Well. I don't think I'm going to sleep well tonight having seen Pedro Pascal's head explode O.o Yuck
Anyway, a fantastic episode. Even as a super Oberyn fanboy having read the book, I was able to forget about the battle for at least half the episode :p I think I got impatient around the 40 minute mark.
Sansa was well played. I liked the Lords of the Vale (although that third one - I think he's supposed to be Lyn Corbray's replacement? didn't do anything yet), and that Littlefinger was actually saved by Sansa - that it was her who came up with her lie. But the cat is out of the bag in terms of Sansa being there, for the political bigshots of the Vale at least. The intro with Bronze Yohn questioning Littlefinger for aaages while all we could see was an odd close-up of his face was a little weird. And afterwards, when we got to see the whole room from further away, the only thing that was moving was Yohn's lower jaw, it was very odd.
Castle Black too. Jon and friends reacting to the Mole's Town his was great in many ways. A nice, fluid, emotional scene that felt very real ^_^ Nice set up for the next episode (the preview looks excellent - full of the Night's Watch, Wildlings, a frickin' giant and NOBODY ELSE :p)
Arya and the Hound segment was so-so. Pales in comparison to the rest of the episode.
Meereen was … well, I have probably quite unpopular feelings about Grey Worm's presentation (maybe it was just me who got so much out of the Unsullied's gradual humanisation over the course of book 5, but, anyway ...) but the thing with Jorah was fantastic. I've been wondering for ages how they were going to reconcile the whole "Barristan doesn't know Jorah's a spy" thing with the books. It was a necessary deviation, and wow, they pulled off the result in a brilliant way. I won't pretend to remember Daenerys's dismissal of Jorah from the books so well - I think it was more private and personal, but idk - in any case, I thought the this episode did it in a much more powerful way. Or maybe it's just because it's so much easier to invest in Jorah in the TV series. Either way, it was fantastic, and did well for Barristan too. My only real complaint about Meereen would be the lack of Hizdahr :(
Moat Cailin ... when I read they cast Ralf Kenning, I was a little bit confused. "But he doesn't do anything but die," I thought. I was a little surprised when he was there, up and talking! :p I think it's a shame they didn't make a big deal of how close the Ironborn were to crumbling anyway, nor how the Reeds and their lot were whittling them down with 'poison' darts etc at every shot they could manage. Annnnnd, Ramsay continues to seem scarier than Roose :( Although that " ... Walk with me" thing was good. This is getting really close to setting up some of the best stuff from the fifth book, which might well take centre stage next season :D
I enjoyed Tyrion's diatribe lol. I thought it was basically about the Mountain, but the other ideas floated about here sound a bit better :p But the relationship it showed between Jaime and Tyrion was nice too, which is actually the main reason I liked it. The fight was great. Some nice showing off from Oberyn. I don't think I felt Oberyn's rage and ... mania? as much as I did reading that scene in the book, but it was pretty close. And was that Daemon Sand squiring for him? I'm just going to assume it is and go yayyyy Daemon Sand :D The frequent reaction shots were great. Gregor sounded a little cartoonish but .... anyway, when Oberyn got his shots in it felt so epic. Like "even mountains can crumble" or whatever. And then we come to the gruesome death. A fitting finish but ewwww it almost overwrote everything else in the episode just by being gruesome :/
And now hopefully we don't even see KL next episode or something so SUSPENSE :p
Book spoilers:
! The way Littlefinger's playing the Vale is intriguingly different. I got the impression it was all like Sansa was his trump card to marry to Harry the Heir and hence get the North and Vale united. Moreover, with the way Sansa played things, it's like Bronze Yohn's in Littlefinger's hands already, in sharp contrast to the books, where he's basically the only one still bitterly opposed to him. I guess the complexity of the Vale politicking which we get crammed into a few Sansa chapters in Feast is too much effort to put on screen for very little payoff.
! For future episodes, I'm guessing the Big Thing will happen in episode ten, maybe at the end? The title ("The Children") lead me to believe (after I had been convinced by other people it probably doesn't refer to Bran's story) that it was about Stoneheart … but I like the idea it could refer to Tyrion, Jaime and Cersei also. Because the trial fallout will make that relevant.
! Also, there was Littlefinger's cheeky foreshadow. People die all the time. ... many examples in quick succession ... Squatting on their chamberpot ...
I actually didn't realise for a moment that it was referring to something yet to happen, and I thought Littlefinger (ie in character) was making a reference to that event lol.
! Anyway, since Sansa's taken it upon herself to save Littlefinger, it will make it all the greater a betrayal now when she kills him.