EP068

Make Room for Gloom (Japanese: しょくぶつえんのクサイハナ  of the Botanical Garden) is the 68th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on October 29, 1998 and in the United States on October 4, 1999.

Blurb
''Back in Pallet Town, Ash and friends meet Florinda who works at the local nursery. She's afraid that her Gloom is not evolving into a Vileplume because she's not training it properly. When Team Rocket bursts in and attempts to steal Gloom, everyone sees just how strong a Pokémon can become—through love.''

Plot
Back home at Pallet Town, Mimey tickles both and  with its broom, prompting Pikachu to electrocute Ash, which wakes him up. This also awakens Misty, who was sleeping in Ash's bunk. Later, during breakfast, asks her son to help out with her garden, as he does not appear to be training for the Pokémon League. Not wanting to help out out of concern that he would be left too exhausted to train afterwards, Ash leaves with Misty and, claiming he had to train in the mountains. As they leave, Delia tells them to get three-to-four hundred pounds of fertilizer from the Xanadu Nursery.

The group encounters a greenhouse, which Ash tells Misty and Brock is the Xanadu Nursery, his old childhood stomping ground. He recalls that the owner had moved away when he was a child and he does not know the new owner. Brock peers inside and finds an attractive woman, but Ash only sees a. Misty tells Ash to turn around, though he replies that only one of the group will hallucinate at a time. They are interrupted by a gardener named Potter, who describes the Xanadu Nursery as a place that attracts. Upon hearing this, Ash sends out to enjoy the place, while he and Misty explore. Brock then learns that the girl he saw was Florinda, the new owner of the Xanadu Nursery. Just then, Bulbasaur sniffs a bunch of Stun Stem, a plant that produces pollen that can paralyze, much like ; this knocks it out cold. Florinda and Gloom appear, and Florinda advises Ash to take Bulbasaur with her to the house for treatment. Gloom, who has developed an immunity to Stun Stem by being exposed to it for so long, drips a milky white substance into Bulbasaur's mouth and it quickly recovers. As the two Grass Pokémon play, Brock and Florinda talk privately.

Florinda reveals that she inherited the family-run Xanadu Nursery, but she does not feel confident in her abilities because she is not able to make Gloom evolve, even with the help of a Leaf Stone. It is apparently not because of love, as Gloom is almost never gloomy. Just then, appears, revealing the Leaf Stone that Florinda had purchased is a fake. As everyone tries to help Florinda cope with the situation, Florinda describes the three people who sold her the false Leaf Stone, and it points to.

Meanwhile, Team Rocket themselves are at the nursery, looking for Pokémon to steal. After encountering the Stun Stem, they decide to harvest it instead, as it could help them. However, their thievery triggers alarms, and they are confronted by Ash, his friends, Florida, and Potter. Though Bulbasaur manages to tie them up, unleashes a bomb made of the stolen Stun Stem to incapacitate nearly everyone. With Florinda and Gloom the only ones left, Brock urges Florinda to attack, just as Team Rocket steals the paralyzed Pikachu. Jessie and James send and  out to deal with Gloom, and they unleash a black cloud with their  and  attacks. Florinda is surprised at Gloom's battling ability when it uses to get Arbok and Weezing to hit each other. Meanwhile, Pikachu bites Jessie's arm and frees itself, landing behind Bulbasaur. Meanwhile, Brock continues to coach Florinda, telling her that Team Rocket is now open to a more powerful attack. Though Florinda is not confident that will do the trick, Gloom sends Team Rocket flying with it.

Later, after everyone has been treated, Florinda thanks Brock, noting that Gloom is a strong Pokémon, and that it does not need to evolve. Florinda states that now she has the confidence to run the nursery with a special someone, which causes Brock to fall over. Unfortunately, when he recovers from fantasizing, he finds that Florinda has already proposed to Potter, and that they plan to run the nursery together. Brock is left feeling rejected, and Ash tries to console him, telling him that he will meet more women who will reject him. As Ash heads back to town with his friends, he is reminded that he has spent a day not training for the Pokémon League. However, he replies that there is always tomorrow.

Major events

 * Jessie's Arbok is revealed to know.

Humans

 * Jessie
 * James
 * Delia Ketchum
 * Florinda Showers
 * Potter
 * Delia Ketchum
 * Florinda Showers
 * Potter
 * Potter

Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: (U.S. and international),  (Japan)


 * ('s, Mimey)
 * (Florinda's)
 * ('s, Mimey)
 * (Florinda's)
 * ('s, Mimey)
 * (Florinda's)
 * ('s, Mimey)
 * (Florinda's)

Trivia

 * Professor Oak's Pokémon Lecture:
 * Pokémon senryū summary: Alphabetically, the,.
 * Type: Wild replaced Meowth's Song as the Japanese ending theme.
 * mentions that will find plenty of more girls that will reject him. To be exact, Brock found over five hundred more girls that rejected him in his tenure in the.
 * The events of this episode immediately follow those of Mewtwo Strikes Back.
 * The beginning of the episode with a shouting its cry like a rooster is similar to a scene in Pokémon - I Choose You!.

Errors

 * When is stealing the Stun Stem, they are all shown to be wearing surgical masks. However, in the next scene, Jessie's mouth is seen moving, and the masks disappear completely in all scenes afterward.

Dub edits

 * Pikachu's Jukebox: What Kind of Pokémon Are You?
 * The "two eggs sunny side down" were originally sunny side up, and the "super secret recipe mystery omelet" was originally fried eggs with soy sauce.
 * Ash's "really tough training" on the mountain was originally referring to him meditating under a waterfall.
 * asks for a cartful of herbs in the original as opposed to 300 or 400 pounds of fertilizer.
 * In the original, Xanadu Nursery is named after Florinda Showers, being called Murasame (Showers) Botanical Gardens.
 * Its name in English is a likely reference to one of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's most well-known poems, , in which a greenhouse-like "pleasure dome" by the name is featured. In Japanese, murasame refers to an intermittent autumn rain which falls lightly and heavily in rhythmical spurts.
 * As Ash and are walking to Xanadu Nursery in the original version, Brock quotes the Chinese poem Spring View (春望) when referring to how run-down it is. Ash mistakes the thick grass and trees he speaks of as steak fries, prompting Misty to berate him for his gluttony. In the dub, he simply talks about how beautiful the garden is before they encounter Gloom.
 * Ash's "misty over a gloom" comment that offended Misty was originally a misunderstanding of the words Kusaihana (Gloom's Japanese name) and kusai (stinky).
 * Also, Ash's backstory of the garden's former owner moving away was dub-only.
 * The signs explaining Pokénip and Stun Stem originally did not have their names written on them.
 * Real world animals are mentioned in the dub: when Pokénip is described, it says that it has the same effect on Pokémon as catnip does on cats. In the original, it's only mentioned that it makes Pokémon feel good.
 * Brock's comment about Gloom not getting "gloomy" was originally another Kusaihana/kusai pun.
 * Florinda taught Gloom Solar Beam after she saw it in a magazine in the dub, but to honor her family in the original.
 * Ash did not originally mention that "plenty of other girls [will] reject [Brock]" in the original. He merely tells him not to worry then reminds him they have to get herbs for Delia.

In other languages
Terror im Treibhaus EP070 EP068 EP068 無印編第68話 精灵宝可梦 第69集