I agree it felt very unexpected to kill off Sheila, but it makes sense if you think about it (maybe a little too much
).
At first glance he should just kill both, but on the other hand Vera doesn't have to fear Elliot physically and Elliot can't turn him into the cops again because given that he broke Vera out of jail there's Mutual Assured Destruction between the two of them if they ever get arrested.
On the other hand Elliot DOES have to fear Vera physically, he doesn't give a **** to kill people, which was made clear to Elliot by taking out Sheila. So if Elliot tries to go after him again in some other way, Elliot knows everyone in his life is potentially in danger.
So from Vera's perspective he has full dominance over a guy that could be very helpful to him in the future.
I really enjoyed this episode. Very intense at certain moments and once again great acting and great music. Though some scenes in Elliot's appartment were kinda lame.
I think people are expecting the wrong things from this shows, going after E Corp every episode wouldn't work, it just would be the same thing over and over again (them failing at it at the end of the episode) since obviously once they successfully pull of the hack that plotline is mostly over so they have to save that for the end of the season, maybe even the end of a later season. It's a show about hackers, not a show about taking out E Corp. E Corp is just the main "villain" at the moment.
Also, the plotline between CTO-to-be dude and wannabe-CTO dude is amazing. I'm curious how it will evolve though, wouldn't CTO-to-be-dude just fire his ass the moment he becomes CTO (or after a few weeks at least)? I guess wannabe-CTO dude will find something to hold over him. It was hinted this episode that they will set up his wife to cheat on CTO-to-be, so maybe it will be that.