"Pilot" - The Leftovers - 1x01

After three consecutive monster episodes from Game of Thrones, and an incredible Mad Men finale, some time between the spring finales and summer premiers was more than welcome.  This spring had some excellent television, and not the least of which was Fargo, a ten part anthology format series.  The only reason I didn't write about Fargo was because a third show on top of Game of Thrones and Mad Men would've simply been too much.

A few weeks ago I alluded to HBO's The Leftovers, coming to us from Lost co-showrunner Damon Lindelof.  We saw these intense trailers and it certainly looked better than the other drama happening this summer.   

I'm unclear if this is a one and done season, or if this is story is going to extend to an unknown number of seasons.  I've seen it written up both as being picked up for a "first" season and being a ten part adaptation of Tom Perrotta's novel.  Personally, I am rooting for the latter.  Fargo and True Detective will likely battle it out in the Internets for best show of the year in 2014.  While the anthology/mini-series format is not inherently better than a regular season to season run,  I'd like to see us spared the angst of viewers and the grief directed toward Lindelof a long term story would inevitably bring about when it doesn't perfectly align with viewers expectations of what should happen and when.  HBO tends to renew series shortly after the season premiere, so maybe we will get some news soon.

My own expectations are not that this will reach Fargo or True Detecive level, but that it will be placed in that tier of good-but-not-quite-great series with Boardwalk Empire, Sons of Anarchy and Homeland*. One big question about the series will be how much it the mythology plays a part in the show, versus the character's relationships with one another in response to the big event.  It's possible the 'Why?' plays a very minor part on the show compared to each characters reaction and their new view and status of life.  For all the mythologizing that Lost did, they still carried forward a great repertoire of characters and, for the most part, did not sacrifice their development for the sake of mythology

* The top tier includes Game of Thrones, Justified, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, which I'll continue to include until we reach the one year mark of the series ending.  True Detective and Fargo gain special guest and probationary status in this tier.

Episode One
Friends-esque title: "The One Where People Disappear and No Clues Exist Three Years Later as to Why So They Commemorate Heroes Day for the Lost Which Causes a Kerfuffle with the Local Cult"

The episode takes measures to show that those who disappeared are not necessarily better or worse than those who were left behind, which makes it all the more puzzling.  One was a child abuser.  One was simply a jerk.

We'll get more into the nitty gritty of the themes of the show and the dynamics between the characters, but per usual, it's tough to do that with any substance after just 75 minutes.  So we'll take a page from the True Detective posts and pose some questions that will hopefully be answered this season.

Questions

1. Why and how did these people disappear?
2. Why did these particular people disappear?
3. Where is Mapleton?
4. Was Mapleton especially hard hit?  
5. It seems like they are missing more than 2 percent based on the reactions.
6. It would also help explain the next question
7. Why is the cult in Mapleton, and not elsewhere?
8. Why does the cult choose smoking as a reminder?
9. What is the cult's end game?
10. Who is Wayne and why does he merit all this money, security and reverence?
11. What did Wayne do for the congressman?
12. Why does Wayne want the girl protected?
13. What is the grace period?
14. What else has the cult done to piss off the town, besides stalk and be creepy?
15. Why did Liv  Tyler change her mind?
16. What does the dream with the pig in the hood of the car mean?
17. Why did those people jump off the building in the son's flashback?
18. What has happened with the dogs?
19. Who is the guy shooting dogs and what does he know about them?
20. What is the symbolism with the deer and why does that image seem so familiar to me?
1. Is it Hannibal I'm thinking of?
21. Why did the deer tear up the Garvey kitchen?
22. And how did Kevin know to suspect the deer?

