After glancing at the Bulbapedia entry for this episode, it seems that the story here contradicts a few of the earlier episodes. However, overall, I thought this was an incredible episode: it was funny, exciting, and fleshed out Team Rocket well.
To begin with, I like how the trio was so casual as they flew through the air, blasting off to some other place. Flashback was used very well in this episode: even a bottle cap can carry with it a number of memories.
I noticed that they claimed Cassidy was the leader of her group: it seemed to imply through the episode that the female is the dominant member of each team. I found that interesting. It was also exciting to see Jessie and James challenge Biff and Cassidy. Meowth was pretty darn funny in how he tried to suck up to Giovanni.
The trio was fleshed out well. They were ambitious and slowly learned how to work as a team. There were also some nice shipping hints laced throughout the episode. And even though they were ambitious and competent, they still had plenty of personality, in contrast to the BW trio. I was surprised, though, to see that Meowth seemed like the least competent member of the group at this time, especially since I’d say he’s the brains in other episodes.
It was funny to see how the Team Rocket facility was so much like a school. James’s injury was amusing too. I also liked the infiltration of the building at the end: funny animation, and the song was chosen well. Plus, it was funny when Butch realized, hey, she actually got my name right!
I liked the team’s renewed commitment at the end of the episode. It’s odd: I kinda pity them and want to see them be successful, but, uh, they’re the bad guys. Nice when a story pulls off ambiguity like that so well.
Oh, and at the end, Jessie said, “Every silver lining has a cloud.” That struck me as an odd line. I think they were going for, “Every cloud has a silver lining.” Not that this is a big deal.
Overall, this is another amazing Chronicles episode.