The last few episodes may have left me underwhelmed, but this one totally brought things back around. Sure, it still has that gap where the visuals don’t quite live up to the grandeur of its themes, but the discussions here were compelling, and the way the conflict played out among the characters hit just right. Badeni’s argument with the Abbot is a perfect example: you have the Abbot sitting there with his eyes closed, symbolically turning a blind eye to the truth, while Badeni’s face is all irritation and frustration. I love how the show doesn’t just set up this “science versus church” debate but goes deeper into it as a theological conversation too. Badeni’s argument is based on the retrograde motion of planets, claiming it’s a “system flaw,” and since God doesn’t make mistakes, there must be another explanation. He believes that God wouldn’t create a world humans can’t understand, while the Abbot refuses to engage, pulling out the “mystery of faith” defense—classic, echoing the real Galileo versus church clash. One thing that felt overdone, though, was the pursuit angle; it’s a bit much since historically, Galileo could’ve shared his ideas as hypothesis, just not as “the truth.” This episode, though, seemed to blend in Reformation-era tensions, especially when Badeni is struck down for reading the forbidden astronomy book and then suddenly launches into a full critique of indulgences and papal secularism. It’s very Reformation and not exactly relevant to heliocentrism. That scene felt forced, but the other dialogues actually felt real, especially the final one where Badeni and Oczy re-enact planetary orbits, showing how logic alone reveals heliocentrism. I admit, I never fully got the logical flaws of the geocentric model until this episode spelled it out, so props to the show for teaching me something. Oczy’s growth here was also great: at one point, he looks up and sees ominous, watching eyes, symbolizing his fear of the heavens. But by the end, after beginning to see the beauty of the universe as a harmonious whole, his eyes reflect that change, showing the cosmos as something beautiful mirroring in them. Amazing episode. After all these setup pieces, I’m really hoping we’re finally heading into the story itself and watching it unfold.