I still stand by what I said last week - despite most of the internet seemingly liking last week’s character episode, I think you could genuinely cut most of it out.
As for this week’s episode, I think the back-and-forth about throwing Jod out the airlock could be significantly trimmed, namely just by having the kids show up in their ship sooner.
I do wonder, at this point, if the parent scenes were very necessary, seeing as how their message is deployed only within At-Attin’s vicinity, and isn’t at all necessary for them to get back home. Removing those scenes might make transitions within the main story harder, but you’d also be able to include more scenes that were previously removed, such as the one between Jod and Wim in hyperspace, or keep the runtime closer to 2 hours 30 minutes since I think it will be closer to 3 hours at this rate.
I agree about last week’s episode and it would have been very easy to cut virtually all of it………. if it wasn’t for the Onyx Cinder’s metamorphosis and elevation to a major plot point. The escape from the trash machine needs to be included and there isn’t enough footage between the kids reuniting and discovering their ship to cut everything else without it feeling jarring. I hate it when they mess around with the main starship, it really limits editing options - I had the same issue with Mando Season 2.
I wasn’t keen on this week’s episode either and it basically relegated the B plot of the parents on At Attin as irrelevant. But as you say, without those scenes scattered throughout the edit there will be too many jumps in the main plot. As always with these edits it’s a tough balance between runtime and pacing. I generally go for a better paced edit at the expense of a longer runtime.
At lest the last 2 episodes have been short!