Thank you, that's exactly my reaction.
Next week should just be Dan Harmon reading a script to the camera.

C-
I didn't know it was possible for this show to get any more meta, but it finally completely crawled up its own ass.

Yes! There were so many criticisms of this ending, including that these god like beings were shown, at the end, to be like petty children. But that is what I actually love about it- there is no inherent wisdom in power or age or military might or technology, just the unfortunate ability to exert your will more.

I started to play Mass Effect 2 and got bored and frustrated because I just don't like first-person shooters, but my gamer friends keep trying to get me back into it because they call it a "playable Babylon 5" and they know how big a fan I am of the show.

I thought that last point was rather explicit. She told Boyd point blank she's going to get Boyd, she's already been named as Art's successor, and she- with the lawyer guy- recruited Rayland to the cause.

The "high stakes," in the sense you seem to be meaning, lies in the mafia widow crime boss lady.

I don't think the cartel guys were stupid at all, they were just in a no-win situation. Had they surrendered, they'd either rot in jail, or set free and then murdered by their boss, or first do jail time THEN get murdered, or get murdered in jail.
This of course could open the possibility that their boss will send more…

Well she was accused of being snitch against a group of women who were already her violent enemies. It's not the you're supposed to not snitch against people who did you wrong, it's that snitching is inherently the worst thing you do in the criminal/prison code.

That would be neat. And then Limehouse's power grows, and the show ends with Raylan getting some personal satisfaction from taking down Boyd but that the community sees no improvement because Limehouse runs all the drugs and crime that Boyd would have. This would play into one of the show's themes that the place and…

Boyd Crowder was shockingly dumb this whole episode. Alasdair outlining most or all of it is the kind of comforting support I come to this site for. I never for a minute saw the Mexicans buying into his stupid and shockingly condescending crap offer, and as soon as I saw Ava in street clothes I knew what was up.

I just assumed she was the brains the whole time. I actually didn't think it would be some great revelation. Why else would she be the one consulted for "advice" by Duffy?

That is a fair point. If you're writing some thesis on TV history or something then yeah you have to know history.
And while it's fair to criticize someone for claiming Breaking Bad is the Greatest Show Ever without seeing anything from the 20th century, I also just personally don't put much stock in trying to make…

Well it's not just half an hour. Catching up with just one old TV show is many many hours.
Also just reading books doesn't make you richer and better. Maybe really great books does, but like Dan Brown and crummy romance bodice-rippers does not.

Television, by design, is a medium for the temporary. People made weekly shows to catch just-in-time viewers as an opportunity to sell them stuff, not make great art. Yes sometimes art or quality happened, because there were some talented folks involved and when there is so much content cranked out, eventually…

I still loathe this episode for that very reason.

Hey I'm all for fun but it has to at least make some kinda sense and corniness actually balanced out by characters behaving kinda like people. That's why Trials and Tribble-ations works and, IMO, His Way doesn't.

Well those are good points, I guess I pretty much agree.
My personal bias is to be easy on and defend stories of forgiveness and redemption.

I believe at this point Bajor signed a treaty with the Dominion to stay out of the war?

I can appreciate how that ep would make you uncomfortable, it makes me uncomfortable too, but I also think you may be oversimplifying both Kira's conclusion and her mother's motivations.

Nana Visitor is attractive of course but I cringe at the Fever scene. It's like… female minstrelsy or something. I don't need to see her prancing about a piano and cooing at men to understand that she's attractive.