Rate Episode 5x07 - The Gift

I liked every scene in this episode except Sam and Gilly. I just can't stand her.

Scenes in KL were great. I liked Cersei scene with HS, one of the best written scenes in the entire show IMO. I liked a scene between Dany and Daario. Tyrion and Dany's meeting.

Master Aemon's death was great as well.

I gave it a 9. Enter Sapochnik, my favorite director on the show. There really isn't much that I didn't like about it. Rosabell made Dorne bearable for once, but the storyline itself is still meh. I feel bad that Nikolaj was thrown into this mess. Aemon's death was sad and I'll remember "Egg, I dreamed that I was old." The only good thing about the Sam and Gilly scene is that we saw Ghost again who was incredibly underused in S5, but Sam saying "Oh my" later on was funny. Fuck Olly and Alliser. Jon is doing the right thing going to Hardhome, even if it's risky.

I thought King's Landing was very good. It showed the various sides of Cersei that Lena plays really well and she even seemed genuine in her scene with Tommen, which I think she was. After she leaves Margaery's cell, it's interesting how she's smirking and then it slowly fades as the High Sparrow delivers his monologue, she obviously doesn't realize she's fucked until minutes in. I actually liked the slow build up here and the way it's filmed, it feels claustrophobic like there's no way for Cersei to escape. Then her screaming while it focuses on the High Sparrow and the haunting music in the background as Unella closes the door to her cell, it's a great way to end the episode. I had remembered debating whether this or Dany and Tyrion finally meeting would be better, but I think this still works. 

Bringing Tyrion to Dany this early was arguably one of the best improvements D&D have made from the books. And I realized that he would fill some of Barristan's storyline, but I think it needed to be done instead of Tyrion going around saying where do whores go for an entire season. It doesn't make Dany's story feel as isolated now having someone who was involved in the politics in Westeros serving as Hand of the King.

As for the North, this might have also been a good opportunity to introduce Northern Lords or show Stannis taking Deepwood Motte, but it's pretty much all downhill for him once he leaves The Wall, which is unfortunate. Alfie, Sophie, and Iwan continue to make the Winterfell storyline compelling, despite the circumstances as Sansa and Theon have suffered enough. I was hoping that when Sansa told Theon to put the candle in the tower, he would have followed through, but he's still loyal to Ramsay. He's been broken down, but there's still a sense of hope that Theon does something to save Sansa later on, which he does. Ramsay's reaction when Sansa tells him that he's a bastard, don't think he was expecting that. Ramsay revealing to Sansa that Jon is LC of the Night's Watch, also gives you hope that maybe that will be a place to escape for her.

I gave it a 9, really liked the episode, all of it [even Dorne pulled through with a good scene, I thought]. The fact that they kept "Egg, I dreamed that I was old" makes it a winner, just by itself. It has even more impact in the rewatch now, knowing that Peter Vaughan really is dead now. The episode covered so many story lines so well, without it ever seeming chopped up to me.

*Edit: Just went back and re-watched a couple of scenes because of some discussion in another thread elsewhere and decided I was wrong, this episode was better than the prevous so it needs a 9!

This one dragged a bit more for me not because it was terribly bad but I felt like I just wanted to get one with the story and not stop where each of the scenes did which felt cut off a bit for some of the storylines. I know they tend to do this in the second half of the seasons, building up for the penultimate and finales which are always big and need a lot of build-up.

Still, a lot of great scenes that can't be ignored and are famous/iconic fan moments. I do agree with Al that bringing Tyrion to Daenerys far faster on the show was an improvement over the books even though I'm one of those weird readers who actually liked Tyrion's trip up the river with young Griff and crew only because I loved reading Tyrion at all times, he was witty even moreso than on the show. But I hated his slavery parts, which dragged out weirdly, especially with Penny. I'm glad they dumped all that to be honest.