I don't quite like the details of how captive Data captured Lore, at least in the visual representation of sci-fi ideas, but the trick was really good and I didn't see anything coming soon enough to weaken the effect. Data's personality matrix (Left Spiner and Blue) still should have been the one to disappear, but right Spiner / red should have then become Data (mostly). Because that's what we're told happened, Lore "won" but became Data in the process. Oh well, it was still clever and cool, and the dialogue mostly worked either way.
I have exactly zero complaints about the other standoff. Jack was perfect, Seven was perfect, Data over the address system was perfect ("unwelcome guests and monologuing protoplasms,") and Vadic was her immaculately perfect self to the very end. "Hugging solids."
I was *dreading* the director and producer credits cards. I have zero plausible theories for myself what's behind the red door in Jack's inherited brain tumor. After they retook the bridge, that was pretty much the biggest feeling I had, gleefully dreading the cliffhanger. This show is quite good at them. I "can't wait to see what happens next", I'm utterly sucked into this plot at this point.
But hey! There are only 2 episodes left and we never got to the awkward middle. It is time for either the unsatisfying ending or something new for this show.
Wow, it really is. I really can't believe this is the same series where they were using Radio Shack drones to attack a NASA rocket last season. We're truly in unprecedented spaces.