Game Of Thrones: 7 Things That "The House Of Black And White" Did Right (And 3 It Didn't)

“The House of Black and White” was an interesting episode, and the space to breathe given to certain plots that had been packed into the premiere helped to add a sense of gravity to their relevance to the overall story. Nevertheless, the breathing room unfortunately crossed the line on certain fronts from beneficial to overdone, and sequences otherwise exciting felt padded. The worst offender was the subplot between Brienne and Podrick in their pursuit of Sansa Stark in the riverlands.

Half of their lines could have been cut without any damage to the narrative, and the chase scene – complete with Podrick being thrown from a horse and Brienne slicing and dicing her way through minions of Littlefinger with no more significance or subtlety than if she were an avatar in a video game – on horseback lasted far longer than it should have. With so much book material to cover, so many characters in the ensemble, and so many thus far underdeveloped arcs, it’s difficult to overlook such padding.