is he now just sober!Nate?

That could be it. He lost his son, and then he spent all his time staying numb and getting revenge, and now he's bailing on the numb thing and gotten revenge and trying mightily to stay in control of himself (which becomes trying to stay in control of everything, as Sophie points out). I'm willing to buy the character choices, but they are not so fun to watch.

I"m finding Sophie's existential crisis quite touching - she wants someone to love the real her, but the real her is a liar, so can that hypothetical someone be someone who is in on the lie (and only now do I understand some of her attraction to Nate (I am not a fan of that relationship (though I am also not a fan of Sophie pushing Nate to date someone else, what the hell is that?))) or will he have to love whatever she shows him whether it's "real" or not?

I am oddly void of opinions on anyone's hair.

Eliot's hair is definitely longer and has a curl to it that was not there last season.

I love the hair. A lot.

I must say, however, the fight scene in the last episode made me think "Why wouldn't the bad guy just grab that and yank?"

(though I am also not a fan of Sophie pushing Nate to date someone else, what the hell is that?)

I think that it's because he's the only one of them who can be honest in a relationship (as for work, he can go with "consultant" or "troubleshooter"), and she thinks that honesty is the reason that her relationships don't work out, so if that problem is solved, of course the people will be happy.

That makes sense. Not in an actual making sense way, but that she might think that, yeah.

His hair is longer and it seems to have more body.

I think it's the coloring more than the length for me.

<predictable>I am fine with Eliot hair.</predictable>

I think this year's characterizations lack the subtlety of last season. And have they totally dropped Hardison/Parker? There's more of the rest of the OT3 than that at the moment.

I dunno. I agree the feel is a little off, although I love some of the individual moments, certainly.

I think it's my competence kink. I'm missing the swagger. Which is probably why I'm still loving Hardison. He's still in his element, even though Nate is perhaps feeling out the new real him, minus the alcohol.

And have they totally dropped Hardison/Parker?

I don't know. All I can see is Hardison/Eliot. I mean, the scene with them under the desk was slashtastic.

I think what's off or missing to me is the element of shit-eating-grin FUN. If the characters being too awesome and omniscient means that the Clooney-Pitt Ocean's Eleven vibe comes back, then I'm all for it.

I'm stoned. "shit eating grin" has suddenly lost any slang meaning and just sounds nasty and why is it an expression?

Julie's on to something I think. Hardison and Eliot's blase arrogance grated on me in the beginning of this ep. They were almost bored with what they were doing.