Misato promises the pilots a steak dinner if they succeed, an impressive-sounding reward, to Misato, likely due to food scarcity surrounding the second impact.
Instead of identifying with the abandoned and confused Shinji Ikari, the perenially late, overburdened, stressed out Misato of episode 1 was immediately more compelling.
Shinji takes this into a form of actual retreat, whereas Misato, after her time spent institutionalized, has become an expert of being extremely superficial.