Episode 8

Presenter: Pikachu. Snover. Toxicroak. Their destinies are about to be fulfilled. By the end of this episode, one of them will be crowned the winner. One will be declared the runner up. One will finally be unmasked as the PokéMole. But until that happy moment, the three remaining contestants have the small matter of the Final to get through. Two challenges – designed to push the tiring contestants to the edge. Fasten your seatbelts.

Presenter: The contestants are now in Sunyshore City. They have all been blindfolded and transported to a rundown lighthouse just off the coast.

Presenter: The contestants are left in their cells for three hours. Cold, tired and hungry, moods begin to deteriorate before Pikachu is removed from his cell and taken to the holding room. Once there, Pikachu takes off his blindfold and sees a legend written upon the wall. It reads:

“To pass this challenge you will need to display awareness of how your fellow contestants think and how they expect you to think. You must now make a choice between three options. Your first option is the prize money. Your second option is a dossier containing notes on the identity of the PokéMole, which could give you a vital advantage in the final quiz. The last option is to choose to do nothing. To win this challenge, one contestant must choose the money while the other two contestants must choose the nothing option. Only this sequence will win you the challenge. Should just one contestant choose the dossier, the challenge will be failed but that contestant will take the dossier for their own personal use. Choose wisely. You will not get another chance.”

Pikachu: Toxicroak will take the money, I’m sure of that. He’d also be pretty tempted with the notes, but if he does that, we can’t win the challenge, so what I do is irrelevant in a way. If I choose nothing, it at least leaves the other two with a chance of completing this challenge.

Presenter: Pikachu chooses to take the nothing option. Snover is next into the holding room and reads the legend on the wall.

Snover: Pikachu will probably take the nothing option. Toxicroak is a tricky one. There’s every chance he might take the notes, knowing it would fail the challenge straight away. If I just play it safe and take the money, I’ll have done my part.

Presenter: And so Snover chooses to take the money. This means Toxicroak, who now enters the holding room, has to choose the nothing option in order to pass the challenge. I can hardly contain my excitement.

Toxicroak:: The notes would certainly be useful, but I’ve got a 50/50 chance as it is, so 35,000 more would be a lot better. I’m better just doing nothing and hoping one of the other two stood forward.

Presenter: Yay.

Presenter: Toxicroak is the first to open his envelope. Inside is a card reading:

“You will be searching for the numerical code needed to help open the chest. This code is a three digit number which can be obtained by counting the number of shells on the floor of the sea within the specified area.”

Snover’s envelope reads:

“You will be searching for the treasure chest containing the prize money. It is buried under the sea, the exact location of which can be discovered by piecing together the four pieces of map. They are buried somewhere on this beach. If you look amongst the rocks east-bound of the starting point, you will find a metal detector to help you locate the pieces of the map.”

Lastly, Pikachu’s envelope reads:

“You will be searching for the key needed to help open the chest. The key needed is one of ten keys located on the Pokémon League shore. You may only carry one key across at a time.”

The contestants therefore set off starting their enormous tasks. Toxicroak quickly dives to the bottom of the sea and starts to count the seashells. Snover meanwhile has found the metal detector wedged between the rocks and has started to comb the beach. He quickly finds one treasure chest located nearer the rocks by a stroke of luck, and sets off combing the rest of the beach. With one of the longest coastlines in Sinnoh, it could take a fair while. Pikachu meanwhile has started swimming quickly towards the distant shoreline of the Pokémon League.

Toxicroak quickly decides to split the ocean floor into imaginary sections, and proceeds to attempt to count the seashells lying on the floor in the first section. After getting a different answer the first three times he attempts to count them, he eventually decides on an answer and continues his count. Snover meanwhile has found a second treasure chest located near the stairs leading down to the beach from the city centre, but is quickly getting frustrated at the sensitivity of the metal detector. Pikachu has reached the Pokémon League and randomly chooses one of the keys on display before beginning the long swim back. By the time he arrives back at Sunyshore City, one whole hour has elapsed.

Another half an hour passes before Snover finally finds a third chest. Just two minutes later he gets excited when the metal detector bleeps again, only to dig up a Coca Cola can. Toxicroak has continued his counting and has covered nearly a third of the ocean floor, while Pikachu is approaching the shore of the Pokémon League once again, but is already visibly starting to tire.

It’s at the three hour mark when Snover finally finds the last remaining treasure chest – hidden under a big chunk of seaweed. Snover delves into all four chests and pieces together the map. X marks the spot and points to a location just off the Pokémon League beach. Having to leave the paper map behind, Snover takes one last look before diving into the cold sea and beginning the long swim across. He arrives nearly forty minutes later, followed by Pikachu who is attempting to retrieve a fourth key. The two part company and Snover swims to the bottom of the sea and identifies an X made by two metal poles. Snover pushes them aside and digs down into the sand, revealing a huge, metal chest. Snover heaves at the chest and eventually manages to free it from the heavy sand. Unfortunately, we couldn’t afford the floating metal chest, so Snover faces an even greater task to cart the chest back to Sunyshore City. Oh well.

It’s a whole hour later by the time Snover manages to reach the shore again. Pikachu turns up forty-five minutes later with a fifth key. While Pikachu takes a well deserved five-minute break, the pair try to fit each key into the lock in the chest – none of them fit. And with that, Pikachu sets off again.

It’s Toxicroak who is the next to arrive however. He claims there are 600 seashells on the sea floor. A red light from the chest’s numerical password entry pad says otherwise. Toxicroak says a very rude word in the direction of the chest and proceeds to go and start again, claiming he knows where he might have miscounted.

Pikachu returns half an hour later with another key, which this time successfully fits the lock. Pikachu and Snover has both made their contributions and it’s now all up to Toxicroak, who returns just twenty minutes later claiming the answer is 601. Toxicroak types 601 into the chest and the contestants are both relieved and astonished to see the lid swing open. 100,000 has been recovered from the sea floor, and the final challenge of the series has been passed.

Presenter: Pikachu, Snover and Toxicroak are all anxiously taking the final quiz of the series to determine which one of them will walk away with 294,000. Fancy joining them? Of course you do.