Ep 5. Review Easy Eastwatch

Hey all,

        Let's talk about what happened in last night's GoT episode entitled "Eastwatch." I hate being so negative but this episode to me really showcased how laughably lost these showrunners are without George. It's a bummer that these idiots were given creative control of a world so intricate and interesting and they just have no will to want to make enjoyable television for anyone with half a brain. This episode they didn't have the smoke and mirrors of a battle sequence behind it. They had to advance the plot with dialogue, and emotion, and various events taking place that our characters might have opinions about or take issue with...as you can imagine a lot of the important parts like setups for plot points, and payoffs for character arcs were rushed through, and then fluffy, meandering hijinx and fan service dialogue was embellished and reveled in. Let's dissect it, and hopefully I'll try to dehidrate from all the SALT I'm drowning in. Ugh. Here goes nothing. (Smiles through the pain.) 

        This being the 5th episode in an awkwardly brief season, we continue our light speed plot developments leaving every scene with an awkward, all too brief befuddlement. Remember last week's thrilling cliff hanger when Jaime was knocked off his horse in that shallow stream and then it magically turned into a quarry? Well he was sinking in his plate armor while Bronn floated away. Reminder: there was a Dragon twelve feet away. So they decided to end their episode like a serial spaghetti Western in the way of "Will Jaime escape the water chasm of his doom in full plate metal?? Will Tyrion be able serve his queen seeing her destroy his family with  the awesome power she possesses?? Will Bronn get his groove *gold* back?? Tune in next week for the thrilling conclusion of: Dany and the Jets!"
         So not surprisingly, as par for this season, they open the same way an old Spaghetti Western would: everything's fine. Bronn pulls Jaime to safety. Oh. Okay. That must have been some seriously Olympic-style heroics by Bronn, oh well I guess we'll have to again fill in the blanks with our own imagination. Bronn won't let Jaime die because Jaime still owes him a dept. Cute. I'm glad they at least kept with character and didn't do what I was dreading and make Bronn become some Lannister loyalist who got a taste of heroism and his bond with Jaime makes him want to be a better knight and to destroy the foreign invader...so I guess that's...good they didn't do that? And somehow, by the way, they made it all the way across this magical body of water and with Dany, the Dragon, Tyrion, thousands of Dothraki soldiers rounding up survivors, none of them wanted to take the 5 minutes it would have taken and maybe walk around the pond to see if any survivors swam for it...
        Nope, everything looks fine, Bronn and Jdogg slink away like Chief Wiggam and then we cut to our audience POV character Tyrion, who is for some reason surprised at the carnage a dragon can do. It's cool to see the aftermath but it's interesting that he only now feels conflicted about releaseing these terrible beasts upon the world. "When they were burning brown people in gold masks it was fine...but now it's a problem for me!"
        So they round up all the Lannister stragglers and Dany offers the most absolutist, authoritative choice imaginable right after she tells everyone I'm not here to murder. I think we are supposed to see the irony in that? But we never get any kind of honest moments from Dany anymore, we don't know her, the writers don't know her, her councilors can't seem to predict or control her, because all they ever do is talk at her about forced strategy opinions and how being inactive is a great idea. Why the f@ck did we come to Westeros with like 50,000 swords guys? What did you think I was gonna just politely invade?! 
        I think the writers are trying too hard to convince us that Dany's story is one of conflict, but ummm they rushed her character arc and sidelined her in her own plot, so now she's just a nonsensical beast-master who wants to *blehh* "break the wheel." So anyone who doesn't join her will be burned alive. I do like that she took Tyrion with him to offer up some much needed conflict for the season.

An aside: she explains this wheel as what I gather to be a representation of how the High Lords of Westeros have been oppressing the common people for so long and she's here to change that. Just politically, I find this deeply patronizing for her to just jump to the conclusion that "the people" would even want her. We as an audience know her intentions may be good, but if I'm a small business or farm owner in the Reach or somewhere inside King's Landing...I want this foreign woman and her flying death machines gone so I can keep selling my goods or sowing my crops to prepare for winter.  And sure, my current Queen is a violent, incestuous terrorist, but to me, a commoner for let's say House Florant, Dany's just another powerfully privileged white savior telling me what I need.
        The problem, and this is actually rampant in the source material as well, is that the common folk are not represented at all as POV or side characters. This is a fatal flaw in the works, especially considering what we've learned recently about modern politics. You can preach and pander to the public all you want with "breaking the wheel" platitudes, you can decorate yourself with self aggrandizing titles...but in the end you are just as self-serving and ambitious as the rest of them, and the nameless, faceless common folk of Westeros (who seemingly are only represented by slaves, oafs, prostitutes, Ed Sheeran, and Bronn in this universe) will only resent you. Alright. That's just my identity politic rant bleeding through concerning the systemic class issue in GoT. #commonfolkmatter.      

