Episode 19 – Blackwater – New Viewer Recap

So what did you think, newbies? The penultimate episode of a season always includes a few game-changers. Discuss the episode here without fear of spoilers, while We Do Not Sow provides his thoughts below.

Spoiler note: The discussion in this post is primarily for non-book readers (book fans can discuss the show here). We ask all the series veterans to refrain from posting spoilers in the comments here, veiled or otherwise. This show is best viewed without knowing all the surprises beforehand, so please be respectful of your fellow fans. Thank you!

We Do Not Sow: Halfman! Halfman! Halfman! That was awesome! Great battle scene and the wildfire scene was phenomenal. I realized the wildfire was on the boat right when they said there is only one boat. It might just be my favorite scene this season. Tyrion, what a great idea! And it was executed perfectly. Wow, I can’t believe I was even rooting for the Lannisters. The first thing I have to say is Peter Dinklage was certainly born for this role, he is amazing. Hopefully, he only has a flesh wound, because I don’t know if I can take losing him from my Sunday nights.

I really enjoyed the standoff between Bronn and the Hound right before the bells rang. I was really hoping they wouldn’t fight considering I like both guys. I have liked Bronn since he first appeared and I didn’t come around to like the Hound until the last few episodes. But the more the Hound has to say, the more I like him, and I really liked the “fire element” in his story and now being afraid of it is like his kryptonite.

So now we have Starks all over the map. This is crazy. Robb is leading his northern army into battle, Jon wandering with wildlings beyond the Wall, Sansa and the Hound leaving King’s Landing and headed north, Arya accompanied by Gendry (and hopefully Jaqen and the fat boy) headed home as well and the two young Stark boys hiding under Winterfell.

In the end you see Stannis getting pulled back by two men. I am assuming they are his men and pulling him out of harm’s way, but he is still on the wall so who knows if he will be captured, killed or even rescued by a shadow figure. I am guessing that Davos and his son are toast, but stranger things have happened. When they showed the ships burning and Stannis getting ready to lead the men off the boat you could hear all the screams and groaning of the men burning in the water. It sent shivers down my spine, but I also did feel bad for Davos, I was hoping for a little more from him.

In battle, just like in sports, there should be the three stars. My three stars of the Blackwater battle are Tyrion Lannister, Tywin Lannister and Bronn. If I could I would give it to the wildfire and I would even give it to the Hound, but after slicing and dicing a few men, he came up small in the end. But that might be the silver lining out of this battle, the Hound and Sansa headed home to Winterfell. If we are giving awards out for the battle I am going to give the over-confident award to Stannis. If he has ways to put the odds in his favorite with the dark magic, why wouldn’t he use it? This is war and I know not all his men like Melisandre, but if you have an edge you have to use it.

I did not realize until the episode was over that we didn’t see any of the other story lines, but I did not miss them tonight. We can catch up to Arya, Jon, Robb and Dany next week. Wow, what a great episode! I hope next week doesn’t leave us hanging too much for season 3!

• Published on 05/27/2012 at 9:59 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/20/2016 at 6:29 PM CDT