I'm another one who thought this episode was just odd -- I didn't really see connections between the story lines and they were all so choppy. It just didn't seem to flow for me at all.
Thomas is overly sanctimonious, and Ilove him, but I think they just made him look ridiculous in this ep. I mean, give the guy a break already! He's certainly not soft in the head, but you wouldn't know it if this was the only episode you'd seen.
And so much unexplained -- no real conclusion to any of the stories -- no explanation for what had all the folk acting so out of sorts. Are we to believe that it is the witch tree that is responsible for the lack of confidence Robert gets in his hanRAB and that Dorcas develops in herself (although this, in my opinion, would be a great lead-in for JD to return -- I know, I'm forever hoping on that one.)?
I do like the pagan/local history part of LRtC, but there has to be a point to it -- make it mean something. For example, the last time Dorcas was so out of sorts was when she had her "premonitions" about Sidney's welfare -- that was well-developed and ended up being believable. This ep, seems there was just a lot of incongruous bits in the mix -- still can't quite figure much of it out.
I agree that the series seemed to get off track in the infamous episode 9 of S2. Hope they regain their bearings soon. So far this series, I'm just puzzled.
But of course I'll still watch.