        Anyways, Randyll Tarly doesn't bend the knee. Which, if you are a book reader you know is sort of nonsensical because Randyll Tarly was among the many lords that stayed loyal to the Targaryen King during Robert's Rebellion. In fact, Tarly was the only commander to ever hand Robert a defeat. So I guess the question of Randyll's character is whether he is just a stubborn loyalist to whomever is sitting the Iron Throne...or does house name carry any weight with him? Either way, his past is not even brought up and he insists that she's a foreigner, even though she was literally born in Westeros. On Dragonstone.  They made a plot point about it in the second episode. I suppose that's semantics because she's not exactly a local, but why isn't Dany just offering up her claim as a better option than Cersei? It's not like the Targaryens don't have a deeply rooted history in Westeros. There were dozens of Westeros houses loyal to house Targaryen and they ruled for hundreds of years. This is stupid logic. It's not that Dany has a better claim, it's that she has a claim, and that's what she should be going off of to reason with Tarly once she finds out who he is. But instead, she's a violent brat, and he's a wild racist and we're expected to...I don't know.
        Then, somehow all knowing Tyrion makes a meta-comment to him saying "wait, you just betrayed your liege lady at the battle of High Garden, and I know this even though I wasn't there, why not just switch sides again dude?" and he says "because reasons." Then his son Dick has a moment and decides he too would like to be burned alive. Dany is just fine with it. "I mean I gave them a choice." YEAH SOME CHOICE. Randyll doesn't beg for his son's life anymore than "wait. stop. don't." And again, Dany is just fine with her murderous ultimatum and then Randyll and Dick hold hands before they are burnt to ash in. Good gods, what in the seven hells am I watching. Man, what dumb, forced, awkward f@cking writing. It's the same trope used when who-cares Illyria and her who-cares daughter Tyene are killed...you wait until now to give us a moment of character empathy? That's so f@cking cheap.  And I'm sorry Dany, have you never heard of POW's? You have the new Warden of the  Reach and his heir in your grasp. What wars have their ever been where the losing side just accepts a new queen after they have been decimated in battle? Why, other than fear, would they follow you?
        Is that the point? Are we supposed to believe Dany is just an irrational monster now? Why? The whole season she's just been flirting with Jon, not emoting, and wining that she's losing...and now she finally gets out to the battle field and she's just immediately terrible? So she's spent 6 seasons learning the finer points of ruling and diplomacy, but mehhhh. If you ask the show runners they literally say "I wouldn't say she's acting like the mad king because it's rational..." Forced ultimatums with threat of incineration without fealty is rational? ARE YOU GUYS F@CKING HIGH OR JUST STUPID? Okay we're really doing this. We're assassinating Dany's character and making her the villain immediately. If we are supposed to feel conflicted about her decision, they missed the mark. The only thing I'm conflicted over is whether or not to keep watching this melodramatic garbage as they continually strong arm their audience into following along with their forced plots and meandering character arcs. Like, she can cuss out Cersei all she wants, because Cersei is evil, but how is Dany any different? Sure, Dany is less terrible, but she sure as hell isn't breaking the wheel, she's just replacing one violent ruler with another. They've given us nothing redeemable to latch on to. They remove all complexity of decision making within Dany herself, and slap us over the face with how wise and just Tyrion is, and how violent and stupid Dany is all of the sudden. Yay.
        So she roasts the Tarlys in front of everyone instead of using them as a bargaining tool like a smart person.
        The one positive I thing I will say about this segment is that it looks fantastic. The shots are sprawling and epic, the cgi is so well wrendered and the cinematography paints a very thematic backdrop that, aside from my hang-ups on characterization, make a splendid set piece for the episode. Let's move on.
               
