The good thing about being behind castle walls is that it helps keep the bad guys outside. When you have walls, you know who your real enemies are: they're the other guys trying to knock down said walls. It's not the same in the rest of Westeros. In King's Landing, oftentimes your biggest enemy is also your only ally. See also Cersei Lannister and Olenna Tyrell, who are brought together by outside forces despite their mutual hatred of one another. Sure, they're not getting along, but they have a common enemy in the High Sparrow. That confrontation is one of many great scenes from Bryan Cogman's pen this week. Olenna works no matter who she's put up against, but with Cersei she has a natural foil. Brynden is a great foil for Jaime (so is Bronn for that matter). However, the best moments of the episode involve none other than the returning Sandor Clegane and his many interactions with Septon Meribald (Ian McShane). The septon, like Clegane, is a soldier, and the two have a natural rapport. The Septon reformed himself; he thinks that Clegane can do the same, even when confronted by the Brotherhood Without Banners. Even at the cost of his own life, he holds true to his principals. However, the Hound has principals of his own, and they're mostly centered around revenge and killing people with an axe. That's a clever way to both make the squabbles of the great houses important, but also to make them completely unimportant all at the same time. They need to unite, because otherwise they'll die, and to unite, they need to put the north back under Stark control. If the Tyrells and Lannisters can't stop insulting one another, will they be able to hold back several hundred thousand wights? If the Greyjoys do forge an alliance with Daenerys Targaryen, will the rest of the Westerosi-who have fought with the Greyjoys multiple times-band together with them to force back the oncoming hordes, or will they turn on the only person in the world with dragons? There are a lot of interesting developments, but the only thing people are going to be talking about is the potential for a Cleganebowl. That's the thing people have been drooling over, the source of many memes, and used as a good excuse to get hype since the show began. It just might happen; but first, the Hound's got a Brotherhood to slaughter. The scene in which poor Sandor discovers that all the people he's been working alongside are dead is directed beautifully by Mark Mylod and performed well by Rory McCann. The staging is incredible, making the slaughter look that much worse, with the final shot of the hanged man being just a knife in the belly. By the time we see him turn away and pick up his weapon, it's clear that the peaceful Sandor Clegane is gone, and the Hound is back in full force.
