This review will contain spoilers, this is your one and only warning, episode spoilers will not be prefaced.
Hi all, Arse-bot here filling in for Proletariatron on Game of Thrones duty for the week! And what a week it was! While not incredibly heavy on the “action” – aside from that awesome opening battle between Beric and The Hound – there was a lot happening and a lot of movement in everyone’s respective story lines. So let’s get to the run down!
The Good
- Jon Snow’s journey North of The Wall continued as he finally gave in to getting nude with Ygritte. While she seems sincere in her attraction to Jon, there’s most likely going to be consequences for breaking his Nights Watch vows.
- The Hound was judged by combat, and defeated Beric Dondarrion and his flaming sword – however, Beric was promptly brought back to life by the Lord of Light via Thoros
- Damn it all to hell Jaime Lannister. I thought for sure I had you pegged as a true villain in this show, but over the last few episodes you’ve started to make me question that. Are you acting for your own selfish reasons still, or was your bath tub conversation with Brienne of Tarth sincere? Time will only tell.
- Also, I’m chalking up Tywin forcing Cersei to marry Loras as a good thing, because it’s about time this smug Queen Regent got a little of what she deserved – and a loveless marriage is a good start, however…
The “Bad”
- Tyrion is being forced to marry Sansa to “secure the North”. It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out.
- Jon Snow is in a tough spot right now, and now he’s forsaken his vows – perhaps this “cover” of his would best be served to become a reality for him?
- Arya has lost the last of her companions with Gendry deciding to stay on with The Brotherhood.
- We finally met Stannis’ wife and daughter, which proved to be depressing as hell. His wife is a loon who keeps dead babies in jars, and his poor daughter has what appear to be grey scales covering half of her face.
- Robb Stark is quickly losing his grasp on this war as half his men deserted after the execution of Karstark. His only option now? Return to the man who’s daughter he was supposed to marry and presumably beg for reinforcements.
- Barristan is vying for Jorah’s place at Dany’s side – does he know about Jorah’s spying he was doing to King’s landing back in season 1?…
This was a great episode that moved all of the plot lines along nicely – for better or worse. Tyrion has had the shit piles on since episode one of this season, and continues to get screwed around every turn despite having nearly single-handedly devised the strategy to defend King’s Landing. Jaime is growing as a character, but it’s hard to not think he has a plan up his sleeve, and Robb is quickly losing ground in a war that started off so well for him. Dany is amassing her army to take back the throne, but she still has quite the journey ahead of her; and one of my favorite characters, Arya, is now on her own, supposedly set to be delivered back to her brother and mother – which may not be as touching a reunion as some are hoping for. We are only half way through the season, so a lot more is set to happen!