by Chelsea Dee, Editor, and Jachelle Overstreet, Reporter

Previously on Game of Thrones: Jaime Lannister got his hand chopped off, Dany freed all the slaves and they joined her army, the Tyrells tried to secretly engage Sansa to Loras, Tyrion became the Master of the Coin, Stannis lost the battle and gave up, going home.

King’s Landing: Littlefinger gets word about the plot to marry Sansa to Loras by having one of his male spies have sex with Loras. He tested Sansa by offering to take her away, but she had stars in her eyes for Loras, so he informed the Lannisters. Tywin decides to have Tyrion marry Sansa, and then Cersei to Loras, securing all the connections he can get. Everyone is very upset about this. It should be said that Tyrion’s sympathy for Sansa means he knows she deserves better than him, and that Cersei doesn’t want to because she was already forced into one loveless marriage. Tywin will hear none of it. Before that Olenna tore Tyrion to pieces by agreeing to pay for half the wedding, but telling him she was disappointed he was such an apparent weakling. Ouch. He’s just taking a lot of hits this season.

Family Stark: Arya is horrified that the Hound defeats her champion, although the champion comes back to life and has apparently come back six times. Hmmmmmm. Weird. She’s sad to hear that Gendry will not be coming with her to see her brother. He wants to fight for the brothers and make a family, and knows she’d have to be a lady again and not his friend. Aw. Jon is asked questions about the Wall and then he’s officially broken all his vows when Ygritte seduces him. They seem very happy together, which in this world means bad things. Meanwhile Robb decides honor means more than an army, since a Lord kills his young Lannister prisoners and he beheads him for it. He loses half his army, even after his advisers all suggest he let the guy stay in captivity but alive. Nice job.

Everywhere else: Jaime is brought in to a much kinder captor (Lord Bolton) who gets him a doctor and lets him clean up. While bathing with Brienne, he admits the truth about his time with the Mad King. He says the Mad King planned on using wildfire to burn all of his people so they couldn’t take the city alive. Brienne seems moved by his story and asks why he didn’t tell Ned, but he claims Ned judged him before he opened his mouth. He then promptly passes out. Also Stannis goes home to his super creepy wife who keeps their dead sons in jars. Yeeeeeeeeah. He has a sweet little girl with a skin condition who then visits Davos in prison. Dany tells her army to shed their slave names, but the new leader of the freed slaves informs her he wants to keep it, because it was under that name he was freed by her.

General Opinion of the Episode

Dee: As always, love this show, best on TV, no doubt about it. This episode included one of my absolutely favorite scenes of the book, so I was guaranteed to love it. The only thing I’ll say is that they’re making some interesting choices about how to portray some characters. They’ve had to cut some characters out and move around corners, because there’s at least another hundred characters in the books and there’s no way they’re going to put that big of a cast on this show. It’s already intense. For instance, in the books Cersei was not betrothed to Loras, and neither was Sansa. This is a little bit of a nitpick, but when someone joins the white cloaks, that’s the King’s personal guard, they give up rights to their  inheritance and to marry. That’s what Jaime was, which is why he can’t inherit his father’s property, no matter what his father stubbornly wants. Loras is also one, so he actually wouldn’t be allowed to marry Sansa. I suppose they can get around it with the king’s permission, and it’s not a big deal, but it does make me go hmmm remember your own rules sometimes, guys. How they handle Stannis’ wife was a little confusing too, but I’ll get to that in a bit. Obviously if I can only nitpick one or two things, it’s still an amazing show. And it is!

Jachelle: One of these weeks, I swear I’m just going to insert a flailing/excited gif in lieu of my opinion of the episode. Because that’s generally all it is. This is still my favorite show on the air right now. I honestly look forward to it all day on Sundays, and it so very rarely disappoints. I had a lot of emotions running around on me this week. Jaime’s confession was obviously at the forefront. Then there was Ayra’s anguish at not only having to watch the Hound go free, but to have to say goodbye to Gendry. (UGH. I AM STILL UPSET OVER THIS. GENDRY NOOOO) Then watching Robb make the colossal mistake that he did. There was lots of flailing on my part. But I will always love how invested in these stories I am. That is the sign of a great episode, and a fantastic series.

