OK y’all, only three episodes left (including the one I’m blogging now). Game of Thrones always gets really good in the last two episodes, and indeed this installment did feel like it was building towards something. But what? I have very few predictions for where the rest of the season will take us.

Winterfell

Theon killed all the ravens to avoid the word of Bran and Rickon’s murders getting out, but Yara was still worried that he’d die in the North. She came to tell him to come home, but obviously Theon wasn’t going to give in so easily. I was surprised, though, but how nice Yara was about it.

Later, it was revealed that Theon hadn’t actually killed Bran and Rickon, he’d killed two nearby orphan boys. Unfortunately this wasn’t  much of a surprise for me as I’d suspected it last week. Theon is in a difficult position right now – he can’t return to the Starks, he doesn’t feel he can go back to his father, and I can’t imagine he’ll hold onto Winterfell much longer. I’d be shocked if Theon made it out of this season alive.

Beyond The Wall

Someone (who?) told Jon Snow to pose as an ally of Ygritte’s gang after they’d been captured (that’s way simplified, but it’s the best I can do) to gain inside information. I like the layer of complication this adds to Jon and Ygritte’s relationship, but I still find it really hard to follow what goes on in this storyline, and continue to find it rather boring. I think my problem is that it’s quite disconnected from the rest of the storylines, at least for now.

The War

Robb got word that Jaime Lannister had escaped, but in fact Catelyn had just let him go in exchange for her daughters. Brienne was in charge of him, and while she’s probably the best person you’d want doing that, this can’t end well. What happens when Brienne gets to King’s Landing? She can’t hold on to Jaime against all of their guards, Cersei will easily get her brother/lover back without giving up anything in return. I guess having four of her five children being allegedly held captive was too much for the Stark matriarch to handle,  but it was a dumb move.

After a lot of building (and a lot of back story), Robb and the hot nurse finally did it. He doesn’t want to marry that gross girl! He did it for a bridge, remember? She doesn’t want him to marry that other girl either! So, they had sex. Finally, right? I did find Talisa’s back-story interesting though, and I hope we get to see some of her home, Volantis, at some point.

Harrenhaal

Tywin decided to move his army to attack Robb Stark’s army. Arya wanted to choose him as her third death, but when Jaqen wasn’t there when the opportunity arose she instead chose Jaquen himself as her third name. She’d unname him only if she helped her and her friends escape. Cunning! That’s why she’s my favorite.

Jaqen killed all the guards, so Arya, Gendry and the fat kid were able to just walk out at midnight.

King’s Landing

Tyrion was preparing for a siege, courtesy of Stannis Baratheon, along with Varys who also thinks Joffrey will run the city into the ground – that’s the only thing I truly expect from this season, that the attack will occur. He also argued to Cersei that in order to gain respect, Joffrey would need to appear on the battlefield. Cersei had her own trick up her sleeve, though, telling Tyrion that she’d captured his “whore”, a.k.a. the love of his life. She didn’t have the right girl (poor Ros), but it was enough to really make Tyrion sweat and that in iteself is a small victory.

Joffrey wanted to take advantage of Robb’s army being distracted by Theon taking Winterfell by attacking, but Tyrion told him they needed to focus on fighting off Stannis. And beyond those problems, Varys told him that he’d heard Daenerys Targaryen was alive and well in Qarth, with three dragons. That’s the first time I can recall that someone has heard anything about Daeny.

Quarth

Ser Jorah wanted Daeny to leave Qarth, but she wouldn’t go without her children dragons. She might as well have not been in the episode as she was just wondering if she should pay a visit to the House of the Undying to get her dragons back.

Dragonstone

Meanwhile, Stannis is preparing for his attack and told Davos that despite his working class origins, he’d be honored with the role as Hand of the King when Stannis takes the Iron Throne.

This wasn’t my favorite episode, and it kind of bothers me that eight episodes in I’m still saying “Who’s that dude?” once in a while. But considering how crazy the penultimate episode was last season, I’m really excited to know what’s going to happen. We’ve had eight episodes of putting chess pieces in place, and now it’s time for the plan to be set in motion.