The Pokémon anime has been incredibly consistent about at least one thing, and that’s the fact that every Pokémon Center has its own joy nurse. However, if Team Rocket’s Jessie follows her original career path, that tradition will be wiped out.
In the anime, the Pokémon Center is run by a distant family of identical women, all known as Nurse Joy. Nurse Joys have even been shown to have daughters who look exactly like them, showing that a strong family resemblance is an inherent trait of them. Of course, this all started as a joke about reusing NPC characters in the original Pokémon games, as the Pokémon Center ladies from each town use the same character. However, an episode of the anime revealed that anyone can become a Pokémon Center Nurse – including Jessie.
Nurse Jessie?
In the episode “Ignorance is Blissey”, Team Rocket breaks into the Pokémon Center in hopes of stealing some food, but is captured by Blissey working there. Except, this Blissey recognizes Jessie, and she explains this new element in her story. As it turns out, Jessie originally applied to be a Pokémon Nurse, but was turned down by the Nursing school. However, inexplicably, Jessie is allowed to attend “Pokémon Nurse School”, a school for Pokémon like Chansey to work with nurses. There’s a lengthy flashback to Jessie’s time at school, where she excels at the technical aspects while falling short of the things she can’t do — like her inability to use Use Sing to put the patient to sleep. In the end, Jessie didn’t graduate from the school and ran away, with only her roommate Chansey sharing a piece of her graduation medallion with her. That Chansey was now the Blissey they stumbled across at the Pokémon Center, still with the other half of the locket.
It’s quite surprising to see this story unfold, as Jessie in the flashback behaves much more amiably than the cranky version fans are familiar with. Jessie even seems to have some nursing talent, as she can expertly bandage. Jessie also wears a different hairstyle in the flashback, a style that makes it look a bit like Nurse Joy’s typical hairstyle. While no reason has been given as to why Jessie could not attend the proper nursing school, it is likely that she is too poor to afford it, as Jessie’s past is often marked by poverty in other episodes. People can’t help but wonder how rich Joy’s family must be to create so many nurses.
Jessie’s life could have been completely different
If she is allowed to do so, Jessie will be the first Pokémon Nurse without the name Joy ever seen in the anime. This also gives her an uncanny resemblance to Brock, who eventually decided in the Diamond and Pearl era that he wanted to be a Pokémon Doctor – which he eventually achieved in Journeys. Perhaps in some alternate timeline Brock and Jessie could even work together. Fate is often cruel to Team Rocket’s Jessie and James, and this failed attempt to go straight proves it. However, the bond that Jessie has with Chansey still exists, proving that Pokémonat least, recognized Jessiepotential of a nurse, even if it never happens.
