So Game of Thrones, the single best show on television is back, and I’m going to be here with a weekly update on everything that goes on and my thoughts on each episode. I’m going to go through the episode, lay out what happened and give my thoughts, then give my overall impressions at the end. If you enjoy this let me know, and let me know what you thought of the episode.
We start up at The Wall with Davos discovering Jon Snows body. We have references to the main theories on how Jon will survive with Melisandre arriving and we can hear Ghost. But a small group remain loyal to Jon and hole up with Davos and Jon’s body. Davos appears to suggest getting the Wildlings help. Meanwhile Thorne has assumed control of the Nights Watch and we appear to be heading to a big conflict up here.
Then the action moves down to Winterfell where we get Ramsey mourning Miranda. This gets to show a little of his humanity and show he’s not just evil. They have also sent hunters to chase Sansa and Theon/Reek. We do get a touching moment which really shows how much Theon has redeemed himself when he tries to sacrifice himself to allow Sansa to get away, unfortunately this completely fails and they find Sansa anyway. Then is the biggest crowd-pleasing moment of the show Brienne and Pod arrive and Brienne starts to wreck the Bolton men. There was a moment where I thought she could die, this is Game of Thrones after all, but she succeeds in saving Sansa. We also get to see Pod fighting a couple of guys, even if he does end up needing an assist from Theon. This leaves us with Sansa now having Brienne and Pod to help her out, no idea where they’re going to go at this point, but this should be an interesting group dynamic between the four of them.
Down at King’s Landing Jaime returns from Dorne. Cersei’s very hopeful at seeing her daughter again; unaware she was poisoned at the end of last season. My initial thought was after she finds out was that I would not like to be in Cersei’s way, she’s going murder anybody and everybody to get revenge. However, what we actually see a slightly depressed and defeatist Cersei. She does gives a great speech about how good and different Marcella was from Cersei, without any of the jealousy and bitterness. She also talks about Maggie the Frog’s prophecy that her 3 children will die, and this is what has her in such a defeatist attitude. And it is left to Jamie to rally her, saying that they are going to take everything back. This excites me, Jaime and Cersei have become two of my favourite characters and I cannot wait for Cersei to unleash hell on all of her enemies. With the exception of Margery, who is still in jail refusing to confess. The High Sparrow visits her, and yes I do believe you are perfect Margery.
I have got to admit that I wasn’t too excited when the show then moved to Dorne. The storyline here was some of the weakest stuff last season by a long way. But we get Oberyn’s ex lover Ellaria with the prince, Doran, when he finds out that Myrcella was killed. Which then led to the big shocking moment of the episode. Ellaria and one of the Sandsnakes stage a coup murdering Doran and his bodyguard. They finish the coup by murdering Doran’s son, really setting a full scale war between Dorne and the Lannisters over at King’s Landing.
Across the narrow sea Varys and Tyrion, who are now in Meereen, come across a Lord of Light preacher. Meereen seems fairly empty and desolate, because let’s be real Danny is doing a terrible job of ruling. They discuss finding out who is orchestrating the attacks, such as the one on the arena, when suddenly all the ships are set ablaze, leaving them stuck in Meereen. Meanwhile, my guy Ser Jorah and Daario looking for Daenarys and find evidence the Dothraki have her. As Danny is now a Dothraki prisoner she is taken to see Khal Moro. He was planning to take her as a concubine, but we find out that it is forbidden to sleep with a Khal’s widow. Furthermore she apparently she now has to be taken to Vaes Dothrak, so is probably going to be stuck with the hoard for a while. These were also the most childish Dothraki hoard ever, a bit more entertaining than most of the ones Danny was stuck with in season 1. But this does feel like she is right back where she started and hasn’t really progressed in her storyline at all.
We briefly get to see Arya in Braavos, where she is blind and begging on the street. The other girl from the House of Black and White shows up and beats her with a stick, meant to be some kind of lesson, I feel that this will be the bulk of the first half of Arya’s season until she learns to cope with her blindness. Whatever it is, assassin school sure sucks.
We finish the episode back at The Wall. Thorne comes to Davos and those loyal to Jon with an ultimatum of leave/surrender by nightfall or be killed. Davos suggest using Melisandre for help. However she is pretty depressed given both her choices for saviors are dead. She takes off her necklace and becomes very old. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on here, but have seen it suggested that this is her losing faith in, and turning away from The Lord of Light.
Overall, this was very good first episode, which are never the most action packed, this set up character places for the season well. There’s an obvious conflict about to breakout at the wall, as well as one brewing between the Lannisters and Dorne. We also got a great moment from Cersei here, who is one of my absolute favourite characters, I don’t care about the haters, Cersei’s my girl. We also have Sansa with some actual friends and people who care about her, which does not happen too often. She’s now going to have to show some leadership and develop further. Danny’s storyline has regressed right back to where it started from, she’s with a hostile Dothraki hoard, so that’s a disappointment. We also didn’t have to put up with Bran in this episode, which was nice, but I’m sure he’ll make his return in the next episode. But we got a couple of good bits of action, Brienne saving Sansa was certainly the stand out moment of the episode and I gave a full on cheer. A decent start and one that leaves the series with plenty of places to go.
8.5/10
Shuggie Says 
the dorne plot is a pointless waste of time that had so much potential, the sand snakes seem to be able to swim through plot holes. i think i can see where its going but the execution was sloppy and out of character and i can think of multiple ways to achieve the same ends.
I think the whole Dorne storyline hasn’t been great, and was still one of the weakest parts of this episode. But I am excited for where it’s going, cause my girl Cersei is gonna destroy people.