Favorite Scene

Dee: My favorite scene of the entire series: Jaime’s confession in the baths about what really happened with the Mad King. I am sort of a fanatic for character development. It’s why Jaime Lannister is my favorite character in the series, and I think people are starting to understand why now. He’s so much more complicated than he seems, and this gives a new layer. He’s gone for all these years with his name dragged through the mud, but the truth is he saved thousands of lives and no one will ever know. In the books he says he thinks it’s funny he’s hated for the thing he considers his finest act. There’s a lot more backstory with the Mad King in the book and the many tortures, deaths, and rapes he was responsible, all with the royal guard forced to support him, so this is a good hint of what it meant to kill the Mad King. I always found it so irritating even before this scene they blamed him when they were all storming the castle specifically to execute the King. Jeez guys. ANYWAY I love this scene. The acting was fantastic, if he doesn’t get nominated for an Emmy I will throw a coup. Brienne’s movement from fury to disdain to growing horror and sympathy, ugh. Love it. I seriously could write for pages about Jaime Lannister.

Jachelle: Of course it’s gotta be the bath scene. I really did try to sit down and think of another just for a little variety here. But that scene blows everything else this week out of the water. And considering how good everything else was this week? I think that’s saying something. I love layered and complicated characters, guys. I also love characters who grow and change. So this scene giving Jaime extra layers, combined with the growing we’ve started to see from him since being paired up with Brienne? Well. It just makes me incredibly happy.

Least Favorite Scene

Dee: The thing with Selyse was weird. She’s Stannis’ wife. In the books she and her husband barely got along, and that was part of the reason why they didn’t have more kids. And also because he couldn’t get an heir, sure, but she wasn’t this off the reservation. She was devoted to the one God and very close with Melisandre, and she didn’t care about the cheating, so that all was legit, but the scene with the fetuses in jars? Weird. And unnecessary. I promise you could put forth that she’s unhinged and fanatical without those, guys.

Jachelle: Agreeing with Dee again here. WTF was up with that scene between Stannis and Selyse? I’m slowly but surely making my way through book two at the moment, so I’ve gotten to see some of their relationship there, and Dee’s right, they’re very cold toward one another. Which is fine! It totally works. Which is why I didn’t get why they changed that dynamic up here? Were they worried she’d come off too much like Cersei in her loveless marriages? That’s honestly the closest reasoning I can come up with. Which is still pretty ridiculous, because they are nothing alike. So, I don’t know. The whole thing felt weird. And I REALLY disliked the dead babies in jars. That was just unnecessary. You guys already made mention of the fact that she’s only given birth to stillborns, and I think the previous parts of that scene made it very clear that she’s nuts. NO NEED TO HIT US OVER THE HEAD WITH DEAD BABIES IN JARS, OKAY? Okay. Good. I’m glad we had this talk.

Favorite Character

Dee: Ummm I ended up saying all of it in my favorite scene up there. LOL. Jaime Lannister is my favorite character in the entire series, and people are starting to see why. I also want to give honorary mention to the fact that though this was disgusting and made me flinch, he was like nope no pain meds. You fix me and I’ll scream through the pain. He’s just so … dklfsjldfjs okay. Sorry. Love you Jaime.

Jachelle: Sigh. I almost don’t want to do this just to be contrary to Dee, but I really do have to give this one up to the Kingslayer. That scene in the baths was pretty epic. I knew Jaime’s backstory with the Mad King previous to watching, but it didn’t make the scene any less meaningful. In fact it was even more meaningful to get to watch his confession like that. He is so much more than he appears to be. My hat’s off to you this week, Jaime.

Character Who Should DIAF

Dee: Listen I don’t want to do this. I feel bad doing this. And I think it makes perfect character sense that this happened, but Robb Stark for crying out loud shut up. Just shut up. This is why your Dad died, okay? Honor is all very well and good, but there are a lot of people who died for you, and who are going to probably die for you, and this is not the way to be a leader. All three of his advisers, including his wife, had excellent points. They needed unity in the army, those people would leave him, it was best just to hold the guy. Yes he did something horrible and he needed to be punished, but you need long term plans, Robb. I’m frustrated about this because it is perfectly in character, but I want to just shake him and tell him to wake up. I feel bad for all of his soldiers who followed him bravely and now are up shit creek without a paddle because his honor was more important than winning the war. Whatever, Robb Stark. We’re not on speaking terms until next week, think about what you’ve done!

Jachelle: So, apparently this review is just going to be “Jach agrees with everything Dee says.” It hurts my heart to do this, but seriously Robb. WHY. The part that really kills me is that JUST LAST WEEK he was going on about the importance of long term plans and thinking before you act. And now this mess. It just makes me want to bury my head in my hands. THIS IS GOING TO BE TERRIBLE.

Rating: – This episode went back into perfection, with a few bumps like the baby jars, but the well acted bath scene and King's Landing twists more than make up for it.

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