

And I really liked the staging of these final three Season 9 chapters: The flashback-heavy ep followed by the shocking body count (which would usually be a finale) followed by a totally different adventure/crucible altogether. Sure, the end of "The Calm Before" established that a few days had gone by before the credits rolled, but getting an actual mini-jump this week helped the story immensely.

We're not dealing with instant ramifications of Alpha's brutal beheadings. "The Storm" may not have given me exactly what I needed/wanted, regarding my asinine wish list for a Season 9 finale, but it did lift us up and out of the death toll-heaviness from last week's "The Calm Before." It's still technically aftermath, but we've skipped ahead a few months later.
