Reviewed: Game of Thrones: Mockingbird

There will be spoilers ahead so read on at your own risk...

After the epic conclusion to last week's episode, The Laws of Gods and Men where Tyrion demanded a trial by combat, a large portion of this episode was devoted to Tyrion trying his best to find a champion. However, that turned out to be a lot harder than he thought it would be, especially when it was revealed who Cersei chose as her champion, The Mountain. We got our first sighting of the Mountain in two seasons, he's now being played by an Icelandic strongman by the name of Hafthor Bjornsson with no acting experience prior to GoT, he actually almost signed for the Indianapolis Colts of the NFL once.

Back in season one, when Tyrion first demanded a trial by combat he asked for his brother to be his champion only for that request to be turned down by Lysa Arryn because he was too far away. Tyrion once again would ask for his Jaime's help but Jaime refused, his training to fight with just his left hand had not been a success and he knew that if he agreed to champion Tyrion that it would be a death sentence for them both.

Obviously Bronn was Tyrion's next choice, but the sell sword also refused Tyrion in his time of need. It appears he made a deal with Cersei and that he would now be marrying in to the wealthy house Stokeworth. Bronn asked why he should champion Tyrion, maybe he could defeat the Mountain, but one wrong move and Mountain would defeat him with ease. Tyrion said Bronn should champion him because they were friends, Bronn said they were friends but asked when Tyrion had ever risked his life for Bron, you could see the realization on Tyrion's face of what their relationship actually was and he understood why Bronn would not do it. Bronn and Jaime were his only friends left in King's Landing, he had lost hope.

Someone would come to Tyrion's rescue however, Oberyn Martell. This was the best scene in this episode by far. Oberyn told Tyrion a story of when he saw Tyrion as a baby, Oberyn visited Casterly Rock when he was young and Cersei told him about this new born brother of hers that was a horribly disfigured monster but when Oberyn was finally shown Tyrion he just saw a baby, yes he had a slightly big head and small arms and legs but he was no monster. Cersei just said this because she blamed him for the death of their mother who died during child birth. Watching Tyrion's face as he listened to Oberyn's story was heartbreaking; Peter Dinklage really has been the MVP of the last two episodes. Oberyn sees Cersei for the women she is and he knows Tyrion is innocent, and of course he wants revenge on the Mountain for the deaths of his sister and her children so he says he will be Tyrion's champion.

Arya and the Hound got a decent amount of screen time this week. After Cersei put a price on the Hound's head, he suffers an injury when he is attacked by someone looking to get the reward for killing him. Arya notices that he was accompanied by was one of the men that was locked up by Yoren with Jaqen as they were travelling to the wall in season two, she adds him to her list after finding out his name and sticks him with needle. She finally seems to be comfortable with killing, which is likely to help her in future seasons. The Hound actually opened up to Arya for once later on in the episode before letting her clean his wound. It seems like these two are finally heading towards to next step in their story, I've enjoyed their travels but after seven episodes of them travelling towards the Vale, it's time for a change. Maybe that change could involve Brienne and Podrick, they ran in to Arya's old friend 'Hot Pie' who to the surprise of Brienne and Pod, informed them Arya is in fact alive. This news may change Brienne's plans to head to the wall to see if the Stark girls are with Jon Snow. Speaking of Jon Snow, we saw his return to Castle Black after defeating the Mutineers at Craster's Keep, he didn't exactly get a hero's welcome. He told the leaders about how they should seal up the tunnel to help them stop the impending Wildling attack but his words fell on death ears.

Once again we saw Daenerys, this week her segment was more interesting than in the last few episodes though. She finally succumbed to Daario's advances to the disapproval and jealousy of Jorah. Dany tells Jorah of her plans to send Daario and the Second Sons to re-take Yunkai. She also says that she will Hizdahr zo Loraq, who was introduced last week to act as an ambassador and tell them they can live in her new world or die in their old world like the masters of Meereen did. No one has featured in more episodes in this season than Daenerys but her story has been slow compared to the first three seasons, it will be very interesting to see how much they progress it in these final three episodes.

The episode ends with Sansa, it really is great to see her as an interesting character. She was just an afterthought for three and a half seasons but she has become one of the most intriguing characters in the show. She was building Winterfell in the snow and talking to Robin before Robin kicks it over and she slaps him. Petyr sees and sympathises with her, talking to her about how she could have been his daughter before eventually kissing her only for Lysa to see. Lysa later confronts Sansa before Petyr intervenes, calms Lysa down and tells her he's only ever loved one woman... her sister before pushing her down the moon door to her death. It was surprising to see Lysa meet her demise so soon after being reintroduced, but it leaves Petyr with yet another opportunity to take advantage of with her gone.

I was a little surprised that the trial by combat didn't take place in this episode, purely because they still have quite a lot to fit in these final three episodes but they played this episode well, building up to Oberyn offering to be Tyrion's champion rather than rushing to it was definitely the correct choice. A large portion of this episode was devoted to set up for these final three episodes but it was still enjoyable, the next episode looks like it will be a lot more action-packed.

Game of Thrones takes a one week break due to memorial day in the States but returns to our screens with 'The Mountain and the Viper' on 1st June on HBO in the States and one day later on Sky Atlantic in the UK. Here is a quick preview to that episode courtesy of the Game of Thrones YouTube channel.