That was one of the best episodes of the series, wow. The end gave me the same goosebumps I had when I read that chapter from the novel - in fact, it might even be better than what happened in the book. I can't stress enough how perfect Emilia Clarke is. She isn't the young girl Dany from the novels, but she has all the intensity and an impressive level of command to her performance; I may not like some of her less dramatic acting but she pulls of the Khalessi role perfectly. Just a stunning end. These last two episodes have really upped the ante in terms of great endings, and given this is ASOS...the rest of this season will continue like that.
I thought this episode featured some of the best changes and new scenes that have appeared in the show thus far. Varys' backstory was done great, but the addition of the revenge story took the scene to an entirely different level. Very good exposition - with no breasts! And since I'm on the topic of Varys I have to mention his scene with the Queen of Thorns/Diana Rigg, who continues to be one of the best additions to the cast.
And of course that scene led to one of the other changes I liked: Margery's scene with Sansa. So far Margery has been perfect this season, and I'm glad they changed the marriage proposal to be Loras (a character the TV audience is well familiar with) instead of his brother, who hasn't been in the show. Having Varys mastermind all this is great. I suppose it takes away a bit of the Queen of Thorn's scheming from the book, but I still liked it given the nice chess game the show has developed between Varys and Littlefinger.
some minor observations:
-I liked the scene with Beric but I feel like it could have been much stronger if the character was talked about in previous seasons. S2 did feature some talk about the Brotherhood, but it seems like having some scenes with Tywin, the Mountain, or townsfolk discussing him could have made his eventual reveal more impactful for non-viewers. I'd imagine many watched that scene and were like "Ned Stark told him to do what? Ohhh..."
-The Theon stuff...eh. I'll wait for it to play out. I know where it's going, and like the changes in theory, but I kind of feel like he should have been imprisoned longer before being released.
-I felt the Bran scene came out of nowhere. It wasn't bad but it felt tacked on given how developed the other stories in this episode were.
-Ros' scene...wasn't bad. Would have preferred something else but hey, at least I didn't roll my eyes; even though the continuation of this Pod stuff...ha don't know whether to laugh or shake my head
-Nice scene with Tywin and Cersei
IMO the King's Landing scenes continue to be some of the best and most focused in the series this far. Which IMO bodes well for the show if it gets to AFFC. (
AFFC spoiler):
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Margery is already such a strong presence that her competition with Cersei will make for good television. Likewise Jaimie will have a lot of great content in that season too. Too bad Varys won't be in that season, he's been so amazing thus far on the show. But who knows, perhaps they'll decide to keep the Queen of Thorns in King's Landing, that would be cool IMO