Leftovers - haha

• Director Peter Berg gets a cameo at the gate of Wayne's compound
• Did you say Peter Berg?  Does that explain the high school kids played by those looking like they check the 25-30 box?
• One more on FNL - Buddy Garrity!
• The party looked like something the local news reports on as "the new dangerous thing kids are doing...and why you should be worried"
• The app does not appear to be real.  But should not take long before someone creates such an app.
• Pilots often take a big twist...an ostensibly main character is killed, someone is revealed to be not who they seem, blah blah blah.  That Kevin's wife was not taken and is in fact a cult member was pretty well telegraphed and only gets a 4 or 5/10.  
• The more interesting thing is that the Garvey family has been completely upended despite none of its four members having been taken. 
• Pilots also carry a heavy burden of exposition that can rarely be avoided.  So I don't like to give grief for a necessary evil.  I appreciated Kevin and the mayor's exchange, with her "Don't you think I already know this?" response to Kevin's expository rambling.
• The term "maintain the peace" is used more than once, and while not completely foreign to us, it is a phrase not often heard.
• The show opens with the protagonist witnessing the apparent needless murder of a dog, then ends with him emptying his clip into a whole pack of them.  We have different feelings at each point, though it is essentially the same act.
• Spent the whole episode thinking, "Wow, she sure does look a lot like Liv Tyler"
• Jill has a whole American Beauty thing going on.
• No one stands or recites the pledge, but....prayer in school?  It's a Post-10/14 World.

The Children - Game of Thrones - 4x10

Season Four
Season Four was probably the most difficult time time for the show.  It represented the largest change in the status quo.  With the destruction of the Starks and the Northern Army, not only had the protagonist died but the protagonists entire legion was gone and the rebellion had been summarily crushed.  And it happened fast, from episode nine and ten the landscape changed dramatically, while Season One and Two had changes take place more gradually, save for one or two characters.

It was also a time for the show to begin blending as many as three books plus a significant amount of original material, while previous seasons were largely transcribing a single book, sequentially, punctuated by a few semi-original scenes that were still drawn heavily from material in the books.

I think the best way to look at the show is not from the overall plot status but by tracking the change in the characters over the season.  The macro picture in Westeros, and in the East for that matter, is almost exactly how it ended in Season Three (Dany in Merereen, Lannisters in charge with the North defeated).  But when you look at where the characters traveled, it's a lot of change.  Specifically, the Stark children who spent the first episode together at Winterfell have stretched out so much they aren't even in the seven kingdoms anymore.

So we'll look at 1) the character's starting point 2) what happened to them 3) where they ended Season Four

Arya

1. Family's dead, oops.
2. Wandered about with the Hound, numb to killing, and getting good at it
3. With nothing keeping her in Westeros, hops a chip via Jaqen's coin, to Braavos to hopefully meet her number one assassin

Jon

1. Post-undercover job with Wildlings, stars in Horrible Bosses: The Wall
2. Leads men on a sortie to take out the mutineers, and plays a large part in the defense of Castle Black.
3. Selects himself to end the battle, willing to sacrifice himself to kill Mance, already in the good graces of Stannis

Sansa

1. Is a Lannister/wife to Tyrion/super sad and mopey just because her whole family got murdered.
2. Escapes to Eyrie
3. Gets in the game under the tutelage of Littlefinger. Wears black dress.

Bran

1. Goes past the Wall looking for Three Eyed Crow
2. Continues. Almost murdered.
3. Finds Three Eyed Crow. About to fly.

Dany

1. Frees Mereen
2. Decides to stay put and rule Mereen
3. Still in Mereen. President-ing is hard. Chainz Two dragons.  One is MIA.

Children of the Forest

1. Collects underpants
2. ...?...
3. Profit

Jaime

1. Sword-hand-less. Unable to fight. Spurned by Cersei.
2. Trains to fight. Not getting along great with Cersei.  Hangs out with Tyrion in dungeon.
3. Still not able to fight that well.  Ponders legacy.  Frees Tyrion.  Back with Cersei?

Tyrion

1. Unhappy marriage and still an object of Joffrey's torment, in the unsexy job of Master of Coin
2. Spends lots of time in dungeon for Joffrey's murder.  Curses everyone in Kings Landing.
3. Condemned.  Murders dad, whore.  Peaces out to the Free Cities.

