Well first off this episode was a terrible waste of time reguardless of how the arc turns out. Not only that but considering that Ishida should have NO spiritual powers at all how did he suddenly sense the attack while nobody else had any idea. That aside how did Chad magically manage to fit through that window and get sucked into a portal.

As far as Renji goes he scored to well in the popularity contest and is thus condemed to filler hell its just that simple.