This episode includes the following tropes:
- Berserk Button: When the twerps see Jessie's hair after Skitty messed it up, they, like James and Meowth, can't help but burst out laughing at how ridiculous it looks. Jessie furiously starts trying to smash them with the giant metal hammer attached to their Team Rocket tank, which ends up sending the twerps flying off a cliff in two different directions.
- Continuity Nod: When Team Rocket watches our heroes from the bushes, they recognize May's Skitty as the same one they met (and Jessie tried to capture) in "I Feel Skitty".
- Expy Coexistence: It's a plot point in this episode that the group meets another kid who's also named Max, and the two Maxes share quite a bit of animosity over it at first. Other!Max is a bit taller than Main!Max, has square glasses instead of round ones, and has brown hair instead of black, but the two have similar voices and hairstyles, and are both know-it-alls.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The "other" Max, with the jerk part emphasized even more than "main" Max. He's introduced by walking in and yelling at the other characters for making noise, he constantly just yells at and insults them even when they're being friendly, and he gets physically violent with "main" Max for having the same name as him, and later trying to pet a Surskit "other" Max doesn't even own. When Ash, May, and Brock bring out their Pokémon, however, he settles down and becomes more friendly, and it's clear he cares deeply for Surskit.
- Madness Mantra: A more subdued one (and it's partially Played for Laughs), but when Jessie inches towards the ones with Surskit during her brief Villainous Breakdown mentioned below, she does one of these, going with her rather monstrous movements.Jessie: I must catch the Surskit...I must catch the Surskit...Give me the Surskit right now!
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": When Surskit breaks a dam in the water and submerges Team Rocket and their tank, a livid Jessie emerges with a Psychotic Smirk and a cold Evil Laugh, and starts slowly zombie-shuffling towards May, the Maxes, and Surskit while angrily demanding that they hand over the latter with barely-restrained fury. Everyone else present has this reaction (including Team Rocket!).Jessie: It's not over...[Emerges from water] YET. (Evil Laugh)
(May and the Maxes gasp)
May: Now I'm scared!
James: (clutching Meowth) Me too!
Meowth: (clutching James) Look away! Maybe she won't notice us! (The two promptly turn the other way) - Nobody Touches the Hair: When Skitty "attacks" the end of Jessie's long hair (non-maliciously, as it's just automatically attracted to and compelled to play with anything that it sees waggling around back and forth), she runs off screaming and crying. Later, when the twerps start laughing after seeing how much messed up her hair got, it sets her off.
- Party Scattering: Team Rocket's attack sends the twerps flying in two opposite directions, with Ash, Brock, and Pikachu in one group and May and the Maxes in the other.
- Super Drowning Skills: James sends out Cacnea to help catch Surskit, but discovers that it can't swim, and is forced to recall it.
