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Ok for a parting gift did Jaqen H'ghar set up Arya with a convenient aerial insertion as well as face-off technology

So uh basically the Starks have a matrilineal healing factor in their bloodline or something? I feel like Tobias Menzies put on a different accent for Edmure Tully than he used the first go around (I guess to distinguish from his Outlander role). Like he really brogued it up or something, I'm not sure what it was but it wasn't just worn-out-prisoner...

Yeah, this one had a lot of really funny lines and the best demon I've seen onscreen in a while. Also liked Lucy's ride! Can't wait to see her character and Ash interact.

Dang this is totally fun. If this show is the start of Post-Prestige Television it couldn't have started better. I'm in.

Very very very happy to see The Returned return (between this and Ash vs. Evil Dead, this Halloween has been my TV Christmas). This particular episode did seem a little like "let's catch up with everybody" while the previous season's episodes took their time with the characters they focused on, but, I really did want to catch up with everybody, so...? I'm really hoping to see them nail down some of the specifics of the town's situation... though I have to admit I did not catch on to the fact that only the dead are stuck there - I thought the whole town was trapped at least during the events of the first season. But now that I reflect on it each attempt to escape that was shown involved a dead person (or, here, Adele's child).

I'd like to pause and have a laugh at the juxtaposition of this comment with the username of BeatrixK :) Yeah, that ending suddenly made me interested, though I'm not on board with the dialogue either and this season seems to be really suffering for the lack of a character dynamic that's even comparable to Marty/Rust. Also, the singer's way closer to Hope Sandoval than Tori Amos; this brought to you from the Foundation Of Correct '90s Singer Comparisons, now taking donations via PayPal and Patreon and a tin can near you.

I think the Wildlings went through Castle Black and are not still in the castle? But I'm not completely sure! The sad thing is, the place in the show where I'm clearest on the situation is Meereen, and that's without knowing who the Sons of The Harpy are and why they are rebelling (and why they're so good at it, but that just seems an arbitrary factor in the show at this point.) I know there are the Unsullied and Dany's entourage at the palace; some of the former masters still running around; the common people; and the Sons of The Harpy. Dany is either going to be able to deal with the Dothraki or she's not, so that's also a pretty clear question. The North. Who the hell knows? We got - dead Stannis; 3000 or so of his deserters running around; the Boltons, who are presumably going to be delegitimized now that Sansa's flown the coop (I'm pretty sure that wasn't a suicide? But maybe?) and also don't really have the authority of King's Landing since there is no authority in King's Landing (?); Wildlings; a whopping 47 or so dudes in Castle Black who may or may not know about the enormous Schroedinger's White Walker army that may or may not be bearing down upon them; and the knights of the Eyrie, who may or may not be coming to seize Winterfell depending on what Littlefinger's doing (more on that question in a bit). And in dropped plotlines we also have: the various Stark bannermen; the Brotherhood Without Banners; whatever the Ironborn are doing; Bran hobbitting his way along north of the Wall; Rickon, holed up wherever; and I guess the hill tribes that Tyrion got himself captured by. Oh and two dire wolves in respectively unknown states of play. Analysis: ??? The South. Run by fundamentalist maniacs? The remaining non-Cersei Lannisters are... either copacetic with them or unaware of them? Ok so Tommen is in hiding, we get that. The Tyrells are... in Limbo? Presumably Olenna is plotting something? With Littlefinger? But is Littlefinger trying to help deal with King's Landing or doing what he told Cersei he'd do and cleaning up the North with the Eyrie's knights? Who can tell? What kind of revenge is FrankenMountain going to be able to exact that ordinary knights could not? And presumably Dorne is going to be warring with the Lannisters as well? Analysis: ??? Braavos. Arya is in an indeterminate amount of trouble! Mace Tyrell is singing a jaunty tune in the Iron Bank still? Analysis: ??? Aside from the Meereen plotline I just don't know what I can latch onto expectations-wise. I guess I'll have to wait for the season 6 previews so they can bring in a new crop of fresh assholes, and I'll see how they look? It's like going from season 1 of True Detective to season 2!

