Seriously, what happened? If I hadn't been paying attention I would think I just blacked out for the middle of the (apparently unnecessary) plot. This episode had a setup... and then they skipped right on over to the resolution. Now, I know that "show. don't tell." gets tossed around by writers, but I'm fairly certain it doesn't apply to critical plot points.
Ugh!
The ending was nicely done, though. (Quoth the girl attempting to find a silver lining.)