The Bottled Conundrum in TV

The bottle episode is the most theoretical form in TV. It's not imported from other genres, it's not from film or stage. The economic pressure to develop an aesthetic response to a specific issue creates this kind of "meta reflexivity" that people get invested in. These episodes often overwhelm our memory of the rest of the show. And pushes, pushes an understanding of character and the world as it pushes its characters with and against each other.