The Week in Superlatives: The Missing Piece, Meanest Cliffhanger, and Most Shocking Return

Even in an era when the all-day news cycle is already dizzyingly busy, this week was a doozy. Between those gripping impeachment hearings and the latest 2020 candidates' debates, TV was a whole different animal this week. In case you didn't have a chance to catch much of the scripted content out there, here's a rundown of some of the small screen's standout moments of the week that didn't involve existential questions of our democracy.

The missing piece: There were a lot of takeaways from The Crown's third season: the new cast slipped right into their royal roles, that Aberfan episode was absolutely devastating, and Princess Anne (Erin Doherty) is the snark queen we all needed. On that last note, though, there were some fans who noticed a glaring omission in the season's storyline when it came to Anne: her thwarted kidnapping attempt. Even though the show didn't dig into that memorable moment from palace history, that's a story worth brushing up on for sure.

The familiar feel: Watchmen's latest episode dug into the history of Wade Tillman, aka Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson), and although the show has echoed Damon Lindelof's style in previous shows before this week, the big squid attack scene was exceptionally on tone with some parts of The Leftoversthat it's yet another reminder of how criminally under-appreciated that series was in its own time. And just like Lindelof's Lost and The Leftovers before it, this is one of those shows you just have to sit back and let wash over you, and this episode was a perfect example of that.

Meanest cliffhanger: Chicago Firegave Dawsey fans what they've been waiting for when Dawson (Monica Raymund) returned and had some, um, cozy time with Casey (Jesse Spencer). The sight of them together again -- however briefly -- might've been satisfying, but the fact that their future was left open-ended was completely cruel. Surely they won't leave us hanging like that. Surely not.

Most shocking return: Until now, there seemed to be very few connections between the first and second seasons of Hulu's Castle Rock, but after this week's installment, we now know exactly why The Kid (Bill Skarsgard) had to live -- he was actually an Angel waiting on his people to return from the dead so that they could worship him again. We still don't know what he'll do now that all of his faithful servants have returned as body-snatching weirdos 400 years later, but that sight of The Kid in his cloak was quite a stunner, no matter what becomes of it.