Interesting that they brought up Stannis and Shireen in this episode. Sacrificing your children on the altar of ambition is a recipe for a long, peaceful and prosperous life!

No, "grown WOMEN" are talking. Which has been an important theme of this past season.

His little speech made very little sense in light of his actions. He sold Sansa to the Boltons knowing Ramsay was cruel and evil. I know Littlefinger was probably planning on turning on the Boltons at some point and rescuing Sansa, but in the meantime, she's being raped and tortured. Makes his declaration of love…

It's a darker parallel to Dany's dragons nuking the slavers' ships in the last episode.

I thought the scales on her dress were an interesting choice. The outfit seemed more like something a Targaryen would wear (minus the lion shoulders).

Cersei just wants to bang her brother, not her daughter.

Maybe because the Mountain is notorious for raping and murdering Elia Martell (among others)?

Margaery's plan was to pretend to be pious in order to get the High Septon on her side. He'd take out Cersei for her via the trial, which would allow her more complete control over Tommen. Loras would go along with it by pretending to join the Faith Militant. Meanwhile, Olenna would be gathering the Tyrell forces and…

And Arya was still badly injured the last time we saw her. But I'm willing to handwave away character teleportation by saying that the different plots were not happening at the same time.

The Northern Lords who pledged their allegiance to Jon in the last episode were not involved in the Battle of the Bastards. They were the Houses that refused his call, as Lady Mormont pointed out.

The confrontation between Davos and Mel (which was clumsily inserted into the ep, but necessary) was included because they wanted to present Jon with a choice: he can take Stannis's route by keeping Mel as an adviser because the ends justify the means. Or he can forge his own way without the lure of black magical…

She spent some time as a serving girl at Harrenhal, remember? Maybe Hot Pie gave her some tips.

Hopefully not. But the episode did seem to be drawing deliberate parallels between Cersei/Jaime in the south and Jon/Sansa in the north by hinting at possible conflict between the siblings.

Yeah, The War of the Five Kings only happened around 18 years after Robert's Rebellion. The latter conflict alone had an enormous toll and probably wiped out a lot of Westerosi nobility.

Agreed. Tyrion said something about Daario not being the last man to fall in love with her while giving her a Significant Look.

I noticed that the review grade is higher over at the experts' thread. I think this episode might feel richer for people who have read the books, as there is a lot of stuff alluded to in the show that are explained in greater detail in the books.

Despite feeling emotionally satisfying, that scene left me with a lot of questions. What exactly do the northern lords know about what's happening north of the Wall? Do they all really believe Jon's story about the White Walkers, which have long been regarded as a myth? Do any of them think he's a deserter from the…

Jaime probably has a claim since he's Tommen's last living male relative and he's no longer a Kingsguard.

They can still be a giant pain in the ass, despite being militarily incompetent. They hold a key crossing that any army coming from the north or south needs.

Did anyone else fear Cersei had sent the Mountain to kill Tommen? Even just for a second? Then I realized you wouldn't need such firepower to do the job.