Flayed Starkman

Well, it took eight episodes, but finally we have a really great one this season. There were some minor issues, so I'll give it a nine. Hopefully they'll keep up the pace next week

There's no way this episode was worse than 301 and 302. There were some changes from the books sure, but as a cntained entity it worked pretty well.

Too much Theon though.

Phwoar... Way to save the episode.

Way too much Theon, but that Littlefinger vs Varys conversation was great. The Ros reveal was horrifying, and that las shot atop the wall was just beautiful.

a 9/10 from me.

A good solid 9.

If they had trimmed the Pod jokes and left Theon and Bran out, it would have been near perfect.

It's quite a leap to go from Mel and Stannis have sex to the invisible assassin was actually given birth by her, if we don't actually see her being pregnant first. If they show her pregnant then I would agree with you.

Judging from the trailers we will most definitely see Mel give birth to the shadowbaby. And if I'm remembering correctly from the book, Davos remarked that she looked as if she was to deliver any moment, at that time.

Time for me to jump on the "Forum of Ice and Fire" train.

I didn't particularly dislike this episode, but I disliked the changes more than in episode 1.

I don't really see why they should have inserted that Jon/Craster ending, because it creates an artificial conflict, and God knows how they'll handle it in the next episode. But non-book viewers probably needed to be reminded that the Others exist and all that.

Bronn becoming Captain of the City Watch was OK, because a new character would only take up space.

Rakharo should not have been killed off, but if there are scheduling conflicts, what are you gonna do?

But the most grave "sin" the writers have commited in this episode is combining Shireen and Selyse, which I think is totally bonkers. I mean, they could have mentioned Shireen without showing her, although I kinda have been waiting to see what the greyscale looks like.

But in spite of all this, I thought it was an OK episode.