AG081

Take This House and Shuppet (Japanese: カゲボウズの館！ The Mansion of !) is the 81st episode of the, and the 355th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on June 17, 2004 and in the United States on June 4, 2005.

Blurb
Team Rocket crash lands in front of a mansion, and start to argue. But a beam fired by a Shuppet hidden in the bushes calms them down. They enter the mansion in search of food, but the door locks behind them. They start to argue again, but are again calmed by Shuppet.

Ash and friends are lost outside when it starts to rain. They eventually make their way to the mansion and get locked inside as well. May and Max start to argue, and Max runs off.

Max runs into Shuppet, and the two of them explore the mansion and play. They overhear May still saying some nasty things about Max, so Shuppet plays a joke on the kids by using Psychic to move things around in mid-air.

May meets Emily, the owner of the mansion. Emily wants to turn the mansion into a hotel, but can't because it appears to be haunted. Everyone splits up to look for Max.

Max and Shuppet are hiding when Team Rocket comes in, followed by May's Torchic. When they threaten the little Fire-type, Max jumps out to protect it. May comes in, and battles with Team Rocket. An armoire almost falls on May and Max, but Shuppet stops it.

Emily recognizes the Shuppet from her childhood, but Team Rocket grabs it, flying off in a balloon. Ash's Swellow breaks Shuppet free, and Pikachu sends the team blasting off.

Max and May apologize to each other, and Emily bids them all farewell.

Plot
As the episode begins, are seen blasting way off into space after another failed attempt to capture  and they are shown to all have afros! They, of course, come crashing down to earth and land in front of a mansion. blames James for putting the machine on full blast which exploded and sent them flying. Meowth uses on James, kicks Jessie, and they start punching and fighting with each other. After blows are exchanged, a strange dark gray ghostly-looking with glowing red eyes gazes at them. They're surrounded by a red aura and immediately they all relax and become totally calm. Meanwhile, and  are approaching a fork in the road. Ash,, and Max comment on how they are displeased that Team Rocket's machine messed up their hair with a beam that hit them while actually likes his new hairstyle. They decide to take the pathway on the left even though they don't know where that leads to.

After Team Rocket has calmed down, they feel hungry and decide they should break into the nearby mansion in search of food, but the door closes and locks behind them. After Meowth tries scratching the door with Fury Swipes to unlock it (and fails), they again resume arguing about whose fault it is, but the ghostly Pokémon that has followed them appears and again calms them down. Outside it begins to rain heavily with thunder and lightning as well, and everyone tries to find a place to go inside to get out of the rain. Thanks to the rain their hair was back to normal. They find the same mansion that Team Rocket has inadvertently invaded. Max suggests that it could possibly be haunted which scares May. Everyone seems to think that the mansion has been abandoned when the door opens suddenly. They think that whoever owns the house opened the doors to invite them in. They go in, but again the door closes behind them. They notice the scratch marks on the door that Meowth left. The ghostly Pokémon that calmed Team Rocket down was hiding and observing Ash and his friends as well. Max blames May for wanting to come into the mansion in the first place while May blames Max for not knowing how to use his PokéNav and that is why they were lost and ended up having to come into the mansion. Again the ghostly figure is shown watching them as Max yells at May after she calls him a know-it-all and says he hates her and runs away. A door closes behind him, separating him from Ash, May, and Brock.

May tells Ash and Brock that Max should figure things out for himself. In the other room, Max thinks that May doesn't even care about getting him out of the room. The ghostly figure fully appears and shows itself to be a. Shuppet uses while Max is still mad and calms him down. Max wonders why he is suddenly so calm and sees Shuppet in the reflection on the window. Max tries to approach Shuppet but it uses and appears behind him. While going down the stairs to explore the mansion, Max slips and Shuppet uses so that he doesn't fall. Shuppet shows Max a hidden playroom which looks like a mini-carnival. Max slides down the slide.

Meanwhile, the owner of the mansion returns to find that the front door is open and that there are scratches on the door. She doesn't appear to be scared like Ash and his friends were when they entered the mansion. Back in the playroom, one of the old ED's plays in the BG while Max plays on the carousel with Shuppet using Psychic to make it move. Max hears May calling his name while everyone is looking for him. Max has Shuppet stop the carousel so that he can listen in on May's conversation. Shuppet shows him through the window that the others are looking for him. Brock says to May that she and Max are siblings and just because they fight she should care about whether he is okay or not. May says that she doesn't care about him. Max says that if she doesn't care about him, than neither should he. Ash, May, and Brock continue searching. Another door closes behind them because of Shuppet. Shuppet uses psychic to scare Brock, May and Ash with dishes flying everywhere, floating in the air, and curtains moving. Max is enjoying scaring them with the help of Shuppet. Meanwhile, outside it has stopped raining.

