Incisivis: Episode #02 is one of my favorites. I tend to prefer the second half of NGE, but there's enough to entertain me in the first half. I also like to think of the more solemn moments as tying the first half of the series with the second, so that there's not the sense of a total change.
Reichu: According to "Shinji Takase", Anno originally planned to use a little ditty for the episode subtitles (as in "secondary title", not "subtitles" as we tend to think of them), the piece known only as F-4. If you've heard it (it's included in S2 Works for those interested), perhaps you'd agree with me that Anno did well not to use it.
