I feel like Nolan’s switch to being an apologetic father should have been set up more. His behavior in S2E4 felt very abrupt despite not seeing him for 3 episodes. We had ONE scene of him remembering Mark as his son and then he peaces out into space. But before that he killed thousands of people in less than an hour and he didn’t show any pause while he was doing it. It didn’t seem like he felt any pause before doing any evil deed for all of season 1 in fact. But all of a sudden he’s remorseful and thinks he made a mistake. Maybe the show wants us to believe that his fight with Mark was so traumatic it instantly switched something in his brain and made him a new man.
It didn’t instantly switch. He still doesn’t understand why he’s feeling remorse over the dead Thraxans. His time on Earth and with his family changed him, but he doesn’t understand just how much.