        KING'S LANDING

        Jaime walks home. Right up to the gates of King's Landing, through the halls all covered in mud, and returns to Cersei. Fine. I was really expecting to see a scene with Jaime that might confirm at least the terrible person the show runners have created in Dany. Jaime killed his king because he watched him burn people alive, he wanted to destroy the city by burning it down and Jaime, in an act of valor and treason, stops the King with his own blade. He has just returned from a traumatic battle where men were burnt to a crisp at the drop of a helmet. Should we call all the lords of Westeros together and report the damage and maybe reaffirm some now legitimate fear that (from their perspective) the Mad King's daughter IS indeed here and she's terrifying and brutal?  No, they have some weird conversation about Tyrion. Why? There is so much more at stake!!! Why the f@ck would they even think of... oh. Oh no, they're really going to just tie up Cersei's hatred for him by having Jaime "Tell Cersei, I want her to know it was me," so she's less mad at Tyrion for not killing Jeoffery. Then Cersei is only focused on Jaime daring to have mercy on an old Lady, like that's the least of what is happening here, dear. I'm flabbergasted. Pick. A. Lane. I bet this is all just to convince the audience to go along with some dumb plot scheme thing they are about to hatch.    
         More on that later. Right now it's time for us to warp back to...

        DRAGONSTONE

        Dany is back. Again. Already. Jon pets Dany's dragon and we are supposed to think this is emotional or something because we know that Jon is a Targaryen. They don't really set up that Jon is especially afraid of them, nor is he fascinated by them, he's just meh about them as he is with most things, in fact, this is the first encounter he ever has with any of them, but we spend 5 slow motion minutes and like a million dollars of cool CGI to see a close up of him petting Drogon. Again this is in no way emotionally significant in context of the show, and it's proven more when Dany doesn't even address the fact that her feared, unpredictable pyro-reptile doesn't seem to mind Jon. It's just a wink at the audience and completely tone-deaf.    
      Then Jorah comes wandering up the cliffs with people who just, apparently, happily grant anyone's wish to see the queen. There is no breathing for this moment at all. Jorah and Dany, regardless of how tenuous and complex it may be, have one of the show's only  solid, touching relationships in the entire series. Some may call it creepy, some may call it sad and pathetic, some may call it "friendzoned," but the fact remains that these two characters have had the longest lasting relationship (non blood related) in the show. They recognize in one another a deep need for closeness that neither one can give the other and it's some of the only tender moments we as an audience ever get in this longwinded, nihilistic killfest...but this scene is so rushed and clunky and awkward and misdirected and out of place. It's like neither character knows how to feel, neither actor knows how to portray the emotion because they aren't directing them on what to do. The showrunners just need certain characters to get to certain places and if it means having Dany fly back on Drogon, watch Jon pet him, then immediately turn around to see her long-lost Bear without even getting to unpack her suitcase, well it's got to be done! So here's the big narrative payoff for Jorah being infected with Greyscale, doomed to die, sent away, and return to his one love, his queen, the only reason he has to live:

       Dany: (In crocodile tears) Oh hey, didn't see you there. You found a cure.

        Jorah: Yep.

        Dany: Oh yay, you can do things for me again!

        Jorah: Do you wanna know how it happened? Like we can cure this horrible disease and it's literally the simplest thing --

         Dany: Woahhh we don't have time for that type of thing.

         Jorah: Okay so about me being like 20 years older than you, betraying you several times and confessing my love for you. Should we unpack all this here or-

         Dany: shhhhhh shhh shhhh shhh...let's confuse the audience with a weirdly affectionate friend hug.  Have you noticed that my eyes are more purple-y because D&D realize now that changing my eye color does nothing to my expressionless acting...?

        Jorah: ...What am I doing here.

        So Jorah returns to his queen as an afterthought in a scene dedicated to another flat lining Dany+Jon scene where they talk about how Jon for some reason doesn't like that she just flew over to the mainland and laid waste to a Lannister army. It's all just so thrilling.

