Ok.... After starting this series 4 months ago, stopping it, and then starting again last night I finally caught up.... I still dislike Luffy, but Zoro is a good character, and I was surprised that I ended up liking Chopper, and I like several of the secondary characters. They do a good job of keeping them involved in the story.

As for this ep, yeah, it did suck that they brought Pell back. I don't think that any of the "good guys" have ever died in this story (not counting flashbacks). It does kill a lot of the suspense. For that matter, have any of the bad guys died? Just beaten up or captured I believe.