The House of Black and White has turned out to be that big mysterious entity known as a Plot Contrivance.

If the rumor Cersei's talking about isn't wildfire, but something she can blackmail the High Sparrow with, then the trial by combat can still happen. I don't really care except that I don't know what the whole Mountain thing was about otherwise.

I think he made it clear in his speech to Edmure that he won't. And I find his obsession with Cersei really hard to buy at this point. It's as if they flushed his character arc down the toilet when they sent him to Dorne.

After spending two (three?) seasons in this plotline we should be able to do more than speculate about Jaqen's motivation concerning something as important as that scene.

He was cool in his last three seconds of this episode, I thought. But it's too bad the writers gave us absolutely no reason for his coolness.

So, we basically found out nothing about the Faceless Men.

People come up with so many excuses for this, it's ridiculous. The showrunners just assume that Arya is so popular they can do whatever they want as long as she is victimized one minute and badass the next minute. Judging from most of the comments here, I guess they are right.

Menzies is a lovely actor. He can make his face physically look totally weaselly and villainish or make it look kind of rough and noble, depending on the part.

The Arya sequence this week was just plain insulting.

Erlich, Gavin, and — yes — Richard are all too caricature-ish this season. It's as if a different writer is in charge of them. I hate saying this.

I, too, have been scratching my head wondering why this season feels like writers scrambling to do the best they can in the face of a last-minute catastrophe.

The High Sparrow is fine with having a monarchy, as long as he controls it. He is also fine with having rich people and poor people as long as everyone has enough self-loathing to follow the High Sparrow. He isn't about love, or joy, or equality; he's about hatred of this world and distrust of human nature. He isn't…

Because the writers don't see Jon as unsuccessful; they think he is appealing. One of the problems I have with the writing is that this is a world where little kids have to be tough enough to act like adults but the young people who actually are adults all act like teenagers, indulging emotions this world wouldn't…

Harper is right; it's been an ongoing problem that is slowly getting worse. With the looming existential threat of the white walkers there needs to be more cohesion concerning what the characters in different plotlines know and don't know about the main events.

But they aren't egalitarian. If you listen to the High Sparrow's lectures they are about how the rich should hate themselves for being rich and the poor should hate themselves for wanting anything other than to be poor. He's quite happy to have class divides as long as everyone loathes and distrusts him/herself enough…

Are you saying Ian McShane WASN'T pretty great as the step dad from Hot Rod?

But the Hound has been with those people for a long time, and this hasn't happened before. I like the Hound and I love Ian McShane but that whole sequence was just clichéd to the point that I don't think the writers were even concerning themselves with realism.

Yes. Douche cartoon sums up the Waif pretty well. I mean, I find myself resisting hating her just because I'm irritated at how badly and obviously the show wants me to hate her.

She's a lot further along if she can change her appearance. And they have made it seem that the ability to change your appearance hinges on your ability to let go of your personality and become "no one." So the Waif being both Faceless and happily holding a personal grudge against Arya is something I call bullshit on.

And it really should have.