With May's fifth ribbon on the line, Harley is more determined than ever to make sure that she never earns it. Thus, while Jessie takes to the stage to distract her, Meowth and James go out of their way to make sure the twerps don't watch her perform—or get in the way of their plans.
- Crazy-Prepared: A rare double subversion, Team Rocket lures Ash and co. into a flying steel box so they can keep them locked away while they sabotage May. It becomes subverted when Drew helps break them out with his Flygon, but then they turn it around and reveal they dug a pit trap just for the twerps, then put a steel bar on it to keep them stuck. They still didn't count on Brock uses his Fortress to bust them out.
- Death Glare: Harley and Drew give each other this when the latter catches the former in the act with Team Rocket.
- Foil: Jessie proves herself to be one to May over their battling style. While May actively encourages her Squirtle and it performs strongly, Jessie's constant frustration towards her Pokemon's inability to win causes Harley's Banette to falter in battle.
- Karma Houdini: All Harley ends up with is the frustration of having his plans ruined to keep May out of the Grand Festival, in spite of the fact he went out of his way to try and sabotage her intentionally by hiring known criminals to do so. Even though he's caught, he still gets to compete in the Grand Festival.
- Loophole Abuse: Harley is able to weasel his way out of punishment at Drew's hands by pointing out that it's not illegal in any of the contest rules to loan out his own Pokemon to another coordinator; it's only required they show off Pokemon, not actually own them.
- Sore Loser: Jessie does not take her loss to May well at all.
- Tiebreaker Round: It's revealed that, in the event of a tie, coordinators enter a sudden death round where they must knock out their opponents points to zero in order to win.
