[Guido]

I say this was an excellent episode, and another one to add to the roster of best episodes for the Amagai Shuusuke arc.

The episode in-depth explored two conflicting issues:

Spoiler for The First One:

Opinions were divided among those squads deploying under orders, and those trusting Ichigo.

The issue of conflict in Soul Society is that peace and harmony must be maintained at all costs, even at the expense of sacrificing one's individual judgement.

At the aftermath of Aizen's betrayal and Ichigo's astounding achievements, however, that mentality changed even if it is little-by-little.

I suspected that Yama-jii had made to deploy all the squads at once, in order, to test their compability among each other or not whether be sticking to the orders or following their judgement.

This, in turn, has given to Captain Amagai and Ichigo's party a little bit more of time on the loose to accomplish the rescue.

If Yama-jii overrules any proposed ideas about undergoing research on the Kasumi-Ouji nobility, that is because I presume either 1) he's waiting for something weird to be let out in the open that'll definitely give evidence out to incriminate the Kasumi-Ouji or 2) he has been suspecting all along the Kasumi-Ouji at the beginning of the arc and is performing an underground investigation upon the nobility household.

Let us keep in mind that Yama-jii has to remain unbaised and neutral in public in order to keep harmony and peace within the Gotei 13.

Spoiler for the second one:

The arc is heading towards the area of conflict with Kifune v.s. Kira match on next week. As thing are going, will be soon at the climax.

Kira did an excellent hound job at sniffing out where might Kifune be hiding and discovering Lurichiyo's location at the same time. Unfortunately, the guards stall him so that at least one escaped scot-free with Lurichiyo, and now Kira has to face-off against Kifune.