What it feels like to me is that they retooled several small but important elements of the show without consideration for where the show had been leading up to since then. Even though I think it made the episode off-kilter in a few ways, it actually makes me feel pretty confident about the season, because they did a…

Hell, even in the TV shorts you've got Gideon making friends with convicts in maximum-security prison.

"Dude, I'm like a genius among these guys."

Soos was fresh. Those zombies were basically gangrenous masses of flesh. Killing them would be a mercy.

I agree with this for the most part, but (having seen the next episode) I think it's more that this episode is a bridge between Season 1 and 2. You've got the wacky townspeople and the anti-zombie karaoke stuff, but you've also got stuff like those those government agents and Stan's machine that has understated…

Did you see all those vibrant colors tonight? Perfect late-night dance party vibe. Man, these guys know how to spend an animation budget.

I feel like that scene, more than anything else, is probably the most telling one concerning where the show would take her character. I mean, S1 and 2 definitely play her as an aspirational figure, but after that her neurotic, almost angry side is much more important to who she becomes. Compare it with her storyline…

Man, this sounds like something Thomas Schelling would write.

Completely agreed. Catelyn's death really provided the audience with a good deal of sympathy (if not exactly closure) for a character whose motives and actions never felt as compelling as the rest of the cast to me, and it frustrates me that GRRM just throws that all out the window with LSH.

Yes. I'm surprised there's not much praise for her stuff in this episode. The experts chat is usually pretty good at pointing out secondary scenes that work really well.

Although the way Thorne was characterized in this episode really made you wonder why he was palling around with Janos Slynt in the first place.

Was there really another way to make this episode? I thought they did a pretty good job with the character moments with Sam and Alliser and Pyp, and it's not like this episode drastically departed from the way it was written in the books. You may as well yell at Martin for pandering and selling out all the way back in…

Once the tide turned, it was Oberyn a moment.

I can't figure out whether that scene with Tyrion monologuing about the beetles was really protracted, over-obvious foreshadowing or the funniest part of the episode hands down.

I'm really glad *someone* managed to finagle their way out of gratituous sex scenes.

Eh, I liked the senseless aspect of the Hound's defeat. It just fit the bleakness of Arya's chapters at that point. They've extended it a lot, so I understand why they went with this instead, but…

Really? They are pirates of the *pancreas*…

Man, who wrote this episode? Sam Pectinpah?