S5EP4: Cacaw! Cacaw!

Ah finally, the (late) appearance of the Sand Snakes! For those who had an inkling what was coming in Season Five, anticipation was high for Oberyn’s three bastard daughters to show up. Heck, our poll from the first week was titled “Who’s your favorite Sand Snake?”

Unfortunately, their one scene was pretty weak. Yeah, it was cool to see them torture buried guy and all but Obara, Nymeria, and Tyene didn’t really make much of an impact on me and the acting seemed very wooden, which isn’t normal for this series. Seeing Keisha “Whale Rider” Castle-Hughes as Obara was a thrill but that didn’t last long as the Sand Snakes were ushered off stage right and we never saw them again. Let’s hope that they get some more shine in EP5, otherwise this waiting for Sand Snakes thing is getting pretty tedious. Also, as my friend noted, none of the Sand Snakes’ physiques look warrior-like, and it seems like the fighting daughters of the Red Viper would be slightly tougher looking. Oh well.

There was a lot of amazing in EP4, but almost all of it was washed away with the incredible fight scene to end the episode. I mean, I’d almost forgotten that the Faith Militant had shown up earlier, or that Jon Snow decided it was okay to touch (but not more) up North. Plus, Jaimie and Bronn get in a fight! Let’s take a look at the scores...

Normally, Bronn and Jaime’s frolic on the beach with some Dornish soldiers would be cause for celebration but when Grey Worm and Barristan Selmy end the episode with a bloodbath, well, it’s easy to forget that Bronn and Jaime both had pretty respectable weeks.

Grey Worm and Ser Barristan racked up 176 and 104 points, respectively. And yeah, that vaults them immediatley to the top of the leaderboards for the season. (See why we told you to draft fighters?!) Based upon the numbers, Grey Worm killed twelve Sons of the Harpy and injured seventeen more. Barristan Selmy got eight kills and eight injuries himself. How many Sons of the Harpy were in that alcove!? I’m not sure there were so many, but I didn’t watch the fighting nearly as carefully as our official scorekeepers. All I know is that a lot of people got stabbed and a lot of people died. Including possibly one or both of our heroes.

While it might seem a bit unfair that one player could vault up so far in the standings based upon one scene, in a way that does reflect how epic the battles can be. After all, many of the giant GoT fight scenes totally shake up the plotlines and the ginormous totals racked up by the participating combatants show us that on the scoreboard. Still, for one character to get 176 points in one week, that’s insane! Perhaps next year we can see about capping some scoring or something. Or having a category score once per episode, versus for each instance. At this rate, Grey Worm will likely be a top five player at the end of the season based upon just one scene.

Sidetone: From my viewpoint, Grey Worm and his Unsullied deserved to get their butts kicked. Why are they carrying such huge spears while patrolling the streets? It’s a bit unrealisitic that the Unsullied wouldn’t have a backup (smaller) weapon or realized that ten foot spears are useless in alleyways, but I won't quibble too much I guess. The Unsullied had to get beat for the larger story, and maybe they were just too cocky to not be on their guard even after their brothers were getting slashed in the throat at brothels, etc. Let's just pray that both Ser Barristan and Grey Worm make it through their injuries!