Tywin

1. War victor.  Kingdom ruler
2. To Do: Estranging children
3. Arrowed!  Is an Ex-Tywin.

Stannis

1. Largely irrelevant
2. Gets a loan from Braavos.  Goes North
   
3. Has army, will travel.  Only person/king doing what the king should be doing.  Wears zero coats.

Catelyn Stark

1. Dead.
2. Is no more.
3. Ceased to be.

Hodor

1. Hodor.
2. Hodor.
3. Hodor.

Winter is Coming

What we always knew would happen is about to happen, we're about out of source material.  In order to tell a complete story next season for these characters, Benioff and Weiss would have to exhaust the final two books.  Bran and Dany have both poked into their stories in ADWD chapters.   The lack of a natural stopping point outside of the final chapters of each character means that B&W will have to augment with a decent amount of original material, or go into great detail of stories like Jon, Sam, Tyrion and Dany, as there simply are  not many chapters remaining of Arya and Sansa. 

This may be a case where Game of Thrones is not well served by a ten episode season.  Rather than extend the remaining material into two seasons, or cram it into one, they may wish instead to lengthen the hiatus until next season, but make it 15-16 episodes.  Or, to shorten the hiatuses and do two eight episode seasons.  With the scale involved in creating Game of Thrones, I'm sure there more logistical concerns than I can even imagine.  Shooting on multiple continents brings a host of problems.  But HBO has always been on the side of the story and may continue to go that way if Game of Thrones continues to have these earth shattering viewership numbers. Ultimately, I think it will become the Wall and Mereen show for a while.

Even if the Winds of Winter is not published between the end of next season and the start of Season Six, we can hope that GRRM will share more information with B&W about where to point the ship.

Now, the finale...


Westeros and Essos

• Jaqen giving the coin to Arya wins this week's Oldest Previously award
• Ned Starks shadow reaches to the Wall.  Imagine if he had been there, as originally planned, for the battle.
• Stannis don't need no overcoat.
• Happy Father's Day, Tywin!
• Cersei: Will it weaken him? Qyburn: No Cersei: Why are you even asking me about this?
• Cersei threatens to burn the House down.  The one redeeming thing they've written into her character is her love and concern for her children, and now she takes on the most powerful man in the seven kingdoms on that note.  Remember how Tywin kindly led Tommen away from his mother during their early discussion on what it takes to be a great king?  He's trying to finish the job by sending her to Highgarden. 
• The weirwood is the weirwood from Bran's vision.  I can't help but think of the empty, snowy thrown room in his and Dany's visions.  Is there even going to be an Iron Throne after all this?
• I predicted the Ironmen would get about three scenes this season
• Dany sure does micromanage.  She sees every single serf in her city individually, which is great, but probably really inefficient.  She has little in the way of grand vision beyond the No Slavery policy.  Where are the public works?  Education?  Publicly funded baseball stadiums?
• The Children are exactly as I pictured
• On that note, pretty sure I saw that scene on True Blood a few seasons ago where the fairies are throwing fireballs
• If there is something that you can't remember if it changed from the books then it probably doesn't matter. 
• The music was astounding this episode.  
• EDIT: I assumed Varys was sitting on the dock after Tyrion was loaded onto the ship.  Some report he was on the ship with Tyrion.  There does not seem to be a consensus. 
• Ultimately, this season only covered a few weeks, considering the wedding happened, then Tyrions trial in a fortnight or so after, and then the duel/sentencing.
• I don't think I was alone in thinking the last shot would be something else

The Watchers on the Wall - Game of Thrones - 4x09

Nine
The ninth episode has been the "big" episode in the past fro Game of Thrones, both from a story standpoint and in describing the scale of bringing it to television.  "Baelor", "Blackwater", and "The Rains of Castamere" are all the zenith of the previous three seasons.  With so much going on this year, with the writers pulling material from, or working toward, three different novels (and an unwritten one, per our glimpse into the White Walkers) Season Four has had a different flow, with "big" moments spaced throughout, rather than follow the conventional plotting of cable dramas today.

Due to the logistics of shooting episodes using the large units on several continents*, the producers still need to make a story fit the ten episode season.  This is probably the most difficult time of the entire Ice and Fire series to transfer to a television season.  In short, Season Four tells three stories, Jon at the Wall, Sansa in the Eyrie and Tyrion in Kings Landing.  It also checks in with the North (both sides of the Wall), the East and the Riverlands, somewhat treading water until the two main stories can play out, but also providing a lot of great and informative character moments in the meantime.  It's like, if you're in the waiting room you want to use your time productively, and read or answer emails so the time isn't a loss.

