Okay, I don’t know if that’s helpful as I’m just giving you my thoughts as I imagine having them if this were a new show.
Totally useful Hal, thanks. It’s really useful to have these eyes. This arc does indeed set up some important clones coming forward, and like you say, this (and a couple of the earlier episodes) establish much more of clone personality. As you’ve noticed, they’re not docile/obedient… Though essentially the main clone plot throughout this show is an exploration of their relationship with their orders, mostly shown through Captain Rex, who gets some interesting loyalty based storylines.
The quick pacing is really quite a feature of the original show - it did absolutely whip past. But I think that helps me, because if I have to trim, and the resultant pacing is still quick, well, it’s not jarring.