I feel stabbed in the back by Pokemon after this episode. THIS was how Misty's return was handled? A WHOLE 2 EPISODES! And like everyone has already pointed out, there was no grand goodbye or anything.
I guess the good things that come from such a lack luster goodbye is that these friends all treated their goodbyes as if it was nothing special. Like they know they will just see eachother again and a simple "goodbye" is all it takes until next time. I guess what I mean is, they say goodbye as if reuniting was nothing special because, well, friends will always be there for eachother, so nothing more than a "see yah around" is needed. Their friendship is eternal.
Buuuuuuuut, seriously. This episode could have been handled so much better. WE DIDN'T EVEN GET TO SEE PSYDUCK! argh...
At the end of it all though, was this really a filler? There was certainly some strong character building and progressing through both Max and May. I mean, May took a huge step up here. Plus, it wasn't a bad episode. It is just as good as any other usual episode of Pokemon, but even more fun than that cause Misty was back!
Hard to imagine we are now nearly 10 years worth of episodes beyond this one now. 10 years...