I saw someone say the whole thing could've been condensed into just 5 renders or something like that, which I disagree with. But then I thought about some of the other short little stories concisely told, like the original Zoey story we shared with Bella in Episode 3. Or more recently, that flashback sequence for Stephen or the opening with Helen and Patrick.
I liked the Interlude well enough, mostly just for Zoey herself, but now I'm wondering if the whole thing could indeed have been told in a short and sweet sequence: things are good with MC, grandma dies, train station, then it's sort of split the rest of the time where we see Zoey enjoy herself in San Diego while MC is alone and miserable, their text messages growing colder and less frequent. Zoey eventually misses home and MC too much, decides to come back, and MC has already tried to let go and move on. Bing bang boom.
It's obviously just a summary, but I can envision the whole thing in my head. The only thing is that with such brisk pacing, the Zoey lewd would have to also be shortened or just not included at all, which would suck because I like it a lot. There's also the consideration that DPC intentionally made her story this whole big thing regardless of what was necessary, very indicative of his dev time ballooning out of control for the next 3 episodes.