Written by showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, in terms of narrative, Valar Dohaeris is more preparatory intake of breath than fiery roar. It clarifies purpose, and deftly re-establishes the allegiances and locations of Westeros with a series of largely static, tense two and three-hander scenes. Minahan certainly can do flash of course, as proved by a playful sequence showcasing Game of Thrones’ impressive CGI dragons, a fluent travelling shot circling the post-battle walls of King’s Landing, and another swooping through the Wildling camp, but on the whole he holds back here, allowing the script, cast and locations the space to piece together their story. Weiss, Benioff and Minahan all have the confidence of people building something in this episode, preparing a foundation to support future action. Like Littlefinger, they’re playing the long game. A certain amount of recapping is done here, both by the script and visually as the audience once more learns how to orient itself in the vast space of the Seven Kingdoms (icy and white – we’re Beyond the Wall, hot and dusty – we’re across the Narrow Sea, dank and black – we’re in Dragonstone…), and once again, that this show manages to get us roughly up to speed with nothing so clunky as a ‘Previously on Game of Thrones’ is a feat of its narrative dexterity. Gravity and comedy are combined in one of the episode’s most impressive two-handers; one between Charles Dance’s Tywin and Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion Lannister that bounds fluidly from humour to cruelty to wretched pathos. That on-screen pairing alone is worth investing your time in Game of Thrones, before we even come to the locations, layered story and the rest of the impressive cast. Speaking of which, the rivalry between Lena Headey’s Cersei and her future daughter-in-law, Natalie Dormer’s Margaery, with whom she’s forced to share King’s Landing, promises great things this season. Dormer’s character in this episode demonstrates that the path to power in Westeros is as much about PR, photo ops, and pressing the flesh as it is in Whitehall or Washington, something the ever-detestable Joffrey (surprisingly more unpleasant in wooing mode than he is meting out physical cruelty) is yet to take on board. For years now, the acid test for any TV serial has been its ability to produce something we’ll call the HBO sigh. You know the one, it’s that involuntary expulsion of breath at the end of an episode, often accompanied by a weak, protesting “No!”, caused when the screen turns unexpectedly black. It was heard in the screening room this evening, and no doubt will be in the US next Sunday and the UK on Easter Monday. It’s the sound you made at the end of countless episodes of The Sopranos or The Wire, and roughly translated it means “That went too quickly, I want more”. Luckily for us, with a further nine episodes of Game of Thrones stretching gloriously into the distance, more is exactly what we have. Game of Thrones season three premieres in the US on Sunday the 31st of March, and in the UK on Monday the 1st of April. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
