Summary: Sansa escapes King's Landing with Littlefinger. Tywin preps Tommen for his new role as king. Jaime rapes Cersei next to Joffrey's dead body. Tyrion is imprisoned for Joffrey's murder. He tells Pod to leave King's Landing for his safety. Tywin assigns himself, Mace Tyrell and Oberyn as the judges for Tyrion's trial. The Hound robs an innocent man who decided to let him and Arya stay the night. Arya is angered. Sam takes Gilly to Molestown. The wildlings attack and slaughter a village. Davos comes up with a way to pay for troops. Dany arrives outside Meereen.
The Good: This was a solid episode with several good developments. Nothing stood out too much, but as a whole, I thought it was an effective follow-up to the chaos in the last episode. The return of Littlefinger was a terrific moment which managed to be both surprising and unsurprising. Of course Littlefinger would have something to do with Joffrey's death, and I'm interested to find out exactly how involved he is. I also liked the way that Littlefinger manipulated Sansa in this episode. He is an untrustworthy man, but he makes Sansa trust him by painting everyone else as worse than him. It's brilliant to see, and I always thought that Littlefinger was written better in small scenes like this. Tywin was great in this episode. He got over Joffrey's death extremely quickly, suspiciously quickly, which makes me believe that he may have had a role in Joffrey's death. I really liked the way he prepped Tommen for a kingly role while coldly saying how bad of a king Joffrey was, as it showed how straightforward this character is, and how he takes advantage of every situation to better his position. Tywin is fascinating, and this entire situation has been shockingly favourable for him. He even goes to Oberyn in an attempt to befriend Dorne, knowing that he needs them as allies. And now Tyrion is in prison too, and you would have to believe that Tywin would be happy to have the public believe that Tyrion is guilty. Everything is working out for Tywin and it is engaging to watch him do his job. Tyrion's final conversation with Pod was great. The scene did a great job of illustrating exactly how much trouble Tyrion is due to certain circumstances. Sansa's disappearance only worsens his situation and brings up even more questions about who was responsible for this (see: The Unknown). Of course it's easy to sympathize with Tyrion and I'm excited to see how he will try to get out of this situation. Furthermore, the goodbye to Pod was a genuinely touching moment. Even though we don't know Pod very well, we understand his relationship with Tyrion, making the scene meaningful and emotional. Tyrion's isn't the only situation that feels dire. Everything involving the Night's Watch feels like a big deal since the battle against the wildlings will be 100 vs 10,000. Their desperation is believable and I enjoyed seeing them strategize to prepare for battle. I also love that the mutineers have come back into the story in an organic way. The reasoning to go kill them makes perfect sense and it should make for some more exciting storytelling before what I can only assume will be a huge battle between the wildlings and the Night's Watch. A few other scenes were quite good. I want to get more attention on Oberyn and Tywin's scene. There were great tensions throughout the scene due to Oberyn's hatred towards Tywin, but I love how Tywin did everything he could to befriend Oberyn. It's an interesting development but I definitely don't see it sticking. Also, I enjoyed the brief scene of Daario killing the Meereen representative. It was appropriately quick and Daario did get to show more of his personality which is good for his character. I also enjoyed Cersei and Jaime's scene for the most part. Cersei was appropriately resentful towards Tyrion and I love the callback to when Tyrion told Cersei he will take her happiness away when she least suspects it. It felt very real and I liked it. The Bad: But the Jaime/Cersei scene was totally ruined by the end. Cersei was hateful and relenting while Jaime was fair and relatable. Evidently, Jaime was more of a hero and Cersei was more of a villain. But then these character arcs were destroyed when Jaime raped Cersei. Jaime gets a major setback after all of the terrific character work and Cersei for whatever reason is meant to garner sympathy, despite her having been called a "hateful woman" a second ago. This reversal of roles is awkward and doesn't benefit either character, damaging all of the storylines involved. It's frustrating to see something so poor in what was otherwise a very good episode. Dany's storyline is lacking once more. I can't help but fear that Dany is about to reach another easy victory and that is rather annoying. I want something more interesting for her. Additionally, the storyline about Jorah, Barristan, Daario and Grey worm all fighting for Dany's affections feels extremely dull and pointless. I have no reason to care and it's already getting repetitive and annoying. The Unknown: What does Littlefinger have planned for Sansa? I can't imagine it's anything good. Furthermore, what was his exact involvement with Joffrey's murder? Could he have orchestrated the whole thing to create chaos? Could Littlefinger have been in cohorts with Tywin about this to help set up a more ideal king for a reign? This all seems to have worked remarkably well for both Tywin and Littlefinger, so I have my suspicions. It also worked well for Olenna, who never liked the idea of Joffrey marrying Margaery. Could she have been involved too? How does Davos plan to get the iron bank to fund Stannis? That should be an engaging storyline. How does Tyrion plan to get out of his situation? Best Moment: I'll pick Tyrion and Pod's last conversation. A genuinely touching scene. Character of the Episode: Tywin. Conclusion: This was a strong episode, following up on one of the biggest moments of the show. I enjoyed this a lot, but the poor Jaime/Cersei rape scene drags the score down because of how detrimental it was. Score: 66
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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