EP207

Got Miltank? (Japanese:  せいぼミルタンク！さばくのひみつ！ Mother Miltank! The Desert's Secret!), is the 207th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on July 19, 2001 and in the United States on August 31, 2002.

Blurb
The way to Olivine City and Ash's next Gym challenge lies across a desert of sand and rock. Just as Ash and his friends start to cross it, Team Rocket ambushes them and scoops up Pikachu. Cyndaquil is injured in the battle with Team Rocket, which ends when it uses Flamethrower on Weezing's Smokescreen and triggers an explosion that frees Pikachu but knocks Cyndaquil into the depths of the desert. However, local tales say that sick or injured Pokémon that enter the desert will return to their Trainers in great shape, almost as if the desert contains a hidden oasis.

Cyndaquil tries to find its way back, but when it collapses with weariness, other Pokémon come carry it away. After Team Rocket crash lands in the desert, Meowth is spirited away by other Pokémon too! Both injured Pokémon are whisked off to an oasis inside a hollowed-out mountain, where a Miltank heals them both. Team Rocket follows Meowth to the mountain, but they're turned away by a group of Exeggutor guards. Ash and his friends also find their way to the mountain, but use Brock's Onix to burrow past the guards.

Once they get inside, the Pokémon in the oasis spring to its defense. As Meowth explains, this is no place for people—these Pokémon want to be left alone! Team Rocket drops in with their balloon and order Meowth to help steal the Pokémon, but Meowth refuses to battle. Team Rocket's other Pokémon refuse to attack, too! Undeterred, Team Rocket grabs Miltank and overpowers Meowth, but they're soundly beaten by Cyndaquil. Now that Miltank and the other oasis Pokémon realize Ash means no harm, he can reunite with Cyndaquil and peacefully continue on his way.

Plot
and arrive on the borders of a desert. offers some assurance and his guidebook states that Olivine City is on the other side. Ash soon falls into a pitfall and a net catches. reveal themselves from behind a sandy colored disguise cloak and launch into their. Brock helps Ash out of the hole, though Team Rocket are already aboard their Meowth balloon to make their escape. James sends for a, but Ash's Cyndaquil clings onto its face. Before Cyndaquil can launch a, Weezing shakes Cyndaquil off. Cyndaquil lands on the ground headfirst. When it gets up, a swelling grows on its nose, making it a bit weak. Team Rocket pokes fun at Cyndaquil for a while and then James tells Weezing to use, but Ash blocks the attack with his back. Ash tells Cyndaquil to use Flamethrower again, and after feeling somewhat self-conscious, it does so. However, Weezing uses Smokescreen at the same time, causing a massive explosion that sends Team Rocket and Cyndaquil blasting off. Though Pikachu lands at Ash’s feet and emerges from the net unscathed. Afterwards, Ash tries to look for Cyndaquil without success. Brock suggests they go to the local Pokémon Center for clues.

Cyndaquil wakes up and finds that it is lost. A spies on it and calls out, while a  and  start to spy on Cyndaquil as well. Soon, Cyndaquil collapses and then the Butterfree hovers above it. A soon picks Cyndaquil up and starts to carry it off somewhere. Team Rocket, who are stuck in their balloon's basket dangling from a rock, complain about the desert conditions when they spot Cyndaquil being carried off. They want to get it, but Jessie and James don't want to go, so they just throw down. Meowth lands on his face and gets his nose hurt too, causing another Dugtrio to carry him off with Cyndaquil. Jessie and James try to get out of the balloon and end up falling down. They follow the two Dugtrio.

Their stopover to the local Pokémon Center led Ash and his friends to resume their search in the desert after learning about a local legend about a Pokémon oasis in somewhere from Nurse Joy. Brock calls on his to scout for Pikachu, however the search is yielding no results. Suddenly Pikachu spots a pair of up upon a hill. The start to walk away from them calmly so the gang takes a hunch and follows them. They reach a plateau and spot a tall mountain up ahead. and fly over and affirm the group's suspicions, and with that Ash and his friends make their way over to the mountain.

