Not to mention her brother's Wildling army and her sister's league of faceless assassins.

So sort of like a reverse LOST? Oh god.

Assuming Theon does break and kills Ramsey by the end of the season — and his line about killing the man playing the horn during the siege of Winterfell suggests he will — I wonder if they considered putting that at the end of this episode? I was half expecting it, but maybe that's not GoT's style. Sort of like the…

Tywin said the gold mines had run out, so it's doubtful the Lannisters are still the wealthiest. If anything, the Tyrells are bankrolling the crown, and Cersei has already asked the Iron Bank to rollover her next payment. I think this is why Olenna was so surprised that Cersei doesn't just give in immediately.

At some point, didn't Khal Drogo talk about riding on the great grass sea in the afterlife or something like that? I can't remember anything comparable in Westeros, though.

| Thus far, any divine intervention is deliberately ambiguous and obscured by mixing it with magic, and I'd be shocked if there's ever any straightforward evidence of the gods' involvement over the course of the series.

Now that it seems more significant, I want to watch that scene again, especially to see what Robert's demeanor was like, and how easily he let that line of questioning go.

Not sure where I got the term, but Google confirms what I had in mind: that scene between Mel and Mrs. Stannis, where she went to her shelf of apothecary jars, and confessed that some of her magic was just tricks, rather than "real" magic from the Lord of Light.

True. On the other hand, assuming LF knows all about Ramsay, telling someone who's desperate for recognition under the family banner that you, a Lord of the Realm, have never heard of him is pretty cutting.

No. I think he's just too clueless to stop her, or to appoint his own.

It seems Olenna underestimated Cersei's self-destructive tendencies. That doesn't mean she won't act to counter them. If she's shown one thing, it's a willingness to make a big move to protect her family. And with no Tywin there to balance her out, I think Team Lannister is doomed.

I will feel totally cheated if we don't get several scenes with Dany, Varys and Tyrion shooting the shit. It's like a dialog writer's dream.

Somehow, I think Littlefinger will be the lever that gives all her kids "golden shrouds".

He's the Mitt Romney of Westeros.

There was also that great scene with Jon and Maester Aemon, where Aemon talked about how hard it was to keep his vow when they (Robert's rebellion) butchered his whole family. That at least alluded to the scope of the Targaryen's getting ousted.

Yes! This is why I was for Kucinich.

Yeah, that's a possibility, too. If they don't get along, having another Targaryen heir around doesn't work in her favor. But given their respective arcs and development as leaders (or lack of, in Dany's case), I'd prefer Jon.

The scene of Mel trying to get a smoke baby out of Jon reminded me of Stannis asking her to make another one, and her reply, along the lines of, "You're too weak." Looking back at his character since that fateful night on Dragonstone, I think they've been trying to show him as diminished; like some of his soul or life…

Dany still doesn't have a Maester, right?

It seemed like a purposeful decision to put Jorah in silhouette and Tyrion in the sunlight.