The time has finally come. Ash vs. Elesa in a Pokémon Gym Battle. Ash tries to think of a strategy and comes up with one. Since Elesa uses Electric-Type Pokémon, and Ground-Type Pokémon beat Electric-Types, Ash has decided to use only his Palpitoad during the battle and leave Pikachu out. Will Ash's strategy work, especially if Elesa's other two Pokémon have no weakness against Ground-types? No, because her second pokemon is her Emolga which has an advantage over a Ground-Type because it's not only an Electric-Type, it is also a Flying-Type!
This is also the only time Ash battles an Electric Gym Leader without having a rematch.
The battle is a bit of a reverse of what happened in the Gym Battle between Ash and Falkner, with Elesa knocking out two of Ash's Pokémon with just one.
Ash's Palpitoad is confirmed to be male in this episode.
Elesa's Emolga's voice sounded different than Iris'.
This is the first time in the anime that a gym leader's most powerful Pokémon got knocked out first before it did any real damage. The most powerful of a gym leaders Pokémon is usually knocked out last after it does collateral damage but this episode was different. This may have been due to type advantage as Palpitoad is a dual water and Ground-type and Ground is super-effective against Electric.
This is the first time Ash switched his team during a Gym Battle.
Thinking it was easy to beat Elesa, Ash only brought in Palpitoad, the only time he brought in one Pokémon to battle three.
Ash should've caught Krokorok in the first place in BW020: Dancing With the Ducklett Trio! before he puts him in the Nimbasa City Gym Battle but when he brings Pikachu back in the battle, he decided to battle with spirit instead of battle plans.
Two of Elesa's Pokemons are out when they hit the wall and make holes in them. The two were Emolga and Tynamo because of Ash's Pikachu.
