Brodie: The Team Magma Mercenary Who Steals Behind Borrowed Faces

He wears Team Magma's colors without sharing any of its cause. Brodie joined the organization only to get paid, and his specialty has nothing to do with its goals: it's disguise, taken as far as borrowing the faces of real people. His two known cases follow the same pattern, too — a stolen identity, a theft, an exit stage left. Team Magma's dissolution doesn't stop him for a second, since it had only ever served him as a cover.

Contents

• Paid to Be There: A Motive That Isn't the Organization's
• The Weather Institute: The Assistant Who Didn't Exist
• The Grand Festival Ribbon Cup, and Officer Jenny Times Two
• Ditto and Golbat: Two Pokémon in the Service of the Getaway
• Brodie at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Paid to Be There: A Motive That Isn't the Organization's

The series' criminal organizations usually recruit true believers, and that's precisely what makes this member unusual. Brodie belongs to Team Magma because he's paid to, and nothing we know about him ties him to the group in any other way: no conviction, no loyalty to a leader, no shared project.

That contractor status explains everything that follows. When the two criminal organizations of Hoenn are disbanded, an Officer Jenny the group runs into aboard a ship warns Ash and his friends that Brodie, for his part, hasn't stopped his activities and now operates on his own account.

His constant is stealing valuables, and his one and only tool is disguise. He never settles for a costume: he takes the place of a specific person and stays in it long enough that nobody thinks to check. So his targets don't take him for an intruder, but for a coworker or a policewoman.

The Weather Institute: The Assistant Who Didn't Exist

An unusually violent storm, then a blizzard, then a Castform asking to be followed: Ash's group reaches the Weather Institute by following the weather itself. Two scientists work there, Bart and Millie, and the tour of the facility is led by Millie and her Ditto — a detail whose significance no one grasps yet.

Things take a turn when a Team Aqua helicopter lands: the scientists are captured outside, Team Rocket along with them, and the attackers announce what they're after — data on Groudon and Kyogre. Bart then entrusts his access card to Castform, which manages to bring it back to the group while Ash creates a diversion.

Millie then hands Shelly a card carefully wiped of its data, climbs to the top of the satellite dish with the real one in hand, and drops the borrowed face: the assistant had been Brodie all along. The counterattack launched to recover the data is put down in moments, he escapes, and the real Millie finally shows up in front of a dismayed Bart — who nonetheless manages to smile again.

🎭 Changing faces takes preparation: see the Pokémon costumes.

The Grand Festival Ribbon Cup, and Officer Jenny Times Two

The second case plays out on the ship heading to the Grand Festival. The trophy promised to the winner is on display on board, and the Munchlax belonging to May, left in Nurse Joy's care before wandering off in search of food, bumps into the pedestal: the cup falls, and a handle breaks. It isn't the fall that alerts the festival director, it's how easily the object broke — the real trophy has already been swapped for a replica.

Brodie left his calling card, like a signature. Rather than canceling the event, Officer Jenny sets a trap tailored to a thief of precious objects: a Poké Ball painted gold, which the kids pass off as the contest's second prize, and a stakeout organized around the bait.

The thief turns the setup against the people who laid it. An announcement from the ship's captain, saying the thief is robbing the Pokémon left with Nurse Joy, clears the room; the group runs straight into the real captain and realizes too late. A Golbat covers the escape, and the transmitter hidden in the Poké Ball leads only to an abandoned decoy: the trick had been seen through long before.

What puts everyone back on the right track is the memory of their first encounter — back then, he had made his getaway by air. On deck, Officer Jenny comes back from her rounds in duplicate, Brock points out the right one, and Brodie is unmasked. Yet he hands back the cup, which he deems of little value, and takes advantage of Team Rocket intercepting him to disappear.

Ditto and Golbat: Two Pokémon in the Service of the Getaway

Only two species are associated with him, and neither is used to win a battle. Ditto stays by the fake Millie's side throughout the tour of the Weather Institute, which is to say exactly as long as the imposture lasts: the species the series associates with changing appearance, in the hands of a man who has made that his trade.

Golbat only enters the picture in the second case, and for a single task: creating a diversion at the precise moment the escape needs to begin. It defends nothing and attacks no one; it opens a window of a few seconds.

That's what the two stories have in common. Brodie never seeks a confrontation and gains ground by not being where people are looking for him, so his failures never come from a lost battle but from a detail: a handle that breaks too easily, a patrol that comes back in duplicate.

Brodie at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Brodie in Pokémon?
  A Team Magma member who joined the organization only to get paid. He's best known for his mastery of disguise, which he uses to steal valuables.
• Which Pokémon does Brodie have?
  Two species are attributed to him: a Ditto, present at the Weather Institute while he poses as the scientist Millie, and a Golbat, which covers his escape on the Grand Festival ship.
• What does Brodie steal at the Weather Institute?
  The scientist Bart's access card. Posing as Millie, he hands Team Aqua a card wiped of its data, keeps the real one, then reveals his face at the top of the satellite dish before escaping.
• How is Brodie unmasked on the Grand Festival ship?
  He had disguised himself as Officer Jenny. When the real one returns from her rounds, two Jennys show up, and Brock identifies which one is genuine.
• What happens to Brodie after Team Magma disbands?
  He keeps going. An Officer Jenny explains to Ash and his friends that Hoenn's two criminal organizations have been disbanded, but that Brodie is now operating on his own account.

In short

Brodie holds a place of his own among Team Magma's figures: he never served its goals, only his own pocket. That's also what makes him so hard to put down — the organization's dissolution takes nothing away from him, since it had never given him anything but a uniform and a cover. What's left is an antagonist who never wins a battle and gets along just fine without one: as long as he can borrow a face, he never needs to fight.