This week’s episode is titled “What is Dead May Never Die.” Check out my thoughts on the episode after the jump, and spoilers for those who have not watched it yet (naturally).
1. “The Queen Mustn’t Know”
Oh man, putting Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) into King’s Landing so far in season two has been a godsend, as he’s basically playing the role of Ned Stark from season one, except he knows how the system works and has no problem playing in like a champ. The way he has been taking the Small Council to pieces and insulating himself from danger has been genius, and Dinklage is doing everything he can to elevate himself from “potential repeat winner for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama” at the Emmy’s to “frontrunner for Best Actor in a Drama.” Every time he’s on the screen, I’m glued to the screen. I can’t get enough of the way he’s handling things, even if his relationship with Shae is a potential “weakness.”
2. “We Do Not Sow”
Besides Tyrion’s orchestrations with the Small Council, maybe the scene of the episode was the showdown between a disgusted Theon Greyjoy and his father Balon, as Theon straight up calls him out for how things went down long ago and who really betrayed who. Alfie Allen, who portrays Theon in the show, has had more to do in the first three episodes of this season than the entire first season combined. He’s nailed every moment. Can’t wait to see where the Greyjoy’s go next, especially considering their plans to move against the Starks.
3. “Game of Thrones” pulls the anti “Walking Dead”
One of the worst aspects of “The Walking Dead” was how they seemingly had to touch on everyone in every episode, which made it so no one really gets much of any screen time. They did an awful job balancing the cast. “Thrones” on the other hand proves with this episode just how well they balance a massive cast, as instead of touching briefly on everyone, they just don’t give any time to characters like Dany and her cast of merry barbarians, Robb Stark and his army, or any number of other members of their respective groups.
While some may gripe about that, it allows the rest of the segments that needed to be touched on here to breathe and become fully realized. In fact, you never even think of their absence until after the episode (or I didn’t), and I mean that in the best way possible. This show is a clinic on how to manage a large cast.
4. Power is the name of the game
It seems that each episode this season has provided a different definition of the true meaning of power, and within this one, we get an actual definition from Varys but a whole lot more in terms of demonstration. Tyrion playing the Small Council, Tyrion and Bronn taking out Maester Pycell, new King’s Guard Brienne straight up dominating the Knight of the Flowers in a one-on-one sparring match, Renly’s new bride Margaery dropping the knowledge card on him to get what she wants, and any number of other examples show how characters demonstrate power in different ways to get what they want. It’s like the world’s most elaborate game of rock, paper, scissors, with each person having their distinct strengths and weaknesses that nearly everyone is constantly looking to expose. It’s fascinating to watch.
5. Fiona Staples: “Wish Game of Thrones would focus on any scene long enough for something to HAPPEN!”
I was browsing through Twitter after the show aired, and I saw Staples’ note about this episode. Even with excusing some of the characters from attendance for this episode, it’s still full to its gills with a bevy of new characters being introduced at every corner. While I can see where Staples’ is coming from (sometimes you just want to see someone to get stabbed with a big sword), this reminds me of last season in which the open was for setting up the chess pieces and the end of the season was just wall-to-wall crazy.
But at the same time, that doesn’t mean the set up can’t be great too. “Game of Thrones” is a perfect example of a show where the gears turning to create the big, final movement of the machine can be just as interesting as the movement itself (and I’m not talking about the amazing title sequence). Things will get going full tilt soon enough, but for now, I’m plenty satisfied seeing showrunners Benioff and Weiss set things up and watching this brilliant cast make their words as sharp as any sword.
