Is that what it was? I took it as they must battle their one assigned Gym Leader twice. (Once at the start of the arc again towards the end)

This is how I'm interpreting it as well, but I could be misunderstanding it. Though, given that the ending only focused on the first three Gym Leaders and we're already gonna be seeing the kids take their first tests throughout the next three episodes, I'm inclined to believe my current understanding is correct. Maybe there's gonna be more tests after the first two? :chansey:

Anyway, this was a really good episode to start off the new arc! I like that they managed to squeeze in a lot of cameos from the Paldean characters without it feeling too forced. The battle between Liko and Ann was really fun to watch too; even though Ann lost, it's clear that she and her Dewott haven't been slouching at all throughout the last 40 episodes. I'm also intrigued at the implication that Penny is already working with the League, since we can see her casually hanging out with the E4 members. Curious to see if this means the original Team Star plotline has already been wrapped up and we'll instead be focusing on the aftermath (Penny working with the League, and her teammates manning the training centers repurposed from their bases), or if the anime is just gonna be doing a different take on the Team Star plotline.

Oh yeah, I'm also really glad that Liko and her buddies immediately recognized the Explorers trying to not-so-subtly join the academy. As funny as the Ash and Team Rocket shenanigans were, I'm really glad we'll not be seeing a literal repeat of that. I hope we'll get to see more interactions between the main gang and the Explorers throughout this new arc. Also, "Sandwich" and "Onigiri" are absolutely amazing undercover names.

With all these restrictions on the Tera Orbs, might a moment come where the kids have to break them, getting themselves in trouble???

Yeah, the particular rule stating that they're only allowed to use Tera during their tests against the Gym Leaders sounded really weird. I'd understand if it's something really big and disruptive like Dynamax, but Tera doesn't seem nearly as dangerous to use. This feels like a very obvious Chekov's Gun waiting to go off.

ncG1vNJzZmiapaGvorPAq5uepl6jsrV706GpnpmUqHypxo9tbWagn6x6tbTRoqOloZ6cerC%2BwKeenmWRmK6lscyyZWxoYWh%2Bc3s%3D