Ash's Sceptile regains its ability to use moves.
Ash's Sceptile and Brock's Bonsly are outside their Poké Balls for the entire episode
May's Eevee is revealed to know Shadow Ball.
The episode's English dub title is similar to that of a previous episode. Both are references to the stock phrase "the ties that bind."
Ash and his friends meet Palace Maven Spenser, the fifth Frontier Brain.