One of this season's real strengths is the writers' willingness to show all of the characters' various sides.

It's easy, when you're a subordinate, to sit back and take shots at everybody above you. To second-guess, to backseat-drive, to say, "Well, if I was in charge, I'd do…"

Poor Donna. Stuck between her life husband and her work wife.

Revenge (and the destructive cycle of revenge): Brienne misses her chance to help Sansa in order to take revenge on Stannis, Arya skips out on her sweeping to go kill Meryn Trant, the Night's Watch takes revenge on Jon Snow for peace with the Free Folk, Ellaria takes revenge on the Lannisters for Oberyn by poisoning…

Just like Waid and Garney got shuffled off Captain America just in time for Heroes Reborn. Nice to see that Marvel is totally learning from past mistakes.

When people say, "Oh, here's a guy who talked about eating rats in a siege; why's he so concerned about burning supplies that he'd do THIS," let's not forget that he'd also seen defeat snatched from the jaws of certain victory at the Blackwater.

Great from a clever storytelling standpoint, awful from an I-enjoyed-this-episode standpoint. It's hard to give Roose Bolton the moral high ground, Stannis, but you really pulled it off.

Exactly. Arya's losing the very parts of herself that we all love.
Sansa's the damsel-in-distress who can finally turn the tables.

Michelle Fairley's great, but Cat (on the TV show) pretty much undermines her son at every turn. She never means to do it, and her heart is in the right place, but still…

Couldn't agree more. The first two episodes were so sharp—incredible direction, sharp writing, looking like nothing Marvel had ever done before—that it almost set the bar too high.

Philip's tired confession to Youssef, Paige's weepy confession to Pastor Tim, Elizabeth's "everybody lies" justification…all this very revealing conversation from the Jennings' about their relationship with the truth.

It's worth noting that Philip was right on the money about what would happen if they let Paige in on their secret.

Playing Stick is a delicate balance: you gotta find someone who makes you understand that there's an important reason for Stick's pure, uncut Colombian-grade dickishness.

The Kingpin's untouchable, which makes him such a good villain. How do you beat someone who's rigged the game and can buy anyone off? The series does such a fantastic job of capturing that frustration in Matt, Foggy, and Karen.

Art: You tell Winona I said hey. (Pause.) I still don't know what she sees in you.
Raylan: It'd be weird if you did.

Just one in a long line of carpetbaggers to fatally underestimate Boyd Crowder.

So many great moments.
Karma spending the first three minutes of the show nut-tapping Raylan.
Markham creepily pulling Ava's chair closer.
Art and Raylan going bad cop/complete asshole cop on the crooked deputy.
Raylan throwing one last eff-you in Arlo's direction, ending the circle of violence and sparing Boyd's life.
A…

D'Onofrio does an amazing job as a guy who's constantly struggling to maintain control: of his emotions, of the situation, of his diabolical plans.

Loved all of the human touches of the fight, too:
Matt visibly getting tired from fighting 15 dudes at once.
His long-distance braining of a bad guy with a microwave oven.
Throwing all his weight behind his last punch and collapsing.
The fact that these villains actually get back up when knocked down, as opposed to…

It's been great to see them write Tim as Raylan 2.0 this season.