The Path That Leads to Goodbye (Pokémon the Series: Black & White)

"The Path That Leads to Goodbye (Pokémon the Series: Black & White)"
The worst case of NeGaIsHiPpInG.
Series: Pokémon: Black & White Part of Season: 16 Episode Number: 788 Air Date: June 20, 2013 (Japan) September 21, 2013 (USA) Writer: Akemi Omode Director: Shigeru Ueda Previous episode: Butterfree and Me! Next episode: Searching for a Wish!

The Path That Leads to Goodbye! is the 131st episode of Pokémon: Black & White, and the 788th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on June 20, 2013 and in the United States on September 21, 2013.

Summary

On Capacia Island, a Dunsparce which Ash fails to capture hurts Axew, and Iris gets so mad at him that she says she will no longer be his friend and leaves.

Why It Should Say Goodbye

1. A lot of the humor falls flat (such as when Iris, Axew, Ash, and Cilan bite on some bitter fruit), and there are boring moments that serve no purpose to the plot (such as Ash being a complete joke).
2. The beginning spoils that Ash and Iris will separate in a bad way.
3. Iris is at her worst in this episode, since she gets mad at Ash for simple mistakes, like accidentally knocking her over and crushing her flowers while the gang were attacked by Dunsparce's Screech; in fact, she leaves the group because of this, which is just too far.
4. Ash himself is no better, as he acts extremely out-of-character in this episode: getting mad at Iris for petty things such as Dunsparce getting away, blaming Axew for messing things up (e.g. accidentally bumping into Pikachu), and laughing at Iris for accidentally giving her a bitter fruit.
5. After everything that Iris did to Ash culminating in leaving the team over a petty mistake, the episode turns around and says it's Ash's fault that Iris left. How? The episode also says that Ash left Iris, when in reality, Iris left on her own, which isn't Ash's fault.
6. Cilan, while not as bad as Ash and Iris, is boring in this episode as usual, not to mention that he also laughed with Ash when Iris bit into the bitter fruit.
7. Ash is also treated like a butt-monkey in some parts, like when Dunsparce used Screech on him, when he bites onto a bitter fruit and when Team Rocket trapped him and Cilan in a net before he could sent out Charizard. Also, Iris still calls him a little kid. Even if Ash was a jerk in this episode, even he didn’t deserve this.
8. The plot about Ash and Iris separating for a bit because of a petty argument is mean-spirited, annoying, and just plain unnecessary.
9. Some annoying parts in the episode, like Ash and Iris arguing.
10. The scenes with Ash and Iris separated are boring and typical.
11. Since it’s the first episode where the gang is on Capacia Island, it was a terrible way to debut that location.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The animation and voice acting are still good as usual.
2. Some nice scenes, like the start of the story before the fight, and the scene where Scraggy and Pikachu start to look for Iris and Axew.
3. Jessie, James and the Pokémon are still very tolerable, and Meowth is not annoying like he usually is.
4. Ash did get some proper comeuppance when his Pokémon do their plan, as they pretend to send him off, which Cilan calls out as separating, which Ash claims he would never do. Then Cilan calls him out for his hypocrisy when he says he did the same thing to Iris, which is satisfying.
5. Ash and Iris do start to regret what they’ve done to each other, and after Ash gets called out for his actions, he decides to go apologize to Iris, while Iris decides to go back and apologize as well.
6. Decent Ending: Iris comes back and saves Pikachu and Scraggy from Team Rocket with Axew, then Pikachu sends them blasting off again. Then Ash and Iris apologize to each other and reconcile, with Ash giving a flower to Iris that Pikachu grabbed, and Iris giving a sweet fruit to Ash that Axew grabbed. The heroes then continue their journey, with all being forgiven.

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