When I was a confused, angry, depressed 14-year old nerd watching this from a random not-great-quality torrent I downloaded on my shitty HP laptop I bought off a guy on craigslist with birthday money, held together with duct tape as I sat in silence on my bed when I was supposed to be asleep, this episode was the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my life up until then.
Evangelion was the first show I ever watched where by the end of each episode I said to myself "well, it couldn't possibly get any better than that." And then the next episode would be. And the next episode after that. And the next one after that. I still recall this one in particular left me breathless by the end.