Wow, this episode. I was expecting it to be sad, to be emotional, but what the writers delivered here went above and beyond. I cannot remember the last time an episode of Pokémon moved me to the point of tears, but this one did. I feel like we've actually been building up to this point with Mallow for a long time, without even realizing it, and that made the delivery so much more powerful.
I feel like now, having watched this, Mallow always being so happy and so cheerful is more than likely, if not definitely, connected to this. It's obvious she was carrying a lot of weight and a lot of grief from her mother's passing, and how her last interaction with her mother went. I really do commend the writers for making this part of Mallow's storyline. Over the past few years, they've seemed to have almost a reluctance to show nuances to characters, like they just wanted them to be almost one dimensional. Here, we see that Mallow has some serious past trauma. Her happy-go-lucky personality is likely a part of this. It's not just a way they chose for her to be because it "looks nice" and comes without conflict. This episode really pulled back the curtains on Mallow as a character.
In this respect, I related to Mallow a lot. I suffered two personal losses last year and I feel my reactions and my way of being were and are very similar to Mallow's: I don't really want to show my emotion, I just kind of smile through everything and try to keep a positive attitude, even though I'm hurting inside. So, to me, this was a very realistic approach to this kind of situation. I think it's awesome that the writers chose to show a different kind of dealing with grief through Mallow. It's definitely painful to watch, but it's more painful to experience, and for kids to be able to see that, it's really important, as sad as it may be.
SM has caught a lot of flak over the past couple of years, but this episode really cemented this series' willingness to tackle more serious subject matter, which I truly think we've seen over the course of quite a few episodes this go around. And what I like is it's not being done in a tacky manner for shock value, or edginess. There are legitimate life lessons that are important for kids to see on TV. The writers have handled them all very respectfully, and written them very well.