User Reviews

This is the fourth episode of the second season of Game of Thrones. One again, we have ourselves another magnificent episode. There is nothing "big" that goes on around here, but each storyline is once again, clever and engaging. We get great acting again as Peter Dinklage continues on his roll of magnificent performances as Lord Tyrion. We also get to see some barbaric cruelty from King Joffrey, with a very similar feel to a pornographic video. But that is a powerful scene to witness.

In this episode, "Garden of Bones," Robb Stark defeats Lannister forces and he meets a nurse named Talia. Tyrion puts a stop to his nephew's cruelty against Sansa. Vaenarys is introduced to the desert city of Quarth. Arya is imprisoned in Harrahall where she eventually meets Lord Tywin. Catelyn wants to unite Renly and Stannis, but that proves harder than thought. Finally, Lord Baelish visits with Renly who makes a promise to keep her daughters safe, but in return for Ser Jaime.

Overall, this is a rather entertaining episode that has a lot going on. But I'm happy to report that each storyline is equally impressive. I loved the introduction to Quarth, the oasis city in the middle of nowhere. Just seeing the gates open brought chills down my spine. A very fun episode.

My Grade: A

Plot In A Paragraph: Joffrey punishes Sansa for Robb's victories, while Tyrion and Bronn try to temper the king's cruelty. Catelyn asks Stannis and Renly to unite against the Lannisters. Danaerys and her exhausted people arrive at the gates of Qarth, Arya and Gendry are taken to Harrenhal, where they are at the mercy of "The Mountain," Gregor Clegane. Davos goes on a mission with Melisandre.

The episode starts with Joffery having Sansa beating as punishment for Robb's victories. There is a great scene when a disgusted Tyrion arrives and sees what happening. The acting is superb all round Jack Gleason has an excellent episode as the cruel king (God I hate Joffery) Sophie Turner is brilliant as poor Sansa, Again my love for Peter Dinklage continues, he is just outstanding. Rory McCann as The Hound doesn't do much, but his silent anger and disgust at Joffery is evident. But a stand out performer and quickly becoming a favourite of mine is Jerome Flynn as Bronn, he delivery of one of his lines had me laughing out loud.

As I've already said along with Dinklage as Tyrion, I'm also a fan of Maisie Williams as Arya. There is a lot of Arya in this episode, which I like. After being missing from the last episode Danaerys is back and she has looked a lot better.

Davos is given an assignment that sits poorly with the honourable seadog and the episode ends with a very creepy scene.

This episode carries quite a lot of shock value, but somewhat haltingly, I'd say. Fortunately there's still some heart as well, preventing the episode from getting all too bleak.

Robb Stark has another victory against the Lannister army. Arya Stark is imprisoned in a stable of an old castle with Gendry and Hot Pie, and they witness the torture and death of prisoners by sadistic torturers. Gendry is chosen to be tortured, but Lord Twyn Lannister arrives and interrupts the torture and assigns Arya for the kitchen. After acknowledging that Robb has defeated the Lannister army, Joffrey tortures Sansa with a crossbow and then he orders Meryn Trant to beat and strip her in front of the court. Tyrion arrives and stops the mistreating of Sansa. Littlefinger arrives at Renly's camp to avoid him to go to King's Landing but is not well succeeded. Then he delivers Ned's bones to Catelyn and proposes to exchange Arya and Sansa per Jaime. There is a meeting between Stannis and Renly but they do not have an agreement. Daenery and her group go to the City of Qarth and The Thirteen in principle do not welcome her. Davos brings Melisandre to the shore and the witch delivers a creature made of shadow.

"Garden of Bones" has four great moments. The first is the wise attitudes taken by Tyrion. The second one is the witty dialog between Arya and Lord Twyn at the table. The third is the impressive attitude of royalty of Daenerys towards The Thirteen. And last but not the least, the foggy shadow creature that the witch gets birth. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Garden of Bones"

Came to 'Game of Thrones' fairly late in the game and due to being so busy the binge-watching was gradual. Have found myself truly loving the show, very quickly becoming one of my favourites. It totally lives up to the hype and not only does it do the brilliant source material justice (a rarity in television) it is on its own merits one of the finest, most addictive and consistently compelling shows in recent years and quality-wise it puts a lot of films in recent years to shame.

