Gotta admit, I haven't really cared about this show in a long time, but this was great. Season 4 has been better, but still sort of not great so far, and now it makes sense why. Really it seems like the goal has been to get the show on a better track than it was on when Season 3 ended. Unfortunately, that meant that because there were a number of things that had to be put in place before the turning point, they couldn't just have that point in the first episode. But of course because of how TV works, they couldn't just have it in a random episode. They needed to put it in the mid season finale. So they added filler to make that point in episode 8.
I just have to say, I love this new track they're on. The show still has a ways to go before I would consider it great television, but I think it can get there. This episode nicely tied up all of my major qualms from last season and got things going in a direction that actually excites me. Bring on February.