JE157: Gotta Catch Ya Later!

Synopsis
When a journey begins, you make new friends along the way. It's easy to make friends, but it's hard to say goodbye to them, but the memories they share with you will always be in your heart.

With the Silver Conference over, and the journey in the Johto region at an end, Ash and co. make a brief stop before going back to Pallet Town at the place where Misty caught up with Ash: the Viridian City Pokémon Center. There they find out that a new Nurse Joy has taken over for the old one from way back when. As their Pokémon were getting healed, Brock was talking about going back home to check up on his siblings, but Misty got an even less pleasant surprise. She got a call from her sisters saying they won a beauty contest and as a grand prize they got to go on a trip around the world, so they leave Misty in charge of the Gym. An even lesser pleasent surprise (depending on how you look at it) is while Ash and Misty were travelling, the old Nurse Joy managed to fix Misty's bike. Ash was happy because now not only will Misty not nag him about her bike anymore but she can also get home faster. Misty, however, is not as thrilled about it and storms out of the Pokémon Center leaving a clueless Ash puzzled.

And just as Misty was getting in a fight with three brothers, Team Rocket appears and tries to steal all their Pokémon. Will Ash and Brock be able to help Misty out? And will this be Ash's final farewell to two of his best friends?

Debuts
Items
 * Ash's Advanced Generation series outfit
 * Pokedex 3.0 (Hoenn Pokedex)

Trivia

 * With Misty leaving in this episode, Ash and Pikachu are now the only characters to appear in every episode of Pokemon (Brock debuted in the fifth episode of the show and was absent for most episodes of the Orange League season, and Team Rocket debuted in the second episode of the show).