Is the banjo music still playing? And no, I will not squeal like a pig.
It’s only the unknown thieves we have to worry about now. – Bronn
Oh GoT, how you can be such a tease. After such a great run of episodes lately, I couldn’t help be slightly disappointed by “Prince of Winterfell”. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but there were so many characters and places to be visited that each moment spent with the scores of characters with speaking parts felt like a passing glance. Not to mention the fact that much of this episode was exposition-heavy with little actual action.
The drama at King’s Landing has been upped considerably, building upon what we saw last week between Tyrion and Cersei regarding their concern for the Idiot King. Cersei exerted misguided revenge on Tyrion for sending her daughter away to be married; here she mistook Ros (and not Shae) to be Tyrion’s lover, kidnapping her for ransom until Joffrey is out of potential harm’s way. I thought for certain with all the ‘little birds’ in the air, surely Cersei would have gotten it right. The most amusing exchange ‘round King’s Landing was that between Varys and Tyrion who have caught wind of Daenerys’ exploits in Qarth and her possession of the dragons, which are not a threat. Yet.
Jon Snow’s journey continues to get worse as Qhorin Halfhand grimly states that Jon must do what needs to be done, presuming to mean surviving a meeting with Mance Rayder, whatever that may entail. Maybe Mance and Ned were old drinking buddies, or maybe they rubbed each other the wrong way, but either way I’ll bet they have some kind of history together. In a typically frustrating fashion, the obsidian blades and horn that Sam discovers dug on the mountain is barely dealt with and it may be a long while before this discovery is revisited.
Sadly all the quality time spent between Tywin and Arya seems to have passed as he abruptly rides out to meet Robb on the field of battle. Failing to fulfill her wish of seeing him get dead via the stealthy assassin skills of Jaqen, she instead modifies her wish to get Jaqen to get her safely out of Harrenhal. In doing so, it appears Jaquen gives at least an additional three lives to the red god, as all the posted sentries have begun rotting by the time Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie make their way through the gates at midnight. Once again, it’s what you don’t see that make characters like Jaqen all the more mysterious.
Mom, you’re making things really awkward around here.
Poor Robb. He’s certainly been given nothing but headaches to contend with as of late. First Theon betrays him. Then his generals start fighting about who gets to kill Jaime. Now his own mother frees Jaime as a last ditch effort to see Sansa and Arya alive again. For Cat’s treason, she is subject to arrest by her eldest son. Not to mention she sent arguably the most skilled of bodyguards Brienne to ensure Jaime’s safe arrival. No wonder Robb took solace in Talisa, ha. Seriously, though this was an expository-heavy episode.
We also got to finally catch up on Stannis and Davos again, yay. The best part hear though was getting a bit of backstory that went a long way in further establishing just who Davos is and his motivations. Davos not being of nobility and even openly mocked about his status of ‘Onion Knight’, next in line for the Hand of the King position? Davos is a class-act through and through.
Poor Robb. He’s certainly been given nothing but headaches to contend with as of late. First Theon betrays him. Then his generals start fighting about who gets to kill Jaime. Now his own mother frees Jaime as a last ditch effort to see Sansa and Arya alive again. For Cat’s treason, she is subject to arrest by her eldest son. Not to mention she sent arguably the most skilled of bodyguards Brienne to ensure Jaime’s safe arrival. No wonder Robb took solace in Talisa, ha. Seriously, though this was an expository-heavy episode.
We also got to finally catch up on Stannis and Davos again, yay. The best part hear though was getting a bit of backstory that went a long way in further establishing just who Davos is and his motivations. Davos not being of nobility and even openly mocked about his status of ‘Onion Knight’, next in line for the Hand of the King position? Davos is a class-act through and through.
I’d follow you anywhere… except to that creepy tower with those creepy warlocks.
Jorah Mormont once again suffers the thankless task of escorting Daenerys everywhere even if it means the targets on their backs are magnified one thousand fold. Daenerys is going to have to whip out some more magic I think if she means to survive an encounter with Pyat Pree and the other warlocks. Plus what is the new self-crowned king of Qarth, Xaro up to anyway?
And another great sigh for Theon this week. He’s certainly no smarter and still just as fool hardy. Even when big sister Yara came back for him, pleading that he ‘not die too far from the sea’, Theon elects to stick to his guns. The revelation about the two orphan boys’ deaths and just how Bran will be affected perhaps wasn’t the strongest note to go out on, but it’s fun to see that they’re hiding right under Theon’s nose. And I like Osha very much as a “good guy” (for lack of a better term on this show), though being of Wildling origin, I’m not sure what places the writers are going to take her.
As I said, there was a lot, perhaps too much (?) going on in this episode. With seven locales to juggle, that averages to about seven and a half minutes to spend there with all the characters who reside there. I’m not complaining necessarily, but it can be frustrating on a week to week basis. Sometimes I think the show could still succeed if it was splintered up in various spinoffs, given the often great distances between the characters who occupy this world. GoT is still a uniformly excellent show, but in the grand scheme of things, the “Prince of Winterfell” fell just a tad short of previous episodes’ greatness.
Final Grade: B
TRR TV Revue by Jacob Aquino
