I must say, the new Bill Murray show looks good.
Okay, let’s guess who dies. My money is on a Lannister.
We start in the cold Hodorless waste land. I bet the sled was a lot easier to move when Hodor was still alive. The time travel mixed with flashbacks were cool but is that another Stark I see? Oh, please may that be the uncle. One thing Game of Thrones is good at is to bring back characters that you might have forgotten about. Well, not the Lady Stoneheart because why follow up that central novel story arc? I mean, who needs a strong female force in entertainment, right?
We move rather quickly to Sam and company. We finally get to see the bigoted butt munch that is his father. As evil dads go, his doesn’t even rank a blip on the radar for this show, but more on this later (this was written as the show happened and I was guessing the dad wasn’t Tywin Lannister level of evil, more Cliff Huxtable level–and you can take that how you want to). His son meets the mom first and I’m struggling to remember if that is really Gilly’s son or did the show follow the book here.
Tommen and the High Sparrow meet alone…again. Is anyone weirded out by this? The Queen looks a bit better now, but she does indeed sound mad–as in insane. As someone who has seen her connive against Cersei and often win, it’s hard for me to imagine she is being truthful here. I think someone better check for kool-aid lips.
Sam is back. Back again. *cue EM*. Gilly looks stunning all cleaned up. Wow. Seriously, she’s like the girl with paint on her clothes in a teen rom com. What season is it? Wabbit season! There’s no way quicker to show what a cold blooded hunter you are than to kill a rabbit. No joke. They cry like little babies (human ones) when injured.
Pop Tarly is more like a grumpy doodoo head, but he’s mostly just a grump. That is until you hint you might be a Wildling. Then he’s just a louder grumpy old man. Honestly, this reminds me a bit of the way the 1950s would treat a white man bringing home a black woman for a spouse. I was expecting a bit more from evil ol’ pop but this doesn’t even rate a puddin’ pop.
‘He doesn’t know who you are.’ Another introspective moment about Knowing. It seems that knowing is a bit like magic in this world. And with that, the show pushes us onward to one who knows who she isn’t.
Arya gets to see a slightly better play for her. No more is her father being laughed at as a witless fool, but Joffrey dying is the main course for the stage. The play within a play is not new, but this one also exposes a girl for who she is. Arya’s Knowing (lookie lookie a theme!) of how Cersei felt pushes her into finally facing who she is. By that one act, she reclaims herself but is it too late?
Jaime Lannister up on a horse. That’s what sets up the battle for the city. Speaking of Lannister, if the Mountain can come back to life how can Jaime not get at least a hand back? I mean even Wormtail got his hand back–fricken Wormtail! At some point you know darn well they will rip a page from Ash’s playbook and pop a weapon on there.
The High Sparrow pushes the gods again for a reason to be a tool. He calls off the walk of shame but the price is Tommen. The weak faced and weak willed boy king. I never thought I’d miss Joffrey. Someone needs a spanking. No, not Cersei. Although…
Tommen strips Jaime of his rank and armor. In a weird twist from the novel we see someone else give Tommen advice. Speaking of a swerves, the Walder Frey scene is weird. I actually had to Google if that guy was dead or not. I swore he died at the Red Wedding by having his throat slit (I was wrong. A throat was slit, but it was just wishful thinking on my part to think it was his). Like I said, Game of Thrones does well to bring back old characters we forget existed.
Jamie and Cersei have a bit of a heart to heart. The way they’ve been acting lately, my best guess is that the show runners or writers have been watching the Underwoods lately.
And score one for the review guy. Uncle Stark is back. Apparently, the Children were a bit busy and saved him from certain doom so he can be Bran’s guide. Such forward thinking people, those Children (I mean besides creating the White Walkers in the first place).
Daenerys is back with Daario and possibly her dragon. I guess she could just pray to Aquaman for safe passage through the seas, but a dragon does rather nicely, too. Recently, we saw an interview with Ramsay Bolton saying he wants to get eaten by a dragon. If Daenerys rides that dragon for the rest of the series…
Okay, so nobody (of worth) died this time, but the previews do show a bit of trouble brewing for a lot of show favorites. I have to admit, I am a bit worried about Arya right now. I think she can take the girl of many faces, but what will she have to give up in order to win? If we learned anything from GoT, we know the gods are rather fickle things but rarely do they like being ignored.
