Heartwarming / Mom

At the end the day, Mom shows the highs and lows of overcoming addiction. While it spares no expense to the hardship, it reminds us the end result is all worthwhile.

General

• It would be easy to write off Baxter as another example of the antiquated Bumbling Dad stereotype, but he really serves as a reconstruction of this. He genuinely tries to be a good father figure to Roscoe and even offers advice to Violet, despite her not being his biological daughter. It's shown his ridiculous get-rich-quick schemes are more due to the fact he has no marketable skills, is clearly ashamed of that, and feels it's the only way to make a living. Once he hooks up with Candace, he drops them completely and focuses more on maintaining that lifestyle, knowing full well it's the best opportunity both he and Roscoe have.
• Bonnie and Adam being a positive depiction of an inter-abled couple in fiction without ignoring the natural pitfalls of having a boyfriend in a wheelchair. They're also showed as being far from ideal, but still in love with each other in spite of their faults.

Season 1

• Christy standing up to Bonnie halfway through "Pilot" for refusing to own up to her mistakes and having a possible influence on Violet. As difficult as Violet proves to be throughout, Christy really shows she wants what's best for her.
  Christy: My daughter may need a better role model than me, but it's certainly not you.
• The ending of "Cotton Candy and Blended Fish".
  Marjorie: (receives a text message) It's my son, he want to see me.

Season 2

• The end of "Free Therapy and a Dead Lady's Yard Sale". Violet, having learned her birth father was abusive, asks Christy if she is a reminder of a dark period of her life. Christy assures her daughter it's just the opposite: Becoming pregnant with Violet gave her the courage to leave her boyfriend for good. It's the least hostile interaction Christy and Violet have ever had.
• When Bonnie genuinely regrets relapsing and wants to stay clean for good this time, the group offers their assistance without complaint.
  • When Christy tries to cut Bonnie's hair off as payback for all the suffering she caused her, Marjorie handles the whole situation rationally. She stops Christy since such an act will only make things worse for both of them, but doesn't berate her, knowing Christy is just acting out of pain, not malice, and calmly tells her to go somewhere else till she feels better. Unfortunately, her lack of specifics makes Christy go to a casino.
• In the second season, Marjorie announces as of her last scan, she's cancer free. The whole group moves in to cheer and hug.
  • At the end of the episode, it's revealed that despite their constant bickering, Bonnie and Christy were actually invited to the party, Wendy just misunderstood Jill's instruction.

Season 3

• "Sawdust & Brisket" has Violet do something she's never done before: own up to her own mistake and forgive Christy. Christy inadvertently told Greg that Violet had been pregnant before, and it put a rift in the relationship. Christy is genuinely sorry, and while Violet is initially furious at her, she calls to apologize for how she acted and admits it was more her fault for not telling Greg sooner.
• Marjorie forgiving Christy for not telling her Jodi passed away during her wedding and assuring she did nothing wrong, she was just upset about Jodi's death.

Season 4

• In "A Cricket and a Hedge Made of Gold", Bonnie offers to fill in for Marjorie as a sponsor. While she makes a lot of mistakes due to lack of experience, the ending has Marjorie reveal Bonnie was being too sympathetic by taking every single call and she's not required to do that. Even though Bonnie did that because she didn't know she wasn't required to take every call, compare that to Season 2 where she said that a complete lack of compassion was stopping her from being a sponsor.

Season 5

Season 6

• Wendy reassuring Marjorie that her unusual response to Victor's death is completely normal because she's seen the grieving process start early for those who love someone with a terminal illness, so what she's seeing are the later stages of the grieving process.

Season 7

Season 8

• In "Illegal Eels and the Cantaloupe Man", Bonnie and Adam's Valentine's Day dinner is interrupted when their friends, all either single or having relationship problems, steadily all show up. Rather than be put out, the couple lets them stay and offers support. Adam even gets a single rose each (two for Bonnie) for the women.
  • Adam wowed Bonnie with assorted romantic gestures throughout, but the topper was the inscription on the jewelry he had gotten her.
    Bonnie: [reading] "No, sorry, no Linda here." What does that mean?
    Adam: Those are the first words you ever said to me, when I called the wrong number that ended up being the right number.
• In "Klondike-Five and a Secret Family", Adam goes into a temporary downward spiral when he learns that one of the women on his Alanon amends list has since passed away. It is later revealed that he had bounced back and forth between the woman and her mother, causing the two to completely cease contact with each other. When Bonnie takes Adam to the public mausoleum where the woman's burial vault is located, they discover the mother's vault next to it; Bonnie concludes that the two must had eventually reconciled in life.