It was inevitable that they'd lose some of the edge, I think, just because the initial premise had them all distrustful and uncertain of each other, and the only way to move forward was for those relationships to soften, which started softening everything a bit. I agree, though, S1 is my favorite in a lot of ways.

Most of the recent seasons have had a couple eps that have had me kinda wincing, but also some pure gems that made me really happy, and I'll happily rewatch almost every ep (... maybe entirely every ep, huh), which is rare for me.

And yes! Knowing that they actually had an end point in mind the whole time makes me really happy. It'll be interesting to see what it is and how they get there.