The episode leans pretty heavily into exposition and Aoi's flashbacks which made the pacing feel slow. I'm still not sold on Oryou although learning more about her was interesting. Aoi and Oodanna haven't progressed much relationship wise but she definitely seems less intimidated by him now. My biggest issue with this series is definitely the exposition overload. The character interactions are easily the strongest part, yet the show keeps slowing down to dump information on us. It makes episodes feel way more boring than they need to be.