Summary: A fat coward named Sam joins the Night's Watch and he is picked on but Jon becomes friends with him and helps him get assimilated. Dany fights back against Viserys. Littlefinger gains Ned's trust by helping him with the Jon Arryn mystery. At a tournament, The Mountain kills Ser Hugh who was Jon Arryn's squire. Tyrion starts heading to King's Landing and runs into Catelyn at a bar. Catelyn accuses Tyrion for murdering Bran and he is taken in by her.
The Good: The ending of this episode was fantastic. Finally an event has happened which is bound to affect the story massively and start pushing the plot forwards. It looks like we are finally done getting exposition (for now at least), and I'm more than ready to get to the meat of this story. The final scene was done very well as it dramatically emphasized on Catelyn making the most of a bad situation where she got spotted by Tyrion, and it has resulted in her making a big decision to capture him. The rest of the episode featured mostly just stories. Various characters kept telling their stories to increase our understanding of them and the world they are living in which is good for the most part. Sam's story was particularly good as it made us sympathize with him despite the fact that he appears to be totally useless. It also helps us understand why Jon would stand by his side and become friends with him, as Jon must pity him for having a father who doesn't care at all about him, while Jon had loving Ned as his father. Alliser Thorne's story was another really good one and it served the story a lot. We don't know much about The Wall and what is behind it, so to learn more is a good way to spend our time. Alliser talking about the horrors he experienced in the cold is a great scene which helps explain why not many people want to join the Night's Watch and why it's considered a job for criminals to do, seeing that so many criminals are sent to Castle Black. Furthermore, the story also helps flesh out Alliser's character and why he is so cold (pun not intended) to the new recruits since he knows what they are training for. I enjoyed the King's Landing scenes with Littlefinger and Ned a lot. I love that King's Landing has a different atmosphere from the rest of the show in that Ned can't trust anybody and feels like he is in hostile territory despite his position as Hand of the King. I was fascinated by Littlefinger explaining the way of the city and all the spies there, and it makes me question who is really on Ned's side and who is actually trustworthy. It even makes me question Littlefinger a bit, which is great development. Due to the abundance of spies everywhere, every character's conversations will likely have an air of tension to them. Dany's story was fine as she finally snapped at Viserys. I do feel that it's really rushed and would have been better if it had time to breathe, but I still enjoyed it enough to put it in The Good. The Bad: The big Ned/Cersei scene ended up being pretty anticlimactic. They didn't really accomplish anything or prove any point. Cersei just showed up, they exchanged vague threats and then Cersei left. It felt like a filler scene which didn't add much to he story, which isn't good for a story which already feels pretty cluttered. Sam plays his role too well. It's a rare case of the actor who was cast being too good at his job as he plays Sam as so perfect of a coward that it feels like too much. But unlike Joffrey, Sam doesn't have a backstory which explains his personality and why he is the way he is. That makes his character less plausible and a little hard to buy into, detracting from every scene he is in. I'll return to the stories for a bit now because there were some I didn't like. The Viserys scene where he was with the whore wasn't very enjoyable. First of all, it went far too long and wasted a good chunk of the episode without really telling us anything worth knowing. We understand that there are dragons in the world and there isn't any need for us to know the little details about dragons, especially when we are still trying to get down the names of characters, locations and more. It's jut not the best way to spend our time and it isn't that interesting either. Also, I was annoyed by the decision to give Viserys a naked whore, as it felt like the show telling us "here look at this pretty girl so you don't get bored during this long scene". Jaime and Jory swapping stories is the other story scene that I didn't enjoy too much, and it's all because of the ending. The scene itself is very good as it helped further our understanding of the Greyjoys (see: The Unknown) and also served to help develop Jaime's character as a villain who is rather charming. Unfortunately they threw it away when Jaime suddenly inexplicably snapped at Jory for suggesting he hold onto the message. It was nonsensical and out of character, which felt like a hamfisted attempt at reminding us that the Starks and Lannisters don't like each other. I wasn't sure how to feel about Hugh's death. While I do have a lot of questions (see: The Unknown), I wish that I had more clarity about how big of an event this was. Do things like this often happen? Will The Mountain be punished? Will there be any kind for justice for this? The show failed to give the scene meaning which is pretty disappointing. As a nitpick, I didn't like the decision o have Littlefinger tell Sansa the story of The Hound. I thought he sat next to Sansa as an attempt to improve him relationship with the Starks or even because she reminds him of Catelyn. But instead he tells a creepy and dangerous story to her which makes me question why he did it. He didn't have to and it certainly wouldn't help improve his relationship with her as much as it would scare her. The Unknown: What was with the three-eyed crow in Bran's dream? Who is Hodor and why does he only ever say Hodor? Why is Theon with the Starks? How did they acquire him and why did they acquire him? Was it from that rebellion which was frequently mentioned in this episode? Is he actually liked by the Starks or does he feel like an outsider? What is the significance of his existence? Will the Greyjoys come into play later? Also, I want more information on that rebellion that happened and failed. What was Jon Arryn doing which led to his death? What was in the book he was reading? What was so important about Gendry and him being Robert's bastard son? Was Ser Hugh killed on purpose by The Mountain or was it just a coincidence? Which family is he allied with? The ending scene was interesting because we learned about a lot of new families. I doubt that the show explores all of them but I would love to see more details about the families, where they live in Westeros and who they are allied with. Tyrion's capture is a very big development. What will Catelyn do with him now that she has him? How will Tyrion try to prove himself to be innocent? Also, how will the Lannisters react to this news? It can't be good for Ned who is in foreign territory now. Best Moment: The ending was fantastic, so I'll go with that. Character of the Episode: Despite his few scenes, I have to pick Tyrion. He's just so likeable and charismatic. I enjoy watching him in a way that no other character has achieved so far. Conclusion: This was another solid episode, but it was more flawed than the others. However it does appear to be a ray of light as it seems like the story is preparing to push forwards and become more interesting and I can't wait for that. Score: 59
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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