The balance of elements was much more skillfully struck this week. The action was more intense and realistic, with that brutal brawl on the ship between Carter and the big thug. (Even if you knew that thug would be getting a "back massage" to end the fight.) The humor was much more dry and strategically deployed. (Jarvis' quip that the "death ray" was in fact accounted for was fantastic.)
Most importantly, the drama hit well too. Krzeminski was the most cartoonish character on the show, a huge oaf who we wanted to see taken down a peg for his treatment of Carter. Having him get killed was substantially more than a peg, but it certainly served to make the villains of this tale seem a more credible threat.
Surprisingly, it even resonated with some emotional impact. No, it's not as though the audience was going to get choked up over it. But Carter did, and believably. It was a wonderful payoff for the nosy neighbor subplot, when Carter shared her bad day at the end of the episode. By all rights, that subplot should have been an obnoxious distraction from all the spy thrills, but instead it served as a vital and human element of the story, rounding out Carter as more than just an underappreciated badass. This death worked better for that purpose than that of the nearly anonymous roommate in the pilot.
It all felt like a step in the right direction to me, the high end of B. (Maybe even B+.)
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