The following tropes are associated with this episode:
Adaptational Badass: While Solid Rock does limit supereffective damage in the games, it only does so by a quarter, meaning that Rhyperior still takes 3x damage from Grass-type moves.
Borrowed Catchphrase: After she was eliminated from the tournament, Dawn remarks that she was going to “fine” someone with Barry quickly lampshading that she borrowed his line.
11th-Hour Superpower: After accidentally eating his own Energy Ball, Ash’s Grotle powers up the point he starts to completely manhandle Palmer’s Rhyperior. However, despite this, this isn’t enough to defeat it.
Foreshadowing: Towards the end of the episode, Palmer recommends to Ash to go challenge the Sunyshore City Gym saying that he could put a “shock” to the gym leader. This is referencing that the gym leader, Volkner, uses Electric-types, but also hints at his Victory Is Boring disposition.
The Juggernaut: Palmer’s Rhyperior is quite the beast being able to shrug off a lot of attacks including an Energy Ball that is supposed to do quadruple the damage to it. Even after Grotle’s 11th-Hour Superpower, Rhyperior was still able to defeat Grotle at the end.
Lightning Bruiser: After using Rock Polish to boost it’s speed, Rhyperior was able to run circles around Grotile. This eventually aided to it’s win over Grotle.
Like Father, Like Son: As seen in this episode, Palmer is quite boastful of his skills much like with his son, Barry. He can also be quite absentminded as seen when he was eating snacks when he was supposed to be co-hosting the Twinleaf tournament.
No-Sell: Despite being an attack that should’ve did quadruple damage, Grotle’s Energy Ball did absolutely no damage to Palmer’s Rhyperior. This is thanks to Rhyperior’s ability, Solid Rock, which limits super-effective damage taken to it.
Pet the Dog: The vendor was so impressed by Team Rocket’s help, he actually gave them more money enough to buy a rocket if they wanted to.
Power-Up Food: In a sense. This episode is where Ash, by accident, discovers that Grotle can power himself up by eating his own Energy Ball allowing him to gain the energy to fight Palmer’s Rhyperior. However, he does still lose to it.
Super-Speed: Palmer’s Rhyperior is able to use Rock Polish which boosts it speed by a large margin. He uses it in order to get close to Ash’s Grotle and unleash a close-ranged Sandstorm on him.
Team Rocket Wins: For once, Team Rocket are not only successful at their jobs, but they even got paid extra!
Underestimating Badassery: Ash doesn’t take Palmer and his Rhyperior too seriously in the early stages of their battle, but he learns his lesson once Palmer shows why he isn’t a Frontier Brain for nothing and even loses to Palmer despite finding a new way to power-up Grotle at the end.
Worthy Opponent: Despite defeating Ash at the end of their battle, Palmer highly views Ash as one saying that Ash has giving him his toughest fight in ages. He still allows Ash to take the trophy for impressing him in battle (and mainly for Ash winning the tournament before their battle). Palmer is also quite confident that Ash would be able to put a "shock" to the Sunyshore City's gym leader.
