BlackwaterGame Of Thrones : Season 2 Episode 9 ^HOT^

In preparation for season 7 premiering July 16 (so close, but feels as far as Daenerys has been from Westeros this whole time), we ranked the 15 best episodes just in case you're one of those people who doesn't have enough time to re-watch the entire series in less than two weeks.

BlackwaterGame of Thrones : Season 2 Episode 9

This mid-season episode feels more like a finale or a penultimate episode. As a result of Tyrion's deal with Dorne, Myrcella Baratheon is sent away on a boat and everyone watches, and Cersei threatens Tyrion, blaming him for the separation. On the way back to the Red Keep, there's a riot in King's Landing. Also, Tyrion slaps Joffrey. And over in Harrenhal, Arya is serving as Tywin Lannister's cup bearer. Littlefinger shows up in the same room as her, but it's unclear whether or not he recognizes her (the scene's intensity rivals that of the Red Wedding and any scene with Ramsay in it).

This episode is jam-packed with events and ends with a betrayal, and it proved that this show wouldn't always be as slow-paced as the first half of the first season. We're introduced to Tywin Lannister, one of the best characters on the show (and in the books). In his first scene, he skins a rather-on-the-nose stag while talking to his son, Jaime. Jon and Sam take their vows at the Night's Watch, and Jorah stops an assassination attempt on Daenerys (that she doesn't know was actually his fault). Ned also tells Cersei that he knows her children are Jaime's, not Robert's. Ned makes a deal with Littlefinger and the City Watch to stop Joffrey from taking the throne, but the episode ends with Littlefinger's somewhat expected betrayal.

This heartbreaking episode has a lot of other powerful scenes, moments, and reveals that make it one of the best of the season, and of the series: Sansa has an intense confrontation with Littlefinger about marrying her off to Ramsay Bolton, Jorah reveals his greyscale to Daenerys, Theon and Yara steal the Iron Fleet, Bran finds out that the Children of the Forest created the Night King.

Ladies and Gentlemen, for today's episode, we give you: the Battle of the Blackwater, a pivotal engagement in the War of Five Kings between Stannis Baratheon and Joffrey Baratheon over control of King's Landing. The action takes place entirely on and around Blackwater Bay, and no characters anywhere else in the world appear. It was also written by series scribe George R. R. Martin, and much of the season's increase in budget was devoted solely to it.

Maegor's Holdfast is a cramped and dreary place; there isn't even music, just some guy juggling (Ser Dontos Hollard, that guy Sansa saved in the first episode of the season, now the new court fool). Cersei walks in wearing a Breast Plate, either as a Lampshade Hanging or as further evidence of her vanity, with Tommen in tow. She immediately summons Sansa and the two have a rather stilted conversation. Sansa can't help but be distracted by the presence of Ser Ilyn Payne, the King's Justice (read: executioner, the man who killed her father on Joffrey's order), but Cersei claims he's there for everyone's protection. This is somewhat undermined by a Kingsguard knight reporting that several servants are trying to escape out a postern door with horses and gold cups: Cersei orders Payne to "see to" them. Like Theon before her, Cersei subscribes to Machiavelli. 041b061a72