Game of Thrones S04E10

I didn't live-blog this one, so here are my thoughts in no particular order.

Stannis' arrival at the Wall: totally underwhelming. What was that look Melisandre gave Jon Snow?

What the fuck are they doing to The Mountain?? Some Robocop shit?

"Your legacy is a lie." Lena Headey was on fire in that scene. But when Cersei turns to Jaime, was she being sincere or just making a play to be able to stay with her son?

Bran's plot finally starts getting interesting! I didn't care when Jojen died, and they didn't do much to try and make me care. Even his sister's grief rang false for me. But the skeleton zombies! Aren't those guys from Zelda? And what's with the tree fairies? And the old guy? Some sort of puppet man from The Dark Crystal?

Boohoo, Daenerys had to lock up her dragons. Will this make them disloyal to her or something significant to the plot? Or is it just sad for her? These court scenes are getting tiresome, too.

Nice bonding moment between Brienne and Arya over being tomboys.

The fight between Brienne and the Hound was pretty evenly matched. (Or maybe it was just the Hound's wound slowing him down.) First we had Trial by Combat, now we have Custody Battle by Combat. It says something interesting about Arya that she didn't intervene. She's kind of gone full mercenary. I was sad to see The Hound die, but I thought he had a pretty fitting end. When he was trying to goad Arya into killing him, really he was confessing his sins.

So Arya's on the way to Braavos at last. Okay.

Let's talk about that final sequence. How much of that did Jaime orchestrate? Was it his full intention to reveal the truth to Tyrion and sic him on Tywin? Varys didn't seem to be in on that part of the plan. And given Cersei and Jaime's odd reunion, was Cersei in on it?

I loved at the end when Varys turns to go back to King's Landing, and then he hears the bells and he's like, "Wait. JK. I'm gonna go get on the boat."

I understand the surprise element, but I would like to learn more about Shae's arc that led her into Tywin's bed. With only the context we have, how is she painted? Some interpretations are more sympathetic than others, and the show didn't do much to point us in one direction or another.

So Tywin falls. This leaves something of a power vacuum. Cersei was worried about Tommen being ripped apart by Margery and Tywin vying for power. Now what? Who will pull the strings? (Certainly Cersei won't marry Loras anymore.) And if Varys is gone, there is no information-broker either. Chaos in King's Landing, I tell you!