Little by little

These are some highlights from the show I felt were the most note-worthy. (Please feel free to add on anything if you think I missed anything worth mentioning.)

she is a broken person

unlike for james, who could quit at any time and return to a comfortable life, for jessie, team rocket is everything she has.

she lived in poverty, with a mother who was a criminal, and they were so poor they ate snow

her mother disappeared, looking for mew. there was never a mention of jessie having a father

she wanted to be an actress, and decided to take that route instead of going with a boy she loved, but she ended up losing both as her audition didn’t go through

she wanted to be a nurse, but failed

and now she keeps failing trying to catch that god damned pikachu

as much as i like dawn i almost want jessie to win all the ribbons because she fucking deserves to be happy and she deserves those victories and she deserves a friend like james

james’ family has riches and luxury, yes, but his parents are neglectful & uncaring and have engaged him to an abuser. they refuse to let him live in the lap of luxury unless he marries her and spends his whole life miserable.

everything about jessie and james is, from where i’m standing, intended to be opposite. james is a soft-spoken boy from a family that knows wealth but not love. jessie is a headstrong and outspoken girl from a family that knows love but is dirt poor.

It’s a White Tomorrow, Team Rocket!

The day starts as usual for Team Rocket. An attempt to capture Ash’s Pikachu results in being blasted off again. As they argue about whose fault it was, Mondo appears. Jessie and Meowth don’t seem to know who he is, but deduce that he is a messenger from the Boss. James seems to know who he is. It turns out that he is a “Rocket Gang Special Delivery Member Trainee” and he provides them with food and funding for their various activities. Mondo spends a great amount of time gushing about how cool the trio are.

James puts on a film and shows Mondo their first meeting with Pikachu in Viridian City and explains why they’re after Pikachu. Mondo continues to be impressed with the trio’s stories, and Jessie challenges him to a battle, in which her Arbok defeats his Ditto. Jessie and James ask if he’d like to trade his Ditto, and he agrees, so Jessie and James trade away Meowth, much to Meowth’s shock and horror.

After the trade is complete, Jessie and James request that Mondo order a hot-air balloon. After a quick radio transmission, he just pulls one out of his bag. The trio are obviously surprised to Mondo explains that his “sending bag” uses the same technology that keeps Pokémon in their Poké Balls. The balloon is still shaped like Meowth, and Mondo promises that the next order of balloons that Team Rocket produces will be Ditto-themed.

The groups separate, and Mondo gives Meowth a massage. Mondo asks if he will become as “great” as Jessie and James and Meowth tells them that he will because of his help, saying that Jessie and James were idiots who brought his abilities down. Meanwhile, Jessie and James plot to have Ditto transform into Pikachu and then give it to the boss. As practice, they have him transform into Weezing. When the transformation is successful, they ask it to transform into Venusaur, but it turns into Bulbasaur instead. James yells at it, asking it to make it “perfect”, so Ditto transforms into Zubat. Another misunderstanding has Ditto transforming into Hitodeman (Staryu) instead of Hitokage (Charmander), and Kabigon (Snorlax) when they asked Ditto if it had mold in its brain. As Ditto keeps transforming into random Pokémon, they start to hear the sounds of a Beedrill swarm. When Ditto only continues to transform, not battle, James gets Weezing to send up a smoke signal. Mondo and Meowth notice, but Meowth refuses to go help, saying that Jessie and James always screw up and that he doesn’t want to bail them out any longer. Mondo gets in his SUV anyways and speeds off to rescue them, leaving Meowth behind. Meowth continues to lament that he will help no humans.

Jessie returns Ditto to its Poké Ball but it’s too late—they are surrounded by Beedrill. They start to run, but they fall into a trap hole that they had dug earlier. Mondo uses a Tauros to ward away the Beedrill while he tries to find a rope to get Jessie and James out of the hole, but ends up falling into the hole himself. The trio trapped in the hole, they lament all their regrets and wonder what the Beedrill plan to do with them.