So, an "it was all on the holodeck" episode with a dash of "amnesia episode" to spice things up.
Got to be honest, I'm disappointed as the previews and feeling of the episode made it really feel like this was going to be an encounter with a powerful, 5th-Dimensional being of some sort that the crew had to somehow overcome and outsmart. It also seemed like an "easy out" at the end that Alara's various actions were mostly shrugged off at the end because no one was hurt but I guess, like Starfleet/The Federation The Union has an "if the ends justify the means" way of looking at things. (I.E. Alara going to save Ed and Kelly in the second episode.) Alara's actions didn't end up in anyone getting hurt so, hand wave.
When she came out of the simulation and acted as if she was confused I was still partly expecting some 3rd party involvement messing with her mind like an outside alien presence or even one of her parents giving her some kind of hypnotic suggestion.
All said, though, it was a good episode and the overall vibe and atmosphere of it all was very well done and the look of things was a good vibe too. One thing I've noticed is how good something as simple as the lighting is on this show when it wants to be dramatic (for example seeing Bortus on the birthing pot in the second episode, lighting and camera angles, as well as the bedroom shots of Ed/Alien Rob Lowe also using low lighting and low camera angles with a dash of "Austin Powers Nude Scene" camera positioning, the episode did good here in the look of the ship in the various states of power loss.
Nice tidbit i noticed, I think this is the first time we've seen parts of the ship, other than the bridge, in a higher alert status and in yellow alert we see some of the ambient lighting in the corridors and rooms have a yellow tint. (The sconces in the "ready room" had a yellow tint to them as opposed to the usual plain white color.)
Halston Sage did a good job carrying this episode as well as giving us more dramatic range and action-filled behavior as opposed to the previous episode focused on her. The humor in the episode, like most of the ones the last few weeks, was nicely balanced and worked in well with everything else without being too obvious or the show needing to stop for the sake of delivering the joke.
.... So the holodeck has an observation window? With that I liked how it showed the simulation working with Alara "running in place" and the corridor scrolling by her from the observer's perceptive. Give a nice look at the "treadmill effect" of how the holodeck's simulation works to provide spaces larger than the room itself.
Everyone in the cast did well and with this episode it seems more that MacFarlane's realizing his weaknesses as an actor and not taking the center stage as much allowing the other actors/characters to make up for what he lacks. (Though I think he's been decent so-far, but basically everyone else are more interesting characters played by better actors who make those characters interesting.)
I give the episode a "Good." It would've been an "Excellent," honestly, if the events were being caused by a malevolent entity and this wasn't a "holodeck episode."