[TV Spoilers] Focused on great verbal duels

[KingAlanI]

The pre-credits scene was great, picking up where the last shot of Season 2 left off. I could tell how nervous Sam was, especially since it turns out he screwed up.

The main episode was full of great tense conversations between two people or amongst small groups. While Daenerys was always with other people, she was the only character to dominate their scenes. It felt epic to see her and the dragons again, and I cheered when the fuzzy scene was exposed as a dragon flying back to her ship.

Jon had a Free Folk culture shock, but managed to talk smoothly enough to Tormund and Mance nevertheless, well-played.

Tyrion and friends didn't seem to start off as awesome as usual. The scene of Tywin belittling him was one of the best bad-things-happen scenes in the episode.

Talisa showed her true spirit rushing to the wounded man in Harrenhal.

The dose of Margaery attending to the war orphans was an interesting counterpoint to the rest of the episode. I knew Margaery had been involved in charitable work in King's Landing, but the detail on that seemed new, helping make the scene one of my favorite parts of the episode. Likewise, the Davos-Salladhar scene seemed new, and Salladhor was not so over the top. Shae had great moments with Sansa, Ros and Petyr.