...while subtly explaining a few other key bits of exposition on the way. The episode appears to be focused on the new girl, Rio, neatly stitching together several bits of disconnected business from the novels into a complete story that still serves to introduce the original function, but works better as a cohesive unit.
It's easy to give credit to Takahiro Omori, who certainly does a fantastic job of making this unexpected detour come across as natural and fascinating, but Noboru Takagi is swiftly proving himself one of the best screenwriters in Japan. He really seems to understand Narita's style. I'm pretty sure the events in this episode don't happen in the novel -- and those that do, don't happen in quite this way -- but he's done such a great job matching the pieces together that it feels like they always were arranged this way. He did a bit of that over on Baccano!, which the flashback episode, but it's fascinating to seem him do that with material tonally opposed to what Narita is generally known for.
