Recaps

Ye Li’s private ideas repeatedly guide Giovanni as Team Rocket expands its businesses and breeding program, while Giovanni draws Ye Li deeper into the organization. After Ye Li gains a timid Eevee, he faces Apollo in a public battle and wins through a carefully prepared strategy, though Eevee also faints.

• Giovanni recognized Ye Li as the source of his strategic ideas and made him his assistant, then used his advice to improve Team Rocket’s management and smuggling plans.
• Ye Li proposed a Pokémon breeding base, and Giovanni gave him authority and resources to establish it despite Lambda withholding equipment.
• The breeding base produced high-potential Growlithe and Koffing, while Lorelei investigated the Rainbow Game Corner and Ye Li helped conceal Team Rocket’s operations.
• After Lorelei left without uncovering evidence, Giovanni rewarded Ye Li with an Eevee Egg, and Ye Li raised the timid Pokémon before devising an evasive battle strategy.
• Apollo challenged Ye Li to a public battle, and Giovanni accepted on Ye Li’s behalf, giving him three days to prepare.
• Ye Li trained Eevee to dodge and use Take Down, then spent nearly all his points on a Teleport Scroll and support items.
• In the battle, Eevee used the scroll to attack Arbok from behind, clung to its neck, and bit it while Apollo pressed his assault.
• Ye Li had Eevee activate a hidden high-voltage device with Helping Hand, defeating Arbok, but Eevee also fainted from exhaustion and the shock’s aftereffects.

Ye Li built the Strategic Development Department into a powerful force through technical recruits, Pokémon breeding, and unconventional tactics, while Giovanni drew him deeper into Team Rocket’s plans. After the Ghost Unit helped seize a League transfer station, Lorelei mobilized against Team Rocket, and Giovanni prepared to unite with Erika under the banner of Celadon’s defense.

• Giovanni appointed Ye Li head of the new Strategic Development Department, and Ye Li recruited Lin Feng, Engineer Wang, and Dr. Anya to develop technology and breed Shiny Pokémon.
• Ye Li’s team produced a Shiny Magikarp and began breeding Flash Zubat, earning the department resources and authority across Team Rocket.
• Ye Li helped Eevee evolve into Umbreon, whose unusual abilities led Giovanni to classify its secrets as highly restricted.
• Ye Li used traps and deception to capture Tabitha’s Team Magma squad, then learned that Team Magma sought Groudon and a way to control it.
• Apollo led a raid on Team Magma’s mine with Ye Li as adviser, and Team Rocket seized research linking Kanto ruins to Groudon and the Red Orb.
• Ye Li identified an ancient tablet as a means to capture the Legendary Birds and summon Lugia, while Giovanni declared Team Rocket would use it to gain power over legends.
• Giovanni made Ye Li remote commander of a Ghost Unit attack, and Ye Li’s Shiny Golbat helped Apollo’s forces seize a League transfer station near Celadon City.
• Lorelei mobilized League forces against Team Rocket, but Giovanni adopted Ye Li’s plan to seek Erika’s help and present their alliance as a defense of Celadon City.

Ye Li led Team Rocket’s Seafoam Islands expedition, negotiated with Articuno, and survived an internal accusation after Matori investigated his uncanny knowledge. Giovanni concealed Ye Li’s origins and assigned him to capture Zapdos, whose attack left the team battling for survival inside the Power Plant.

• Matori and Erika formed Celadon City’s Joint Defense Force to block Lorelei’s Pokémon League force, and public pressure forced Lorelei to withdraw.
• Giovanni promoted Ye Li to Chief of Staff, then appointed him commander of an expedition to the Seafoam Islands to find a Legendary Pokémon.
• Ye Li guided Team Rocket across the Seafoam Islands and negotiated with Articuno, trading protection of its glacier for a record of the Plate’s writing.
• Apollo’s squad seized the poachers’ camp and found rare Water-type Pokémon frozen alive, while Ye Li arranged for the Pokémon League to discover the evidence and prisoners.
• Matori accused Ye Li of being a spy, but Giovanni defended him with a fabricated story about an ancient family of star-watchers and appointed Matori to lead Internal Inspection.
• After Dr. Anya’s team located Zapdos at the Abandoned Power Plant, Ye Li prepared the Ghost Unit and entered the site disguised as an electrical maintenance crew.
• Ye Li’s Flash Golbat evolved into Flash Crobat, which disabled the Power Plant’s defensive grid and let the team reach Zapdos’s nest.
• Zapdos overwhelmed Team Rocket’s Pokémon with a storm, and Ye Li sought an opening after recalling that it might stagger briefly after using Thunder.

Ye Li helped Team Rocket secure pacts with Zapdos and Moltres, but Blaine’s betrayal and the destruction of Cinnabar Island left him questioning his place in the organization. Giovanni’s gifts and authority drew Ye Li deeper into Team Rocket, where he countered Lorelei’s financial and military campaigns and ended the arc by trapping her forces in a valley.

• Lt. Surge and Team Rocket weakened Zapdos in battle, but Ye Li used an ancient melody to calm it and secure its pact before Lorelei’s forces could intervene.
• The Pokémon League reprimanded Lt. Surge and appointed Lorelei to lead a Special Operations Group against Team Rocket.
• Ye Li used the Zapdos Beacon and ancient music to gain Blaine’s help reaching Moltres beneath Mt. Ember, where Moltres offered a golden feather as a preliminary pact.
• Blaine betrayed Ye Li and Apollo by taking Moltres’s feather and abandoning them in the erupting volcano, but Apollo’s Golem helped them escape through a hidden passage.
• Team Rocket rescued Ye Li and Apollo as Mt. Ember erupted and Cinnabar Island sank, and Giovanni responded to Ye Li’s desire to leave by giving him a luxurious residence and command authority.
• Ye Li ordered the injured Blaine confined without treatment, then began enjoying his power and comfortable life in Team Rocket.
• Lorelei’s financial campaign hurt Team Rocket’s funding, so Ye Li disrupted the League’s markets and transformed the Rainbow Game Corner into the Rainbow Arena.
• Lorelei ordered an ambush on a Team Rocket convoy, but Ye Li trapped her forces in Thread of Sky valley and offered to call the clash a draw.