Mhysa

With last week's monumental of episode of Game of Thrones completely upsetting expectations for the non-book readers, it fell to this episode to simply reassure everyone that there was still more story to tell. (Don't give up the show, please!) The approach seemed to be to touch, at least briefly, on every storyline they could, even if they didn't culminate in a particularly cliffhangery place.

The writers did manage to find time for an original scene, a very nice exchange between Varys and Shae. If you take Varys at his word (a suspect proposition, to be sure), he seems to legitimately care about the world at large, and legitimately believe that Tyrion is one of the few equipped to save it. But Shae, no longer wanting to be thought of as a whore, wasn't about to take money to up and leave.

Of course, there were plenty of other great scenes that were more grounded in the books. King's Landing served up a number of gems. There was the wonderful opening scene where Sansa showed just how young and naive she really is by confessing her idea of a nefarious scheme for revenge. There was the great council scene revolving around Joffrey, in which both Tyrion and Tywin cut him down to size. There was the uncharacteristically earnest discussion between Tyrion and Cersei about how to ease Sansa's sadness. And of course, the moment when Cersei realizes Jaime has returned.

There was the continuing torture of Theon, along with the reveal of the identity of his torturer and the assignment of his new identity that readers of A Dance With Dragons know well. Balon Greyjoy and Theon's sister (named Yara on the show) were also reintroduced, ramping back up for the larger role the Iron Islands play in the fourth book. (As for the grisly gift they received, Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake were very clear, step one is supposed to be "cut a hole in a box.")

There was the brief meeting of Sam and Bran, one of the rare character intersections between the separated plots. There were a pair of nice scenes between Davos and Gendry. And once again, as in season one, Daenerys had the "uplifting final moment" in her story across the ocean.

For book readers, who last week were asking "didn't Ygritte shoot Jon Snow as he in the book?" we got the scene were she caught up with him and delivered her "you know nothing" line with an entirely different tone.

But my personal favorite scene had to be the moment with Arya, who viciously committed her first murder, invoking the words of the assassin who gave her her coin. The Hound's reaction was priceless, not chastising her for doing it, nor warning her not to something like that again. He only wanted to be told ahead of time the next time she was going to do it.

So there we have it -- the last Game of Thrones until 2014. I've had a lot of fun discussing this latest season with my friends who have read the books, enough that I'm seriously considering reading them again before the next season rolls around. (We'll see if that happens. We are talking a serious time commitment there.)

Now, bring on the final season of Dexter, please!