IL030: Sparks Fly for Magnemite

Synopsis
The group arrives in Gringy City where everything is dark and gloomy. Pikachu isn’t feeling well and they rush it to the Pokémon Center. Nurse Joy dismisses it as a cold. Meanwhile, in the sewer Jessie and James are going to dive through the sewer system to get into the center to steal Pokémon. Just as they are diving in, the power goes out and so does their air supply. The Pokémon in critical condition at the center are endangered as well. Ash and the group go to the power plant to check things out. While exploring a Magnemite hovers around Pikachu. It leaves fast as a group of Grimer and a Muk attack. They soon discover that the Grimer are blocking the water from coming in and there are too many. The Magnemite that was hovering around Pikachu returns with some Magneton and they defeat the Grimer. One Muk is still left and Pikachu with help from the Magneton defeat it and Ash catches it. Professor Oak is surprised when a Muk arrives in his lab. The people of Gringy City promise to clean up and the group is again on their way.

Trivia
This episode reveals Pikachu  has a fear that  Ash  would abandon him.
 * On a related note, another reference to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? comes from the two power plant workers, whose names, while not given in the episode itself, were revealed in the Kids Pocket Books Pocket Monsters guide as Dick and Philip.

This is the first episode to reveal the problem that an Electric-type  Pokémon that has too much stored electricity has. It would later be expanded upon in  Hoenn Alone!  and subsequent episodes.

This is the first episode in which a genderless Pokémon falls in love with a main character's Pokémon. This would later happen again in '' Hold the Phione! ''.