There is a lot of rage to be had currently over
Seishi Minakami, who apparently is responsible for Index's script (at least according to the Japanese wiki; ANN only shown one episode though, and otherwise mostly involved with Railgun) and this episode in particular for all the scenes being cut. I never followed Index so I don't know how badly Index had its scenes cut but maybe people who watched Index can kinda guess the situation here with that information?
Good news is that Urahata is scripting the next episode (a pretty important one); the uncertain news is that Yoriko Tomita is in charge of episode 9 and 10 (both are very important episodes to me) and she is a newbie supposedly, so lots of skepticism there.
■ 8話 全域の支持者
脚本＝浦畑達彦 演出＝松本剛 絵コンテ＝今泉賢一 作画監督＝尾崎正幸、豊田暁子
■ 9話 高嶺(たかね)の花
脚本＝冨田頼子 演出＝江島泰男 絵コンテ＝田辺泰裕 作画監督＝佐光幸恵
■ 10話 スタートラインのラッパ吹き
脚本＝冨田頼子 演出・絵コンテ＝渡邊哲哉 作画監督＝斎藤雅和