Enlighten Up

Plot
Ash, Misty, and Brock stop by Lake Slowpoke en route to Blackthorn City. Team Rocket appear from a hole they built, leading to confrontation with the travelling trio. As they're about to battle each other, a Slowpoke with a yellow flag calmly walks through the two parties and sits on a rock to fish. Madeleine appears and says that Slowpoke is looking for enlightenment, effectively ending the confrontation. Madeleine asks everyone a philosophical question, but is met with vague remarks and silence. She offers to take everyone to Slowpoke Temple for lunch before offering training.

The group walks over to the nearby temple, where a giant gold statue of a Slowpoke sits in the center of the complex. Upon seeing the statue, Meowth imagines gifting it to Giovanni, and the Team Rocket trio set their sights on stealing it when no one is looking. After a salad lunch the group witness a meditation class, before joining in themselves. All of them fail because of idle thoughts. Next, Madeleine sets them the task of scrubbing and cleaning the entire temple complex's floors. This quickly erupts into a race, with Ash and Team Rocket speeding through corridors with Misty, Brock, and Meowth trailing behind. Ash overtakes Jessie and James by running along a wall. Madeleine appears again and notices the floors are still a mess, everyone then cleans the floors properly.

Afterwards, Ash, Misty, and Brock ask Team Rocket if they would like to join them fishing. They politely decline and instead see this as their opportunity to steal the golden Slowpoke statue. While Meowth accompanies Madeleine, Ash and crew for the fishing at Lake Slowpoke. Misty eagerly begins, bragging about her water Pokémon mastery though quickly loses patience upon seeing no bites. In contrast, Slowpoke is fishing much better than Ash and his friends, pulling up a Goldeen, Magikarp, then a Lanturn. Next, Slowpoke captures a Gyarados, Misty goes on to state Gyarados is her least favorite Pokémon and is still frustrated with the fishing exercise. Out of desperation, she throws Meowth into the lake to get him to talk to the water Pokémon. Meowth reveals the Pokémon know they will be captured and they go to Slowpoke because the Pokémon know they won't be captured; this point is also confirmed by Madeleine.

Suddenly, a Shellder latches onto Slowpoke's tail. Simultaneously the gold statue is stolen by Jessie and James, who peddle down the hill with it. Before the gigalith is about to hit Ash and his friends, Slowpoke evolves into Slowbro and defeats them with a Confusion attack. Slowbro sends the statue back to the temple with this same Confusion attack. Madeleine explains that Slowbro had reached its enlightenment, and that the Shellder is symbolic of that achievement. Ash and his friends then head off. Though Team Rocket stay at the temple, this time to truthfully learn enlightenment with some enforced meditation, and they attempt to keep out of Delibird's eyesight.