There's potential here, to get out of this vicious circle of frontier existence loops that after 8 years are the only thing they could be, repetitive, and the 3 circle story line offers to take it somewhere different for a change.
I liked the climbing sequence a bit of change of scenery is good after all.
There was an attempt to explore Althea's character set up, (the diligent reporter who has to get the story), and a bit of back story about her brother and how he died because of her driving force, but it was kind of rushed through and didn't really ring solidly. There were a few badly set up and delivered details in this one. The bite proof vest just when Althea gets her first bite, after knowing better for her entire existence in the WD world, loosing a boot, the obligatory beer sponsorship placement in the top of the mountain to follow the 'beer solves everything and is civilisation' theme,
I liked watching an Althea based story, she's an interesting character and a good actor but we're back to the characters not being given good enough material to deliver. I'm not feeling her driving force to record the history of people so their lives mean something, which is a great theme to think about.
Then the lesbian kiss scene, which rather than be a wow moment came across as dragging out another overdone trope, it's been used so often on shows now it feels lazy.
This episode doesn't have a credited writer on it, just a bunch of story editors and a staff writer David Johnson so we can't surmise who's delivering and not delivering from this. Ashley Cardiff who did deliver a couple of episodes back was executive story editor so it did pass through her desk, so, not quite as optimistic as I was a couple of weeks ago, but, it wasn't garbage, so that's something.