"Garden of Bones" is one of the best episodes of 'Game of Thrones' up to this point, or at least to me it is. It is the most violent episode up to this still early point of the show, and one of the show's most violent overall. This wasn't a problem with me, though it is understandable why others have objected, to me it didn't seem excessive or gratuitous being important for showing Joffrey's increasingly dark side. The somewhat "what the heck" ending may confound viewers understandably but it was interesting and does fuel interest in how the magic would be dealt with.

On top of this, "Garden of Bones" also has a lot going on in the story and has a lot of characterisation going on. The good news is that it's all interesting and important, nothing is superfluous here with Quarth's introduction being one of the episode's highlights. As well as being the most violent episode up to this point, it's also the darkest and bleakest and is tied with "Baelor" as the most emotionally powerful.

Visually, "Garden of Bones" looks amazing. The scenery is throughout spectacular, the sets are hugely atmospheric and beautiful on the eyes with a real meticulous eye for detail and the costumes suit the characters to a tee. The make-up is beautifully done. The visual effects are some of the best of any television programme and are not overused or abused, the scale, the detail and how they actually have character and soul are better than those in a lot of the big-budget blockbusters. As well the cinematography and editing, which are cinematic quality as well.

One cannot talk about "Garden of Bones" without mentioning the thematically, orchestrally and atmospherically multi-layered music scoring and the unforgettable main theme. Again, worthy of a high-budget fantasy/action/drama film.

It is hard not to be bowled over by the quality of the writing, outstanding isn't a strong enough adjective to describe how good the writing is once again. It always has a natural flow, is layered and thought-provoking and demonstrates a wide range of emotions such as suspenseful tension, poignant pathos and witty humour. The story is paced beautifully, structured with such nuance and attention to coherence, a high emotional level and is done with intelligence, passion and sensitivity.

Standout moments are Sansa's humiliation (hard to watch but brings tears to the eyes), Cat receiving her husband's bones and the Tyrion and Lancel confrontation. Joffrey's dark side is chilling.

The direction is superb, one of the episode's best directed episodes, as is the acting. The meatiest material belongs to Peter Dinklage, Richard Madden, Jack Gleeson and Michelle Fairley and it shows in their performances. Dinklage continues to show why he is a show favourite, one would be here all night describing his brilliance. Fairley is very moving, likewise with Sophie Turner.

Gleeson sends chills up the spine as an irredeemably evil character (it's not just his actions that make him so, it's also that one doesn't expect a character as young as him to commit the actions he does). Madden is very authoritative.

In conclusion, a dark and disturbing episode but also a brilliant one. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Garden of Bones continues the story lines and it does a good job in doing so and the relationships begin to shine as the dialog is well-written and the performances are still amazing. The story lines are still good, the scenery is nice and the direction is really good. My only quibble is that it's a bit too violent. Don't get me wrong. I was fine with some of the violence in the previous episodes and even the first season, but the violence here seemed to be too extreme for me. Just saying.

Anyway, this episode is great and I'm really looking forward to see how things will turn out in the next six episodes when I review them. :)

When you find two new locations in the opening credits of a Game of Thrones episode, you know it's going to be an important one. And it is, indeed. Major events include the confrontation between the fraternal kings Renly and Stannis, Peter Baelish showing up at Renly's camps to persuade both him and Catelyn Stark, Daenerys and her Khalasar finding an accommodation at last, Arya doing so as well, however, in a less pleasant way, Robb Stark and his army again defeating the Lannister ones, and King Joffrey demonstrating malice that goes way beyond normality.

And let's start with talking about that scene in particular. It involves sexual humiliation and violence that left me awestruck while also questioning its necessity. A scene like that never occurred in the original novels and I believe the series would've also been better off without it. Not only because it's utterly unappealing to watch, but also because I just don't buy Joffrey being that evil. It's not normal and we've already had his cruelty depicted numerous times before, so why include it? If I'd like to see a pornographic actress (she is one, look it up) have her derrière beaten with a belt, there are other movies to watch. Aside from that, Jack Gleeson once again impressed me with his acting qualities.

