Talisa's butt got more screentime this episode than Peter Dinklage.

Tywin looming over the throne was easily my favorite shot of the night, bearfight included.

If you show an obsidian dagger in act 1, you must stab a snow zombie in act 3.

Eh, the attitude toward homosexuality turned decidedly negative and violent during the High Middle Ages in real history, which seems to be more or less the period mimicked in GoT. Agreed that no one seemed to genuinely care in the books, but it seems like the kind of thing that Tywin wouldn't let pass without comment.

That whole scene was a new addition. In the books, Gendry joined the Brotherhood as a smith and basically just hung around - he helped save Brienne from Biter at the inn, but otherwise dropped out of the narrative during ASOS.

Interesting that they may be setting up more of a motivation for that meeting in advance by possibly killing off Gendry.

Oh Ros. Your lazy plot device days are done.

She's had some interesting aggressive bursts though, like tonight when she told the Hound to go to hell. She's childish, but fuming underneath.

"I was supposed to marry his daughter! I should totally go ask him for more help. There's absolutely no way this could go south! Haha!"

She really hasn't had anything to work with, though. It's a totally thankless part. Agreed that she needs to go to clear out some space on the show, but I don't hold the actress accountable.

Well, good luck packing on muscle without the testosterone from having testicles…

DS9 - it's Jem'Hadar make-up.

Next week, on Game of Hugs.

You know Stannis is the type to have tearjerked himself raw.

You have to admit, that was an efficient use of screentime. New viewers have never seen Selyse before and might wonder where Stannis's wife came from all of a sudden, but within 2 minutes everyone understands why she's locked in a tower and roundly ignored by everyone.

It all depends on what they do next week to follow up on this cave scene. Jon needs to be completely, obviously head-over-heels in love with Ygritte now for later events to have the dramatic punch that they need to have.

You know, I never fully realized how dumb Robb was in the books until well after the Red Wedding. It's terribly obvious in the show; he has all of Ned's stubbornness and insistence on following a code of honor without any of Ned's experience or allies to help balance it.

That monologue is definitely going in Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's Emmy reel.

Whose face are we shoving this into??

Dries the ink and keeps it from smearing when he folds the letter. Totally unnecessary attention to detail, yet the kind of anal, perfectionist thing that Tywin would religiously do.