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We're back with a new interstitial season, playing through the second Pokémon Ranger game, Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia. Limber up, bugcatchers, cause you're gonna be drawing a lot of little circles if you're playing along. In a truly surprising bit of news, it turns out that there are people in the Pokémon universe who are NOT trainers. In fact, you can be anything you want to be on PokéEarth, as long as it's a trainer, ranger, or operator. For the next four episodes, we'll have our Stylers charged, our PokéAssists prepped, and our Partner Pokémon hot on our tails as we travel across the Almia region helping out people and Pokémon alike.

One of our longest journeys ever ends this week with part two of our Chasing Waterfalls season finale. David Sims of Blank Check (@blankcheckpod) joins us as we tie up all our loose ends in the Unova region before moving on to the next game, where we'll journey through... *checks notes* the Unova region. We tackle the East part of the region where we meet dancing Patrats, terrified villagers, and the Riches from FX's hit series, The Riches. We've got one last challenging match left with an old friend from a previous game, then it's on to battling! Which podcast will reign supreme?

The postgame in Black & White is so dang robust that we're doing our first-ever Chasing Waterfalls two-parter. First up, we say hi to mom, and also mom's strange new friend, that old rascal Looker. He's hot on the trail of Team Plasma's Seven Sages, and he—as a member of Interpol, the international police, not the band—naturally needs a young child to do most of the hard work of hunting them down. Joshua & Mr. Keepsies embark on a world tour, revisiting all the sights in West Unova before setting their sights on becoming the proper champions of all of it. Will they finally dethrone Alder? And who will win in yet another battle before the finale next week? What's going on in East Unova? And just who will join us to chase the rest of those waterfalls?!

We're joined once again by Tony "Brian with an 'I'" Smith (@AnthonyBLSmith) and all of the rampant audio issues he brought with him this week. We journey to Victory Road and make our way to the Elite Four. Only two of the E4 seemed to give any of us any trouble before we took on N in his mighty underground castle. Then we talk about which villainous crime syndicate is the best so far. Spoiler: It ain't Team Plasma.

With the Elder Juniper's blessing and the Freeze Badge in hand, Joshua & Mr. Keepsies ascend Dragonspiral Tower so that—surprise, surprise—they can hear Team Plasma explain all their plans again. The A-slamming doesn't stop there, though. From throwing new Sages (Giallo, the Italian one) at us to Opelucid City hosting a rally for Ghetsis to give an unhinged rant for hours, this leg is full of exposition. It's also full of legendaries, trainer dangers, and a reveal of Tanner's first-ever designation of Pokéarth's Ugliest Route. Opelucid Style.

Round and round and round we go around Twist Mountain, and where we'll stop? Nobody knows! That's not true. We know. We stopped in Icirrus City where we took in the local culture including some playground games, a fun(?) quiz show, the least impressive Pokémon Fan Club to date, and a huge puddle full of gross Pokémon.

This week is spent almost entirely underground, in the dark depths of Chargestone Cave. But perhaps the darkest aspect of this leg is just how many ugly little Pokémon were in it. It's an onslaught of barf. It's like the River Styx but full of puke. And who is their guide on this journey down that disgusting river? Well, of course, it's none other than a bunch more Team Plasma Grunts... and The Nugget Brothers. After finally breaching the sunlight again days later, Joshua & Mr. Keepsies arrive in Mistralton City, which is basically just an airport. Again, they slam A through a relentless number of cutscenes and learn they have to go to the Celestial Tower to find Skyla the Gym Leader, because she's tending to some sick 'mon there. It's a spiraling tower of barf, but once they scale it, they're able to challenge Skyla, whose team isn't challenging to fight—but one of its member's looks do pose some challenging, thought-provoking questions.

Joshua and Mr. Keepsies take a big bite out of a relatively short leg of Pokemon this week, starting with the Route 5, which is teeming with one of the ew-make-me-barfiest little toads the boys have ever seen. Then—of course—it wouldn't be Gen 5 without a big, pointless set-piece that seems to solely exist to show off the new Nintendo 3DS technology. After that, we run the risk of hypothermia in Team Plasma's cold storage facility, because that ol' rascal Ghetsis makes us sit through what feels like hours of cut scene dialogue before we finally take on a rootin' tootin' Gym Leader named Clay in Driftveil Gym.

Joshua & Mr. Keepsies leave the big, lush city for the sprawling desert hellscape that begins as soon as you head north. They encounter a variety of inexplicably placed trainers, like Fishermen, who seem like Basculin out of water, if you know what we mean. In the Desert Resort, they unite over a particularly barf-worthy 'mon, triggering the first "Our Ew Make Me Barf Pokémon of the Week," as well as one obvious sweetie in the Relic Castle. Once they finally emerge from the sandstorm, they find themselves in Nimbasa City... and you know what they say: "What happens in Nimbasa City, stays in Nimbasa City." So we won't tell you who wins in the season's first showdown, but like the Battle Subway, it's a wild ride.

Notes: Sorry about Josh's kinda janky audio! It was the sandstorm from Route 4 interfering.

We hope you missed our segments because this episode's chock full of 'em—and a couple of Seinfjeld "zingers," too. After all, this week our aspiring comedian and aspiring trash collector reach the Big Applin: Castelia City. Will Joshua catch his big break? Will Mr. Keepsies finally pick up enough garbage to fill out his team? Is Burgh a gay icon? And why is the Ranger trainer type so sexy? (Or is that just us?)