KINGS LANDING II

       . Then things get really f@cking forced and convoluted because Jaime tells (remember) only Cersei that the dragons and Dothraki are unbeatable even though they were taken by surprise, outnumbered, and still managed to wound the beast while almost killing the Dragon Queen herself. Now they just want to give up, or treat with with her or something. To be honest I was texting a lot during this scene because I just can't stand these uninteresting melodramatic battle plan scenes with Jaime and Cersei any longer. I guess Jaime saw Tyrion somehow, it must have been when he was all the way up the hill away from the battle, or when Jaime was drowning underwater, but yeah Jaime knew that Tyrion was there. What's more unforgivable is that Cersei doesn't seem to care. She goes "Maybe you can reason with him. We'll have a better chance to reason with him rather than the Dragon Queen. I don't feel like playing war anymore." WHAT? Who are these characters posing as Jaime and Cersei, honestly?
          SO later in KL, now that Jaime is home for the weekend after doing more errands for his sister, We find out that Cersei is pregnant. Now, the two things happening in my head are as follows: 1.Maggy the Frog told us that Cersei would only have 3 kids and they'd all die, and 2. George always talks about how prophesies can always be misinterpreted. So this plot offers up some questions for the viewer (finally) Jaime asks who the father is (LOL) and she says of course it's his but the main plot point here is that Cersei wants everyone to know that Jaime is the father so they can finally live openly without the horrible stigmatization of their incest.
        The twincest has officially run its course. At the heart of D&D's misinterpretation of these characters is their fascination and insistence of making Jaime and Cersei's love for one another the reason we care for them. This is so misguided and tone-deaf because well, ummm, incest is actually gross. In the books, Jaime and Cersei start off together and we are (naturally) repulsed by their behavior, but it helps give us insight to both of their troubled pasts. They're both pretty awful people to start. But it's through both of their separate journeys we then get to see the rise and fall respectively of Jaime and Cersei. They are both discovering who they are without the other, and though they are convincing themselves that they are one, that they are inseparable, that they are each other's better half...we as readers and viewers alike can plainly see that their characters only flourish (good and bad) without the other present. The best parts of the books is that they both realize that they don't need one another at different times, and things begin to fall apart for them, and so it makes them turn again to their dependence for one another at the lowest parts of their journey. But, in another brutally trite episode of the "incestual corner," we're just given more of the same tired act of Cersei telling Jaime what to do but also reminding the audience that their love will somehow prevail, and Jaime, continuing to have no mind of his own or any real purpose, just goes along with it. And so on and on it goes.        
        Then Bronn orchestrates a meeting with Jaime and Tyrion in the KL crypts, under the guise of another sword lesson, but apparently he, the sudden spy extraordinaire, has been somehow talking with Tyrion. It would have been nice to have had this plot point alluded to, maybe have Jaime walk in on Bronn receiving a Raven from Tyrion at one point before the battle, instead of having his only lines be sardonic quips for the entire season..."But wait," you say. "Bronn and Tyrion sending love notes to one another makes no sense at all." Exactly. Neither does Bronn orchestrating this sibling reunion. 
         I consider myself much more than a casual viewer, and for the life of me I can't remember how Tyrion got all the way back to Dragonstone, talked to Davos, got smuggled all the way back to King's Landing to have 1 meeting that could have just been done with a Raven...and then come back to Dragonstone. That's what happened right?  And apparently Tyrion and Bronn were talking? I don't want these criticisms to come off hyperbolic, but I'm pretty sure that's how that went down.
  If so, that's just such awful story-telling because when you remove all sense of distance from the character's journey's, I no longer feel that there are any stakes. I understand that Dragonstone and King's Landing are, geographically speaking, close to one another (relatively speaking in a world where it takes Jon Snow 1 cut scene to go from Winterfell to Dragonstone) but sheeeeesh.
        So what do we accomplish with this scene...I don't know, telling eachother that they serve different queens and that...I'm really struggling to remember because there is no sense of time passage in any of these scenes so it all feels like one jumbled plot point. I guess The Lannisters want to arrange an Armistice or something because they're afraid of the Dragons after one battle even though they build these giant scorpions and they have 1,000 ships, along with plenty of Gold to last them a long while. Wars are won with Gold. I think I've said that before. I think they've said that before.
         So Jaime and Tyrion talk and you can see a shred of drama and familiarity with characters as these two brilliant actors do their best to work with this strange setup they've been given. The show obviously wanted to parallel Jaime and Tyrion's meeting with Sansa and Arya's, which, narrative-wise is actually a very interesting, very meaningful concept, but again, the setup feels so contrived that I'm completely taken away from the scene because I'm actually disoriented. Jaime swears that the next time he sees Tyrion, he'll kill him for murdering his father, but this point is thrown out the window so we can get this show on the road. Who cares, right? There's Jaime...SWORD IN HAND and Tyrion standing there with all his plot armor. Wouldn't that have been fantastic to see him struggle with this? What an incredible opportunity he has to turn the tide of the war! He has the HAND OF THE QUEEN in his grasp unarmed!!!! "Hey Dragon Lady, I have your Hand, my mongrel brother whom I've sworn to kill, and if you want him, it will cost you your dragons. If not, I'm sending you his head." It's like the show runners don't understand war and danger even in the most general terms. 
        After this stupidly contrived meeting, Jaime decides to tell Cersei. He tells her about this secret meeting. Let that sink in. Why? Why, why why. And what would be worse than that? What about if there is just no narrative consequence to the betrayal of Cersei and letting the hand of their enemy just walk away?  That would be ridiculous, right? Well f@ck me if that isn't just what they do. Because Cersei has pregnancy brain apparently I guess, so that's all that matters now. "It's us against the world my brother lover. And even though this is horribly uninteresting narrative prison, we're going to stay together and 'f@ck everyone that isn't us'." Oy.

