The Rains of Castamere

First of all this was not the best episode of the season.  It was however the most anticipated.  I remember reading the Red Wedding and throwing the book across the room.  I didn't pick it up for two days, bound and determined to stick it to Martin, a silly attempt to make him feel the pain I was feeling.  I remember thinking "I could handle Ned's beheading ,but this, this you sadist has made me draw a line in the fucking sand."  Thankfully, I picked it back up and finished reading.  So to say I was looking forwards to this episode may be a tiny bit of an understatement.

Take the Wedding out of this episode and it was pretty good on its own.  The fight in Yunkai with Dario, Grey Worm, and Jorah was pretty cool.  Watching Grey Worm rock the spear was delicious, and the look on Jorahs face when he had to tell Danny that in fact Daario lived (much to his chagrin).  However as good as the rest of the episode was it was nothing but build up and filler for the main event, the Red Wedding.  From the word jump Walder Frey makes your skin crawl and even before the events that claimed the King of the North readers and non-readers alike had a sense of hatred for him, a testament to both the actor and the writers.  Another actor who has flat nailed it this season is Tobias Menzies.  His portrayal of Edmure Tully, especially in episode nine, has been excellent.  The look on his face when he realizes he's not about to marry some Frey monster made my night.  I also loved the fact that they threw a bone out to the readers and included, semi prominently, good ole Wendel Manderly.  If you don't know who he is I feel bad for you, because you have not read the book and hence haven't lived.  The rest of the Wedding is self explanatory and I'm to gonna touch on or critique.  Let's just say I found it to be everything I wanted it to be in almost every way, a certain head swap I think being held off until the finale notwithstanding.