“The Old Gods and The New” (Season 2 | Episode 6)

Now that we’re past the halfway point in the season it feels like things in Westeros are going to get a little more explosive. This week’s edition of the show has certainly set the tone heading towards the final four episodes – Theon’s done a “Joffrey”, Joffrey’s caused a riot, somebody’s stolen Dany’s dragons and Jon Snow’s lost in his surname.

What was most surprising in this episode was Theon. He’s gone from being a dull-witted fool to complete savage, giving the likes of Joffrey competition for cruelty and lack of foresight. Taking Winterfell and killing Sir Rodrik like that has really pushed him past the point of no return. To think he’d grown up with these people yet, although somewhat reluctant, he was so quick to turn his back on them just to impress his father. It just goes to prove you can take a Greyjoy out of Pyke but you can’t take Pyke out of the Greyjoy.

Robb’s orders were swift and of true leadership, commanding a small battalion of men to retake Winterfell and deliver Theon to him alive so that Robb can divorce his head from it’s neck was brilliantly direct. Theon has very little leadership in battle so it will be nice to see what he intends to do when the wolves are at the door.

Arya chose to use the second of her three wishes in some style. This guy is a master of execution, barely blinking an eye when it comes to killing off another member of his tribe. The big question for this part of the story is surely – did Littlefinger recognise Arya? And if so what are his intentions?

The events in King’s Landing were…well eventful to say the least. Joffrey must have heard about Theon’s exploits because he tried his best to up the stakes in the cretin’s game of appalling leadership. Causing a riot because of a juvenile prank played on him by the city’s vast number starving wasn’t the horrendous king’s best decision. Thank the old gods and the new that Tyrion was about to  – a) save Sansa, and thus his brother Jaime, from Joffrey’s actions and b) – slap him!

Jon Snow’s story has been pretty calm in recent weeks; in fact in many episodes it’s not really been his story, more a story of the Knight’s watch as a whole. Now, he’s ventured out on his own though things should get a little more exciting, especially with a little female company to keep him warm out in the mountains. Ygritte’s introduction gave events in the north a lot more spark, when Jon volunteered to kill her you knew things weren’t going to go smoothly. The early signs of a Romeo & Juliet style relationship were on the cards as soon as the wildling was caught. She seems quite a firey and fun character, rubbing herself against Jon like that with the pure intention of teasing and annoying him.

Daenerys story exploded from a process of negotiations to a mini-siege and theft of those baby dragons. Big question then – Who took them? Weird skinny Walking Dead dude from last week, the grammatical king of spices? Or is it even a double play by her seductive host? Whoever it was is very stupid or brave, Daenerys might not look like the most powerful woman on the planet when Jorah gets back I’m sure the two of them will burn the city down in the hunt for those lizards.

All in all this was a near perfect masterpiece that impressed a lot of fans of both the books and the TV show. Season 2 has done well to include so much and maintain a constant pace, with a lot of the key individual stories starting to head towards some sort of climax, the question is – will GoT be able to maintain it’s multi-platform network of stories without losing any excitement? If this episode is an example of what we can expect then chances are we’re in for an exciting final month.

9.5/10

Scene of the Episode | The Riot – The scene of the episode and also the line of the season, goes to Tyrion, “We’ve had vicious kings and we’ve had idiot kings, but I don’t know that we’ve ever been cursed with a vicious idiot.”

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