Ok Game Of Thrones fans i'm going something that i've never done before and given that the series is ending in around a month's time and as of this writing is starting in little under a weeks timing I thought that i'd spend some time this week looking back at previous episodes. Some of these episodes will include key scenes that effect future episodes or seasons and some of them are just pure awesome and what better way to get everyone pumped up for season eight then taking a look back at the episode that shocked the world season one episode nine Baelor.
The plot of the episode is as best I can describe it is Ned has been in prison for sometime and Sansa has been pleading for his life. While his son Robb is marching south to free him and across the narrow sea Daenerys has a tough choice to make one which will effect her in more ways then she can ever imagine and Jon has a choice to make. Plot wise i've always found the story being told in this episode to be one of the strongest of the first season and that's because by the time this episode came out we spent alot of time getting to know these characters and thus when this episode came on we were invested in there story.
Starring in this episode is Sean Bean as Eddard Stark , Michelle Fairley as Catelyn Stark , Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister , Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister , Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen , Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont , Aidan Gillen as Petyr Baelish , Kit Harington as Jon Snow , Richard Madden as Robb Stark , Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark , Maisie Williams as Arya Stark , Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy , Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon , Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane and Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister. I'm not going to name every single actor who appears in each episode but a good chunk of the main cast appear in this episode so it was really freaking easy to get the cast list.
In terms of what I thought of the acting it's honestly really freaking good and that's something your going to hear me say alot when one of these gets posted because it's true for pretty much all of the episodes. Once again I don't really think that this needs to be said but Peter Dinklage is just so freaking cool in this episode he get's given almost all of the best lines in this episode I honestly think he's one of the best actors on the whole show and that's really saying something given how good the acting on the show is.
It was during this episode that I was once again reminded of how good or in this case bad Jack Gleeson truly was on this show. From what we've all been told by various members of the cast and crew he's the nicest actor you'll ever meet but the second they shout action he's truly evil and because of that he was getting alot of hate by members of the public to be able to get that kind of a reaction from people to me says that you need to be a truly gifted actor it's just a shame that he's no longer acting in films and TV.
Sean was so good in the final scene of this episode even tho I knew what was coming I was still hoping that someone would save him. In THAT scene we see in my opinion how scared he is and how far he's willing to go to make sure his kids are not only safe but also happy with the slightest bit of hope that he himself might make it out alive and just to see Sean portray that with very few lines of dialog and facial expressions is truly great to see.
You all know what scene we have to talk about and I kind of gave away some of my thoughts on when talking about Sean's acting in the scene. That really does go to tell you how good the scene still is I actually think that it's one of if not the best scene in TV history because everything comes together so perfectly and like I said I was still hoping that someone or something would happen that would save Ned's life.
For me this seasons episode nine is one of the many episode nine's to beat because of how shocking it truly was. All throughout the season we've been led to believe that Ned is the hero of the show and that all that he's doing will save the kingdom and yet in one full swoop of the axe all that we've expected and all that we've wished for is dashed because the person who's meant to be the hero is no longer with us.
Overall this is such a good episode it not only advances the overall plot of the show but it also forces you to now expect that any character can die and going into season eight that's an important thing to remember it's not a perfect episode by any means but it's damn close and so it gets a 9 out of 10 from me.