The Freelance Police have been pretty busy this season, dealing with a variety of villains one after another while learning more about Max’s emerging psychic powers. This episode is little different, and immediately puts you in the action as the duo are forced to take shelter inside Stinky’s Diner to fend off a horde of ’zombie’ clones of Sam. Thankfully, the zombie siege is just the start of the episode, keeping itself funny but reasonably brief and moving on to the rest of the story once solved. This sort of excellent pacing and mostly knowing when not to stretch a joke too far along with good puzzles, makes for a very good episode indeed.

A mix of new and old characters make appearances throughout, and virtually every one of them is either meaningful to the story or hilarious (or both!), and easily the highlight of the episode. The puzzles are initially hard to understand (and give you clues that are unintentionally misleading), though once you understand the full layout and locations of the episode you’ll find they become much more enjoyable. You’ll alternate between using Sam’s conventional puzzle-solving and having Max chip in with his new powers, so things stay varied throughout.

Max’s powers deserve special mention, as they continue to be implemented well and this may be the best episode yet as far as this mechanic is concerned. There are only one or two points where they’re used poorly, and powers that used to hand you the puzzle’s solution on a platter are now a little more vague in giving you just hints rather than obvious answers. It really is a testament to the writers and developers that they’ve handled this so well despite its potential to ruin the season and they even work in a few jokes about some of the ways they could have done that; they’re well aware of this.

Like most of the previous episodes, this one will probably keep you busy for around two to four hours, and most of that time will be enjoyable. My only complaints beyond a few misleading clues (they’re meant to be there, but only become relevant much later in the episode) are that one puzzle near the end requires you to use the right power in the correct time and place, but you’re given no real indication you’re supposed to. Perhaps worse is that they do unfortunately run just one joke into the ground; Max’s insistence on using the word ’dopplegangers’ gets old after about the twentieth time he says it.

Those are mostly minor complaints however. Most of the puzzles are well laid out, the plot is genuinely interesting, and there is plenty of comedy to be found. This is an excellent episode, and sets the stage perfectly for the upcoming conclusion to the season. If you’ve been holding out in order to make sure a majority of the episodes in this season are good, rest assured they are and I can now recommend the season deal for purchase.

Oh, and stick around after the credits. There is a short scene that, while not amazing, gives a tiny bit more detail on some of the ongoing plot.