To me, the rescue showed how much he was still 'suffering' and that when he meant business.... He took no prisoners and absolutely wrecked them

I agree.

After S1, I read quite far ahead in the LN. This is the first anime that I have prior knowledge for, and it’s kinda strange. I like what they did with S2E0, which skimmed down and simplified things in a way I thought was reasonable. And I really like the relatively minor changes they made with S2E1. It really focused on the important things and didn’t get too lost in detail.

But with this episode, there was quite a lot of detail and pacing that was lost because they went through events so quickly. The snow drakes section was a lot simpler, but I think got to the important moments well. But the rescue scene, there was quite a lot more detail that was skipped, especially after discovering Sara and trying to rescue her. It felt much more dramatic. Instead, they basically showed it mostly as an easy cakewalk for Rudeus, which I guess works okay for how strong he is, but it wasn’t that simple in the LN. I think I preferred the higher excitement and drama of drawing it out a bit. But then it wouldn’t have fit into one episode, so that’s probably why it was cut.

Still loved the episode and really loving the animation this season. Glad it’s not dropping quality much from S1.