Well ... first of all, I'm glad that your perspective on the new job is all bright and shiny. You deserve a good place and good people, not those nutters. It's one of the most horrible things to work at a place that keeps treating you badly. Also, yay for unexpected free time!

On the other hand, it's such a sad story. Why must there be always someone who destroys a good thing? And it's never the task or a hostile environment, it's almost always a person from within who ruins it.