May eventually runs into Emily, the owner. Emily asks them why they broke into her house and scratched up the door. Brock explains to her that they were trying to get out of the rain, and they got separated from Max. He flirts with Emily in his usual way only to be pulled by the ear by May. Emily explains that she is trying to get work done on the house so that she could turn it into a hotel but the closing doors and haunted occurrences kept scaring everyone away. She goes on to explain that when she was a kid the mansion used to be lively and was the best place to live. Ash his friends decide that based on the haunted occurrences that have been going on that they need to find Max right away. May brings out her, Ash brings out his , and Brock brings out his to help search for Max. Max says to Shuppet that he had a lot of fun playing with it. Team Rocket enters the room where Max is at and Max hides. Team Rocket argue with each other over whose fault it was that they ended up in the mansion in the first place when there is no food. Torchic comes into the room and Max thinks that May really does care but also that she is too late. Team Rocket approaches Torchic trying to grab it while Max can't decide whether to help out or not. Max says that he doesn't care if May doesn't care either and asks to himself what has she ever done for him. Max recalls May being there for him when he was sick and stuck in bed. Max runs out in front of Torchic and tries to protect it with Shuppet also doing the same. Jessie asks who that Pokémon was. James looks it up in his cards and identifies it the puppet Pokémon Shuppet who absorbs people's anger and then calms them down. Max and Team Rocket realize that Shuppet was the one who calmed them down earlier. Team Rocket again tries to get Torchic but Max tells them that May loves that Torchic a lot so he won't let them take it from her. May overhears this and steps in to protect Max and Torchic. She tells them that she won't ever let anyone touch Max and that she loves him. Max tells May that he loves her too.

Jessie brings out and James Brings out  who hugs him, to battle. Seviper uses while Torchic counters with, and then Cacnea uses  while Torchic counters with. Seviper uses but Torchic dodges the attack. May says to Max that he'd better step back to be safe but a chest drawer starts falling. May tries to protect Max but Shuppet steps in and uses Psychic to save them from being crushed. Ash and friends arrive and make sure that Max and May are okay. May says to them that Shuppet was the one who saved them. Team Rocket breaks up the conversation and Shuppet uses Psychic to scare them with plates and silverware. Everyone realizes that Shuppet was the one haunting and scaring them that whole time. Emily remembers that she used to play with Shuppet when she was a little girl and she tells Shuppet to try to remember who she is. Shuppet remembers who she is and Emily explains that sometimes adults become too busy and forget things.

Team Rocket takes a net, grabs Shuppet, and makes a run for it. Meowth presses a button to open a window and they jump out and into their Meowth balloon. Ash commands Swellow to rescue Shuppet, while Cacnea attacks with Pin Missile. Swellow dodges Pin Missile and uses to break the net and free Shuppet. Pikachu uses to send Team Rocket flying. The Thunder gave them back their afro hairstyles as they blast off. Max and May apologize to each other and settle their differences. As everyone says their good-byes, Emily tells them that both her and Shuppet will work together to open up the mansion as a hotel and invites them to stay some time. Ash and his friends head off on the road.

Humans

 * Max
 * Jessie
 * James
 * Max
 * Jessie
 * James

Pokémon
Pokémon Trainer's Choice:
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)
 * (debut)

Trivia

 * Advance Adventure and Pocket-ering Monster-ing are used as background music.
 * The dub title of this episode is most likely based on the phrase "Take this job and shove it." It may also be a reference to the TV show .
 * Despite showing interest and eagerly wanting to check out a "haunted" house in Taming of the Shroomish, at first appeared to be troubled by the haunted house in this episode.
 * 's playroom is extremely visually similar to the one, , and had in The Tower of Terror.
 * This episode marks the first time May drags away from a woman by the ear.
 * This episode is featured on the Volume 9: Ghost copy of Pokémon Elements.

Errors

 * In a closeup shot of May during the scene when Max remembers how she took care of him when he was sick, her eyes are green instead of blue.
 * When May and Max are arguing, May's right hand glove is all-blue and doesn't have any white.
 * During the Pokémon Trainer's Choice segment, is pictured where 's name appears.
 * The Trainer's Choice segment claims would be a good match against  despite Exploud being weak against  Pokémon. The correct answer would be, since it has a double resistance to Fighting-type moves.

Pokémon Trainer's Choice

 * Question: Trainers, which one of these Pokémon is the best choice to battle ?
 * Choices:, ,
 * Answer: OK, Trainers! If you chose, you were right!

In other languages
Fliegende Untertassen EP357 AG081 AG編第81話 精灵宝可梦 超世代 第81集