New Game Of Thrones episode

This post contains spoilers for the 4th episode of Season 5

Season 5, Episode 4: “The Sons of the Harpy”

Sunday’s episode of “Game of Thrones” felt like the first one of the fifth season to have a bit of the old verve. After Season 4 capped off so many subplots — Tywin vs. Tyrion, Arya vs. the Hound and Night’s Watch vs. the Wildlings, among others — the first few episodes back had to set several new pieces of the story into motion. This was the first hour in which they felt like they were cruising along under their own power.

Parallel developments transpired all over the known world. The Lannister brothers each took fateful boat trips, religious sects sparked panic in the streets of King’s Landing and Meereen, and Rhaegar Targaryen, a dead cypher who nevertheless casts a broad shadow over this story, made what I think was his first substantive appearance in the show, as the subject of lore, in separate conversations held thousands of miles apart.

It was also a brutal week, after the expository drift of the first few episodes — though Janos, Mance Rayder and a few flayed northerners might counter that they were plenty eventful — gave way to blood-letting from sea to narrow sea. Ser Barristan and that greedy Pentosi ship captain arguably got the worst of it, but there was plenty to go around.