1. Varys doesn't serve anyone; he serves The Realm.
2.

I'd include "Broke-down Palace," "Terrapin Suite," "Estimated Prophet," "Uncle John's/Jon's Band," "So Many Roads" and several others.

The books are rife with GD themes and references (lyrical and otherwise). Here's a small sample - http://mashable.com/2015/05…

You missed one Stray Observation: consider the High Sparrow's "We shared women, we shared wine" with the Grateful Dead's "We can share the women, we can share the wine" ("Jack Straw").

Yes.

That wasn't hash at the commune. It was a poppy grow room. The problem is that the G-Dawg crew doesn't know what to do with the poppy crop.

Don't give up on Lip and Mandy. Her reappearance isn't random. Something tells me that when Lip is on the precipice of self-destruction, Mandy will pull him up and out of it. Maybe.

A nod to Homeland when Axe said he understands to the rogue trader who shot at the deer.

They did reveal that Chuckie was there because Sammi was incarcerated and they couldn't find any other family.

Azreal is an archangel in "The Zohar," which is a book in The Kabballah.

The "shifty Swede" is Almer, not Elmer.

No sound for the first 2 acts (12 minutes) in the Philadelphia area broadcast—at least not for Comcast cable customers.

Was it Daniel's fantasy or Tawney's dream? IMO, it was Tawney's dream. She awoke at the moment the "kiss" dissolved.