A little disjointed this week, but a very strong and welcomed return for Jamie Lannister.
Jamie's been gone so long his beard has really grown. Still the same man underneath all that facial hair though. Jamie's two cage scenes really were the stand out parts of the episode. This is man that knows himself and knows exactly what he is capable of. He may be a man without honor, but he does have a code. He loves being alive and he loves his family (at least his immediate family), especially Cersei, and he will do anything to stay alive and do right by them. And unlike his offspring, Joffrey, he also doesn't relish in the horrible things he does. Bran had to die because he couldn't tell anyone about him and Cersei, and now Alton and the Karstark had to die for Jamie to escape his cage. Jamie may talk about the thrill of killing someone, but we've never seen him do it except for necessity.
The other two Lannister siblings had a wonderful moment in this episode as well. Cersei opening up to Tyrion about her inability to control her son was one of the best Cersei moments since her heartfelt talk with Catelyn Stark about losing her firstborn son. The fact that she was open about the true parentage of her children is what I think made the scene so great, she wasn't holding anything back. Cersei continued her strong streak this week with her talk with Sansa. Sansa was terrified that now that she has had her period, she is old enough to be wed to Joffrey and carry his children. While Cersei has emotionally tortured Sansa in the past, this time she was completely straight up with her about doing her duty and not having to love Joffery in the slightest. Sansa's terror in her discovery was also a good moment for Sophie Turner, who was good last season, but has improved greatly this year.
Beyond the Wall, Jon continues his ill thought out plan to keep Ygritte captive and find the other Night's Watchmen. I'm still not crazy about the way they've taken this. Why is Jon hell bent on keeping her captive? He should be more worried about getting back to his companions. In the book he just lets her go and continues on with the rangers. I've like most of the changes they've made to the book so far this year, but this one still puzzles me. The silver lining is getting to learn more about the Wildling culture, or as they call themselves the Free Folk because they don't bow down to any lords and Mance Rayder is only called king because they let him being king, not because of any birthright. I also like how she keeps using her sexuality against him, the perfect way to unsettle a man that has taken a vow of celibacy.
On the other end, the Tywin and Arya scenes are a change from the books that I completely love. What more great things can I say about these scenes that I haven't already? This week, Tywin lets on that he knows that she wasn't raised as a commoner, but he enjoys having her around so much that so far he doesn't care. What he doesn't know, and what we see as Arya handles her knife and looks at his neck, is that she would have no problem with seeing him dead. Makes you wonder why she hasn't used her third name on him, it would certainly be a great help to Robb if the brilliant head of the Lannister army was dead.
In Winterfell, Theon discovers that the Stark children are missing. He continues his slide into full on Iron Islander when he beats down the crew member that talks back to him about sleeping with Osha. Maester Luwin is still trying to talk sense into Theon, but nothing is getting through. Theon finally tracks them down to a farm we've seen them near, and Dagmer finds some walnuts that we saw Rickon eating.
Across the Narrow Sea, there's a coup in Qarth and Xaro has placed himself as King. It seems the Iron Throne is not the only kingship that people are after. Pyat Pree does his doubling act again, except this time his copied himself enough times to slit the throats of 11 members of the Thirteen simultaneously. Stealing the dragons, it seems, was only a way to get the Thirteen to convene so they could be easily killed. This is another welcome change from the books because in them not much happens to Daenerys in Qarth. I'm not completely sold on the story yet, but it's better than nothing happening.
I mentioned at the top that this episode felt a little disjointed, and I think a lot of that comes from the cliffhangers. They weren't cliffhangers in the usual sense, more along the lines of cutting off the scene before it was finished. Catelyn asks for Brienne's sword, but we don't see what she's going to do with it. Daenerys and Jorah run from the carnage in the council room, but we don't know where to. Theon strings up two horribly charred young male corpses, but it's left unclear whether they really are Bran and Rickon since we never saw them get captured. Instead of ending the episode on a large moment, we instead get a few threads just left hanging. It gave the effect that the episode wasn't really finished yet.
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