This was easily the best episode this season, but while the writing can be pretty fantastic, the acting is all over the map. The amount of time between reveals was a bit short, however, which took some of the wind out of the sail of the episodes two big plot points. That said, with the large shakeups this episode did unleash, hopefully the episodes going forward will have more material to work with.
The series has potential, and barring some missteps, this was a change for the better. And ultimately, that's about the best way to summarize the midseason mark. As an individual episode, it was fairly decent, but the amount of variables it has thrown in to the mix now, with several threats on the ground surface, and questions about whether or not establishing contact to the station above will be even possible with the political actions underway spaceside, this could help make things better, by going in two polar directions: Either by shrinking the amount of groups to worry about, and thus giving both the individuals and the threats more focus time, or by expanding them, and thus minimizing the required amount of "fluff" episodes needed to keep the universe interesting.
Either way, this was perhaps the episode that made me the most excited for the series going forward.