The nipples...
glowed.
I'm not sure if that was nuttier than Sensei's deep intonations of "
Nuuudist Beeeeach."
The series hasn't entirely deviated from the villain of the week, but this episode makes me think that they'll be making a bigger format change fairly soon (and we're a quarter of the way in now). Like immblueversion said, the events here (and in the past) were more like Ryuko as the villain and Sanageyama as the hero. And the Sanageyama/Satsuki plot, though just introduced, didn't diminish at all... even if Satsuki gave him a second chance, it doesn't seem that his core ambition has gone away.
This also felt like the limits of how far Ryuko can succeed on sheer force of will alone... she either has to upgrade her combat abilities or start fighting smarter.