My Hodor!

Ned told Stannis about Joffrey's illegitimate claim to the throne in a letter, right? And that was after he'd tracked down Gendry at the blacksmith's.

Melisandre's line to Stannis about going after other Baratheon blood was in the "previously on" for this episode. Otherwise, I'd have completely forgotten it.

Agreed. It has the same feel as Danerys wandering around in the desert and Qarth last season; stalling for time. Pretty soon, Bran will start yelling "My dragons!" at anyone who will listen.

I thought the implication was that he abandoned his plan to take Sansa with him when Vaerys countered it and arranged the marriage to Loras (thanks to the tip off from Ros). Baelish countered back by alerting Tywin to the Tyrells' plan; perhaps it was even his idea to assign Sansa to Tyrion instead?

If Walt had just bothered to subscribe to Popular Mechanics, Hank never would have made it all the way to Whitman.

@downlo:disqus This episode was also about the characters getting lulled into complacency as their new circumstances become routine: Skyler forgetting to hate Walt at every moment, the Schraders losing track of how long they've had the kids, Walt's cooking just becoming a grind like any other gig. So, in addition to…

And they have weird titles, like Standing in the Middle of Afghanistan.

And they have weird titles, like Standing in the Middle of Afghanistan.

Her character's competence at delivering the Big Speech wasn't undercut by the lights coming back on, it was undercut by her bizarre, absurd reaction to the lights coming back on.

Her character's competence at delivering the Big Speech wasn't undercut by the lights coming back on, it was undercut by her bizarre, absurd reaction to the lights coming back on.

If only she'd remembered to trash it in iCloud, too.

If only she'd remembered to trash it in iCloud, too.

I agree — almost to the point where if Walt had shown up at the park with a ricin milkshake, Mike would have taken a sip just to emphasize that he was the bigger badass.

I agree — almost to the point where if Walt had shown up at the park with a ricin milkshake, Mike would have taken a sip just to emphasize that he was the bigger badass.

The A.V. Club: Like babies in a plastic barrel.

The A.V. Club: Like babies in a plastic barrel.

The Newsroom: Even hate-watching works for us.

The Newsroom: Even hate-watching works for us.

The problem with the lack of realism on this show in particular is that it deals with real world events (albeit retroactively) and takes a stance on issues of real consequence at every opportunity. It's the didactic grandstanding in the context of an implausible fiction that bothers me.