This episode played recently, and I TiVo'ed it because I had only seen it once. I can't believe what a brilliant episode this was! The Meowth episodes seem to be very well written, and they prove some of the better episodes that don't have a lot of battling.
Meowth's past seems to have so many interesting points that I think it could fill a movie without relying solely on the plot of this episode. Too bad its way too late in the anime to do something like this.
Incidentally, Meowth is the first (and possibly only) main Pokemon to have his gender distinguished (Tauros doesn't count because they can only be male). Jessie said something referring to Meowth as "he" or "him." I rewound it a couple times to make sure I heard it right.