Besides the strange few seconds before the intro I was shocked that they actually started this episode with recap.

The filler fights (maybe not in a manga vs anime sense but certainly in absolute terms of the story) got annoying, show us Ulquiorra, Yami or the other Arrancar, we really don't need to see hordes of masks falling over.

Actually looking forward to next week's episode though, that is a new feeling for Bleach compared to the months previous...