I can sum up this episode in one word: disappointing. Now, it could been a whole lot worse (fo sho) but compared to the last episode and the character development I thought would continue into this episode, it felt more like two steps back than anything else.
What?! There's no Mistress Penguin in this episode?! I call shenanigans!
Gripe no. 1: Yes, Himari is my favorite character in this show and that includes her alter ego. I expected that because this show is about trying to save her as well as the mysterious entity that now controls her, she’d have a bit more exposition. Trimming her screen time down to less than three minutes will undoubtedly make me a bit angry.
Gripe no. 2: I stated last week that Ringo didn’t get off on the right foot with me, but episode three gave her a bump in the right direction. Now she’s back to where she started. Her attitude towards anyone but Tabuki is off putting to say the least. I know she’s suppose to be a crazy stalker – that’s the one thing she does well – but because of that the little skits (which to me felt a bit cheap) did not make me laugh, not even a giggle, and because I didn’t find it amusing, those moments held no value for me. Since the entire episode was basically about Ringo and her escapades to get Tabuki to notice her, eat her cooking, whatever, it felt disappointing.
Gripe no. 3: Sometimes, not knowing where a show is going provides the necessary amount of mystery that keeps people watching. I thought we had moved on from the whole Ringo Tabuki thing. Episode four just feels like a longer version of Ringo’s visit to Tabuki’s apartment. With the way the stage is set, this show feels like it’s heading somewhere awesome. Now, while wasting an episode or two on silly antics shouldn’t hurt a twenty-four episode show, hopefully things get a move on. There was plot development just not as much as I would have liked.
Now that I’m done complaining, we can get to the things I liked.
Sho's jacket was awesome, I've never seen such a big zipper.
The fact Yuri knows full well what Ringo is up to and that she plans to fight Ringo for it, gives her two thumbs up in my book. I wonder how nuts she really is.
Cliffhangers always get me. Who pushed poor Asami down the steps? Was it the newly introduced – though barely seen – Natsume Masako (voiced by Horie Yui) who appears to have a grudge against our very own Kanba or someone we have yet to see?
The highlight of this episode.
And since we were severely lacking in survival strategies….
hellohelloanime 
Yeah, the episode was basically focused on Ringo and how accurate her diary foresees what happens. But the comical scenes they did felt very dry for me. The penguins (and the skunk I guess) make up for it though.
No new info about the penguindrum as well, so it’s like you said, just like episode 2. However, we do get a glimpse of a new character, whom I believe should be very awesome based on the OP. Yuri also seems like she’s hiding something too.
As much as I think they could have done better with this ep, it’s still good compared to the recent episodes of the other summer titles. Now I’m psyched for episode 5 ^_^
I agree, the new character seems like she’s going to be very awesome. Hopefully next week we get a break from Ringo and focus on her instead.
Also, the fact that they had an advertisement for the play Yuri stars in gives me the feeling that we’ll probably be seeing it in the near future and it will somehow be related to our main cast. Apparently Ikuhara likes plays (as seen in RGU and – even though he didn’t direct it – Star Driver).