That episode had a lot going on to make up for all the waffling that has occurred recently.
I was interested to see how Matt was going to make Cree more of a threat to the Nein, especially if she rolled poorly in initiative. And wouldn't you know it, she did, so no Fire Storm or Dominate Person (Blood Cleric spell) to cause a potential down or two for the heavily weakened party + 1. I figured Lucien would intervene, either temporarily dominating Beau or Caleb for a round to just tease the risk the eyes posed through or working through Cree with some sort of tacked on legendary actions. Turns out it just went the Obann route of Lucien transforming Cree into a monster once they brought her down initially. Normally that would feel a bit rote, but Matt throwing in the patterns of the Somnovum as a consequence was a nice touch.
So now all but Jester and Yasha have at least one eye, including Essek. It'll be interesting to see where things develop there, especially with the ending of the episode.
Caleb and Essek messing with a dunamis crystal to manipulate time to give them the benefits of a long rest was oddly tense. Glad they found a way to access the Level 15 goods and recharge without ruining the pacing of Lucien running about.
The one distraction that occurred was Yussa, but that felt earned given that they were at fault for his predicament and likely left him plenty of issues for if he managed to return. So it was nice they did him a solid in rescuing him. Banishment was a clever way to handle it in general, but also was a good way too expedite the process to get back to task. Hopefully the gratitude of the rescue helps balance out the news that the Cerberus Assembly assaulted his tower, at minimum, because of their antics.
RIP the Somnovum though. It was smart to keep Lucien the focus, but it is a bit of a shame how built up they were that we only met 3 or so individually and didn't get to figure more about the schism that was occurring among them. Lucien taking the wheels of the bus by killing the rest of the drivers to become the BBEG instead was a cool twist, and leaves things in an interesting place between him and the Nein as he wished them to live from the bombing that eliminated the Somnovum. Still interested in how the Molly stuff that was coming about plays into things now that we know at least of the shifts were legit.
Hoping this high continues after the drudge that was Eiselcross, and that the arc concludes at the better end of the spectrum.
