Conrad and Ruby’s relationship had been seeded as a subplot over a few episodes maybe it would have worked better?

The thing that worked really well for me is that I was naturally inclined not to trust him from the start - I have seen an episode of television before, after all - but they seeded just enough misdirection through Conrad’s “desire” to be like the Doctor (which carried through to the promotional interviews) to retain some surprise in the reveal.

I did like the scenes with Ruby’s homefront matriarchy

As much as I think Belinda has been a step up from Ruby, it was very nice to see the whole family again.

What can you do when compassion and empathy simply bounces off the person you’re trying to reach? That is a very real and current question, and I’m sort of glad that the show didn’t try to answer that neatly for the sake of a feelgood ending.

It managed to handle things very deftly, while still being very blunt in its messaging (which I don’t think is a bad thing). Honestly, coming off of an election in Canada less than a week ago, the whole thing kind of turned my stomach. Really visceral stuff. I can see this being an episode that I return to throughout the week, and I might have more thoughts to share later on.

One thing I really appreciated was the ambiguity of Kate, and how far she’s willing to go when the Doctor’s not around. They have a fine line to walk in the department, but I think they did it really well here.

One thing I don’t appreciate is the inconsistent handling of UNIT over the years. They’ve got helicarriers, then they’re gone, then they’re back, then their budget has been slashed, now they’re back again…I really hope this episode (and the upcoming spinoff) marks a final commitment to keeping them around as a player. We don’t need to see them repeatedly destroyed and resurrected like some kind of Gallifrey.