* Also probably why it makes sense to shoot Dorne none at all this year and lots next year. It's a whole separate shooting location

The most complete story beyond these is Sansa's which managed to have a beginning, middle and end, and did so with somewhat limited screentime.  More than anyone, her character has changed  and she is gearing up to be a real factor in the neverending struggle for control and revenge in Westeros, a far cry from the put upon hostage/Lannister wife she began the season as.

Still, episode nine makes its case for inclusion in the pantheon of memorable Game of Thrones episodes.   It will easily be remembered as the one with the battle at The Wall, partially because it's the only locale we see, a departure from the rest of the series.  It tells the story of one night in Westeros, with a peek into the next morning.  I would not be surprised to see criticism of the episode as all style and no substance, but I would take issue with that argument.  While it's completely action packed (and you largely have to take the episode for what it is), it still manages to have a few good character moments between, or even during, the bloodshed. Its singular focus allows it to do both.  Even the credits are sparse, with Kit Harington getting top billing.  Of the previous Episode Nines, it is most similar to "Blackwater" not only because it is a large battle attacking a castle, but because the status quo is largely maintained at the end. 

While the events at the Wall have been drawn out a bit, aided by a sortie to Craster's Keep, it's been at the behest of giving Jon a larger leadership role.  The difference here is with Mormont gone, his leadership role is assumed and unofficial, rather than actually built into the hiearchy at Castle Black.  By being competent, it's natural for the other brothers to look to him for guidance, as they so often do.  When Slynt the charlatan is left it charge, it's immediately apparent he has no idea what to do, and the boys know this.  It's like Easy Company knowing they are eventually going to be toast in Europe if they stay under Captain Sobel's command*.  When they get rid of him, no one says that Jon is in charge.  Slynt does not hand command to anyone.  But everyone immediately looks to Jon for leadership.  Sometimes you get to be a leader by being a leader.  I've never been so high on Jon Snow, often wanting to fast forward his scenes north of The Wall.  But he and Sansa have undergone the biggest changes and most growth in the cast this season, and both are the better for it.**

* Another work it brings to mind is Braveheart and its battle scenes.

** Rather than think in terms of books or sequential pages, it's better to think about the storylines in terms of the arcs of the characters, picking a start and end.  Some of the characters in a holding pattern (Dany, Arya) have simply had -more- of where they ended last season.  While Tyrion has obbviously undergone a change, the real arc to track is that of King's Landing as a whole.  Joffrey and Littlefinger are gone.  Cersei is not queen, Margarey is.  Tommen is king. Tyrion is awaiting execution.  Even Jaime is largely estranged from his sister and father.  It is almost a 'throw the bums out' type thing in the capital.

I'm unclear if Ser Alister survived the battle.  I'm guessing he did not per Jon's comment about no one being around to give orders.  Alister is softened at the last minute, as he shares with Jon the burden of being in charge, and admits Jon has an I-told-you-so regarding the gate.  It makes no difference at this point so Jon doesn't rub it in, even though Alister is looking forward to him and Jon hating each other.  I think he's saying it to provide some levity and normalcy as they prepare for battle, and most likely to die, but I cannot imagine many brothers who fight together in this battle will keep their squabbles with each other.  Or at least not pick them up immediately after.  Alister rings very familiar to Major Rawls post-Kima shooting, both taking command at the crime scene so the lead detectives can work and speaking to McNulty in his own special way.  Plus Alister was fearless leading men directly into the heart of battle, not unlike Stannis.  Or how I imagine Ned and Robert were.  *

* Here's a good example of how the show conveys the same ideas from the books, but in a different manner.  Take this exchange: Bran thought about it. “Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?”
“That is the only time a man can be brave,” his father told him. and think about it compared to how the Night's Watchmen feel with their impending doom.  There's no talk of fleeing, but they do admit how scared they are.  Specifically, look at Sam's scenes all the way back to his introduction.  He admits to being a coward then, but now, while he matter-of-factly speaks to how scared he is, he is still willing to defend the Wall and his brothers. 

Besides Jon's leadership and Alister's softening, we're also treated to Sam committing random acts of bravery, devotion to the order from people like Edd and Pyp who were originally sent to the Wall for nothing more than "crimes" and the internal, excruciatingly painful conflict of Ygritte and Jon. 


