There are plenty of other good moments in the episode, including the introductions of Jojen Reed (who seems perfectly cast in Thomas Brodie-Sangster, the voice of Ferb and long-ago moppet of Love Actually) and his sister Meera, as well as that of Thoros of Myr (here evidently combined with the Tom Sevenstrings character of the novels). And Brienne and Jaime have two of their best scenes together to date: his enunciation of a decidedly liberal (and entirely self-serving) philosophy of sexual freedom—straight, gay, twincestual—and her rather persuasive drubbing of him on the bridge. Finally, I'll note that, for the eagle-eyed, there's a subtle clue to be found in one of the banners we see this episode.

But enough from me. What did you guys think?

Douthat: In the run-up to this season of GoT, the talented critic (and fearsome recapper) Alan Sepinwall had a piece in which he mused on how much he loved last season's "Blackwater" episode because it showed how good this show can be when it doesn't have to hopscotch from character to character, setting to setting, but can set all of a week's action in basically the same place. That episode, he wrote, opened up "a host of possibilities" that the showrunners could potentially explore—like, say, concentrating individual characters' adventures and arcs into a few episodes (or even just one) rather than catching up with each cast member for five minutes every week. But he also noted that Benioff and Weiss seem to feel that those possibilities are, well, mostly impossible—that "it simply isn't practical to do a "Blackwater"-style episode focusing on fewer characters more than once a season. There are too many stories and too many characters to keep track of ... and this is the only realistic way to do it."

Reading that piece, I thought Benioff and Weiss basically had it right and that Sepinwall's idea wouldn't work. I would be frustrated (and my wife would probably stop watching the show) if Daenerys didn't make an appearance at least every other week, and right now the idea of a Jon Snow-only episode sounds about as fun as a night on sentry duty atop the Wall. Overall, the show's hopscotching approach to its sprawling story is problematic but probably necessary: It reminds us where everyone is from week to week, gives us the fix we need from our favorite characters, and guarantees that even when things get dull (as they do for Spencer when Stannis shows up on screen) we're only a few minutes away from a change of scenery and hopefully a more engaging plotline.

But the approach is problematic, nonetheless, mostly because it means that some episodes just feel like themeless puddings—and though I appreciate your struggle to read a sisterhood motif into this week's installment, Chris, it mostly just felt like a series of disconnected events to me, with too many scenes that existed to bridge us to the next one (that's my interpretation of Catelyn's maunderings about her relationship with Jon—they were there because the writers felt like it would make a nice dissolve to beyond-the-Wall) or ensure that we didn't forget what happened last week (Shae's conversation with Tyrion was mostly just a long reminder about Littlefinger's interest in Sansa). Even the climax had relatively low stakes: The Jaime-Brienne duel was fun, like all their scenes, but since they both want to go to the same place, it wasn't even all that clear how much Jaime would gain from killing her. (Though the men who came galloping onto the bridge at the last should raise the stakes a bit more next week, if they are who I think they are ...)