Aha it wasn't just me who made the "Awakening" connection! :) It didn't hurt the episode for me though, because I thought it was still a great Shaw character study that revealed more about her than every other episode combined (not unlike how much "Awakening" brilliantly, humorously, and tragically revealed about…

The reason it felt Whedonesque was probably because the overarching story is virtually identical to the Angel episode "Awakening" (also starring Amy Acker!…surely I'm not the only one nerdy enough to make this connection?). Which in turn was likely inspired by the Terry Gilliam classic "Brazil." That's probably the…