Gendry = Rosencrantz Bran = Guildenstern Jaime = Bottom Ramsay = Tybalt, at best Littlefinger = like a lazy stoner Iago or something Varys = low-key Prospero Tyrion = Falstaff, if he entered the Hunger Games

Slynt: Forgot that one! Khal Drogo: No! He cuts open the other guy's throat and tears out his tongue! I just watched it. Damn I miss Khal Drogo, those were some proper threats!

As a devotee of Joe Bob Briggs back in the day I have been ghooooulishly keeping count of how many heads have actually rolled on Game Of Thrones and I think it's only been four: - the Night's Watch deserter in the first episode - Lord Karstark, by Robb Stark - Ser whosit that Theon clumsily beheads, and I'm not actually sure about that - the guy in the Meereen fighting pits this season 3 of them are executions. We do NOT actually see Ned Stark's head come off (though that shot is pretty unambiguous and we see his head on the ground next episode). I just rewatched it. There is also the Mountain chopping off his horse's head in that tournament, if you want to extend it to animals. I think that by Game of Thrones standards Stannis is super dead. If you want to just go wild with it I suppose you can imagine he's on a boat with Syrio Forel somewhere!

It was, however, very nice to see Brienne and Arya successfully fulfill their vengeance oaths. Though, the way they cut it made it seem for a second like Ramsay cut down Brienne before she could deliver the death blow – I came this close to throwing something at the TV. My main disappointment was that at no point did they show Jon explaining the current situation to the Night's Watch, at all. Just to Sam who's like "I always dreamed of going to medical school, can I?" which... what? I mean, if Jon in fact didn't explain shit to them then maybe he should have been stabbed! And if he did, I needed to see them decide not to believe him. So I don't know exactly how stupid they're going to look when the zombie mist comes for them and there's like 40 of them manning the battlements. ...I'm assuming Sansa survived jumping from the battlements, yeah? Did Theon break her fall, I guess?

♪ Everyone's screwed ♫ Hey, maybe they can rebuild civilization from Meereen! Everywhere else is gonna turn on each other and eat shit but I got a lotta faith in team Grey Worm/ Tyrion/ Varys, as long as the Dothraki keep Dany away from the gates!

I found the Night's Watch scene perfunctory (it was basically ~tension~ ) but that happens a lot on this show because they're juggling storylines and I'm assuming they'll get into a bit of debriefing next week.

The problem I have with Ramsay is that his badassness has been so unconvincing and arbitrary. The Ramsay - Yara confrontation was super stupid* and in my eyes just made the Ironborn look bad (and they already looked bad; faithless losers who can only defeat unarmed fishermen and undefended cities; confront them and they'll stab each other trying to get away; Ragnar Lothbrok can't believe he's thematically related to these buncha jokers. I will always talk shit about the Ironborn). The bit with Stannis' army, well, I was relieved because I feared something stupider, but burning down all the food stores and was it supposed to be half of 3000 horses seems a bit much for 20 dudes even if they "know the North like we never will". (I seem to recall Cesare doing similar stunts on The Borgias but if memory serves that was gunpowder which helpfully explodes when you light it.) It really kinda feels like, as someone said in the book thread, he's one of the writers' dark Mary Sue or something. Compare him to the Clegane brothers, both of whom were set up to be scary evil people and both of whom repeatedly lived up to their reputations. I never felt like The Hound or The Mountain had plot armor. Conversely, Joffrey didn't need plot armor either, he had the kingdom as his armor and boy did he hide behind it! So yeah, I don't love to hate Ramsay. Ideally his plot armor would go poof and he'd just straight up fall down a flight of stairs next episode and Stannis can breach the gates to find him babbling. * I recently realized that scene would have been mostly saved if Ramsay had a kennel of dire wolves instead of regular hounds. Why should the Starks be the only ones to tame dire wolves? Brand consistency?

WHO HATED ROS I will fight you Ros is like #3 on the list of Game Of Thrones deaths I'm still mad about. Shireen has not displaced her, because Shireen's death was fooooooooorrreshadowed for like seasons on end. Ros was just starting to get somewhere! (Lady is, obviously, #1.) Oh as as far as "moral of the story" goes I think of Game Of Thrones as an Extreme Soap Opera where instead of oh no! Cliff slept with Cheryl, that skank! it's oh no! Stannis had his own brother stabbed by a magical ghost man! I am certainly not one of those who thinks the show has big lessons to teach us about much of anything.