The Syndicate

Well guess what, I rather liked this one. It had more moments with weight and significance, while the scenes that were merely filler or transitory didn't burden or bore as much. Snow/Stark reunion and plotting was again a strong point, because it felt to comform to a general assumption about where the narration in the books would go as well. Danaerys had her compulsory smug comeback moment, but even those scenes looked rather interesting and it was a relief for the plot to finally go somewhere. Sadly, it's not going anywhere over in King's Landing. Or Pyke. I still believe that the reign of Tyrion is a very, very poorly done and shockingly uninteresting part of the plot, but that negotiation scene was a bit more like it, at least.

Most not bad episode of the season by far, imo.

They should, but I think they're too dead to care.

Jon's story, actually. Felt like a good, simple wrap-up. Runner-up is Arya's story, because I'm ok with this taking three episodes to head in a new direction just as much.

Tyrion "doing... stuff" is starting to feel like a complete trainwreck. There is no chemistry and purpose to what he does there and who he's interacting with and even his snark is starting to fall completely flat. The standout character is growing dead inside. Yet again, I sense that the writers are surprisingly out of their depth. SVS, was this the slave you mentioned being cast this season? If so, it must mean the hot lady in the trailer is a different character and still to show up? Maybe it's Arianne. <3

Daenerys story progression at this point is just unbearable.

This week's flashback was kinda ugh. Too much nothing. Fight coreography seemed pretty good, though.

So really, completely neutral on this one, but it's episode 3 of 10 and my general impression is that the progression pace and style is incredibly bad.

The way Euron's appeared only now - and still not "technically" revealed, because "we need a mysterious scene, hurr" first - and given how important he seems in the books, or the theory surrounding him and his goals, I think the show would need to massively invest in his storyline, from this point onwards, to have any chance of pulling a decent coverage.

Also, yes, congrats SVS. I find it extremely funny that an entire website wrote a clickbait piece on calling odds on characters that weren't in harms way one bit this episode, whilst leaving out Roose, which you were spot on.

Wildlings putting an end to shenanigans made sense, although surprised Throne is still breathing after this.
Tyrion freeing the pups was script-wise awful. "I'm friends with your mother"? Yeah, they have no idea what to do, now that they're out of books.
Ironically, the Bolton affair earns me a shrug, which is almost positive. The actor playing Roose clearly had his bored written-off face on throughout these two episodes.
How many seasons has it been since Balon disappeared from the show's storyline? Yeah, lol, and then filler kill. Still hopeful Euron would develop into something interesting, though.
And the scene you've all been waiting for. Literally schoolyard filmmaking. "Melisande doesn't do shit, gives a hopeless look, everyone leaves, freeze frame on face for 10 seconds, aaaaaah *gasp of liveliness*, cut to black". 100% mainstream tropes, 0% intelligent design. Sorry, but no. No.
Every other scene was filler, you know it's true.

Ironically, that name never came up in that article, but Theon's did

I remember some banter on 4chan that Ramsay possibly killing Roose was either a leaked information or a detail slip in one of the trailers.

Anyway, seriously, any thoughts who this might be? (1) (2) I sure hope it won't be revealed to be some simple mistress or seductress or whatever, because she managed to get me interested only by two frames in the trailer.