A Fork in the Road! A Parting of the Ways! (Japanese:迷い道は分かれ道！？ムサシとソーナンス！！A Fork in the Path of Indecision!?Musashi andSonans!!) is the 63rd episode ofPokémon the Series: XY, and the 862nd episode of thePokémon animated series. It first aired in Japan on March 5, 2015 and in the United States on May 16, 2015.
Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
While Clemont prepares for his upcoming Gym battle with Ash, Team Rocket is attempting to catch Pikachu, as usual. But Jessie and Wobbuffet get separated from the others and find themselves in danger! They are rescued by a country doctor named White, whose friendly demeanor immediately catches Jessie’s interest. She accompanies the doctor on his rounds, growing fonder of him by the minute. And when our heroes find Jessie, she’s talking about leaving Team Rocket to stay with him!
When a lurking Pokémon hunter grabs Meowth and the rest of Team Rocket’s Pokémon, Jessie finds herself with torn loyalties. But as soon as she discovers Dr. White is interested in someone else, she promptly returns to her partners in crime! With some help from our heroes, the Pokémon are freed, and Team Rocket celebrates a joyful reunion. Meanwhile, Clemont is trying to simulate a battle with Ash, but Clembot is having difficulty dealing with the concept...
As Ash is thinking about his upcoming match against Clemont, he is interrupted by aShadow Ball fromJessie's Pumpkaboo.Team Rocket approaches, preparing for a fresh attempt at stealingPikachu. However, they are defeated easily by just oneThunderbolt from Pikachu. During their blast off,Jessie andWobbuffet are separated fromJames,Meowth, and Pumpkaboo. The latter three notice Jessie's absence and quickly begin their search for her, while Jessie and Wobbuffet search for them as well. During their search, however, Jessie and Wobbuffet are attacked by awildGloom, who usesStun Spore. Overwhelmed by the paralytic cloud, the pair fall over a cliff and into the water below. They are later rescued by a man namedDr. White, who gives Jessie aCheri Berry and leads her back to his home so she can change into something dry.
Jessie introduces herself as "Jessilia", though she worries whether her new outfit looks good on her. Dr. White assures her that she looks fine. Peering outside, she watches Wobbuffet get along happily with Dr. White'sWobbuffet andWynaut. She also notices a great number of berries growing in his garden, to which Dr. White explains that he uses them for his medical practice. While the doctor tells Jessie that he is an amateur when it comes to gardening, a man and hisDiggersby come by to deliver somefertilizer for the berries. In gratitude for saving her life, Jessie accompanies the doctor on his house calls, assisting him in whatever ways she can. While visitingBeatrice and healing herBidoof, who has been suffering with sore gums, White and Jessie hear about aPokémon hunter who has been setting traps in the area. During their house calls, Jessie proves to be very adept at holding down a flailingSkiddo so the doctor can treat it. While helping Dr. White, Jessie finds herself captivated by him and wonders whether she should stay with him and live for happiness and love rather than for evil.
Meanwhile, while Serena, Bonnie, and Ash are having lunch,Dedenne wanders off and is drawn into a trap laid by the Pokémon hunter mentioned before. The trap severely injures Dedenne, so after freeing it, the group hurries to Dr. White's clinic. Dr. White siphons the excess electricity and Dedenne recovers, much to the group's relief. Although Jessie tries to hide her true identity from Ash andhis friends, they discover that she is at the clinic acting as Dr. White's assistant. As the group agrees to keep her membership in Team Rocket a secret from Dr. White, James and Meowth overhear her admitting to them that she has decided to quit Team Rocket and stay with White instead. At first, Meowth wants to go talk to Jessie, but James holds him back, saying that they should not interfere with what Jessie wants, and so they leave sadly.
While the group is staying at Dr. White's clinic, James arrives there, thoroughly beaten up, and begs for help from Ash, Serena, and Bonnie. He informs them that Meowth,Inkay, and Pumpkaboo have been captured by a Pokémon hunter, but he is reluctant to ask for Jessie's assistance. Ash, Serena, and Bonnie agree to go help James, and they distract the Pokémon hunter while James sneaks in from behind and tries to free the three Pokémon. When Jessie hears that Meowth, Inkay, and Pumpkaboo have been captured by a Pokémon hunter, she witnesses Dr. White running for Beatrice and reassuring himself that she is all right, hearing him say how Beatrice means so much to him and he was worried that she might have done something stupid. Realizing that White was never in love with her, Jessie leaves Wobbuffet behind with his new friends and goes to rescue James and the others from the Pokémon hunter. Rejoining Team Rocket, she begins to help fight the Pokémon hunter, when Wobbuffet appears to battle the hunter'sRhyperior. Jessie realizes that Wobbuffet would rather be with her than at Dr. White's clinic, and working together with Ash and company, Team Rocket defeats the Pokémon hunter and continues onward, with Jessie realizing that she has the best friends in the world in her life with Team Rocket.
Meanwhile, back at the Lumiose Gym, Clemont finishes programming the data about Ash into Clembot, but Clembot cannot comprehend all the new data and explodes.
This is the first appearance of a femaleWobbuffet in theanimated series, outside of Professor Oak's lectures.
As a result, bygender difference, Jessie's Wobbuffet is officially confirmed to be male in this episode, as he wasintroduced before the introduction of gender differences.
This is also the first time sinceWobbu-Palooza!, 689 episodes earlier, that a Wobbuffet other than Jessie's has appeared.
The scene where Jessie's Wobbuffet andDr. White's Wobbuffet share food and accidentally kiss could be a reference to a famous scene in the 1955 animated filmLady and the Tramp.
During one scene after the wedding, Jessie and Dr. White wear green T-shirts with Wobbuffet of them, which could be a reference to Yoshirin and Micchi (Louis and Geri in the English dub, respectively) fromCrayon Shin-chan.