Jessie and James see that Cyndaquil and Meowth have been taken into a mesa, with a wall of in front of the entrance. The two Pokémon are passed onto an Exeggutor and they are carried into an oasis inside the mesa. The two Pokémon stare around for a while, seeing that other Pokémon are running around enjoying this place. The Exeggutor calls out and a comes out of a hole in a tree. The Miltank walks up to them, greets them and proceeds to heal both Cyndaquil and Meowth’s injuries with a. Seeing that they aren't coming out, Jessie and James make a run for it to the entrance, but the Exeggutor use a Psychic attack and lead them far away. The group arrives just as Jessie and James walk passed them in an odd state. Brock uses his binoculars and sees that Exeggutor appear to have hypnotized Team Rocket. To get passed this obstacle, Brock has Onix underground to the mesa. Elsewhere, Jessie and James suddenly slam into a stone monolithic object and snap out of it. They are annoyed to find themselves back at their balloon’s crash site. Jessie has some tape handy and settles on fixing the Meowth balloon to try an aerial approach.

The group makes it to a tunnel with a river, and Brock points out they should follow the light. They reach the sanctuary; Ash finds Cyndaquil and calls out to him. However, the Pokémon within the oasis get angry and a horde of, and  surrounds them. Meowth reveals that no humans are supposed to be here, though Cyndaquil tries to reassure Miltank of Ash’s intentions. Ash decides the only way is to jump and he does so, followed by Pikachu. They reach the lower level, but the Pokémon in the sanctuary keep Cyndaquil and Ash away from each other.

Team Rocket suddenly arrives in their patched up balloon. Meowth pleads with his teammates to leave, but Jessie and James are set on taking the Pokémon in the sanctuary. Team Rocket send out all their Pokémon, but Meowth stops them, saying that he doesn't want any harm to come to Miltank. This makes all of Team Rocket's Pokémon stop and also disobey Jessie and James. Finding this useless, Jessie and James call them back to their Poké Balls and decide to take Miltank by force. James shoots out a net and captures Miltank, but Meowth grabs onto the net and climbs into the balloon. Jessie and James restrain Meowth before he can do anything. Ash tells Cyndaquil to use Flamethrower and it does so, only cutting the rope that held the net. Ash quickly sends out to use  to cut the net so Miltank can get out, Miltank landing safely in the water. Ash finishes the Team by a jolt of by Pikachu, which sends them flying sky-high.

Ash is glad to see Cyndaquil again and that it is feeling much better. The Pokémon in the sanctuary come to respect Ash and his friends when they promise to not tell anyone else about the sanctuary. They group heads out towards Olivine City saying their goodbyes.

Humans

 * Jessie
 * James
 * Nurse Joy
 * Jessie
 * James
 * Nurse Joy

Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: (US and international),  (Japan)


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Trivia

 * This episode's dub title is a reference to the famous advertising slogan, ""
 * When battling, Ash's Cyndaquil hits the ground hard and ends up with a big red bump on its nose and teases it by saying, "Look, it's Cyndaquil the red-nosed Pokémon!" Jessie is then shown with a red nose over her actual nose, making a reference to the classic Christmas TV special .
 * Although the Who's That Pokémon segment uses random Pokémon for the English dub at this point, 's plays a significantly major role in this episode.

Errors

 * The scenes where Meowth acknowledges that he did hurt his nose is a direct contradiction to Pokémon Scent-sation!, where he points out, while breaking the fourth wall, that he never had a nose. This will also occur again later.
 * When comes out of its Poké Ball, its "lips" are colored brown instead of red.
 * In one scene, the black outlines around the red-and-yellow "eyes" in 's hood pattern are missing.
 * When Jessie steals in the opening scene and jump into their balloon, the net they used to capture Pikachu is behind the pole, but when the scene changes, it appears in front of them.

Dub edits

 * There are about 45 seconds of this episode that were removed from the English dub. The scene where Meowth talks to about how Pokémon come to the oasis for healing was heavily cut. In the original Japanese version, Meowth speaks to Miltank about the aforementioned details. Then, Meowth and Ash's Cyndaquil start to suck on Miltank's udder for nourishment. All references and shots of Meowth and Cyndaquil sucking on Miltank's udder were cut from the English dub, although when Ash enters the cave, Brock refers to the use of, and a teat can be seen in Cyndaquil's mouth for about a second.

In other languages
Die Pokémon-Oase EP209 EP207 無印編第207話 精灵宝可梦 第208集