Impish

Have to say I was massively disappointed about no Tysha revelation from Jaime... it makes his rage against Tywin that much more potent (not to mention turning against Jaime as well), and it literally consumes his thoughts in the next book. BUT... the show is its own entity. Does Tyrion killing Shae & Tywin still "work" on the show? Did Tyrion have enough motivation already for it to be believable? Yes, I think so. And I can understand how it would be difficult for them to "switch tracks" from Shae to Tysha on the show. I am confident they tried it, and they couldn't get it to work. Omitting Tysha lets them keep the focus on Tyrion's betrayal from someone we've actually SEEN on the show (Shae). Also was hoping for LS (and a few more Jon Snow items)... but if they've saved that for next season, so be it. So with those caveats in place... 10/10. Television does not get any better than this.

Rubbish. The Kübler-Ross "Five Stages of Grief" model you're attempting to invoke here, does NOT require all the stages to be present, or even for them to occur in any specific order. "Elisabeth Kübler-Ross noted that the stages are not meant to be a complete list of all possible emotions that could be felt, and they can occur in any order. Her hypothesis holds that not everyone who experiences a life-threatening or life-altering event feels all five of the responses, due to reactions of personal losses differing between people." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model Insisting that all portrayals of grief must robotically proceed through all five stages in order, to be "credible" is about the most ridiculous criticism I've ever read.

E1: 8 E2: 7 E3: 10 E4: 9.5 E5: 10 E6: 8 E7: 7

Great episode... Dragonglass! Jon/Halfhand collusion! Winterfell Crypts! (how exactly...? oh well) Jamie/Brienne! Arya's 3rd name! I did miss Weasel Soup... but seriously, throwing soup on some guards is not critical to the plot. What's important is how she uses her third name to trick Jaqen into giving her more help than he bargained for, leading (with a few more steps in the book of course) to their escape from Harrenhal. I am starting to wonder now if one reason for the Jeyne => Talissa switch was so that she can flesh out some backstory on the slavery situation in the east, as setup for Dany's city-stomping "free the slaves" rampage after she leaves Qarth.

LOVED this episode. I particularly liked how Dany did some soul-searching, the whole "who am I? who are my people anyway? am I any better than my brother?" bit, for me this COMPLETELY redeemed her cringe-worthy "I will take what is mine with fire & blood rawr!" petulance from the previous episode, which was one of the very few scenes this season I've intensely disliked. Now, it just fits in perfectly with the growth of her character. The only real WTF moment for me was Jaime killing his poor relative, it seemed a bit gratuitous.. surely a less lethal distraction could've brought the guard in to investigate. But hey, this is the guy that shoved Bran out a window, I have no problem whatsoever believing he'd kill ANYBODY he thought would help him get back to Cersei. They are just reminding the audience of how dangerous and impulsive he is, in advance of his impending release. I do hope they manage to tie in the news of Bran & Rickon's deaths to Cat releasing Jaime.. that is a pretty critical and far-reaching decision on her part. Love the Jon/Ygritte stuff, I think it will add more complexity and uncertainty (ie, good drama!) to him turning his cloak. (I am assuming Halfhand still manages to pass his final order to Jon somehow, this can still easily happen). Ygritte's first "You know nothing, Jon Snow" was just epically perfect. Theon -- fantastic. A little thrown by Bran & co. not doubling back and hiding out in the crypts, but this is not an essential plot point and I can understand them simplifying things here (although, how DID they get away then? Theon losing their trail still needs to be explained somehow). Agree with others that there is really no chance of the audience being "tricked" into thinking the bodies are Bran and Rickon's... my buddy I watched it with didn't buy it for a second. But then you don't REALLY buy it in the books either, for the same reason... we're never shown their actual deaths.