Later on, there's another very sexually explicit moment in "Garden of Bones". It's a disturbing, puzzling, and jaw-dropping cliffhanger as unexpected as it gets. And while this one was in the source material as well, I still don't like it. At first I reckoned this sentiment to be utter confusion about what just happened and so I could prevent writing an overhastily critical review, I decided to watch episode five right afterwards. Yet, it turns out that I still don't like it and what happened in the next episode was actually the most disappointing moment of the whole series yet – specifics on that in my review for "The Ghost of Harrenhal". I'm aware that quite a lot of people seemed to love that scene, but I've watched it twice and my personal conclusion is that it's a form of fantasy Game of Thrones didn't need at all. I didn't have any problems with White Walkers or dragons, but what happened here took me out of the story completely and just didn't feel right.

Thankfully, the other story parts of this episode were really good and almost made me forget about the aforementioned two. Best of all, the introduction of Qarth: a walled oasis in the middle of the desert, entitled "the greatest city that ever was or will be". The opening of its gates was one of the Game of Thrones' most rememberable moments and revealed a masterpiece of its set designers. The curious folk we're making acquaintance with there is different from everything else in the series, and a sub-plot that hopefully receives its deserved attention in the next couple of episodes. The second new location, Harrenhal, is a far uglier place that serves the sole purpose of capturing, torturing and eventually killing Lannister prisoners. A process that could've been made more entertaining to watch, but I'll stop complaining for once and will say that I enjoyed it a lot. Maisie Williams gives a fantastic turn while a surprise guest voluntarily visits this location.

As always, there's also Peter Dinklage, the imp responsible for keeping up HBO's ratings, who amazes with his enormous acting qualities. Receiving far less praise as she should is Natalie Dormer as Margaery Tyrell, making her character wonderfully exciting to watch while having a conversation with Aidan Gillen's Peter Baelish – a stand-out moment in the episode's screenplay.

That makes for an episode that disappointed me at times, but was also rememberable and enthralling on other occasions. Minor flaws just can't curb my amazement for this series.

Sometimes a point gets made and it is then beaten to death. I don't need to be reminded that there is cruelty in men, especially in men of power. We are experiencing these things in our present world. This is a marvelous series with great implications for bringing about a reign over all the different kingdoms. When there is battle, face to face, in a time of weaponry that is so primitive, there is going to be gore. But the scene with the two courtesans and Joffrey goes beyond the point of exposition. Then there are the tortures of the men with rats, even though they have no real information. Joffrey would have had his future queen ravaged by his soldiers for his own pleasure, telling them to spare her face. Do we need any more extravagances of violence? There are, however, interesting plot lines, including the facing off of brother, Tyrion continuing to bate the king, the motive of revenge for Arya. The arrival of the horse people to the golden city and their nearly gambling their lives away on principle. Then we have the final scene which is about as eerie and unexpected as anything so far.

I like how they call the bloke who makes hot pie, hot pie.

The first season of Game of Thrones was an incredible, wonderfully crafted fantasy adventure that made us addicted to the series. But this season the air is very different. The good story is sacrificed to the shock effect. This episode we had to watch ten minutes of torture. Not gory, but still, was it necessary? Game of Thrones got us with its witty dialogue and well drawn characters and its story, not with this kind of tricks. Creating emotions with torture and sadism belongs to cheaper productions who can't create emotional reactions through its story. I don't want to be left feeling dark and disgusted after each episode, I want to be left feeling the satisfaction of watching a great adventure crafted with art, just as I felt after the season 1 episodes.

