[chounokoe]

I expected nearly nothing from this episode, because I hated this part in the VN (it dragged like hell and I actually for the first time stopped reading Umineko for 2 weeks in favour of another book at that point), except for Lambdas scene.
The surprise for me was that this episode really pulled me into the whole 魔法習い plot and I actually liked it.

I also liked how they cleared up (visually) that the two letters really seemed to point out that Episode 1 and 2 were planned, while 3 seemed to be a huge mess up.

I don't know about the Lambda scene, but as it was another rather tense scene, and the anime didn't have time at that point for mirage coordinators lengthy opening part, I didn't really miss the track here.
As long as they'll use it at one of two later points in this arc I'll be happy...as with Happiness of Marionette back in Episode 3, there are more fitting spots for the track in this episode, and I rather have them use their budget this Episode, because there's still tons of stuff they need it for.