Originally Posted by Moskie

but doesn't it seem like this season is a ton more blatant with those things than previous seasons have been? I feel like they're trying to pack so much more stuff into each individual episode, so that each one is more self-contained than ones from other seasons have been. Like this whole ordeal with the Chinese... it'd make so much more sense to have this thing be a stroy-arc that lasts for like half the season... but instead they churn it out in 2 or 3 episodes.