Stewards and Builders

• Sam and Jon have the strongest male friendship in the entire series
• The elevator appears to be the most advanced technology in the entire world so far
• The oldest Previously only goes back to Jon's early days with Mance 
• Speaking of, Mance doesn't actually appear in the episode, but his shadow looms large.  
• How do the top dogs always manage to find each other?  (Alister and Tormund, Jon and Styr)
• You have to appreciate how nearly all the weapons used are unique.  Both the Night's Watch and the Wildlings are a hodgepodge that use what is available.  It would get old watching limb severing after limb severing, but the different styles and weapons used keep it fresh in what would otherwise grow stale in the singularly focused 60 minutes.
• Best weapon though?  The scythe.  Bloody brilliant.

The Star Wars Expanded Universe
Star Wars novels often took a character who had a line or two, maybe none at all, and gave them whole stories and novels and sometimes series.  For example, Wedge Antilles appeared in three movies, probably had eight lines and carried about nine X-Wing novels in the Expanded Universe.  Tycho Celchu spawned from an unnamed pilot in Return of the Jedi, but in those same X-Wing novels, he was given a name and background and became one of the leading characters in the series.  Random aliens and bounty hunters appearing in the background of scenes are given whole stories in other collections like Tales from Jabba's Palace.

Game of Thrones does this in reverse.  Time doesn't allow us to get the whole story on people like Yarwyck, but we do get to see that  guy who has a lot of text devoted to him name dropped in a scene here or there.  Pyp calls for a "Hill" to join him at the gate, and while we don't know the story, we know he's a bastard from the Westerlands.  Little things like this make the show even more enjoyable.  Call it the Westeros Contracted Universe.


Isolation
It's easy to forget that communication is limited between the locales that we jump around and get to view.  Few in the seven kingdoms even acknowledge its worthwhile to defend The Wall.  Cersei views it like a skeptic may view the space program.  Oh that's still around?  And we're spending what on it?  It puts you in the shoes of the Crows and the singular focus.  It is similar to Theon in Season Three, neither he nor the viewer know where he is or what is going on.

With the whole episode taking place at the Wall our attention gets devoted to it an only it, just as the Night's Watch view it.  None of the nonsense plaguing the kingdoms below matters, and neither do any squabbles between the brothers.  They say there are no atheists in a foxhole.  In this case, there are no Houses at the Wall. 

The Viper and the Mountain - Game of Thrones - 4x08

The Mountain and the Viper
This is going to be a lot of Oberyn fandom so just know that going into it

What were the bookies setting the line at when Tyrion demanded a trial by combat?  It was probably well predicted Cersei would choose the Mountain to stand for her.  Even with Tyrion's champion unnamed, the line probably opened at about 10-15:1, with some chance that Bronn or a maimed Jaime may take up against Clegane.  But when they didn't immediately volunteer as tribute, the line must have gone up above 20, and then even higher when for a hot minute it seemed like Tyrion was going to have to kill the Mountain himself.  Which would probably mean the bookmakers would just refund everyone's bets as there was no way to make any money.  Or bettors would have to wager such an enormous amount of money to get any return that they would just be better off buying bonds from the Iron Bank.

But when Oberyn volunteers, I imagine it comes back down to about 10:1 or maybe a little higher, with some big bettors wagering enough after studying Oberyn to move the line significantly.  I bet it came all the way down to 5:1 and then back up again by a few coppers at the last minute.

I've mentioned before that in 5,000 pages of Ice and Fire, this is my favorite scene and the one I most looked forward to.  It's a powerful scene that makes someone like the scene when their favorite character bites it.  A while back I mentioned the reason Pedro Pascal was perfect to play Oberyn is because of his big scene as a skilled but arrogant pugilist in Lights Out.  Originally spoiler tagged, the story is that he dominates a fight, but draws it out longer than it should have been and loses on a knockout from a bolo punch.  In trial by combat, Oberyn still tries to play to the crowd while extracting the confession and lets his guard down just enough.

You raped her.  You murdered her.  You killed her children.

His refrain is the best since Princess Bride.

