It’s amazing to think that the season is already driving towards a conclusion.  It may not quite feel that way, but the usual pattern means that the biggest moments are coming in just a couple episodes.  That means that a lot of this episode is still setting the stage, even as some plot threads continue to come to a head.

 

If Joffrey’s death wasn’t meaningful enough to set this season apart in terms of body count, then removing Lysa from the board gets the ball rolling.  And it wasn’t entirely surprising to anyone, I should think.  Littlefinger hasn’t gotten this far, knocking over the anthills to have a hand in making something “better”, by allowing his confederates to live very long.  Lysa was ever a means to an end, and with Sansa taking a stronger hand in controlling Robin, that’s who Petyr needs to get what he wants.

 

What’s interesting is that the events in the Vale don’t quite seem entirely connected to what is happening elsewhere in Westeros.  If Littlefinger has a grand plan in mind, it’s not entirely clear what that plan might be.  Certainly it seems that the events in King’s Landing are a lot more important to the immediate future, especially from the Lannister perspective.

 

Tywin and Cersei seem to have everything well in hand, even if Tyrion threw a wrench in Tywin’s scheme to get his heir back in Casterly Rock where he “belongs”.  Tyrion may have bought himself some time with the maneuver, but now the problem is selecting a champion.  And for all Tyrion’s hopes that Jamie would turn out to be equally talented with his left arm, he’s not in a position to stand against the Mountain.  And Bronn, all too expectedly, has been bought out of Tyrion’s service.

 

In one of the more obvious narrative terms, with the Mountain serving as Cersei’s champion, there’s really only one logical choice.  And in fact, Oberyn Martell steps up to the plate without pretending that his personal vengeance isn’t the driving force behind his choice.  But he also takes some time to express his distaste for Cersei’s hatred of her diminutive brother, which makes sense given how attitudes in Dorne are a bit more forgiving.  Whatever the case, this much-foreshadowed confrontation is going to happen with some very serious stakes involved.

 

Over in Meereen, Daenerys continues to run into the issues of administrating a small empire.  With Yunkai and Astapor back to their brutal ways, the situation needs to be rectified.  Dany’s plan for Yunkai initially sounds completely tone deaf; she seems to have forgotten that killing the slavemasters in Astapor led to the rise of the even more evil Cleon.  Jorah, despite leading with jealousy over her off-screen tryst with Daario, manages to give her the most balanced advice on the subject.  (And how wonderful was it to see Dany’s relationship with Daario rendered in very different power dynamics than the source material?)

 

Jorah’s usefulness as an advisor seems to be getting a highlight here because that letter from King’s Landing, informing Dany of Jorah’s previous spying on the behalf of the Baratheons/Lannisters, is going to hurt that much more as a result.  If Dany feels she can no longer trust Jorah at all, then who will she be listening to in the days to come?  This season is making it very clear that Dany is struggling with ruling Slaver’s Bay, and without Jorah, things could get ugly.

 

Over on Dragonstone, Stannis is preparing to leave, though it’s not said where he is going.  To prepare, Melisandre is bathing, and damn if she doesn’t show a bit of concern over her nakedness when Selyse walks in the door.  It does seem a bit excessive, regardless of how much I appreciate Carice Van Houten’s physique, but it does reinforce that Melisandre is the one firmly in control.  Even Selyse’s jealousy can’t overcome the notion that Melisandre is the voice of the Lord of Light.

 

Meanwhile, those on the road continue to wander a bit.  One interesting turn of events is the accelerated pacing of Brienne’s journey to find the Stark girls, which involves a lot of traveling throughout Westeros in the existing source material.  Pod’s suggestion that they should check the Eyrie is a big change, because it suggests events that shouldn’t happen until much, much later in the story.  Not that the writers don’t accelerate plot threads when necessary, but let’s just say that they will run out of existing source material sooner rather than later if they don’t watch themselves.

 

A lot of the Adventures of Arya and the Hound feel padded out, though there is some indication that Arya is becoming the hardened one, while the Hound is approaching his limit.  This pairing can only last so much longer before it feels entirely redundant, but there are some nice callbacks to the second season when Biter and Rorge appear on the scene.  Arya’s mildly stylish killing of Rorge proves that she has overcome whatever internal moral resistance she might have retained, which is a step in the direction that has been foreshadowed previously.

 

If there is a weakness to the episode, it’s that the traveling characters have scenes that seem more designed to resolve minor lingering plot threads from previous seasons than show progression in their own right.  Part of that is a problem caused by the source material; much of what happens is roughly equivalent to pieces moving around on the chess board, with big moves happening only so often.  Those moments are happening, as the death of Lysa Arryn demonstrates, but some characters feel perpetually in very slow transit.