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I think it's been touched upon a fair bit by other posters but the Shippuden Episodes all seem to be suffering from the same problems. Namely issues with scene-switching and pacing.
The over-all pace of the Gaara and Deidara battle has been fairly slow, but in general I think I liked the battle. Although I was rather indifferent to Deidara I think I’ve grown to like him with the final chunk of this battle, the concept of “mixing his clay with Gaara’s Sand” was interesting and one thing I’ve always enjoyed in Naruto is that most fights end with a moment of intelligence. I also think the fact that having Gaara’s last move be moving the sand from the village was a noble touch and reinforces the ‘changed Gaara’ that we’ve been introduced to.
The ending was well done in my opinion. The fact that Kankuru (sp?) was following Gaara’s sand works for me, it’s the cookie crumbs deal. I presume Gaara’s sand is slightly different from the desert sand due to being mixed with his chakra but it’s certainly similar enough to go unnoticed to the untrained eye, so it reinforces the understanding that the ninjas are highly aware of their environment, Kankuru especially. It’s also a believable flaw in Akatsuki’s plan to have not noticed Gaara’s sand dripping into the desert (or to have simply ignored it presuming it would go unnoticed), and the cocky and slow way they made their exit is fitting to their characters in my opinion, so I have no issue with it.
The ending with Kankuru’s puppets being stopped by the bony tail definitely had me intrigued and I look forward to the future battle. Sasori (sp?) seemed like a boring character at first, looking like a big heap that would do nothing but complain, however pulling out that tail move and proclaiming that he will end it shortly has me interested.
As for the Konoha stuff, it’s just too poorly timed. It ties in with the scene switching issue: Peaceful Konoha vs. Major Battle. I’m sure everyone knows what 90% of viewers would prefer to be watching. The Konoha scenes weren’t all that bad, its just their placement in the episode made it very easy to lose interest in them. In a way they ruined it, although I suppose in its own way it’s necessary for the story to continue, it would probably leave question marks as to exactly what Naruto is doing if they showed us nothing of what was happening in Konoha.
Over all, maybe a 6/10. It’s still dogged down by the same issues as before: pace, “replay scenes” of what previously happened and poorly placed scene switches.
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