As an anime-only watcher... I actually felt that this episode was rushed.
Well, maybe rushed isn't the right word, but there sure was a lot of material to stomach. =O I thought it was really interesting seeing Battler and Beatrice viewing the events going on as 'outside observers' while a different version of themselves (I'm assuming??) was actually participating. And I was really really confused at the end when the adults were acknowledging Beatrice... but I guess that'll be explained later. I also thought the scene where George proposes to Shannon was really sudden, because the prior scene had everybody walking out together. There was a bunch of other things that puzzled me in this episode but since this seems like the build-up to the storm, I'll just play along and wait for what comes next. Even though I felt like a little too much happened in this episode and that the transitions were really quick, I still liked it and I'm intrigued & excited to see where the story goes.