Once the finale ended, I checked facebook and noticed that everyone seemed to hate the episode. I think my reaction text to my brother was “what the five flyin’ monkey fuck? No death???” His response “Seriously! WTF?! Disappointing!”
The next morning while driving to work, I thought long and hard about the episode. Well, I thought about it after I finished my coffee and I was actually awake. I usually wake up somewhere around Altoona. Anyways, I realized that episode was actually very good, just poorly timed.
They should have combined this episode and “The Rains of Castamere” into a two-hour season finale. Without doing too much different, they could have ended with the Red Wedding. Instead, the season ends on a positive note, with Daenerys freeing some more slaves and having them treat her as a savior. Her army and her followers continue to grow.
So here are the things that I thought were really cool during the episode:
-Jon and Sam are finally reunited. One had lots of unprotected sex with a woman and his reward is a few arrows, the other does not have sex and ends up with a child named after him. Weird.
-I feel like it took a long time to get Bran & Company across the Wall in the books, but the show managed it in like ten minutes. Thank you show for speeding some things up! Also, Bran told a fantastic story about a white rat and definitely made a comment on guest rite and what happens to those who break it. Better watch out Walder Frey! For those who did not catch it last week, when Robb and his men are taking the bread and salt, that is a ritual that signifies you are safe in someone’s house. The gods do not like men who break guest rite!
-Joffrey was a horrible person as usual. There was a great moment though during the Small Council meeting, where he shows Tyrion the letter, which is encoded, saying about Robb’s death. Joffrey says that he will serve Robb’s head to Sansa at his wedding, which causes Tyrion to threaten the King. Joffrey then lashes out at Tywin and that is where he goes too far. Tywin sends him to bed. Not kidding. Never mess with Tywin Lannister.
-Another great conversation between Tywin and Tyrion. The elder Lannister is chastised by his son for killing Robb Stark at a wedding. Tywin feels that he did a good thing and saved many lives, but in the end he is just securing his families future. Tyrion basically feels that his father does everything to benefit himself, what has he ever done for anyone else? Tywin responds by saying that he allowed Tyrion to live and grow up as his son, when he wanted to murder the child. Very chilling.
-The Frey camp had a little fun with Robb’s body and Grey Wind’s head. They combined the two and made a true “Young Wolf.”
-Arya and the Hound run into some Frey men who are laughing about whole affair and how the one guy got to sew the head onto the body. Arya does not react well. She stabs the guy repeatedly. The Hound then kills the others. He is surprised to learn that she stole his knife. Be afraid of Arya! “Valar Morghulis.”
-Jaime finally makes it home and Cersei is quite happy, until she sees him without a hand and a beard. She is not vain at all. She will probably be happy to marry Ser Loras now. I am disappointed that the show never introduced Moon Boy, just so characters can say “she is probably fucking Moon Boy for all I know” when referring to Cersei being a whore.
-I am one of the few people who actually enjoyed the Reek storyline in the latest book. I guess most people just hate Theon so much that they actually enjoy all the bad stuff that happens to him. I will say this, the guy who plays Ramsay Snow is fantastic.
-Seriously, Phantom Cock would be a great name for a punk band.
So where will next season take us? Hopefully the show will veer away from the books. I hope they actually have an ending for the series, which if I am remembering correctly, they said would end after seven seasons. Martin will not be finished with the books. I can guarantee that one.
My brother posted this video on facebook the other day. Pretty amusing. Minus the book joke. Damn you Martin!
Although, if Martin dies before he finishes the books, I think Joe Abercrombie should finish the series. He would do it justice…
