No, I think Mal sort of falls apart at the idea of Zoe really being just a woman. The way he was so uncomfortable with her at the end of the movie, because she's mourning, she's just a woman whose husband just died and he doesn't know how to connect that to the Zoe he fought beside in the war.

You've got it exactly right, I think. Because she had Wash who just loved her, and she's not got that to fall back on now. ::sighs::