Every writer has that character he or she falls in love with, sometimes to a fault. One thing that kind of bugged me about Breaking Bad was how much the writers fell in love with Jesse, for instance. They dropped some ugly shit on him, but it felt like they were also making him into this bastion of moral rectitude. …

Well, Tyrion is the only male heir if Jaime is out of the picture. Total out-of-left-field prediction from a guy who never touched the books: Jaime falls on his sword, making a fool of Tywin. Can't kill off that precious Lannister bloodline now, right, Tywin?

The sound guys really got the effect of an exploding skull just right.

But now the Boltons have huge… tracts of land.

Littlefinger's attempt to get Robyn killed by "making him a man" seemed a little too transparent by this show's standards. You could see it from a mile away as he was bringing the idea to those other lords. I didn't really buy their 180 degree turn from "You're a sleazy, lying pimp!" to "I accept what you say…

I'm not sure about the finer points of Westerosi jurisprudence, but I was a little bothered that Tyrion was able to ask for a trial by combat over half way through the standard trial.

Hodor is playing the long con.

And some cruelly ironic foreshadowing.

Like I said way down on this thread, I thought her laughter was directed at The Hound. She's always been openly contemptuous of him in teasing, love-hate sort of way. His plan to get rich failed and all this was for nothing.

Who gets kicked by a mule a dies before finishing the books.

Rodrick Cassel is the reason I couldn't care less about the fate of Theon Greyjoy. Fuck that guy.

This episode wasn't particularly strong until the last 5 minutes, and the rough treatment of Jorah left me cold. It did seem a little brash to cast him off like that, after cutting him off every time he tried to offer an explanation.

I took it more as her laughing at The Hound. "Hahahaha! Oh, you just can't catch a break, you lovable dumbass!"

"…take his eye off the ball."

That was his takeaway from the beetle smashing lesson: getting smushed = not good.

I gotta say, the most impressive thing about GRRM's storytelling is that he has managed to get me on board with a fiery holocaust of an entire continent so gradually that I barely noticed.

Walk it off, son.

Pray. For. Simpsons.

It is a cheap knock-off of Family Guy, bringing the circle of life into perfect completion.

I'm not even sure how we could arrive at any meaningful definition of a "B-level Simpsons episode". Can it even be measured against itself (ie. the great years) or do we have to just look at it like a totally separate entity now?