I think it's got to be #1, because it seems the only one large enough to warrant a budget-busting battle scene.

This fits with Dany's vision in the House of the Undying — holes in the roof of the throne room and snow coming in.

You know how they're always establishing a shot by starting at the war table, with all the little figurines, and panning up to a stoic, contemplative Robb or Stannis or Tywin? Just once, I wish they'd give us Littlefinger's version of that shot. Overhead, aiming down at a thick notebook, with a hundred lines of…

As far as we know, the Tyrells don't know anything about the prophecy from episode 1. Trying to escape it seems to be Cersei's driving motivation now.

Yes, I like the idea that Ramsay is making mistakes with how he's handling Theon because he has no concept of what the Stark family was like. (Imagine the difference between being Roose's bastard vs. Ned's.) He is seriously underestimating Theon's connection to the Stark kids, and it's looking like it will come back…

Yeah, it's kind of weird that the last time we saw the teeming masses of KL do anything of substance was the mob that tried to kill Joffrey. (I wish they'd thrown us a quick scene showing the reaction to Tywin's death or Tommen's marriage down in Flea Bottom.)

On the other hand, a Littlefinger-Melisandre alliance would be spectacular!

Yeah, I think you're onto something here. The Tyrells seem pretty disposable now, and Cersei doesn't seem to care if she kills off her bankroll. I guess because she hates Margery, and fears the prophecy, that much?

To deflect attention from the last scene? Guess that tactic didn't work.

Same goes for that shot of Drogon flying over Jorah and Tyrion. Tyrion's face perfectly reflected the shock of the old reality merging into the new one.

I like the implication that she knows it now that Jacquen called her on it.

Cersei seems to have this plan covered!

Yeah. At the time, she realized — was smart enough to see — something that even Littlefinger didn't: knowledge, by itself, doesn't trump power. Four first class bodyguards beats a smirk any day of the week.

I like this reminder that LF isn't flawless. At times he seems omnipotent.

I think Cersei's relative intelligence is summed up by her "power is power" line. She's smart enough to see the Game and understand how it's played, but not smart enough to play it at the master level, like Tywin, Tyrion and Littlefinger (and maybe Olenna). She might not even know the master level exists.

Ah, gotcha. I was confused by the various pronouns cascading down the thread.

I think the scene would have been much more satisfying if it had at least moved Theon's story — redemptive or not — forward a bit, instead of just more torture. And the tone of the episode would have been vastly different, even if it had ended with Theon just starting to make a move for a blunt object.

I was surprised he didn't die right there. His great line "hence the golden hand" line felt too much like one of those "I'll be dying soon" monologues.

Totally agree about the Sand Snakes. Two scenes with them so far and both have been far below the rest of the show. That fight scene with Bronn and Jaime was just weird bad.

The excuse, as it were, for Joffrey was the in-world bit about incest creating madness. cf. Cersei and Tyrion; the Targaryens; "2/3 isn't bad".