Game of Thrones: S05E02: "The house of black and white"

Rating: 6

In A Nutshell

Jaime hires Bronn to go on a secret mission with him to Dorne to get his and Cersai's daughter back. Tyrian and Varey's have a chat on way to wherever it is they are going. Brienne tries but fails to convince Sansa to allow her protection. Dany sentences one of the former slaves to death for murdering one of the rebels they'd finally captured, thus leading to riots. Tension is also heating up in Dorne where there is no love for the Lannisters. Finally, Jon Snow gets appointmented Lord Commander.

What I liked

We all wanted Jon Snow to accept Stannis's offer to rule Winterfell as Lord Jon Stark, although we also all figured that was unlikely to happen. We very infrequently get what we want in this show. I still hold hope of Starks ruling Winterfell again before this show is over.

Still, nice to see Jon become the man in charge at the night's watch, probably leading to some peaceful solution with the wildings? The only other wilding we've seen in any prominence was Tormund, the ginger haired angry looking guy. Unless someone new arrives, he's odds on to lead the wildling army you'd think.

Nice to see Dany get some balls and hold true to principles of law. Was even happier to see a riot afterwards. But remember, I'm no fan of hers so anything that goes wrong for her I like.

Podrick provides the comedy relief this week, proving he's not particular good at anything, apart from recognising people.

What I Didn't Like

Off with her hand! No? Ok, how about her head? No? Darn ...

I was disappointed that Drogon's return didn't see him bite Dany's head off. Ok, maybe that was unlikely, but a little nibble of her finger perhaps? How long do I have to wait until that woman gets it?

So, there was no one in at the house of black & white, but then it turns out there was. Not sure what the point of that was. Guess we'll find out perhaps. All it did was make Arya's scenes rather boring.

Didn't get to see "Jaqen H'ghar" change face. It was the classic camera shift that did it. Do they rip off their faces Mission Impossible style?

Not enough Tyrion and Varey's. One scene in the "box" cart was far too brief.

Huh?

Still thinking about a Season One mystery; didn't Jon Snow's cousin/uncle go missing in the far North? Did we ever hear about him?

Speaking of which, where are those white walkers? They sure are taking their time to walk on the wall that we saw them doing seasons ago.

Alexander Siddig  (Doran 'Prince' Martell) is fast becoming the Alan Dale of fantasy TV. He's literally everywhere currently. Who's his agent?

And Finally

Lots of subplots going on in this episode and previous. Tinges of more action here but there's really little to talk about really.

Rating: 6 out of 10 (The intrigue builds slowly)