I think ep 2 fit perfectly in line with the first one. If they stayed with the girl it'd be a "normal" series.... but by centering on another character they prevented it from falling into the "this is a story about this person" series.

I think the sparkling thing was just to express how he was like the most popular kid around, kind of give him that "untouchable" sense. As a person, he was crap. As a character, I thought he worked pretty well.

I especially liked his line "Everybody is an idiot brainwashed by the media." He actually seems to slip into a decent perspective for just a second .... then of course goes berserk again.