Keeper-of-the-Old-Ways

6, maybe. This was a big step down from the previous episodes. For starters, why did they open with such an insubstantial scene? Why is there no sense of tension or fear beyond the Wall? Why is Sam sitting, grinning, being happy? Are there not bears and wolves prowling? White Walkers stalking the forest? Ex-brothers looking to silence him? Are they not in a freezing, hostile environment with a new born child? I cringed during the Meera/Osha battle. This conflict feels quite forced. Bran's scenes are really dull, understandably that's more a problem with the content they have to work with. The Wall climbing was a bit of a mixed bag. Some parts looked quite good, other parts looked obviously green-screened. I thought the part where it cracked and threw about a dozen wildlings off was super cool though. The final scene on the top was too sentimental, to overblown for me. A quick, desperate embrace when they both reach the top would have been better. Of course, the whole relationship between Jon and Ygritte has been awkwardly handled. That exchange before they scale the wall, that's the sort of thing we needed before the cave scene. It feels misplaced to have them start bonding now. I thought the writing in that Loras/Sansa scene was bizarre. It really feels like being gay is this guy's only character trait. I liked the scene with Roose, Jaime and Brienne. Those have, for the most part, been the season highlight, there's a great dynamic between them. Next episode should be great. On a visual note, there was some really lovely lighting. Good contrasts. I'm getting tired of the same redundant scenes. How many times can they go over the same information? What's Theon's storyline actually amounting to? Are we going to have another season of gratuitous torture every second episode. The Melisandre/Gendry change is interesting, we'll see how it plays out. I like the guy that plays Edmure, though I'm a mite miffed at how side-lined Cat has been. It doesn't feel like the show is really moving forward. It doesn't feel like things are coming to ahead, at times it feels like not much has even happened. From such a huge, exciting, exhilarating book, that's a strange place to end up.

The Hound's fight was good. I felt it could have used a bit more build up, but it had a lot of energy and was well choreographed. I found some of the editing hard to follow at times though, too much cutting. Jon/Ygritte fell flat. Harrington is a fairly weak actor and Rose Leslie sounded quite rehearsed at times as well. This relationship really hasn't been built up well enough for this romantic moment to be pulled off. It felt very awkward, and quite forced, throughout. They've had no substantial bonding time and now they're completely infatuated with each other? On its own, the scene was well written but there were a lot of factors going against it. Jaime and Brienne in the bath was a beautifully scene. Very powerful, very sad. I liked Arya and Gendry's exchange although I thought the music was a bit much. Shireen's scenes were sweet: I love that she's teaching Davos to read. I found the bottled stillborns too be too much of a B-horror idea. I also like how it transitioned from discussing Aegon the Conqueror to Dany's army. Grey Worm's introduction was good, it was actually quite emotive. I didn't care for reusing Theon's theme playing during Karstark's execution. I don't feel it gelled particularly well with the scene and there were subtler ways to create a parallel between the two. Littlefinger is atrocious. He's beyond being pantomimic at this point. He's just infuriating every time he walks on screen. It's a shame, that scene with Sansa was well written and Sophie Turner was quite good in it. On the whole I'd say it was a better episode than “And Now His Watch is Ended”. It didn't have the same, huge ending but it was more consistent throughout and much better written. 8/10

I thought the first 15 or so minutes felt rushed, nothing was given much weight. The news of Brand and Rickon especially, that just didn't pack any punch for me. Also, changing it from “dead” to “missing” lessened the impact significantly. I found the Queen of Thorn's less dynamic than in the books, and Sansa's misery felt “off” as well. Joffrey's scenes felt redundant: it just seemed like a repeat of what we got last week. Tyrion and Shae should also go in the inane grouping. I hope Theon's story results in being more than just a series of gruesome torture scenes (although, to be honest, some of the execution came across as a little comedic to me..). I thought the Brotherhood were given a satisfactory introduction and I liked the scene between Robb and Karstark. B and J's fight was drab. Minahan has no sense of rhythm when it comes to action sequences, and on top of that, it just didn't seem like a serious escape attempt. I thought Jaime should have been more aggressive and desperate. The Wildling scene was just there. I'd have preferred Mance to confide in winning the clans over through being a strong, dependable leader rather than just the generic “they'd all die!”. Jon didn't do anything in this scene either. The Night's Watch scene was unreal. It came across like a boring field trip, with Rast playing the school bully. It needed more tension, a sense of rising fear, getting back to the Wall should be a race against time. Everyone should be overwhelmed with fear, men falling behind and being picked off in the shadows. The real problem though is that it just feels like a series of scenes played one after the other. There's nothing overarching to connect them. Instead of being one story told through many viewpoints, it feels like many plots thrown together. The episodes are lacking a thematic core which, I think, is imperative when you're dealing with multiple storylines that don't have the much connecting them plot-wise. Oh, I'd give it 6/10 or so.