Rian's quest to clear his name is the weakest part of the episode and it takes two more episodes before he finally gets people to believe him (and meets Brea). On a rewatch his meeting of Deet is done very naturally and is not too contrived. I don't see them as a couple, though. I think they're very close platonic friends.
The episode does the uncomfortable thing and humanises Gelflings in more than one way. Yes, there are some ugly Gelflings in Stone-In-The-Wood. They're not all pretty like Jen and Kira from the original film. Even the Elves in 'Lord of the Rings' had the occasional Hugo Weaving.
The most valuable player in the episode is Aughra. Like skekTek, who is expanded from one-dimensional villain into the Skeksis' punching bag, Aughra is different, but in a good way. In the film she was a comical old hag. In the series, she's strong, compassionate and nurturing. The scene between her and the Skeksis is full of both comedy and pathos, sometimes, considering the Emperor cuts ties with her while wearing his frilly bath nightie, both at once. The scene where she sees the corrupted Crystal for the first time is heartbreaking.
Meanwhile, skekSil gets back into skekTek's good graces by giving the Scientist- who now has a mechanical device where his right eye used to be- a pair of Gruenaks with their mouths stitched shut Ofgeorge-style as gifts. This is my other favourite scene in the episode not only because the Gruenaks are instrumental to the plot but because skekSil and skekTek are two of my favourite characters. The puppeteering from Warrick Brownlow-Pike and Olly Taylor is beautiful in this scene. It took me a while to notice that skekSil was making a bunch of eye-related puns to get on skekTek's nerves.
skekSil's lie about Mira surprisingly works among the Gelfling, but I shouldn't be surprised, given how gullible humans can be in real life.
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