Eh, I’m fine with it being loosened up, but is it really “whatever they want”? If it is then I’d think annoying attention-grabbing messaging would become an issue. (Or, not an issue, in the grand scheme of things, but another in a long list of distractions)

The landing party moving through the attacked town positioning themselves around crates and fighting the youngling was like a glimpse of an XCOM adaptation to a tee (with fewer OP melee weapons and grenades).

I enjoyed the ep but I feel like lots of eps this season have followed the pattern of something messing with their heads, character development, revealing an ineffable alien thing. Which is fine from time to time, and those were good eps, but it would be nice to have more alien sociology type stuff with more humanoid species