So I guess the message here is, "You're okay (without faking your application or going through with arranged marriages), and people around you want the best for you"? Which is valid, but not exactly mind blowing, narratively speaking.

I enjoyed the Genesis/Caleb staycation hookey games, not least Caleb seeing through her long con. Our boy is not a complete dupe, good on him.

The whole Darem sudden wedding side of things was part dull, part derivative. The entire landscape and scene setting where Jay-den arrived had me thinking of the SNW recreation of that "Amok time" arena. Which is promising I guess, if the writers and art dept. expect new 20-something viewers to glom onto 60 years old references — but they don't do much with it anyway.

I sort of thought the scaly amphibian form Darem changed into in the pilot was the default Khionian look. But despite a lot of talk about seaweed and "we've all got gills", everybody looks peculiarly human. Which is Star Trek, I know. The entire subplot just felt underdeveloped.

I'm still scratching my head what anyone sees in Kyle, so I'm assuming he'll turn out to be a salt vampire.

All in all, this felt like a stopgap episode before the season finale, where stuff hopefully goes off the rails on a more epic scale.