        OLDTOWN

        This f@cking segment... oh my goodness. I'm struggling to put together the words...

        Sam is conveniently in the room with all the Head Maesters and then feels the need to interject, only to be thwarted and silenced and nothing become of his insolence? Why do we need this cliche? None of these scenes in Old Town have had any drama, any stakes, any arc any...who wrote this?! You brought Sam all the way to OT so he could figure out that Dragonglass was on Dragonstone, even though Stannis already told him that...and then he just happens upon Jorah out of convenience and cures his Greyscale like it's just a dislocated thumb, then he just leaves because he doesn't feel like doing it anymore? WHAT? You had so many perfect opportunities to make interesting things happen. Jorah has a deadly disease and could infect the most learned bunch of people in Westeros who forbid Sam from curing the disease...maybe something will happen and they'll be forced to ignore their predispositions about experimenting with --nope, everything's fine. Greyscale is easily curable.
         So the Maesters find out that Sam's family is killed and then they don't even tell him because that might be an interesting conflict for Sam's character and actually give him a motive!. Oh, and Sam stealing Heartsbane, that plot is just gone because who cares. I literally think that D&D were just as bored as we were and they just decided "F@ck it, let's have Sam just quit and steal some books that we haven't explained to be of any significance because that's the Sam we all know and love: a quitter who defies orders and steals stuff."
         Where is he going, Braavos? Lys? Vylantis? I'm sure wherever he and Gilly end up on their new nothing-plot, they'll end up at wherever in their very next scene. More importantly, why do we care about any of this? And what was with that horrrrrible wink to the audience concerning "R-r-ragger's annulment"...is he just going to think about that when he's taking a sh!t next episode and then send a raven to Jon that says R+L=J ;-) Oldtown has been the biggest waste of time of any segment of any show I've ever seen. I'm not even excited to see where Sam and Gilly are going. She's annoying, her baby is an imbred monster, and Sam's only purpose as a human is to look stuff up about White Walkers and tell Jon. So now we have 2 dead-end expository characters to deal with. Great. Sam is now just a chunkier Bran who can walk, but he never walks anywhere interesting, so again, who cares.       
        There is seemingly this new pattern of  "Introduce a problem to a character, character searches for a solution that is already built into their prerequisite traits, character travels to said place to solve problem, aren't dragons cool? Repeat." and it's making me want to drive a spike through my hand. Maybe I should just skip GoT and wait for "Ballers starring Dwayne the Rock Johnson" to come on and watch that instead, at least that show is mildly amusing. We see it with Jorah, with Sam, with Euron...speaking of Euron...wasn't he supposed to be all bad and scary and interesting this season? Why wasn't Theon on dragonstone begging the queen to help rescue his sister? Why did Dany go back to Dragonstone if her entire Unsullied force is trapped with no food or supplies in Dastardly Rock? How did you transport an entire Dothroki horde from Dragonstone to the mainland if your ships were all destroyed? Uh oh, I'm doing it again...I'm asking too many questions.    

        WINTERFELL

        We get a cool scene with Bran flying the Ravens to spy on the Night King, but honestly I would have found it a lot cooler if they didn't keep cutting back to Bran, like we're all f@cking Morons who need our hand held to tell us that he's the one flying them. Visually I was very impressed, however. So the Lords of Winterfell are getting restless because nothing is happening in this thread either. Arya creepily watches how Sansa commands and feel that she has the right and experience to comment on her leadership, you know because she's been in Winterfell for all of 5 on-screen minutes. She cusses out Sansa for daring to have nice things and reside in Ned & Cat's room, and Sansa doesn't think about the fact that Jon gave her that room even though she felt weird staying there. It's now officially clear: there is absolutely no motivation for any of the Starks to have come home.  Other than that Little Finger seems to be up to something and plants a note for Arya to find when she's clunkily sneaking around in his room, there's no reason she shouldn't just be heading down to KL. She finds the note that Cersei coerced Sansa into writing back is season 1 to have Robb come bend the knee to "her beloved Jeoff." So I guess Arya will be mad at Sansa for a thing to which she has absolutely no context for, and putter around her home for the rest of the season while Sansa reminds her lords about making sure there is food. The drama is real.


