The key line is “Space adventures leave little time for humans to deal with their inner struggles”. This line is important because it is wrong.

It's a little odd - I agree that it's the key line of the episode, but I don't think it's necessarily meant to be universally true (though it does reflect Pike's beliefs, or at least his avoidance of dealing with his own stuff [Edit: This is almost universally true of our captains over the years]), and I don't think it's really the point of the episode.

What I took away from it is a meditation on reality and perception - in a way, maybe the key line was actually what Pike said about the details fading, but the memories remaining. I think anyone who has experienced enough loss in their lives would find that pretty impactful.

I was enjoing the soap opera silliness up until that point, but I ended up really respecting the statements they were making through Pike's journey. It takes on an added dimension when you consider where he ends up, living out the rest of his days in a Talosian illusion. I wonder if Juliet will be there...

What the heck, I might as well make this my top-level comment and include some other scattered thoughts:

• Soap operas deserve more respect than they generally get - those people work.

• On that note, it was great to see Marlena herself, Deidre Hall, as the counselor. It's hard to imagine a better choice.

• I'm glad Spock slept through this one - he's hallucinated more than enough this season. And Ethan Peck crushed it as Evil Twin Sybok.

• One thing I do think has been missing this season is connective tissue for the character arcs. I suppose it's been there for La'An, but she's mostly been treading water. It was nice to see her dealing with the fallout of a breakout she initiated, but it still seems fragmented. The same can be said for pretty much everybody else.