Bannon

I really think they need to have Chuck written out fairly soon, in a way that drives Jimmy to adopt his new identity, and makes the new Saul a bit darker character, of the type that would eventually use the term "rabid dog" when discussing with Waller White how Jesse Pinkman might be handled. Certainly it will be done by the end of season 1; is McKean on the credits for every episode?

Yeah, I was more thinking of a flashback with Hamlin, and maybe Chuck, back in the early 90s or so, as Walter is negotiating his exit from Grey Matter, holding out for something more than the lousy 5k, that eventually would have been worth a lot of money. Hamlin, Machiavellian lawyer that he is, recognizes Walter's personality type, goads him into a wounded pride temper tantrum, through some quasi unethical acts, over Chuck's objection. Walter storms out with his pittance of a severance, Chuck gets mad at his unethical partner, and a rift is opened with Hamlin. It's even better if Chuck was the guy who brought Gretchen and Elliott in as clients, putting the law firm on a prosperous path, with Gretchen and Elliott's burgeoning mega-fortune. Making Cranston look 25 years younger in a closeup might be pretty tough, so it would take some creativity.

I think they could work out a scene where Chuck's law firm partner firm is used by Gretchen and Elliott to screw Walter out of a future fortune when Walter leaves Grey Matter, Inc. That could be a nice touch..

Jimmy and Chuck are in the Cook County Jail, which explains why Jimmy is scared to death when Chuck get up to leave; it's one of the worst county lock-ups in the country. I think Jimmy and Chuck are Chicago natives, and Chuck has moved to Albuquerque to practice law, and has been successful. Later, he obviously begins to suffer from severe mental illness, likely after Jimmy has emulated him by going to law school. I suspect Chuck's mental illness is either going to eventually get him killed, perhaps by suicide, or drive him to kill somebody, resulting in long incarceration or commitment to a mental institution, and this will cause a tectonic shift in Jimmy, in the manner that a cancer diagnosis caused in Walter White. I think they are doing the backstory quite skillfully, to get us to understand the extreme loyalty Jimmy feels for his older brother. I bet Chuck foots the bill for Jimmy's law school tuition.

Yeah, there is no way the CIA would blithely assume that the babysitter shtupper was the only person in the group compromised. They'd assume that one agent being identified lead to them all being identified, especially since they all gathered in public. What would ensue would be everybody being examined with a magnifying glass, to find evidence of them, or family members, being observed, The most damaging intelligence disasters of the Cold War did not come from blackmail or recruitment, but rather from run of the mill greedheads deciding on their own to contact the KGB, to get cash. Recruitment and blackmail are way too chaotic to be reliably effective, whereas a traitor who decides on his own that he wants to get some money is pretty hard to detect.

They already had the father identified. I suppose they could try to blackmail the babysitter/'daughter, with knowledge of her affair with the blown operative, and get access to her father, but at this point the CIA would assume that the entire group was blown, would no doubt find the device in the communications equipment. This operation would be over, unless the CIA, or Elizabeth and Phillip, are idiots.

I like the show lot, but this episode demonstrated an aspect of it that makes me like it less, and almost caused me to drop it after the the ridiculous season 1 finale; Elizabeth and Phillip's opponents are entirely too often morons. In this episode, we are asked to believe that a high level covert operative in the CIA's Afghan group would absentmindedly leave a important portable communications device, out in his home office, as a bunch of strangers traipse through his home for a real estate agent's open house. We are asked to believe that the CIA would have enough concern to surveil his home well enough to put a tail on Elizabeth and Phillip when they leave the open house, but they wouldn't add things up when the radio communications were blocked, and the car accident took place, followed by Elizabeth disappearing, to know the CIA operative was thoroughly blown, or alternatively, that Elizabeth and Phillip would not know that the CIA knew that the operative was thoroughly blown. There isn't going to be anything that can take place with the babysitter arc, that now allows for suspension of disbelief, that doesn't entail concluding that the CIA and FBI, or Elizabeth and Phillip, have room temperature IQs. Throw in the really bad, and all too very common (to a lot of action fiction) plot element that entails a 110-120 pound woman beating the soup out of men who are fit and trained in martial skills, and outweigh the petite woman by 75 to 100 pounds, and the show has missteps that could be avoided with more diligent writing.

I'd go further, and positively say that Sansa has no obligation to be truthful in her testimony. The people who she is giving testimony to have no legitimate basis to have power over her.

Well, the Wildlings' slaughtering ways may be ignoble (the overwhelming majority of instances of humans engaged in warfare are ignoble), but ignoble is not a synonym for mindless. Their slaughtering ways are the opposite of mindless. Slaughtering the villagers, like firebombing Tokyo, or incinerating Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is strategically and tactically sound. The closest thing Westeros has had to good guys with power are Ned and Robb Stark. They are both dead, and Ned's good intentions helped get him killed.

I believe the Wildlings are slaughtering the villagers in order to draw the diminished The Night's Watch out of their fortifications.