        FLEA BOTTOM

       Gendry is back!!!! I've been waiting for this for a very long time and I so badly wanted to be excited for this, I did, I did, I did. Davos goes down to flea bottom and we focus in on some forging. Gendry turns around. For some reason he has a crew cut. My thought is that he got head lice and had to shave his head. That's fine. I miss my Baratheon boy. But then Davos winks at the camera in typical meme fashion and tells the world that he's in on the "Gendry has been rowing" thing with us. Are we serious? This doesn't belong here. Davos wouldn't say that. Gendry probably wouldn't even be here but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief because it's certainly possible, though he is wanted by the gold cloaks, so I guess that's another reason he could have shaved his famous Baratheon mop of black hair. Anyway Gendry says what we are all thinking and when Davos offers him to come along he says "yup, tired of not being in this show, give me something to do for goodness sakes." So they get back to their boat on the beach and then are approached by gold cloaks. Davos tries to distract them with some money and Viagra Crabs but then Tyrion comes wandering out trying to be inconspicuous. Oops. So then we see that Gendry has been practicing his Hammer strokes and he messes up some guards for our pleasure. I enjoyed this scene, it's fun and gives the audience a slight hint of stakes and good character moments, but in the context of this way-too-rushed season, it's hard to enjoy because at this point I'm literally looking at the clock and realizing that we've just sputtered around for 40 minutes and this is the first scene in the entire season besides the loot train attack to advance the STORY. 

         DRAGONSTONE

        Speaking of characters who can do no wrong, it's Tyrion time again! He's back on Dragonstone after some serious Flea-Bottom fan service and now wanting (for some reason) to convince Cersei that the White Walkers are real. So they come up with this outlandish plan to go capture a White Walker. Dany is fine with this plan I guess. Jorah volunteers because obviously traveling across the continent to get to Dany will make you want to just leave her again straight away. And it's not even Dany's plan so why is he offering to do it? *Sigh*. Anyways Jon wants to go too because it's not like he's a liability being King of the North or anything. Okay so there is a plan to go north of the wall and Gendry also volunteers. They metaphorically beat us over the head with Gendty's hammer to ham up this nostalgic scene where we are reminded that Ned and Robert were friends. Why don't you give your audience any credit as if we couldn't pick up on the fact that the bastards of Ned and Robert are together? Obviously! Oh it's so cringe worthy. Stop winking at the audience. Stop. Stop. Stop.
        So Jon and Jorah and Gendry and Davos warp from Dragonstone to the f@cking WALL in just 1 cut scene because nothing interesting happens on the way to anything ever so who cares. There's some more characters who are conveniently in a jail cell for some reason. Tormond, who seems to be the only person manning Eastwatch, has captured the only characters that matter in the Brotherhood without Banners. So they all squabble for a minute and realize that we don't have time for arguments because HBO's Ballers is coming up next, so Jon decides to tell Beric of this insanely illogical and suicidal plan that isn't guaranteed to have any real impact on anybody if it succeeds, but here we go. So Westeros' Fellowship of the Wight is formed and they head beyond the Wall.

Apparently next week's episode leaked last night in Spain. I honestly don't know if I'll watch it until Sunday because I need to (unlike the show's strategy) give this some time to breathe. I think the prospect of all these cool characters coming together is potentially interesting, but it all just feels so unearned. When you have, let's take Jorah, begin the season in Oldtown, travel across the continent to Dragonstone, and then travel across the continent again to leave the only reason he traveled across the continent in the first place, and you spend no time exploring anything emotionally significant or facing any true delema in his story...you have reduced your character to an official walking plot point. With a character so interesting as Jorah, played by such a talented actor as Ian Glenn, portraying such a complex relationship as Jorah + Dany and all you give us as a payoff is some weird hug in a field with a bunch of other people awkwardly standing around...I just have no respect for you as a story teller. This of course is just my one example to highlight the sheer laziness of this season. I'm so Salty. It's been gradually happening, but I think I can say fully and officially now that this show is mindless trash. Great. I'm hoping beyond all hope that they are just saving their energy for what looks to be a penultimate sort of episode next week. See you then.


-CjM