Back to the bettors.  The guys who waited for Oberyn to be named as combatant then got the bets in before the line moved to much are the ones who did some quick analysis and realized this is like one of those games in March Madness where a superior team loses to a lower seed because of match ups.  Clegane would probably take on and beat any sort of classic Westeros knight.  In an earlier episode Jaime mentioned only a few knights in Westeros could take him on.  One was Ned Stark, which we saw in practice.  One was probably the Mountain.  Which means there's only a handful of guys you could give a chance in Seven Hells against him.  The Hound?  Loras?  That's about it and they aren't super inclined to help out Tyrion.  Plus the Hound would then be taken into custody and executed.  Or given his own trial.  Again.

Oberyn matches up well with the Mountain.  After seeing him hang in Kings Landing, trading barbs with Lannisters and lazing about the capital, it's apparent he's perhaps the only character who can fight as well as he plays the game.  While Clegane is "quick for someone his size" as Bronn pointed out, Oberyn has some Wushu Master skill(*) going on which just puts him in another plane of existence(**).  The reach of the spear, which just happens to be Oberyn's best weapon, takes away the brute strength of the Mountain as he cannot get to the Viper.  Plus, there's the intangibles.  Robb described Clegan as a mad dog without a strategic bone in his body.  Despite pregaming with wine rather than Gatorade, it's clear that Oberyn put a lot of thought into what his approach was going to be, while the Moutain planned to hack away.  Plus it didn't seem like he was practicing very hard, executing a bunch of untrained prisoners when Cersei came to see him, rather than developing a new skill or honing an existing one.  It's like beating the computer with offsides turned off. And Oberyn has both the underdog and revenge thing going for him.  The Upset Special?

(*) This is all awesome but 1:40 specifically looks like it inspired Pascal's performance.

(**) It appears he did these stunts himself in an empty apartment.  Which brings to mind Peter Quinn, the other giant badass of the television universe, and television MVP two years ago.

The reactions in the crowd are great.  The Lannister clan has to remain regal and poised, but each give just enough of an expression betray their rooting interests, except for maybe Tywin (*).  Cersei has to still act queenly despite her open hatred of Tyrion.  But Jaime's delight at seeing exactly what Oberyn is capable of is incredibly well done.  He's thinking, hey this guy has a chance then what do you know he's about to win.

* Tywin has shown contempt for the gods before, chastising Cersei for praying as a child, so you have to love his dismissal of the Grand Maester's long introduction of each of the seven gods.  It probably didn't help that he clearly finds the GM  annoying as well, shown in this deleted Season Three scene. 

Similar to the Purple Wedding, the scene follows the desciption in Storm of Swords with great precision.  The only surprising thing was how fast it all happened.  I figured this would be the last scene of the episode, taking part all without a cut to another scene.  It was more of a surprise how thoroughly Oberyn dominated the fight until the last seconds.   And he does it with ease, either taunting the Mountain or smiling the entire time.  Which has to be hard enough just while completing those moves, but with all that going on it's even more impressive.  Again all until the rage takes over.

With pieces of his head covering a diameter of about six feet, Oberyn is dead, and the performance of guest star Pedro Pascal is finished.  But I think he lived up to the billing of the series most awesome character.  He was able to play it cool, lustful (with the girls and the guys), vengeful toward the Lanniseters, strategic in his positioning, passively disrespectful to Tywin, actively challengeing Tywin, sharp and skeptical in the trial, cocky in a good way, athletic and full of rage...all until his pride before the fall.

Back to Tywin...is there anyone else in the Seven Kingdoms who can, in front of everyone, and with veracity and anger, point to Tywin Lannister, the richest, most powerful man in Westeros, Hand to three Kings, crusher of rebellions and and defacto ruler in chief, and call him a murderer?  Oberyn can.  Well, could.

Is there another character in Game of Thrones, on all of television that has this range, as well as an actor to execute it?

There was a high potential for failure with such high expectations but Guest Star in a Drama Series has to go to this guy, but my guess is it will go to the Bert Cooper swan song.

