The only girl he likes is mom and people who remind him of mom.

That's nice Shinji, now get in the robot.

To be fair, even as a straight hetro male, I was rooting for Kaworu and Sinji more than Sinji with Rei or Aisame.

End of the episode was heart breaking. I feel like Kaworu really saw Sinji for who he was, even now I cannot get over it in the back of my mind.