No, Attaboy, Martin has not reveled that plot development in the books, either, and is not likely to at this point. I think Martin and the showrunners have botched the Shae character, twice. Her behavior just doesn't make any sense, unless she is a complete and total moron, which makes Tyrion falling in love with her completely nonsensical. The showrunners could redeem themselves if they somehow reveal that Shae has been a spy for Tywin all along, but I doubt they can do that now. Making a world like Martin has is really hard, and mistakes are inevitable. The character of Shae has been developed very poorly, which is unfortunate, because, to me, the Lannister family machinations are by far the most interesting aspect of this world. I thought the show might improve on the Shae character, but I fear they have missed an obvious opportunity.

In order for Show Shae to not seem completely ridiculous, they need to reveal, and have Tyrion know, that she has been a spy for Tywin from the beginning, although I can't remember from Shae's early episodes whether anything happens which makes that plot element ridiculous as well. If they manage to do that, then Tyrion's double homicide will be dramatically sound. I fear they haven't done enough to make Roose Bolton anywhere close to being an interesting replacement for Tywin Lannister. The Wall remains a pretty uninteresting place, and Dany and The Dragons stills seems to be a one hit wonder. I really fear the diminishment of Clan Lannister will make future seasons much less compelling than what we have seen so far.

Oberyn slugged down some wine prior to the fight, and was probably close to exhaustion himself, so I thought it believable he'd make a mental error out of fatigue/intoxication. A skilled edged weapon fighter with a clear head could have started plucking out The Mountain's eyeballs, at a distance, with the long spear, in order to get The Mountains to say the desired words.

I think Philip has the potential to wake up one morning, and say to himself, "Ya', know, the ideology and leaders i work for have been responsible for the murder of 100 million innocent people over the past 60 years, and those leaders refuse to regularly submit themselves to potential rejection by the human beings they rule.. Maybe it isn't such a good idea to work for such people and such an ideology." I don't think Elizabeth is capable of that sort of growth.

I'm pretty sure Phillip was able to turn his body, grab the weapon that was stuck in the belt in the small of Larrick's back, and squeeze off some rounds into Larrick's back, bullets exiting through the chest.

I nearly gave up on this show after last season's finale, which I found incredibly lame, and I'm glad I didn't. The development of the potential recruitment of Paige is just brilliant, and they have a teenage actor who can pull it off. Elizabeth and Stan are two very well drawn characters with huge flaws, and Phillip is the moral center, in a very, very, immoral job, being torn apart. This has the potential to be as well thought out, start to finish, as Breaking Bad. I thought they might portray Stan as a complete idiot, which is a common failing in television and movies (the moronic FBI being unable to execute a simple stakeout and subsequent car chase is why I hated last season's finale), so I'm glad they took the path they did, but I do think they need to write him as being bit more sharp than what they have shown so far. Gaad is an interesting character played by a good actor, so I'd like him to get more scenes. The character of Elizabeth could end up being an all-time great in televised fiction, if they don't misstep.

What is terrific about Tyrion's conversation with Bronn is that Bronn has enough integrity to tell Tyrion to his face that he won't fight The Mountain, and Tyrion has enough self awareness to realize that it's a bit much to ask a friend to give up the first experience of a comfortable life, for a better than 50% chance of getting killed by The Mountain. To me, this is Martin at his best.

I just don't see a good way at this point to make Shae's behavior seem credible. It's kind of surprising that they have written themselves into this corner, given their options. Greed makes the least sense, given that getting out of King's Landing with a nice sum of money would have been easily the best choice for a greedy Shae. She hasn't been portrayed as a person who is so stupid as to not realize that, especially when Joffery was on the throne. getting killed in King's Landing was a distinct possibility. The same thing goes for her being angry at being spurned by Tyrion. Surely she understands that if the likes of Ned Stark can have his head lopped off at the whim of a pychopath, she understands why Tyrion has his behavior constrained. She certainly hasn't been portrayed in the show as havng the I.Q. of a turnip, and a murderous rage in response to a reasonable path that seeks to avoid all too real prospects of execution certainly seems pretty stupid. It's a good point that Shae seemed to say more than was necessary in her testimony, if she was being coerced, but who knows, maybe Cersei waterboarded her in order to extract the intimate details of her life with Tyrion. I agree that it lacks credibility. Having her in Tywin's bed seems out of character for Tywin as well. We'll see what path they take, and how well, I guess.

Show Shae has been portrayed in a way that jealousy or greed don't make much sense as motivation. She could have had a very nice life in nicer places than King's Landing, after all, and the idea of sexually jealous, to the point of killing, prostitute just doesn't make a lot of sense, either. It seems to me that what makes the most sense is Cersei or Tywin telling her that the only way she and Tyrion live is for her to falsely testify, with Tyrion going to The Wall. Nobody planned on Tyrion becoming so disgusted that he demands trial by combat. If they don't depart from the book., it won't be easy to have Tyrion kill Shae in a way that makes sense. Tyrion must at least suspect that she is being coerced.