It's not a particularly surprising or extrodinary episode. Everybody knew Ash was going to win - He had to in order to get the badge. In fact I think it's obvious to everyone Ash is the better trainer out of him and Clemont. There are a number of things bother me about Clemont that came out quite clearly in this episode:
1. Clemont despite being a gym leader and such a good battler hasn't had a serious battle in the lead up to this episode. Unlike in previous series Ash has been in most of the battles in this series so far. You'd think Clemont being a gym leader would battle more often.
2. Why on earth do HIS Pokémon obey Clembot, a souless machine. They're Pokémon not drones. Any why would they listen to Clembot rather than Clemont and lock him out of the gym in the first place. And why is Helioisk still willing to battle for Clemont when Clemont abandons it to travel with Ash and leaves it with only a machine for it's trainer and partner. Some friend you are Clemont.
3. How on earth was Luxray able to beat Hawlutcha and Pikachu. It's had much less experience than either of them. Clemont was only reunited with it a few episodes ago and it only evolved recently. Granted he's had time to train it since he's been back at the gym but the bar for beating Pikachu should be alot higher than this given how much experience Pikachu has. This is almost Pikachu vs Excadrill or Pikachu vs Panpour all over again - strenght for convince. Pikachu only lost so Goodra could have the spotlight. Granted Pikachu had battled against Bunnelby earlier but still. It probably doesn't matter given Pikachu has had the spotlight in nearly every other gym battle up to this point and has only lost twice previoulsy and Goodra probably deserved the spotlight given it gets released a few episodes from now. But I get the feeling that Luxray is being given the same treatment as Iris's Excadrill - treated as a powerhouse when it shouldn't be one when the Anime's cannon is considered.
4. Ash has already beaten Clemont in the first episode and Clemont's hardly improved since then since he doesn't battle all that often. Granted his best Pokémon were locked away in the gym at the time and he had only just caught Bunnelby.
5. By travelling with Ash Clemont is effectively abandoning the gym. At least Brock and Cilan travelled with Ash there were other family members who could be gym leader in their absence, and Brock kind of stopped being the gym leader after he left in the Original Series and never went back to it - He trained to become a doctor instead. Clemont's replacement is the Clembot, a machine that for some reason intelligent, sentient Pokémon are happy to take order from. Who ever appoints Gym leaders should fire Clemont for not doing his job and appoint some who is actually prepared to be the gym leader. Clemont's already showed he's not worthy of being gym leader when he got locked out of his own gym by a machine controlling his own Pokémon (seriously?).
6. Clemont is supposed to be the same age as Ash, yet in that time he's graduated from University, helped build a power station, become a gym leader and raised several powerful Pokémon. Did Clemont stop ageing or something. Mind you Ash has done five regions in the same space of time.
7. Clemont's the fifth Gym Leader but he seems to be weaker and less experienced than any of the other four Ash faced before him. Ash didn't really have a problem with Clemont besides Luxray and Helioiski.
My main problem with this episode is probably Pikachu vs Luxray, and to a lesser extent Hawlutcha vs Luxray. As I said, Luxray is the powerhouse who shouldn't be. This is the first time we've seen it in a real battle on screen. While it was travelling with Clemont we didn't see it battle so how did it get so strong. It can't have had that much experience either as Clemont only got it a few episodes ago. In short it's just not a Pokémon who should be considered worthy of beating Pikachu. The same thing could be said for Clemont. He's done significantly less training and battling since he left the gym and even worse his two Pokémon that he travels with, Bunnelby and Chespin, are weak and inexperienced, or at least don't spend a lot of time in battle on screen. If they wanted to use Clemont as both the Gym leader and the travelling companion, it would have made more sense to have had Ash battle Clemont for his first gym badge rather than following the games and saving him until fifth. That way there wouldn't have been an entire series and a half of episodes showing us how much better than Clemont Ash really is before setting them against each other. Or at the every least they could have introduced Luxray at the start rather than a reunion halfway through the series.
