Written By: David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Directed By: David Benioff
Synopsis: Daenerys makes the slave traders a very generous offer; the survivors of the Night’s Watch reach Craster’s keep; Theon attempts to escape from his captors; Robb and Catelyn attend her father’s funeral; Jaime lends a hand.
The Verdict: Bet you didn’t see that one coming, did you?! What a fantastic moment to end this week on, a great cliffhanger that changes everything for poor Jaime, who up till now has been a cocky old bastard! Having his hand cut off could just be about the worst thing to happen to him, and now things look set to take an interesting turn for the worse. Love him or hate him, Jaime’s clearly the character with the best storyline this season, and this week’s episode is proof why! Just listen to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau scream and watch the look on his face when his hand gets the chop. Now that’s acting of the highest caliber right there!
Elsewhere, it’s also a great episode for Theon, whose escape attempt is edge of your seat stuff. It’s funny that it’s Theon and Jaime, otherwise known as two of the biggest and most hate inducing bastards in the whole show that are getting the most intriguing storylines so far this year, but hey, that’s just a testament to how great George R.R. Martin’s characters are.
This week also sees the introduction of Catelyn Stark’s family – namely her brother Edmure Tully (played by the ever excellent Tobias Menzies) and her uncle, Brynden ‘Blackfish’ Tully (Clive Russell). It’s a good introduction for the two characters, but troublesome. The opening funeral scenes are played for laughs mostly, when in the book they’re much more emotional. It doesn’t help that Robb is such a d*** towards Edmure either! All the scene does is set Edmure up as an idiot, whereas in the book he’s much more intelligent, honorable and above all, likeable. Here’s hoping for more character development on his part in the coming weeks. However, there is some great chemistry between Michelle Fairley and Clive Russell, which more then makes up for Edmure’s short thrift this week.
It’s a great episode of THRONES nonetheless. As ever, some characters get more then others (Jon Snow and the Nights Watch get very little this time, although there are plenty of chilling hints as to where things are heading), but it’s no matter, because what we do get is still top class TV. I for one can’t wait for the aftermath next week!
Best Bit: The cliffhanger. What a great, out of the blue, WTF moment. However…
Nitpick: The cliffhanger this week was ruined by that awful rendition of ‘The Bear and the Maiden Fair’ by The Hold Steady! It sounds too modern and comical, and completely ruins the excellent final moments of the episode. At least with last year’s rendition of ‘Rains of Castamere’, it at least sounded like it was of the period! Bad move guys!
LMAO: The scenes with Tyrion, Bronn and Podrick are pretty pointless to the main plot this week, but boy are they funny, especially as Tyrion reveals Podrick’s reward for saving him in Blackwater! Hats off to Daniel Portman, who works wonders with a character who on paper is pretty bland, and as ever, to Jerome Flynn and Peter Dinklage, who savor all the funniest lines and deliver them with gusto (speaking of Dinklage, the silent moment with the Small Council and the chair dragging was equally hilarious).
Titles: Riverrun makes a glorious entrance this week to the main title sequence. Love it!
It’s Wossiname: TORCHWOOD’s Burn Gorman turns up as a member of the Night’s Watch. It’s a brief glimpse, but next week’s episode, I get the feeling we’ll see more of him.
Best Line(s):
Littlefinger: “They’re just numbers. Numbers on paper, once you understand that, you’ll find it easy to make them behave. Trivial even. You want a real challenge, try whores”.
Tyrion: “I’ve tried quite a few”.
Game of Thrones returns next Monday on Sky Atlantic, as does THN’s Game of Thrones Blog!
