It’s a little painful, after an Espenson episode, to return to more mediocre writing and directing; Lee got pompous again (there’s nothing left to do with him than kill him, really), and I felt the big scenes were rather uninspired and slightly off — as if they were obligatory, intimidating plot points that the writers had dreaded to tackle instead of being excited about what they could do with them.

As often with the story arc driving the show, the episode gets a bonus star for the finale — even though I’m worried about what they intend to do with the whole next season. (I know it’s not going to be called season five, but a one-year hiatus is what defines the separation from one season to the next in my book.)