The Path That Leads to Goodbye (Pokémon the Series: Black & White)

The Path That Leads to Goodbye! is the 131st episode of Pokémon: Black & White, and the 788th episode of the mh:besttvshows:Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on June 20, 2013 and in the United States on September 21, 2013.

Summary
On Capacia Island, a Dunsparce which Ash fails to capture hurts Axew, and Iris gets so mad at him that she says she will no longer be his friend and leaves.

Why It Should Say Goodbye

 * 1) This is, without a doubt, the worst episode in the Decolore Islands arc.
 * 2) * Additionally, a lot of the humor falls flat and has boring moments that serve no purpose to the episode (such as Ash being a complete joke).
 * 3) The beginning spoils that Ash and Iris will separate, and not in a good way.
 * 4) Iris is at her absolute worst since she gets mad at Ash for simple mistakes, like accidentally knocking her over and crushing her flowers while the gang were being attacked by Dunsparce's Screech. In fact, she leaves the group because of this, which is just too far.
 * 5) Speaking of Ash, he himself is no better, as he acts extreamly out-of-character by getting mad at Iris for petty things like when Dunsparce got away, he blams Axew for messing things up when Axew didn’t even mean to bump into Pikachu, or when he laughs at Iris when he accidentally gave her a bitter fruit.
 * 6) After everything that Iris did to Ash by leaving the team over a petty mistake, the episodes turns around and for some reason says its Ash's fault that Iris left? How? The episode says that Ash left Iris when in reality he didn't, Iris left on her own, its not Ash's fault that Iris was so petty that she left the group. Sure, Ash was acting rude in this episode, but that's no reason to leave the team.
 * 7) Cilan, while not as bad as Ash and Iris, is boring in this episode as usual. Not to mention, he also laughed with Ash when Iris bite into the bitter fruit.
 * 8) Ash is also treated like a butt-monkey in some parts, like when Dunsparce used Screech on him, when he bites onto a bitter fruit and when Team Rocket trapped him and Cilan in a net before he could sent out Charizard. Also, Iris still calls him a little kid. Even if Ash was a jerk in this episode, even he didn’t deserve this.
 * 9) The plot about Ash and Iris separating for a bit because of a petty argument is mean spirited, annoying, and just plain unnecessary.
 * 10) The comedy falls flat in this episode, with some unfunny moments, like when Iris, Axew, Ash and Cilan bites on some bitter fruit.
 * 11) Some annoying parts in the episode, like Ash and Iris arguing.
 * 12) The scenes with Ash and Iris separated are boring and typical.
 * 13) Since it’s the first episode where the gang is on Capacia Island, it was a terrible way to debut that location.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The animation and voice acting are still good as usual.
 * 2) Some nice scenes, like the start of the story before the fight, and the scene where Scraggy and Pikachu start to look for Iris and Axew.
 * 3) Jessie, James and the Pokémon are still very tolerable, and Meowth is not annoying like he usually is.
 * 4) Ash did get some proper comeuppance when his Pokémon do their plan, as they pretend to send him off, which Cilan calls out as separating, which Ash claims he would never do. Then Cilan calls him out for his hypocrisy when he says he did the same thing to Iris, which is satisfying.
 * 5) Ash and Iris do start to regret what they’ve done to each other, and after Ash gets called out for his actions, he decides to go apologize to Iris, while Iris decides to go back and apologize as well.
 * 6) Decent Ending: Iris comes back and saves Pikachu and Scraggy from Team Rocket with Axew, then Pikachu sends them blasting off again. Then Ash and Iris apologize to each other and make up, with Ash giving a flower to Iris that Pikachu grabbed, and Iris giving a sweet fruit to Ash that Axew grabbed. The heroes then continue their journey, with all being forgiven.