THIS is how this storyline was originally going to begin.

I decided I wanted that scene with Tedd and Grace discussing Grace's extroverted desires, however, and I wanted to keep things being in chronological order.

Once that decision was made, it made sense to keep focus on Grace and Tedd to better imply the passage of time.

As for who these guys are, why the heck they look like that, and what ANY of this has to do with a storyline called "Layers," well... We'll get to that