
 * Ash's Caterpie evolves into.

Humans

 * Jessie
 * James
 * Jessie
 * James

Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?:


 * (new; evolves)
 * (newly evolved; debut)
 * (new; debut)
 * (fantasy; debut)
 * (debut)
 * (fantasy; debut)
 * (debut)
 * (fantasy; debut)
 * (debut)

Trivia

 * In Pokémon Emergency!, says "Poké Ball, go!" while throwing a Poké Ball at . In this episode, he instead says, "Caterpie, you're mine!"
 * This is the first episode in which evolution is shown.
 * This was the first time a main character catches a Pokémon that would later evolve in the same episode. This scenario would not be repeated until more than 500 episodes later, in The Thief That Keeps on Thieving!.
 * This is so far the only episode in which a main character catches two Pokémon of different species.
 * According to a quote from this episode, cannot stand carrots, peppers, and  Pokémon.
 * Also, in regards to another quote from this episode, Misty mentions that she is ten years old. This was only said in the original version.
 * Misty owns a red sleeping bag decorated with bubbles, while Ash owns a blue sleeping bag. "Satoshi" (Ash's Japanese name) appears on the name tag of his sleeping bag.
 * This is the first episode where type advantages are mentioned: moves are effective against  Pokémon.
 * A real-world animal appears in this episode, as is seen eating a regular worm.
 * Despite the episode title saying "a Pokémon", Ash catches two Pokémon.
 * Both Pokémon Ash catches in this episode are released by the time Ash travels to the Orange Islands.
 * This is the first episode where Ash uses his signature catchphrase and pose when successfully catching a.
 * Each of Ash's would attempt to copy this during the original series.
 * 's fight with Pidgeotto, and Ash's capturing of the latter was shown on the VHS A Sneak Peek at Pokémon.
 * In this episode, when evolves into, it shoots a shower of white silk string from its mouth onto itself and sheds its skin in the process, similar to a real caterpillar going into pupation. Later episodes show Caterpie evolving like the rest of the Pokémon do.
 * Ash mentions that the Pokémon League has regulations stating that Trainers may only use one Pokémon at a time in battles. This rule may have changed years later in the, in which two-on-two battles are not considered unusual.
 * This was for a long time the episode with the lowest number of human characters appearing, featuring only, , Jessie, and James. 672 episodes later, Sewaddle and Burgh in Pinwheel Forest! matched this record.
 * Coincidentally, both of these episodes take place in a forest and feature Ash catching a Bug-type Pokémon.
 * Six other episodes would also later come to share this record: Emolga the Irresistible!, Emolga and the New Volt Switch!, Oshawott's Lost Scalchop!, Facing Fear with Eyes Wide Open!, Scraggy and the Demanding Gothita!, and Battling the Leaf Thieves!.
 * 1,013 episodes later, the record was broken by Guiding an Awakening!, which features only three human characters.

Errors

 * When Ash is shown running to Caterpie's Poké Ball, his hat is backwards as it should be (you can see the Pokémon League icon and the brim on the back) but the colors are reversed; the front becomes red and the back becomes white.
 * In the shot right before Caterpie dashes over to Misty, she is partially hiding behind a tree and the trees behind her are obscured by bushes, but when Misty backs away from Caterpie, the bushes and the trees disappear.
 * During the scene when Ash and Misty are sleeping and Pikachu and Caterpie are "talking," Pikachu starts bouncing back and forth on his two feet. He suddenly stops on his left foot, but the bouncing noises can still be heard.
 * When Pikachu does two backflips in front of Caterpie, Pikachu freezes in midair.
 * However, this could be an example of anime physics.
 * When Ash and Pikachu are startled awake by Misty's scream, Caterpie's Poké Ball starts off facing away from Misty, but when Caterpie goes back inside his Poké Ball, it is facing towards Misty, and is upside down when Ash picks it up.
 * When Caterpie is about to attack Pidgeotto, one of its right 'paws' is green.
 * When Pidgeotto is hit by Pikachu's Thundershock, Pidgeotto stays hovering in the air without support.
 * This could be another instance of anime physics.
 * When Ash throws the Poké Ball at Pidgeotto to catch it, both halves are red.
 * When Jessie and James point at Pikachu, his tail is all yellow, lacking the brown base.
 * This happens again after Ekans and Koffing are first called out, before they attack anything.
 * When Ash calls back Pidgeotto, it somehow acquires bandages in midair.
 * When Ekans and Koffing knock out Pidgeotto and they go in to attack Caterpie, Ekans's Japanese voice is heard.

Dub edits

 * PokéRap: Day 3
 * In the English version, Misty reads the episode title instead of Ash, while in the Japanese version, Ash reads the title.
 * This is justified in that, in the dub at least, Ash is busy gloating over his caught, and thus is unable to read the episode title like he usually does.
 * In the scene before Misty tells him about the three things she hates, Ash complains about girls and their selfishness. In the dub, after she says that bugs are one of three things most disgusting things of the world, Ash asks her what the disgusting things are aside from herself.
 * When Caterpie is looking sad due to Misty telling him to stay in his Poké Ball, the katakana for "Ga~n" (a Japanese sound effect) moves across the screen. This was painted out for the dub.
 * How Misty and Ash commented on Caterpie is different between the versions (mostly due to religious censorship). In the English version, Ash was mentioning how he loves Caterpie, and Misty sarcastically responds how it takes a worm to love a worm; whereas in the original version, Ash comments that he and Caterpie are the same kind of Heaven, and Misty retorts that their Heaven is her Hell.
 * When Misty is telling Ash that birds eat worms, there is a shot where she slaps him for putting his Pokémon in danger. This was cut from the dub.
 * Oddly, the sound effect of the slap is kept in.
 * While Ash tells Caterpie "Counter", some have taken this to mean the, which Caterpie cannot learn. In the original, Ash told it merely to "counter strike".
 * In the English version, the scenes where Ekans and Koffing each tackle Pidgeotto, knocking it out in the process, were slowed down, while in the Japanese version, they each tackle Pidgeotto in a fast pace.

In other languages
Ash im Jagdfieber EP003 EP003 EP003 無印編第3話 精灵宝可梦 第3集