Recap / Pokemon S 8 E 7 Its Still Rocket Roll To Me

• Actually, I Am Him: Ash and friends have friendly banter with Liza and Tate long before they officially accept Ash's challenge as the Mossdeep Gym Leaders. Especially how, Ash thought he was looking for a gym leader, not two of them!
• Batter Up!: After getting fried by Combusken and frozen by Liza's Lunatone (taking the shape of a rocket, even!), Team Rocket are sent flying with an Iron Tail from Pikachu.
• Big Sister Instinct: May and Liza are furious that Team Rocket kidnapped Max and Tate and lay a Curb-Stomp Battle on the trio as payback, thus allowing Pikachu to blast them off.
  Liza: You're gonna pay for this!
  May: Big time!
  Both: NOBODY MESSES WITH MY LITTLE BROTHER!
• Shout-Out: To the Billy Joel song "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me".
• Shown Their Work: The shuttle launch SOP (not the one made by Team Rocket, but the second one at the end of the episode) is depicted mostly accurate.
• The Snack Is More Interesting: Corphish breaks off from the rest of the team to hitch a ride on a foodcart headed for the space shuttle. This becomes pivotal to saving Max and Tate later.
• Stealth Pun: Max makes a reference to real-life satellites, only with Pokémon analogues: the Sunflora to the Himawari, and the Ho-Oh III to the Apollo III.