The major point of pride for Game of Thrones is their ability to capture entire cultures and condense them to particular areas or bits of architecture. This week's episode adds not one, but two major points to the clockwork animated map in the credits. They are very different, and unlike anything seen on the show thus far. One of these, the walled oasis of Qarth, is merely hinted at. The other, Harrenhaal, is shown in great detail. Both are quite unlike anything we've seen so far. That is the brilliance of this show and its production crew. From the fire cultists to the Iron Islands, every place we've stopped at on our tour of Westeros and on the other side of the Narrow Seas has been completely self-contained. The fruit bazaar where Danerys is almost poisoned in the first season is completely different from Qarth, which feels like some kind of Egypto-Indian caliphate. The scene in which the Thirteen - the various rulers of Qarth - square off with Danerys and her ragged Khal was beautifully shot, and the brief glimpse into the oasis on the other side of the Garden of Bones was enough to really make me want to explore it in greater detail. Joffrey Baratheon finds a new level of disturbing evil to sink to. Given the scarcity of Joffrey last week, you forget just what a smarmy little slime ball he is. However, this week he was just completely over-the-top, and boy was Jack Gleeson good as a gleeful little sociopath. Every time I see that kid, I want to Tyrion-slap him. Of course, that would probably be a bad idea, as even a great birthday present from Uncle Tyrion ends up being, ahem... used to send a message. See also poor Sansa, who Joffrey seems to love humiliating in public pretty often for someone who is supposed to be his future queen. Fortunately, Tyrion is there to step in, and good old Bronn is there to serve as the muscles of the Hand of the King. Tyrion, more than anyone else on the small council, knows how to play the game. He could certainly give lessons to his dear sister, and I'm sure even Littlefinger could take some pimping lessons from the imp (since Littlefinger picks the worst times to hit on Cat Stark). I love the way he Sherlock Holmes out the relationship between Cersei and the former cup bearer turned knight/Lannister cousin whose name escapes me. It's clear that the imp's powers of observation and manipulation give him an advantage over the less height-challenged members of his family. He may be the son most like Tywin Lannister after all.

Season 2, episode 4. Slow episode to me - things happen but not in a fast moving pace as I'm used to GoT being so far. The very ending of this episode left me scratching my head, wondering "What did I miss? Did I miss something?". I feel completely updated and satisfied with all the stories but the ending.

8.5/10

Joffrey punishes Sansa for Robb's victories, and Tyrion scrambles to temper the king's cruelty. Catelyn entreats Stannis and Renly to unite against the Lannisters. Dany and her khalasar arrive at the prosperous city of Qarth. Tyrion coerces a relative into being his eyes and ears. Arya and Gendry arrive at Harrenhal, where their lives are in the hands of Ser Gregor Clegane. Stannis orders Davos to smuggle Melisandre into a secret cove.

What I Liked:

As usual, it is impossible not to be impressed by the high-quality production value, as well as the meticulous attention to detail. Again, acting all around is solid.

Tyrion is starting to become the best character on the show, brilliantly playing the game as the temporary hand of the king. His scenes are a highlight of this season so far.

While there are many characters and arcs to establish, it is truly remarkable how this show manages to balance them all out, giving each one an appropriate amount of screentime.

What I Disliked:

There are a couple of noticeably contrived moments in this one. Firstly, when Tyrion arrives right as Ser Merrin is about to strike Sansa, and secondly with Tywin when he gets to Harrenhal, right as Gendry is about to be tortured and killed.

I am not a fan of the final scene, in which Melisandre gives birth to a shadow. It seems too far-fetched, even for a fantasy show.

Overall:

Game of Thrones continues its streak of high-quality episodes. While not quite a standout episode, this is still a strong sophomore season so far.

8/10

King Cadmium.

I go back for old episode to connect between the season 5 and 6

I had not really enjoyed Game of Thrones much. In Season 1 Only the last episode was fun. It seemed to get better with that episode. But even with Season 2. I did not really enjoy the first three episodes that much. But this episode was well made. Things started to move fast. Just like i Enjoy them. Now I know why this show has a big fan following. I hope it gets better for me.

• Story (4.5/5)
• Soundtrack (4/5)
• Dialog (5/5)
• Graphic (4.5/5)
• Reasonableness (3.5/5)
• Entertainment (5/5)
• Overall (4.4/5)

BONUS - I love those loms, I don't want them to get hurt !! :(

• The Red Women is so cool.

"Garden of Bones" was the gnarliest episode of Game of Thrones to date, a bleak hour that started with savage sexual violence and an unanesthetized field amputation, then only got darker from there.