Somewhere in the Reach, a disgruntled, unlemoned village drinks its turnip juice and tells the tale of the day Littlefinger came to town.

They're playing pretty fast and loose with this realignment of the Lannister Sympathy Hierarchy. The scene where Cersei finally impresses her dad was as strange, and strangely beautiful, as a Stark kid actually seeing another Stark kid.

Margot's whispered "hi buddy" to Pavlov was one of the most emotionally nuanced entries in the surprisingly crowded field of "Lines Delivered to Pigs" I've ever seen, and I've seen Babe and Upstream Color. Here's hoping she becomes a series regular.

That was a Silence of the Lambs "doorbell scene"-level bait-and-switch, but it did leave me wondering what Hannibal was doing in his killsuit. Then I realized that maybe Hannibal just sits like that, motionless, in between appointments.

Sounds about right. I think the kid making weirwood arrows is supposed to be Brandon Snow, bastard brother of Torrhen "the king who knelt" Stark, and the arrows were intended for Aegon the Conqueror's dragons (but he didn't get to use them). As for the vengeful pregnant woman, that's a real mystery. There's some…

In the books, we've never seen Others do anything except turn people into wights or speak unintelligibly in their ice-rattle voices. The scene at the end of this episode confirmed that the Others are organized, have rituals, a social hierarchy, and do in fact turn abandoned babies into more Others, not just into…

There are so many fundamental questions about the Others still hanging, it's weird to finally get an answer. There's at least one female alluded to in legend, so it might be little more complicated than what we've seen so far. But yeah, I guess this shadowy cabal of frost elves and their zombie army are drafting one…

You'd think so, but when he "logged on" to the weirwood network, his visions were just barely less opaque than Dany's at the House of the Undying. That sort of dense storytelling would be hard to keep up on a regular basis. I still don't understand most of what was in Bran's final chapter.

[big spoilers] I really got the vibe that Bran was now privy to too much sensitive information, and so would likely not be a POV character anymore, instead appearing indirectly in other characters' chapters, like the crow in the Theon spoiler. I figured it would be a Jon/Ghost perspective, given his particular status.

I'm from Ontario and the snow JUST melted here, so what you are describing sounds far more fantastical to me than any White Walker stomping ground.

Yeah, and [spoilers] I know there's probably a larger plot reason for Sam to be in Oldtown now, but all I could think was "read to me, Sam."

Good point. Martin promised that we'll see the Land of Always Winter in the next book, and there's been a lot of speculation as to whose perspective we'll see it from. Maybe the prologue we'll be Craster's Son.

I would read a whole actual book of Sam leafing through old books in dusty libraries and clarifying things for some reader proxy.

I would love to agree with you about the absurd chronology (and cultural memory) of Westeros, and yet the wall is actually 700 feet tall. As for the in-universe historical inspiration for the Night's King legend, yeah, he probably was a crazy dude who married an Other, but it would just floor me if they decided to…

Night's King my foot! Night's King the 13th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, that guy? I fully thought he was just a legendary background character who existed to draw creepy parallels with current characters, like the Rat Cook or Brandon the Builder.

I appreciate your anecdote as the cute joke that it is, but now I'm imagining Li'l Sebastian finding a wife in mini horse heaven and watching GoT with her. It's breaking my li'l heart.

I didn't realize how that word would forever ring through my head in Tina Belcher's voice now.

There were monster designs that were rejected from Buffy? News to me.

I wonder if we'll see Balerion again.

Fans who haven't read the books will never appreciate how shocking that final scene was.