Its time for me to put my two cents into this episode.
First off, I don't understand why most people are hating on the fact that Pikachu was even used. Let's flashback to every Electric Gym he's been to. In that case, when fighting Surge, Wattson, and Volkner, Pikachu has been used, and in 2 of those instances, has starred in those Gyms. So why are we expecting anything less at this point?
Secondly, the fact that Pikachu scored two KOs. It's obvious that the point of this episode was to show that Ash isn't a strategist. Ash is at his best when he improvises rather than planning ahead, and clear evidence was shown of that, such as admitting he overuses Pikachu, Oshawoot, and Tepig, as well as when he ran to the pokemon center to exchange for Snivy. Pikachu was simply used because Pikachu is the best representation of Ash's 'outside the box' battle style, hence the reason Pikachu wound up winning Ash the badge.
I'm just tired of all the complainin about Pikachu being the glory hog for this gym, especially when Ash has a certain Pokemon who glory hogged near half of the gyms in Sinnoh (how quickly we all forget about Infernape) =3