I agree, it was a really bizarre narrative choice to all of a sudden have the player controlling a non-MC character. It was jarring and very poorly written. That whole scene, I think, both from a render/art perspective and a writing perspective, felt unneeded, badly written, awfully paced, and inconsequential.
I remember specifically one render after the guy hits on them and gets turned down, then there is a render with no dialogue that focuses on the dude in the back with Sasha in the front and it is extremely blurry on her face for that render, it's a bizarre artistic choice. Weakest part of the episode by far.