by Chelsea Doyle, Editor, and Jachelle Overstreet, Reporter

Previously on Game of Thrones: The Red Wedding happened. Everyone’s hopes and dreams were crushed and we were left in a pile of ashes. Many memes, joke twitters, and light night comedies took advantage.

King’s Landing: Tyrion and Sansa are actually getting along which means naturally everything needs to get ruined. Far be it for that girl to have five minutes of smiling. Tyrion is told what happened to the Starks, and Joffrey’s excited. He says he’s going to serve Sansa her brother’s head at his wedding. Tyrion fights with him and then Tywin makes it very clear who has the power when he orders the king to bed. He talks with Tyrion afterward and they argue over the honor, the North, and what he’s going to do with Sansa. Tywin is mean some more saying he should’ve drowned Tyrion when he was born. So that’s nice. Tyrion and Cersei bond over drinks and their miserable life, and she explains how she loves her son despite who he is now. Jaime shows up at the very end to see Cersei, and she stares at his stump and ouch that hurts. Also Varys tries to get rid of Shae by giving her diamonds and she refuses.

The Starks: Arya has to see Greywind’s head on top of Robb’s mutilated body. The audience cringes and whimpers some more. She eventually hears a few soldiers on the road talk about how they did it, so she murders her first man and the Hound kills the others. Bran is with Hodor and the warg kids and HEY HE RUNS INTO SAM. That was exciting. Sam tries to persuade them to go to the wall, where he’s sure Jon will go if he’s alive, but Bran says they have to go north. Sam insists there’s nothing up there but death, and the boy seems determined all the same. They aren’t aware that Jon is still on his way and somehow Ygritte tracked him down. He holds an arrow at him and he tries to talk her down, but she shoots him when he turns away. She shoots him three times, but none of them are fatal shots, and obviously that’s intentional since she would’ve killed him very easily. You know nothing, Jon Snow!

Everyone else: Davos saves Gendry, and Stannis is going to yell at him but he shows a message from the Wall. It says winter is coming, of course, and for once Melisandre and Davos are on the complete same page. They tell Stannis this is far more important than the throne right now. Roose Bolton reveals that Theon’s torturer Ramsay is his bastard son, and part of the reason he’s been torturing him is due to the Greyjoys. He sent Theon’s severed penis to his father and sister with threats to send more if they don’t back off. His father’s ready to write him off, but Yara says she’s going to save her brother. Meanwhile Theon thinks everyone’s abandoned him and he is tortured into changing his name to Reek. Finally Dany frees all the slaves, or rather she says it’s up to them to decide what they want to do and they were already free, yadda yadda. They celebrate her by yelling “mother” in their language, which is the title of this episode “Mhysa.” Man you people are all going to be in so much trouble when Dany comes with her dragons and former-slave army. Just saying. (That’s not a spoiler for the book, just common sense.)

General Opinion of the Episode

Dee: That was … really anticlimactic. Wow. Maybe they got out all their awesome on the episode before, but I was pretty disappointed by that finale. It felt like one of those episodes where they’re moving the pieces around to set up for other things, although in this case it’s setting up for next season. Which is not the best way to end this one. I really thought something else was going to happen in the finale, and I was disappointed that it ended up sort of sputtering to a stop. As a regular episode this would’ve been good, but it wasn’t. Soooo I’m shaking my head and tsking at you, Game of Thrones. The Red Wedding was incredible but you either end with that or you find something better to wrap up with. Interesting things happen in this episode that would work halfway through a season, so I like the meet ups that happen here. Bran meeting Sam, Jaime returning home, Arya becoming a murderer for the first time. Good stuff. I’m just meh because of the timing.

Jachelle: This was such a weird finale. Like Dee said, I would have really enjoyed this episode if it had been placed anywhere else. But the fact that it came on the heels of such a huge episode, and it’s the finale made it seem very weak. I still enjoyed it, mind you. But at the same time, throughout the entire episode I was waiting for something big to happen, and then all of a sudden the episode was over and I was just blinking at the credits and wondering if I’d missed something. But I think given some time, I might appreciate it a little more. For any of you Buffy fans out there, I’m going to compare it to the season four finale, Restless. Buffy had a habit of ending each season with these huge blow-out battle episodes. So that’s what I went in expecting. But in season four, the did that the episode before the finale. The finale episode ended up being a strange dream episode that set up a bunch of things to come in the following season. At the time, I pretty much hated it. But given time and perspective, I came to enjoy it for what it was. I still think this wasn’t the best way for GoT to end the season, but I think in the future it won’t bother me as much as it does right now. But placement and timing aside, it was a wonderful episode.

