This episode only didn't work for me structurally. It used musical cues more aggressively than any episode in the past. The camera work also was at odds with the rest of the season but not in a way that felt like an intentional decision to emphasis anything with the characters or narrative.

This is NBC after all, so keep an eye out for a Dick Wolf producing credit. Maybe this is actually Chicago: Emerald City.

I'm ready for all the puns about rolling around in that hay.

This review doesn't give Vicki enough credit for her reaction to various news at the dinner. It's clear that Maura isn't embracing a deeper level of intimacy with her, which is manifested in her not sharing these hugely personal and pivotal decisions with Vicki. Even if there is a grand Pfefferman tradition to live…

And it's been already been established as a character beat that Maura has had no attraction to men, no sexual encounters with men, and would consider herself a lesbian. The fact that the sexual element is so tied to her masculine side and obvious sense of dominance I'm actually shocked with how the show treated this…

The rapid William arc of "no, I can't follow my heart Dolores. I have a fiancé! Wait, you're in front of me and fulfilling my sense of adventure. Let's bone!" was possibly the most eye rolling worthy moment from the entire series so far.

It makes me think of Mass Effect before anything else.

I'd just argue that it makes for a poor narrative. A tv show can't spin it's wheels like this. The writing did not reenforce the concept that each of these characters were making progress and stumbling, or trapping themselves, or even ignoring clear indications that they're making wrong decisions.

It's almost coming across that by the show dropping these issues is the show's statement that these things are/should be non-issues in life. That's not working on many levels.

Molly's arc is the worst. I truly don't understand how it's being written the way it is. This is not a situation of a hyper-competent professional not having the same deft skills with her own personal life. This is a hyper-competent professional making emotionally stunted decisions incongruous with every other display…

He isn't pulling a hail mary move at all. He's directly confronting all the issues she explicitly could define when she essentially threatened to walk.

Shelly is also the only one that actually displays any self awareness.

At the end, I realized that Maura basically learned nothing or experienced no real challenges (needing to end hormones was treated as a "big deal" but then was ultimately dropped as a serious character concern).

YES. I can't wait to chat with other folks toward the end of the season about how the season in particular has no apparent focused narrative or character development versus the previous two seasons.

This episode weirdly felt important while at the same time produced eye rolls with constant tv writing conventions that the show show usually subverts. It's not necessarily their deployment, but rather that the consequences all happen in the same episode, and of such a volume.

This makes me wonder if you just haven't seen enough of this scenario play out to know that the "surprise" attack always comes right when the character discovers something that other characters should know, or are about to leave. Which is exactly what happened.

The constant scene framing that almost always had a window and dark doorway in view was wonderful.

What a struggle to watch. Prepare to shout at your tv for the main character to turn on some lights in the house as she wanders multiple times through complete darkness. Prepare to shout at the tv for the main character to move faster than a slug during multiple scenes. Prepare to yell at yourself for selecting this…

I imagine CBS did a bait and switch with Fuller, in regards to the show only airing on the streaming service. That change had to have come with a budget cut, since there's no way the service will pull enough viewers to offset the lost viewers from broadcast.

I don't understand how this hasn't already begun filming, let alone cast every character. Something is clearly wrong with the production here.