A decent episode. A lot better than most of the past ones. Like Necromas said, the absence of the boring as hell close fights was a definite plus. Whilst nothing decisive really happened in this episode, the doll already having been braken in the last one, it looks like in both fights the real countdown began. Jolly good. Especially for the Deidara fight, which might have been better termed Deidara flight, of course.

Thinking of Sasori, though, it seems logical that beating him won't take much effort anymore. That's naturally good news for Sakura who's all but finished herself. What I mean is that since Sasori has replaced so much of his biological body with mechanical components, his ability to generate chakra must be greatly decreased. Controlling all those masses of iron sand must have drained him pretty well already. So, it's now a fight between two characters of very little juice left in them.