Or perhaps in typical Theon-fuckup-fashion he just had them tied up with their feet over a fire to interrogate them and got distracted from minding the fire. Ooops.

If I recall correctly, episode 9 of season two hasn't aired yet.

His appearance seems to have changed a lot since he left Robb Stark. I suspect it's intentional and a damn good job too. Also in the pilot episode there is a scene of him with blonde hair. And a couple scenes of what looks like a completely different actor playing Robb.

I agree the Jon & Dany storylines are dragging in the extreme. I read that the show writers took lots of liberties with event sequence in the books in order to make the timelines work. I'm not sure the end result is that great- we have two storylines moving, at least until this episode, at a glacial pace while things…

Yeah that was a dumb way to make a point already well made when Jaime casually pushed Bran out a window. If his cousin's death helped him escape I would buy it, but telling him to play injured/dead would have worked as well or better.

Theon at least has a good reason to be such a shit. Taken from his family at 8, raised well but literally as a prisoner and always an outsider. Then he goes home where he thinks he'll finally be accepted and his own family shits all over him. He thinks the only way he can earn any respect is being completely ruthless…

Todd- I've really enjoyed your reviews up to the spoiler warning because I love hearing how the show differs from the books. But I have to stop reading them. Why is it no one who's read the books can review an episode without indirectly referring to which characters will be around in the future? In a show where anyone…

Smokebaby Baratheon, black of air

If the sellsword believes only in money, he will obey the rich man.
If he believes unquestionably in the king's power, he will obey the king.
If he believes the priest represents a greater power over his soul/afterlife, he will obey the priest.

A lot of people have been commenting on why the Greyjoys all look so filthy. It's a matter of family pride because their motto is:

…and I am an idiot, I retract my above spoiler alert and apologize to ChrisS for not realizing that "Selmy's retirement party" was the scene later in the throne room with Baristan (Selmy). I didn't know who the hell Selmy was and didn't make the "retirement party" connection so I assumed that was a future event out…

Ok, this is the best explanation of Syrio's fate that I have seen, by someone named Zach in another forum. It tells what's in the book about that scene but it is not a spoiler because other than a name it doesn't go beyond what we saw in the episode:

Yeah it would have been so nice if they had made these 15-20 episode seasons like some of the Lost seasons were. 10 is just too few.

^^^^^^ SPOILER^^^^^^ SPOILER ^^^^^^ SPOILER ^^^^^^

Someone in another forum had a theory there was some ancient mystical connection between the houses and the animals, and cited Ghost sniffing out the zombie and the zombie shutting the wolf out of the room as further evidence. I think he is on to something.

@Pairesta good point about sparing Ned except I think Tyrion being held hostage by Ned's wife at that point had something to do with it. If I recall correctly Ned even mentioned that to him in the scene.

Now that you mention it, yes, but at the time I didn't notice, I was bowled over by how masterfully he stepped up (see my post Re: Robb's balls). We also learn a lot about is character this episode.

Others have said they saw him in a later scene in the throne room, I couldn't tell. If he was wearing the same type of helmet as all the guards maybe that is an erroneous sighting.

@Mikosqz I also got the impression that the mad king being killed was a good thing, but that's not the same as being ok with who did it and how it was done. There have been multiple instances (including two in this this episode by Baristan and Tywin) of people ragging on him for that. The fact that they frequently…

Sansa strikes me as the ultimate pawn in the game of thrones. The two things she really wants is to help her father and marry Joffrey and we saw them both being used to manipulate her this episode by Cersei & Co.