There's not much I have to really write about this episode. As far as TG episodes go (or any episodes relating to the evil team), I think this one is one of the better ones, in terms of action. There's no mindless battle against a million Golbat that feels like a filler of time. What's here is a pretty nicely orchestrated attempt by Ash and Brock to break the machine, and that works pretty well. Ash's combinations using Pikachu and Staravia are well thought out.
There were 2 scenes that were a little unusual. The latter of the two scenes involves Chimchar trying to use Dig to rescue Dawn and company, and being unsuccessful. It's actually a pretty cute scene; what's surprising is where it pops up, when the bombs are about to go off and potentially kill our heroes and everyone else on the island. I think it's a powerful scene though. We all deal with death of loved ones (and eventually the reality that death is very near for us personally) at some pt in life, and I think a good moral of this scene is that, even so, you still have to live. The problem solving idea of Ash's involves a range of emotions: excitement that he's figured out a soln, disappointment that it doesn't work, and then an apology to Chimchar. Dawn even admires Ash's idea, and then laments the fact that such a good idea doesn't work. These are normal everyday feelings and emotions that our heroes are enjoying, even though, more than likely, they are going to die in a few minutes. So in a sense, that's a really powerful scene. Were the writers going for that when they put the scene there? Probably not. But what you take from the scenes is really the fun of being a viewer (and reviewer).
The first of the two scenes, chronological wise, is the most interesting one for me in the entire episode. It's the one where Ash and Brock have Lucario pinned, with Riley urging Ash to have Pikachu use ThunderBolt on Lucario. Ash is highly hesitant to do so. It's not until Brock also says he should do it that Ash is really touched; as Brock says, he really understands how Ash feels, but this is what must be done. Pikachu's approval is the final push Ash needs to order the attack. But....was it worth it? Ash and Brock take huge hits from the thunderbolt (and this drives home the seriousness of the scene right away, that Riley and Pikachu are not concerned about the hits Brock and Ash have to take) as well as Lucario, but Lucario, ignorant of its pain, gets right up and heads towards the TG camp. There it's defeated quickly by TG, and taken out for the count; but its focus on the frequency machine draws our heroes' attention to it. So Riley's idea does produce results; but, his treatment of Lucario is pretty ruthless. I'm not so sure that Ash's concern was quite wrong here. Was there no other way, and did this really needed to be done? It's a scene like this that shows how special Ash really is, when everybody, from Pikachu to Riley is willing to do the "right" thing to win. Remember how Ash got Lucario to stop attacking in the first place: by talking to it and getting it to at least try to fight the influence of the frequency. Ash got that far with Lucario; Riley, his own trainer, could not. But that just seems to be the relationship Riley and Lucario have. At the end of the episode, after redirecting the bombs explosion, Riley is completely wiped, and it doesn't look like Lucario is too concerned. What goes around comes around, maybe...
The bomb scene is pretty interesting; the scene is actually more exciting than its "counterpart" Aura scene in the Lucario movie.