Loved the art and animation in this episode. Especially Aggron's Hyper Beam scene and Aron's Roar. Too bad they won't keep the same artists throughout the sereis.
I say the plot was decent because I always was interested in how characters react to those whom they hardly spend time with, or at least those you'd feel awkward placing together. Love the mix up. James w/ the boys. Meowth w/ Max and Pikachu. And the remaining girls. It's not the first time this happened.
I knew it was for comical purposes, but I thought it was out of character for Max to leave Meowth simply because his story was too long. He's the most curious of the batch. I thought he'd want to know how Meowth could speak English.
Steven was cool. I expected someone younger, but Im still satisfied. You can see the resemblance between himself and his father. Their appearances, I meant.
Loudred's brief appearance was decent, too. Animation and audio was great.
BTW, I think James yammering bout himself being bad cuz of his partners is just an excuse for his actions. He's the most honest of the trio, but easily broken down.