I loved this episode.
- The entire "here comes the King in the North!" horror at the start was just gut-wrenching, and something we never saw in the books for obvious reasons, but its something I can definitely imagine happening.
- Arya and the Hound killing those Frey fuckers was hugely satisfying. And the comic beat at the end, with the Hound saying "next time tell me" was a LOL moment for me.
- So, Jaime is back in King's Landing. Interesting move - and I can see why they did it. It gives Jaime lots of opportunities in next season character interaction wise. More road-tripping with Brienne wouldn't really pay off.
- Stannis insisting on Gendry's sacrifice - and Davos arranging his escape - is consistent with the books, so I had no problem with it. I always like the Dragonstone scenes, and it was cool see Davos read the Night's Watch letter.
- If anyone failed to see the significance of Bran telling the story of the Rat Cook and the violation of guest right right before it cut to Walder Frey gloating to Lord Bolton, they're pretty dim
- Wow, they hurt Jon worse than in the books - nice one. I'm glad they didn't leave that issue alone and had him have it out with Ygritte.
- The Small Council scene was gold. I loved Varys' badly concealed disgust with Joffrey's depravity, Tywin calmly putting him in his place, and the subsequent conversion between Tywin and Tyrion made for great TV.
- Yara and Balon!. Was seeing the rest of the Grejoys in this episode out of left field, or what? Fuck Balon - what a miserable cunt. I love Asha (Yara) in the books and she's shaping up to be a favorite of mine in the show too.
- Theon = Reek. Excellent. And we can finally note all the hints given to viewer's this season as to where Theon was:
* Theon is practically mounted on the same X that form parts of House Bolton's sigil, shown to us repeatedly; and
* Ramsay kills his own men, one of whom realises what happens and calls him a "little bastard".
Scrib wrote:"Then let the northerners remember what happens when they march on the south". Badass. After a few fucking years of constant fawning over the Hard Men of the Cold North and how The North Remembers (!!) on every forum I visit it's nice to see it go the other way.
What do you even think "The North Remembers" actually refers to?
Completely skipped Bran's subplot. Not really interested in him at all.
I really don't understand that sort of attitude. So you just ignored that whole scene? If so, you missed out the entire Rat Cook story and the importance of guest right.