Favorite Scene

Dee: Pretty much any time Cersei and Tyrion are getting along, I get happy. These siblings have so much issue with each other, but it’s like this weird simpatico. I can’t really wrap my mind around it all the time. I think they’re similar and dissimilar and that they love each other and they hate each other. It’s a very complicated relationship. But they are at their best when they’re in scenes together, I swear. Having this insight into how Cersei looks at Joffrey in particular is important. She knows her son is a monster, but she’s still his mother and she can remember when he was a baby. And it also makes you question why Joffrey turned out this way, if he didn’t show signs so young. Or maybe she had a blind eye. It was a really great conversation. The whole idea that he was all she had in her unhappy marriage for awhile is great too. I think the actors really love each other and have great chemistry, so I could watch the characters converse for a hour and be intrigued.

Jachelle: Oh man. Definitely the small council scene where Tyrion verbally smacks down Joffrey, then Tywin goes all badass and sends him to bed. I just really love when Joffrey gets put in his place. It makes me so HAPPY. And Tyrion’s line about monsters and kings dying was absolutely my favorite line of the entire episode. The entire scene was so tense and loaded. I was sitting on the edge of my seat during it. That was the moment when I thought, “Yeah, something big is going to happen this episode.” Aaaand then nothing did. Oh well. At least the episode started off with a bang!

Least Favorite Scene

Dee: Probably the Ramsay scenes. We all know how uncomfortable they are to watch. Reek is the nickname that Theon has in the book series, but in the books he wasn’t in this at all. We never saw the torture and how he became Reek, a lot of that was left to the imagination. I sort of wish it was here too,  although I can understand how if they waited a season and then he showed up that way, people would go whaaaat. Still, it always turns my stomach.  I guess it’s good we got some indication that Ramsay had intentions other than just to torment Theon.

Jachelle: Yeah, I’m going with the Ramsay/Theon scene as well. But I have another reason other than it just made me uncomfortable this week. It comes down to the whole Reek nickname. Theon, it is clear you are dealing with a remorseless sociopath. He’s been torturing you for god even knows how long now, and you still have to give him more ammo. You’re an idiot. Anyone can see that Ramsay gets his most perverse pleasure out of breaking Theon down. And Theon is playing right into his freaking hands for honor or nobility or whatever. Listen, if I were in that situation and Ramsay told me my name was Reek, you know what I’d say? “Yes, sir, my name is Reek.” That can’t just be me, right?

Favorite Character

Dee: You know despite feeling it was lackluster, it had some really great character moments. I had to think about this for a few minutes because I really liked a few characters this episode. I’m going to be predictable and go with Tyrion. I think he functions in several ways this episode. He has some sweet moments with Sansa, he’s smart enough to note them stabbing the back of the Starks was unforgivable, he called Joffrey out for the millionth time, he talked back to his father, and commiserated with Cersei. I’d say I like pretty much everything he did in this episode. He’s a great character and as a sidenote I like that Varys of all people understands how important he could be, given the chance, and that’s why he talks to Shae. Hugs, Tyrion.

Jachelle: Tyrion was epically amazing, as per usual. But I also want to give a shoutout to Yara Greyjoy this week. (Or Asha for you book fans.) I make no secret of my distaste for the Greyjoy family, but I thought she was amazing this week. I loved the way she stood up to her father and told him that she was going to go rescue her little brother. Maybe it’s the big sister in me, but I couldn’t help but connect with her during that scene. I was cheering for her by the end of it. Of course, this is Game of Thrones, so I imagine something horrific is going to happen to her. But for now, you go girl!

Character Who Should DIAF

Dee: Seriously I feel like we could make a list every week. I’m sticking with the damn Boltons, AGAIN. Roose Bolton and Ramsay Snow, father and son, both horrible people doing horrible things with absolutely no shame. That’s a cold family right there, and we thought the Lannisters were bad.

Jachelle: The Boltons are completely disgusting and absolutely deserve to DIAF. But this week I’m tossing Joffrey back into the ring as well. The sadistic glee on his face when he told Tyrion that Robb and Catelyn were dead made my skin crawl. He was about two seconds  from literally dancing around the table with glee. Ugh. Such a psychopath. And his insistence that he was going to serve Robb’s head to Sansa? I have no doubt that he’d have done it too, the little creep.
Rating: – After such a big episode, it seemed like a let down for a finale. The episode itself was good, but not as good as we’d like for the end of season three. Do we have to wait a full year? Sigh!

Keep watching ComicsOnline.com for more Media Nerdettes, more TV reviews, and everything geek pop culture! Join the fight for the true King at our Facebook page.