>>53306266-A tearjerker as the insert song (a remix of the song in the Japanese dub of Pikachu's Goodbye) plays and we see OS footage projected in the moon (shippers WISH they got anything even close to this, kek)
-In the morning, Meowth subtly lets on that Pikachu's kindness has rubbed off on him, as when he's presented with a Leppa Berry, he thinks to ask "what about some for you?" which is nice.
-Using their Autistic connection, Ash and Pikachu feel each other's presence and the music swells as the meet in a field, Pikachu is so excited he can't contain his electricity, but Ash doesn't really care. They are so focused on each other, that they don't notice they both jumped into a ravine.
-In a laugh out loud moment, Latias rescues Ash and Pikachu while invisible, and nobody questions it. A major dumb spot in a nice episode, but whatever. Because of all of the "pottery" moments with the early episodes, I wonder if Latias is meant to be Misty in episode 1 in this scene (the one who saves them from the water)? Would fit the tsundere Latias connection to Misty theory.
-In my favorite moment of the episode, Meowth watches on as Pikachu returns to Ash, clearly missing his own friends, when suddenly Jessie and James appear, calling out to him. The TRio are portrayed very well, clearly caring for each other but without breaking proper Rocket character, and they let Ash and Pikachu off the hook this time, just happy to have Meowth back.
While it's been done before, I liked this episode. A bit sappy, but that's what I wanted going in. I liked what was done with Meowth and the echoes to the earlier episodes, very heartwarming.
There was some minor Pokeshipping subtext here, but my position currently remains what I stated in Episode 5 (we will get something, but nothing definite/conclusionary). I will have to amend my guess that Ash catches Latias, due to the episode description of Episode 10, I no longer believe this to be the case.
Onto Episode 7, until next time.
