Actually I'm pretty sure it wasn't Hoat who cut off Jaime's hand. It was the big Dothraki member of the Mummers (I want to say Zollo).

Jaqen does indeed reference R'hollor in the book. "The Red God must have his due."

Agreed. In fact, while that scene was shot beautifully, the whole thing kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I think part of it is something that's been bothering me about Stannis, in that he's too…deadpan, or something. In that scene in CoK, Renly teases him as Stannis gets more and more enraged. It doesn't seem like…

Anytime someone disagrees with me this week I'm going to yell "I INVOKE SUMAI!"

Yep, that was him. Blue lips and all.

Roose Bolton with no pink spotted cape?  Blasphemy!

Please let Vargo be in this series. Please.

Having a kid calmed him down.

"I think the creative team would benefit from a fifteen episode season as
well. I think one of the harder things about this show is how long and
drawn out the long arcs (wheel spinnings) seem to be over the course of a
20+ episode span."

Ah, good call on that.

Which was kind of bogus, since in that episode last season (where they reveal that the people in amber are alive) the one guy simply cuts his brother out of it.

I was more confused by how a being which can catch bullets gets socked in the gut by a guy he's staring at.

(PREVIEW SPOILERS)

"I trust you have papers?"

Interesting that Simon referred to the Observer-repelling device as some sort of "beacon." The "beacon" is a term fans have often applied the the drill/egg-looking device we saw in "The Arrival" and "A Short Story About Love."

Yeah, I definitely yelled "The FUCK?" when they revealed Bell in the amber. I don't think I've been that caught off guard by Fringe since Alt-Broyles' body crossed over into that police van.

Good call on Bell being present when "Man X" escaped.

Oh it was VERY tongue-in-cheek. And awesome.

Wow, that was…wow. It sure was an interesting "Part 1" missing its "Part 2." I feel like I just had a bizarre Fringe-related dream.

I call it a "Treadwell Moment."