You know, when the fanservice parts are better animated with more consistent sakuga than actual battle scenes, that says a lot on the direction of the episode...
Anyway, the first half was terribly slow, with the scenes being cut and disjointed by info dump, with little care about how it was a momentum break.
Second half was much better in that regard, and we have finally a much better albeit short glimpse of Kazuto concern, which had the proper vibe, although the alliance help would rather be Leefa's suggestion there
It is finally time for Asuna to make her move, although again, from a game and program perspective, I fail to see why there isn a simple directive that would deny any action done by Asuna within the game firmware... Ah well, that's Sugou for you.
One major complain here: how the hell ALO Kirito can dual wield? This skill does not exist in ALO, and here he manages to pull that without any penalty and still using obvious dual wielding moves (it isn't a mere: have 2x 1h sword equipped).
And a side note: would it be correct to assume that the Salamander Lance platoon chief claimed Kirito was with an undine player to make up for being spared by Kirito early on? That's a tad... out of proportion, especially how it affects his own faction...