Yay, the beginning of one of my favorite ships- spoilshipping (Jessie and Wurmple/Dustox).
I loved when Jessie sent her Wurmple out for comparison, then decided to recall it saying it was too cute for the "icky" battle.
I liked how she kept arguing with May over who has the better Wurmple for the next few episodes. LOL
Otherwise, this episode was pretty interesting. At least I liked it a whole lot better than "The School of Hard Knocks" (thank goodness there weren't any Giselle clones here, just a Gary clone
). It was interesting seeing Max battle, though I liked him against Vivi in "Candid Camerupt" better (I do like the girl in this episode better as a love interest for him, though).
I do think the episode sends a bit of a mixed message, though. The kids are there because their parents want them to be, even though the one kid is scared of pokemon, but they end up magically working out their problems by the end. I'm not knocking parents or anything, but that just strikes me as a bit odd, that it seems to say your parents had the right idea all along despite your own personal feelings. It's okay in situations where, like, the kid doesn't want to go school, but they have to to get an education. Here, though, the kids had fairly legitimate reasons for not taking the courses, and I end up feeling a little sad for them. I am glad things worked out, but still, something just doesn't sit right with me.
Otherwise, this episode was pretty good. I did like Ash with the souvenirs (LOL) and May not being too thrilled when it came time for a pop quiz.