“Heart of Stone” is an awkward, uneven affair that stumbles its way toward a rather important and well-conceived ending. Conceptually, the episode works fairly well as a vehicle for character exploration and development. But the execution of the ideas leaves much to be desired, resulting in the episode’s subplot being substantially better than its primary conflict. In the end, viewers may be able to look past the faults and accept the story on its merits but, objectively, the miscues doom the episode to mediocrity.

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The prospect of peace is the backdrop for “Life Support,” a strongly emotional and powerful episode. The central conflicts of the episode do a fantastic job of capitalizing on much of the previous character work that has been done on the series and the ending, in its crushing finality, drives home the central theme: life is precious. Objectively speaking, there are more than a few plot inconsistencies and questions which undermine the story, but through the sheer force of emotion, the episode manages to be thoroughly compelling.

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