The Ghost of Harrenhal (Season 2 | Episode 5)

If you didn’t know it already, Game of Thrones is not afraid to kill off anyone, even someone that you’ve just started to understand or care about. Seeing Renly get assassinated so early on without any hesitation by that weird shadow demon was quite astounding to see, but not that surprising when you think about the fact that this show killed off its two main leads in the first season. That’s what makes this GoT so captivating and addictive – anyone is for the chop. Liking a character is like betting on a horse at the Grand National, no matter what the odds on it are you simply have to hope that it doesn’t fall at the next fence.

If this series is the war of the five kings then we’re now down to four, the odds for Robb Stark’s victory have decreased as well, just as things looked to be going his way. What made matters worse was Brienne slaying those two guards in the tent, now her and Cat are on the run and all alone. This did bring about a sentimental moment where the gigantic blond pledging her life and alliance to Cat, which was quite touching and was a nice move for the show.

My favourite part of the whole episode was Daenerys story over in Qarth, we’ve finally had a lot of progression in this journey and now it’s going somewhere. We had another taste of the dragons, or at least one of them, toasting a pocket sized steak, which was pretty cool. I was a surprised to see her receive a proposal from her host Xaro, he had good reasoning for it but what confidence to just come out with it like that, would the fact that she’s got three dragons in her possession have anything to do with his offer of marriage? What he said about Jorah being in love with her was very interesting, will she act on this information and will it affect their relationship?

What was creepiest about events in Qarth was the formal introduction of Pyat Pree. Last week I mentioned that he looked like a zombie, now I’m thinking a zombie Richard O’Brien, in the Aztec Zone (that was everyone’s favourite zone on the Crystal Maze, right?). The Dothrakis discussing which items to steal was fantastic; it brought a lot of humour to this episode and made for great viewing.

Back in King’s Landing, Tyrion’s story continues to move along neatly. His discovery about the insane amount of wildfire that is being kept for King Joffrey was the most significant moment for him this week. It sucks that the people of Kings Landing blame him for their suffering, believing he is the one with bad advice for Joffrey.

Arya on the other hand has gone and found herself a magic lamp and three death wishes from a genie named Jaqen H’ghar’s (don’t worry, I can’t pronounce it either). I’m happy to see he took no time in scratching off the first name on her mini-Kill Bill style death list – who fills the next two slots could prove significant in events to come, finger’s crossed one of the begins with a J and ends in –offrey!

8/10

Scene of the Episode | Tywin’s Table – Arya’s story has been one of the best so far this season and this scene showed just how good’ a young actress she is. Holding her own against Charles Dance is no easy feat and she did it well.  I can’t wait for Tywin to interact with Joffrey or Cersei in King’s Landing, hopefully he’ll slap them both silly and bring about some normalcy in the Kingdom.

Reviewed by Rich Jepson, cult TV enthusiast and author of 24: Terrorism Through Television.