As far as Bran knows, Winterfell is still held by Theon, right? He hasn't met anyone since they fled that knows what happened after that, has he?

Until yesterday, I'd assumed she'd orchestrated Robert's death. But I'd also assumed she'd killed Jon Arryn. The writers just proved that they will take a long, long route to a big fakeout.

Great point. It's underscored by his comment about wars eating up gold in this episode. When you're in position to grab the top spot in the hierarchy — with the reigning Queen and the heir to the throne — stability is the optimal situation.

Can't wait for the HBO docudrama starring Kevin Spacey as Tywin Lannister.

There's some rationale to this assumption. In their episode of The Writers' Room, Benioff and Weiss seemed rather proud of the fact that both they and GRRM are former DMs.

On the other hand, I think they just ratcheted up the 'unlikely scenario becomes real' potential a ton with this episode. At the start of this season, I would have have said there was no way in hell that Littlefinger started the War of the Five Kings.

And, in all fairness, we do have dragons.

Except if Littlefinger's planning to control Robyn (similar to the way Margery is with Tommen), then marrying him to Sansa effectively gives Littlefinger control of Winterfell, too. Either way, I'd bet he's keeping Lysa around only as long as strict necessary.

If Littlefinger is Jon Snow's mom, I'm out.

I'm kind of hoping the this season's big episode #9 breaks the format — instead of a big effects-laden battle it's just a tedious courtroom procedural. Tywin citing obscure statues of Westerosi law, Tyrion playing the other judges like a fiddle, Cersei trotting out one ludicrous witness after another, etc.

Even worse, it seems like his interpretation was the exact opposite of what was intended. Looked to me like the Hound didn't even flinch, precisely because he knows his "size and armor" are more powerful than her sword dance.

Agreed. I think Tywin knows Tyrion didn't do it, but I'm less confident that he won't still pin it on him for expediency.

I was trying to think of some nutty example, but… Taking that idea seriously, I was under the impression (this is all as a non-bookreader, btw) that the warg animal was like a familiar — a one to one relationship with the person. Not that they could just jump into any animal. So for Bran it's particular to his dire…

I think you're right about Thorne's plan backfiring shortly.

SIIIMMMMMMSSSS!

I hope Tyrion is released — Tywin's reaction shot after his conversation with Cersei made me think he will be — then finds out where Jaime sent Brienne and sends Bronn to help. It's not ten good men, but one giant woman and Podrick is pretty close!

Totally. Tornado? Littefinger. Bad harvest? Littlefinger. Bran wargs into Dany's dragon and bites Tywin's head off? Littlefinger.

This is probably true, but after this episode I won't be surprised at all if they reveal later that Varys has been pulling other strings all along. What if his secret war with Littlefinger goes a lot deeper than just turning Ros against him? After Joffrey was killed, it seemed weird that the Master of Whispers didn't…

They were, but Littlefinger used his knowledge of it to start a war.

He also had a quick solo shot afterwards, standing guard while Tommen was receiving guests.