Well, this episode saw the return of not one, but two returning companions. So how did it do? Pretty okay I thought.
The episode starts with giving us a fairly basic setup of Ash and Misty wandering a city in what looks like Galar looking for a place to eat, before later revealing that Brock was working at the restaurant that they decided to eat at. Right off the bat, I love the fact that they recognized that the food they were eating tasted familiar, as it shows how familiar they are with Brock's food after having traveled with him for so long. Also, Brock giving up his dreams to work for a girl that he likes?
...
....
.....
Yeah, yeah, Brock is definitely the type of person who would do that, I mean it's
Brock. I also found the reveal that she actually had a fiance and Brock's reaction to that to be hilarious, and Brock's reaction reminded me of his trauma with Professor Ivy, and overall I found him to be pretty in character this entire episode. Going back to how the OG trio are so familiar with one another, it felt nice seeing that he's so familiar with Ash that his actions were enough to break him out of Hatterene's hypnotic trance.
After him we had the return of this person.
Wha- no not Dawn...
CILAN!!!! Now, his introduction into the episode didn't feel particularly forced. Him just happening to casually run into Ash while going about his day overall felt pretty natural, since that pretty much happens in real life quite often. I overall feel like he was portrayed quite well this episode. His Pokemon connoisseur skills seem more or less the same as they were back in B&W, but were pretty much forgotten about very quickly after he evaluated Misty's Psyduck. I liked his overall interactions with the the other characters and it was nice to see him congratulate Ash over his WC victory. I'm glad that Ash finally knows that Brock and Cilan have actually met before and that he was fully aware of his tendency to fall for women, and it was nice to see him be the one to come up with a way to cheer up Brock. I also found his interactions with Misty to be pretty amusing, such as only recognizing Misty as "the spare" (also further cementing that Misty's sisters are more famous than her), and I liked how he questioned her regarding how she would react to a Water/Bug type. Honestly their dynamic kinda reminded me of his and Iris' dynamic, which makes sense since Misty and Iris are pretty similar personality-wise. His detective time also returns this episode, and if I recall correctly, Cilan wasn't exactly the best detective back in B&W, so it was nice seeing him using his knowledge on Hatterene to actually deduce what was happening to Brock.
Speaking of Hatterene, I like how each member of the Hatenna line was accurately portrayed according to the Pokedex this episode. I especially loved the portrayal of Hattrem and Hatterene, as they both have some pretty dark Pokedex entries, and this episode was pretty much like "yeah, yeah, these things are Psychopaths, they're not cute at all..."
Other than that, I found it pretty disappointing that we didn't see any of Ash's reserves this episode. I get that it wasn't exactly necessary to see them this episode, but considering we only have so much time with Ash Ketchum left, it was kind of a letdown nonetheless. I feel like Ash's Noctowl would've been perfect for this episode for instance.
Other than that, I don't really have anything else to say, it was a pretty enjoyable episode overall. So until my next review, best wishes!