I didn't mention this before, but I'm really enjoying the background music in this series. The Hau'oli City theme playing in the background while Ash and company were at the mall was a nice touch even if I am sick of hearing that theme from the games.
I really liked that, as well. I've gotten so used to background characters who are either stationary or just look around, dumbfounded, that it's nice to see background characters actually react realistically to a minor crisis.
That is one thing I like about SM so far - we're getting to know the characters. Since there are so many supporting characters this time, and since Ash started out stationary rather than traveling, it doesn't surprise me that it's taking a little longer to get to the "meat" of Ash's adventure (the Island Challenge). But we are getting to it sooner than I thought we would.
IMHO, an episode that focuses on a main character isn't truly filler. Even if the episode wasn't all that interesting, we still learned a little bit more about Sophocles. We already knew he is a programmer and data analyst and is apparently fixated on analyzing Rotomdex; but here, we learned he is afraid of the dark and he was hesitant to admit he was at the mall to get ice cream. The latter actually interested me a bit, because it makes me wonder if he gets teased about his sweet tooth and/or his weight. It's kind of a shame that wasn't further elaborated upon.