This episode is beautiful in part because it shows how the ancient Mayan gliphs were gradually deciphered, through the tireless work of individuals -- women and men -- and also through the developing understanding of an entire community of epigraphers, archaeologists, and others. But it does more. It explains how the decipherment of these ancient writings forced the experts to revise their previously imagined histories of the Maya people and restored to today's Mayans the history that had been taken away from them. In addition, it uses effective visual effects to help individual symbols take on meaning so that the viewer can understand how the texts and carved stone pillars that survive contain powerful stories composed of words and sounds, not just a blur of markings. Cracking the Maya Code is well done and well worth anyone's time.