What is the most intriguing episode?

I don't understand the love for the hot chocolate episode. That was the height of pretentiousness in an already pretentious-feeling show, and I was very close to dropping it after that point. The episode was completely pointless and was extremely hard to sit through so early in the season.

Any other episode will do. I would much rather recommend the one with Kobato covering up his cake crimes from Osanai, or the one with the hot sauce cupcakes. Those showcase the tone of the show well, while still being about the characters and a little fun at times.

@perseii Really interesting how differently people react to that episode. I had a completely different feel for the hot chocolate episode. That was the episode that actually perked my interest in the show due to the approach of taking the mundane event (making hot chocolate) and making a mystery of it. Perhaps I enjoyed it because I still think that Kengo was deliberately challenging the MCs to "solve" his mystery to shake Jougorou from his desire for an "ordinary" existence. It was the first inkling that the characters had motivations outside of what their characters showed up front. I still think Ep. 2 is the best to see if someone would be interested in the show. It kind of exemplifies the best and worst traits of the show without giving much up in the way of spoilers. Also the way that Kengo eats his cake was excellent!

People saying episode 2 lol, hands down the most boring anime episode I have ever watched. How did people find that intriguing??

Yh yh yh, I get preferences and all, but that's besides the point here. I can tolerate most opinions and co but it's like when u watch something that was like the lowest of the low you've seen in anime and someone tells u it was peak its kind of hard to accept that opinion, is like someone telling u they enjoy killing to a normal activity as a pastime. U can't accept that. That's exactly how i feel when it comes to this show, more or less.

I somewhat agree, only in the sense that it's so ridiculous that I would get morbidly curious.

I do think "making hot chocolate with only a spoon" could be interesting, but the whole episode I could not stop thinking, "but WHY does this matter?"

The hot sauce Berliner episode had a small cast of side characters and some interesting implications, such as "why would anyone eat hot sauce then lie about it?" and "what's really wrong with this club?" And the Kobato vs. Osanai cake episode was driven by Kobato's "fear" of Osanai and his "addiction" to dominating people with his intelligence, which is actually strange and says a lot about his character.

The hot chocolate episode had no purpose and no stakes whatsoever, even by Shoushimin standards. I don't think Kengo was testing/provoking Kobato; Kobato just saw a spoon in the sink and went off on his own. To be frank, I don't really care either way, anyway; Kengo is not much of a character or particularly interesting. The solution to the mystery was very uninteresting as well.

Maybe I would've liked the episode better if they just snuck it in later in the season, once we've all gotten more used to its tempo and its characters. If this was the very first episode someone showed me, without prior knowledge of Hyouka, I would've most likely bailed out. And I like mysteries and mundane slice-of-life shows.