TBD s4e10 breakdown! :
1. jon and manse - kinda meh, but how else would it go down?
2. stannis to the rescue! - smilin' stannis boratheon finally does something. are the boltons next? mentioning ned is part of the "children" theme - jon inherited his values. the lone attacker cut down suddenly by the rider reminded me of monty python and the holy grail.
3. the mountain lives! (kinda) - venom of the death's head manticore...ok. here's what a manticore looks like:
not bad for a world where people don't believe in magic. anyway, it's fascinating to see what fiendish, unnatural experiments qyburn will do with his new "child". however, why is cersei involved? literally everyone but jamie and her children are disposable and the mountain's job is done, so what does she care?
4. cersei and tywin - the parent's hold on things is slipping. the lannister family might blow apart at the seams.
5. cersei and jamie - we're coming out of the closet...let's fuck to celebrate!
6. danerys faces consequences - still the worst part of the show. the whole thing, particularly the catacombs scene, seemed to go on forever. great-looking cgi dragons, though. nice feat of strength by collaring you "children" unassisted, danerys.
7. funeral pyre -
jon: we've got to burn these bodies so they don't come back as zombies
melissandre: you had me at "burning bodies"
jon: you looking at me? you looking at me?
8. jon and the muppet - i liked it. in this scene the muppet conveys more personality and texture than all his previous scenes combined.
9. ygritte's funeral pyre - take her out to the forest, and then chop all that wood. it's been a busy day for jon!
10. the tree! - i didn't expect them to conclude their journey this season. i mean, everything else takes forever, and the tree dream was "only" 8 episodes ago. i would have liked a smoother transition into the magical fantasy stuff. skeletons rise from the ground and attack, fine. but then a faerie appears and starts throwing magic grenades? not a subtle transition. i enjoyed the very mechanical-looking repeated stabbing of jojen (nothing against the kid, but it was his time to go and it looked cool.) super-duper animation here! it looked just like what i imagined all those rpg combat rounds to be like!
11. gandalf lives under the tree! - maybe it's dumbledor? i'll call him bob. bob weirwood (any deadheads here?). the whole thing goes pretty much as expected. i do wish there was some context for the terminator-esque mountain of bones in bob's root-room. bob tangled up with the tree reminds me of babylon 5's custodian of the machine.
12. brienne, pod, arya and hound - this is a big one, so let's take it 1 bite at a time. brienne and pod wake up from a lovely night on the rocks, and the horses are gone. sure, it's pod's fuck-up but in the end that's on you, brienne. you're the boss and it's your responsibility to see things are done right.
the dialog between arya and brienne is pretty awkward, but i guess some chit-chat is needed to move things along. once the hound finishes his deuce, the awkward exchange continues to the inevitable confrontation, verbal then physical. brienne did a pretty poor job arguing her case (just like ser friendzone. they should have had ser davos representing them. he is apparently westeros' saul goodman).
the fight - ok, i demanded the hound go out in an awesome battle, and i got it! the hits, the screaming, everything was great!
the aftermath - rory mccann acts his ass off, again! he shows a lot of depth here, first goading then pleading for a mercy kill. arya is content to ignore his pleas for death, just as he ignored the boy's pleas for life.
goodbye, hound! at this point it hurts to lose anyone from the beginning, but you were one of our favorites. the few glimpses of your human side were fantastic. i will have 2 chickens in your memory. also, i look forward to seeing mccann in the future. woo, i'm ok. i'm ok.
13. jailbreak! - i knew tyrion would live, but i expected some pardon or technicality or something that would let him walk the streets. being smuggled out to the free cities is taking him in a completely different direction (literally and figuratively). varys has not forgotten his friend/throne contender, after all.
so tyrion decides to pay a visit to the tower of the hand through the convenient, efficient and clean tunnel system before he leaves. it's father's day, after all!
we go to tywin's bedroom and, shae! wtf shae! you are a phony bitch whore, shae! i suspected bronn and varys screwed tyrion by not putting her on the boat, but it's clear it was bronn and tywin. and what contradiction! what hypocrisy! the old man hollers how he hates whores, and what does he do when nobody's looking? he screws shae into unconsciousness and then hits the shitter for an hour.
tale of the tape is totally in shae's favor here - weight, height, reach, and a fucking knife. but the dwarf gets inside and the knife is knocked out of her hand by a jolting strike against a feathery silk pillow. fitting that she is strangled with the gold chain, although the fight was a bit "slappy" for a bit. it would have been nice to see tyrion reflect on these events for a bit longer, but no time for that - we have fathers to murder and seas to escape across.
you'd think the hand of the king would have a full bath right off the master bedroom. then again, maybe the master bedroom is the one without a stinking shitpipe in it. either way, tywin is remarkably unfazed by tyrion walking into the crapper with joffrey's crossbow. he tries smooth-talking bullshit, he tries authority, but there's no way this is ending without him getting shot, and he is honestly surprised by this outcome.
goodbye, tywin! you were an excellent character, and charles dance was excellent at portraying you. every godfather / evil patriarch character will always be measured against tywin lannister. put your hands together for the hand of the king!
14. escape! - was varys camping the door this whole time? accomplices never wait so long as to risk themselves. is that the same box the wizard was shipped in? ewww.
varys sees the box loaded on the ship, and then turns to head home. then, the bells ring! if you'll remember,
varys: "i've always hated the bells. they ring for horror, a dead king, a city under siege."
tyrion: "a wedding"
varys: "exactly"
it takes him about 1 second to realize there is no way he is walking back into that mess, and takes his only way out - keeping the box company on its way to essos. i suspect he will visit his friend / accomplice illyrio in pentos, and had brokered shae's refused bailout package similarly.
15. braavos bound! - thank the old gods, the new and especially the god of light that there is a braavosi ship heading home, just over that hill. a bit too convenient, but tick-tock, tick-tock, we're already at 1 hour and 2 minutes. the scene is gorgeous and colorful, in contrast to the mostly blah grey misery we've seen for a while (i think that's transposition of scenery and story, but i know fuck all about filmmaking).
she immediately picks out the captain - he's the one using his brain and not his back. i liked their exchange, and when she plays the ace his reaction is appropriate for the gravitas implied, "whoa, whoa, whoa! this changes everything!"
overall, 1 of the best game of thrones episodes as well as 1 of the most important story-wise. i enjoyed it immensely! it's nice to see all these climaxes and conclusions and jumping-off points for new stories, but at the same time i kinda feel like they jerk us around for a lot of the season while we wait for the payoff. the only reason we didn't see darth sansa turn to the dark side in this episode was because it was already over an hour. in a story this huge i think it would be ok if we had more incremental climaxes instead of a logjam at the end of the season/book.