All the Sasori backstory rehashing really underwhelmed me, mainly since we'd seen so much of it before, but the death scene was done well, and Sakura got to writhe in pain so it wasn't a totally boring episode. To be fair though, I can't really hate Sakura as much anymore since she's clearly no longer useless baggage. Her movements and techniques are actually befitting of a ninja as opposed to the lackluster fighting skills she displayed in Part 1 the few times she actually engaged in combat.

Tacking on Kakashi's new Sharingan at the end of the ep seemed like they were trying to create anticipation, but then the entire preview was all about the stupid clone fights and it evaporated. It's probably going to be the same filler writers writing the script for the clone fights anyway so I think we can expect some really corny lines as Team Gai magically discovers a way to beat their previously unbeatable opponents.