Hardhome

“The Gift,” spent plenty of time setting up several major storylines; Cersei was imprisoned for her sins against the church, Stannis was gearing up for battle, Samwell Tarly had to deal with the death of Maester Aemon, Jorah helped Tyrion finally meet Daenerys face-to-face, Sansa tried to escape Ramsay’s grasp and Jon Snow and Tormund headed north. Last week on our Game of Thrones podcast, I discussed why I enjoyed “The Gift” so much, and it all came down to balance. The best episodes of Game of Thrones give viewers a bit of everything they’ve come to love about the show: betrayal, family values, justice, judgement, principles, politics, love, death and a some well choreographed fight scenes. This week we get all that, and then some.