Just watched this episode, and I liked it more than episode 1, if only because of Hayate's (lack of) transformation scene, or because of Vita. I love how the grunts are gobsmacked by Hayate's magic. I love Vita's new uniform, and her non-emo professional demeanor while kicking ass. I look forward to her teaching the two newbies.
I got a strange vibe from the Nanoha / Fate exchange though. I wonder if anyone else feels like they will give Nanoha some incurable illness preventing her from releasing her full potential at critical moments, and make her a sort of TSAB Okita Souji.
It would even fit the pattern set by the AMF devices: StrikerS is set to reduce the old stars' magic effectiveness, so it's scarily believable that they would add another power check specially for Nanoha.
On the other hand, Nanoha could just have angry scars like her father, or even magical scars that hurt when exposed to magical radiation. (picturing a fist of the north star kenshiro/Grendizer Daisuke-Nanoha *ugh*)
About Hayate's mage rank, it's obvious you can be more powerful than your official rank shows, so if Hayate passed tests that Nanoha & Fate didn't even try, she could be ranked higher without being more likely to win in a fight.
However, from what I saw of her magic, she almost always adds a status affliction to the pure damage, and if RPG taught me one thing, it's that pure damage only goes so far, when a petrify/freeze (berserk/confuse/poison/sleep/stop?) can be an instant winner. Between Mistlestein and Starlight breaker, I would choose Mistlestein, even if I like Nanoha better (I wonder why I wasn't as annoyed by Hayate's weird way of speaking in A's).