The Aftermath. That was definitely the theme of the most recent episode of Game of Thrones, as we saw characters in the capital, and elsewhere, deal with the fallout from last week. Overall, this episode left me wanting just a bit more. It was not a bad episode by any means, and in fact it was a few minutes longer than normal, but I still feel like there’s a bit too much event setup going on and not enough action.

[Spoiler alert] Skip ahead if you have not seen last week’s episode, “The Lion and the Rose.”

Unfortunately, it will be impossible to really talk about some of this episode, and likely the rest of the season, without talking about the death of Joffrey. That is right he is dead — and there was much rejoicing — and last week left us wondering who would become the next king.

This week we got our answer. The next king of Westeros will be Joffrey’s younger brother, Tommen, who until now has not even been mentioned by name. But it already seems like he will be a much better king than Joffrey. This is apparent in the scene where his grandfather Tywin gives him his first lesson about what makes a good king. Tommen seems very receptive and lacking the arrogance that made Joffrey so detestable. Tywin’s choice to lecture Tommen right in front of Cersei who was grieving over her son’s body illustrates that no one in his family, other than Cersei, is really too broken up by his death. 

[End spoiler alert]

In this week’s episode, we caught up with some other characters. We saw a bit of the wildlings and The Wall. There was some Sam and Gilly stuff as well that I was not really a big a fan of. Stannis is still struggling to assert his rightful claim. Tyrion and Ser Davos brought the comic relief this episode and the Tyrion scene illustrated how much he’s grown as a character. 

We also finally got to see Daenerys do something this episode, but unfortunately it left me wanting a bit more and was rather anticlimactic. Her general absence so far this season has also become noticeable and hopefully they address this issue in the coming weeks.

3/5