EXTREMELY sorry about that. Realized I had done the wrong episode just as I submitted it, and tried to cancel it, but then couldn't get back on the forum. Extremely, extremely sorry about that.
Yikes, the fact that I forgot the last episode must mean I'm not justified to review it.
I didn't actually re-watch this episode before writing this...it's the first time I've done that in a while.
The misunderstood pokemon is a staple in this anime, particularly in the movies. It's gotten to the pt, I think, that there's very few ways to make the story original. I guess this episode finds one of those ways, by making the evil girl supernatural and seemingly ready to kill our heroes, if not for the efforts of Dusknoir. This isn't a slap on the head for being mistaken about the true intentions of an honest, trying-to-help pokemon; Ash and Angie almost lose their lives for ignoring Dusknoir. That's one way to get the attention of the viewer.
I guess the moral of this episode, as it is in most of these types of episodes, is that you shouldn't judge someone just off of appearances. Dusknoir seems like it should be a scary pokemon, so it's easy for Ash and Angie to accept right away that Dusknoir is trying to harm them. I think this episode does have an interesting pt to it in that intentions are misinterpreted twice. Dusknoir is the obvious example, but Ash is another one. When he tries to save Angie, he tells her that'll he try to protect her, even if he gets dragged along with her into the cave, and she takes that to mean something special. And, I don't blame her for that, b/c the reason, I think, she takes it that way is b/c she would never say a thing like that unless that's what she meant it to be. Saying something like that, for her, would be a heartfelt expression of her feelings, not just a need to help someone out as what's driving Ash. And that's what's so special about Ash, but also what's so frustrating about him as well. I guess nobody knows how long his travels will go, but even now, it's funny how Ash attracts these girls(and no, I don't mean it like that; in BW, there's a guy, too) who want to travel with him all over a region. And I think it's because of this quality, that he's willing to help anybody, and not just willing for the fun of it; he believes it's his responsibility to do what he can, and I think he feels that's the right way to live his life. But people like that, I wonder how sincere they are. It's hard to be honest with people like that, and I think it's rare that those people are honest themselves. For Ash, that's not a bad thing since he doesn't do this to try to act cool (anymore), which I think is even a more special thing. But b/c of this aspect of his personality, I don't think he and Angie become the type of close friends that they could have been. Angie acts the way the she feels; Ash is a bit more guarded (or seemingly, a stereotypical character): Ash will act the same way with anybody.