Coppers and Silvers

• Jorah's spying for the small council in Season One gets the win for earliest "previously"
• Moat Cailin is added to the credits
• Sansa has caught on to the game.  She highlighted to Lysa just how bad of a liar she was, but now she's been able to convince the lords of the Vale that Lysa killed herself and the Littlefinger is not so bad a guy.
• If 2013 was won by Stan's fringe jacket on Mad Men then 2014 will be won by Sansa the Black Swan toward the end of this episode.  Like A Boss.
• Littlefinger lauds Ned and badmouths Tywin, conveniently leaving out the part where he ensured Ned's capture and Joffrey's seizure of the Iron Throne
• Because of the POV of the books, little is scene from the smallfolk.  Or slaves.  We get some perspective of regular people in Mole's Town and former slaves in Dany's army.  They all just want to guess the song the wench is burping and as Jorah said "The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are."
• And so the Wildlings butcher them.  Bummer.
• Selmy takes the Ned Stark approach of telling his rival how he's going to use the information he has against them. 
• Tyyyyywin!  You're blowing up my spot!
• Roose Bolton's wardenship of the North has sure kept him busy.  He gets the title and the honor of doing Tywin's dirty work, just as they will be expected to be the first and possibly only line of defense against whatevers coming from Beyond the Wall.
•  "If you're found in Mereen after break of day, I'll have your head thrown into Slaver's Bay"
• If you want to sound uber threatening and authoritative, maybe don't make your threats rhyme?
• Is Cersei ever not drinking?
• Arya has just lost it.  Of Course! her one living relative is now dead.
• I'd kill Joffrey with a chicken bone if I had to.
• Oberyn believes in himself.  That's putting it mildly
• The rapport between Tyrion and Jaime is great.  They are always the one the other is talking to when in distress.
• Also turns out the maesters a bit more like priests than even the septons.

Waterloo - Mad Men - 7x07

Early in the season, the partners held a meeting with the West Coast office on the phone.  It was held in Cutler's office and he was calling shots.  By the end of the season, Roger makes an end around to McCann in a last ditch effort to save Don's job and in the process put himself in charge.  The meeting is held in Roger's office.

How perfect was it that Harry, who feels constantly disrespected and undervalued*, shoots himself in the foot by hemming and hawing about the share they offered him.  Long enough to miss out on the sale to McCann, and a windfall of over one million 1969 dollars.


* Probably rightly so. 

My watch stopped as soon as I got back in the country last week.  I couldn't help but think of Bert Cooper.

Pedro Pascal should win the guest star dramatic Emmy, but it's going to go to Robert Morse.

Ted's looking even more despondent than Lane Pryce ever did.  It's probably Lane's English sense of propriety that kept his stiff upper lip all the way to hanging himself, while Ted mopes around.  We got a lot of hints about this from Pete and Harry, complaining about how Ted is the worst.

Mad Men has always given us a good picture of how some people had views or opinions of major events that we look back now, aghast.  Whether it's Roger complaining about the picture of Kennedy still up at the bar a few weeks later, Harry calculating how the news coverage of MLK will affect the ad buys, or here some idiot kid complaining that NASA costs too much.  This leads into Sally parroting her crush's views, not unlike Betty*, and the smoking a cigarette in the most Betty pose we've seen yet.**  Or how the moon landing was far from a lock and Peggy considering how that would affect the mood of the pitch.  Or how Stan speculates that the moon could be made of quicksand.

* "We don't know who we're voting for yet"...which is funny because Don also states "I don't vote" which I'm not sure is a combination of apathy and nihilism, or an attempt to stay off the grid as much as possible in his Don Draper life.

** One are up holding the cigarette, other arm lower, to the elbow, parallel with the ground.

Joan again votes entirely with her pocketbook.

I like Cooper's views on leadership, how inspiring loyalty is about being loyal to your team.

Peggy has a ten year old neighbor.  She had her kid in November 1960 and he'd be about this kid's age by now, which I wonder if that has anything to do with her taking him as her television watching ward.  The way the kid would turn on the set and sit down, it was clear he spent a lot of time there.

The way the partners vote, if they can't get on board, they get out of the way by abstaining or flipping their vote to join the majority.  Worst case for Cutler, he gets millions and millions of dollars and no longer has to worry about Don affecting him so directly (as Don now affects McCann).