Recap round-up: Episode 5

I think our list of recaps grows each week… here is our round-up of recaps from last night’s episode of Game of Thrones.

James Hibberd – EW
Alan Sepinwall – HitFix
James Poniewozik – TIME
Mo Ryan – AOL TV
Todd VanDerWerff (expert) – The A.V. Club
David Sims (newbie) – The A.V. Club
Jace Lacob – Televisionary
Myles McNutt – Cultural Learnings
Elio & Linda – Westeros
Larry Williams – OtakuASSEMBLE

There was also this short Q&A with David Benioff and Dan Weiss at Entertainment Weekly where they discuss some of the changes. Below is an excerpt relating to episode five, but check out the full interview to read their thoughts on the fans’ comments, the reaction to the death of Lady and the change in Dany’s wedding night.

The scene from Episode 5 between King Robert and Cersei was one of the best so far. Was that added from the book?
DW: One of the great things about the show is George has created this world that’s so fully fleshed out and dimensional that you think about what the people in this story are doing when they’re not in the main line of the plot. There’s lots of scenes over the season that came from that ‘what if’ process. Robert and Cersei may hate each other, but they can’t avoid each other 100 percent of the time, every once in a while they will find themselves alone together, and what will they say?
DB: You also got these fantastic actors and you want to play them off each other. For instance, the scene with Varys and Littlefinger. We so fell in love with Aiden Gillen’s performance as Littlefinger and Conleith Hill playing Varys we wanted to give them some time together. You have these two master connivers, and perhaps with the exception of Tyrion, the two smartest guys in the story, you know they talk from time to time, so what do they talk about? It’s like the head of the KGB and the head of CIA getting together for a coffee break.

And lastly, here is this week’s Inside the Episode with David & Dan and director Brian Kirk:

• Published on 05/16/2011 at 12:00 PM CDT
• Last updated on 05/16/2011 at 4:04 PM CDT