After a night at the Pokémon center, Ash is stoked to have another Gym Battle. He meets the Gym Leader Brawly, who would rather surf than battle, which infuriates Ash. Could there be more to this Gym Leader than meets the eye? And does May even have a shred of decency?
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Practically Ash's entire strategy for this gym battle, considering he thought it’d be easy to beat a gym leader who’d rather surf. However, he underestimates his opponent and keeps his guard down, pushing his Taillow and Treecko so hard that his ultra-offensive strategy eats away their stamina and causes his defeat: after using Wing Attack too many times in a short period of time, Taillow is fatigued after Machop tanks the hits and gets immediately taken out with a single Cross Chop, while Treecko only wins because Taillow had weakened it. He's clearly tired, but because Ash has already lost Taillow, he keeps fighting against Makuhita, who dodges all his Pound attacks. After Makuhita evolves into Hariyama, Treecko is doomed and loses badly.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Ash shouts this at his friends when they criticize him over not giving up against Brawly, and Treecko getting hurt because of it.
- Break the Haughty: Ash suffers one after getting high and mighty from the previous episodes, when Brawly easily defeats him.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Brawly is introduced refusing Ash's gym challenge for a day of surfing at the beach. Ash would later learn that surfing is actually part of Brawly's training regimen.
- Flung Clothing: At the beach, May decides to strip away her threads right on the spot, causing her companions to panic.
- From Bad to Worse: Treecko is already having trouble with Brawly's Makuhita; when it evolves into a Hariyama, Treecko's defeat was as sure as the sunrise.
- Jerkass Ball: Ash holds it for almost the entire episode.
- Jerkass Realization: After losing his Gym battle against Brawly and his friends tried to help him, Ash was not only frustrated for losing to a carefree Gym Leader but also loses it with Brock, Max and May. However, while taking a walk with Pikachu, Ash realized that he has been acting like a jerk as he understands that his friends were trying to help him and realized that Brawly can be a serious Gym Leader, after seeing him train with his newly evolved Pokémon.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After he told his friends to shut up when they scolded him for pushing his Treeko too hard and tried to help him, Ash realizes that he really lost it to his Pokémon and friends.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Ash was at the peak of his cockiness that, when Brawly defeated him, Ash's response to a friend trying to help is to snap angrily!
- Title Drop: The blurb of the gym reads the same as the episode title.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ash snapped at his friends for trying to help him then walked out of the Pokémon Center in frustration with Pikachu not too far behind him. However, during the walk, Ash realized his behavior and apologized to his friends when they caught up to them.
- Worf Had the Flu: It doesn’t detract from Brawly’s skill as a trainer, but the Gym Leader outright states at the end of the episode that if Ash had kept a level head instead of being infuriated at his seemingly carefree opponent, the battle could have gone very differently.
