This was a dark, dire episode that does a great job of setting up tension with the nerve jangling music, the grey-and-green pallete, the misty deep forests that seem to be clothed in perpetual night.
We also get more insight into the characters, not just the big three, and hear about their hopes and fears and perspectives on what is happening. Yabushige's nephew seems to be on a collision course with Toranaga now, as Buntaro is on a collision course with Blackthorne.
The details of this episode are very Game of Thrones-y. That's all I'll say, to avoid spoilers.
At the end, Blackthorne seems poised for a different journey that diverges from the one Toranaga and his clan are on. But since they're in the same story, we can be assured their paths will cross again, probably in the next episode.