I ended up really liking it as a follow up to the last one. Last episode had everyone working together with the upper hand which was satisfying to finally see, and this one has everyone caught off guard and split up executing their own messy plans in contrast. I liked the comedy of it, apparently originally it was going to be a little darker with Fallon more helpless and threatened, but was reworked to be more consistent with when she had a gun pointed at her at Thanksgiving. The way it is now the episode is good old soap level farce, a kind of send up to All the Money in the World.
I also enjoyed everything going on with Anders and Sammy Jo, and Fallon taking the rug out from under Jeff at the end. I loved the conflict between Jeff and Culhane, because it brought back some of the class issues from the first episode. It'd be cool if the show gets another season, if they could add black writers on the staff to help round out these characters further. I thought the fight between them, and the dialogue during, was appropriately over the top. I'm curious to see what Adam will be like in this version because he's one of my most hated characters in media in the original. So far every time the show feels like it's about to follow parts of the original, it goes somewhere else.
I do feel like they've left Steven a little thin since the Christmas episode though, it feels like his recovery has gone a little TOO smoothly, and with time constraints it's understandable, but you'd expect at least a moment or two of him struggling. I'm sure it'll come back up again for his character later, but it just expected a little more of him maybe going to therapy or having a withdrawal with all the crazy stress going on at home.
All in all I liked that the last episode had a really strong family theme, and this one focused on sisterhood, blood and otherwise. Two types of bonds I'm sure Alexis will be threatening very soon.
As a side note, it's also nice to see the CW finally putting some ads for the show up during other stuff, instead of just bumpers. The recent ads have been more representative of where the show's at currently. Hopefully the ratings continue to improve a little.
