Well, before the season started you wouldn't know who Oberyn is, so you'd have to remember his appearance and connect it with this guy who shows up later.

I'm not sure non-readers grasp this yet.

I have a lot of issues with the Dreadfort sequence, but I can sort of understand what they were going for. In the books, we know Theon's broken because we get his POV, we're in his head. On the show that's not an option, obviously, so they have to make him perform some action that spells it out clearly. Refusing the…

Nah, just some priest. I don't think Aeron will even be on the show. The point of his character in the book is a POV not from one of the major players. In story terms, all he accomplishes is to call the Kingsmoot, and anyone could do that.

OTOH, the trailer for the season clearly shows an Oberyn-Mountain fight. But yeah, being that specific about it is suspicious.

What amazing powers of prediction. It's almost as if you'd… watched the season trailer or something.

Oh, and they're still digging away at the idea of the Cersei-Loras marriage?

Well, he is a miserable stupid oaf, but then who isn't in this world.

Two little throw-away lines this episode really made me wonder.

I'm assuming he's turning the babies into Others. Wights are easy, just take any old corpse and you're set. But it seems that to actually make a new Other some conditions have to be met. Maybe you have to get 'em while they're young?

So you're reading the expert review, and you still haven't figured out that Others and Wights are different from each other?

As I recall, they never go near Craster's. The place they find is an abandoned wildling village.

Well, assuming they want to end Jon's storyline this season with the big battle, they have to think up a lot of filler. Case in point: all the business in episode 4.

I understand the thematic reasons for Sam to "hide" Gilly in Molestown, but it's going to seem narratively pointless in an episode or two when the entire village comes running to Castle Black for protection.
Though I suppose that could be what they're setting up: rubbing Sam's face in the futility of his protectiveness.

As I recall, we weren't told directly, but the circumstantial evidence points at Littlefinger being in cahoots with Olenna and Margery.

Thanks.

For some reason I was thinking about Bran and I realized that I've forgotten where his story stood at the end of last season. Did they ever meet up with Sam and Gilly? If so, was Coldhands mentioned? Did Osha and Rickon split off from the others yet? Honestly, the books and the show are getting kind of mixed up in my…

Did they recast Podrick or did he just age a whole lot since last year?

So to connect to the TV show we all watch despite ourselves…

Yeah but didn't we already know a movie about him was in the works?