Game of Thrones, season four, episode five, review For people who haven't read the books, Game of Thrones must be getting pretty hard to follow by this stage. The Tyrells and Highgarden, the Lannisters and Casterly Rock, the Baratheons and Storms Landing; Danaerys Targaryen across the Narrow Sea, the Wildlings beyond the Wall. All these groups have characters whose names you need to remember, shifting alliances and loyalties, hidden undercurrents. And that's before you get to the North, where Robb Stark, the King in the North, is dealing with his less-than-reliable allies from minor houses, the Karstarks, the Boltons, the Freys. If you have read them, of course, it's an intricate and multifaceted joy (although even then it's a lot to remember: who's this guy? Oh yes, Lord Bolton. And this one? Er, Gareth out of The Office, he's the guy who's also an eagle; and the chap with the giant red beard who looks like Tom Baker in Blackadder II, I should know this). The major plot developments were Robb losing his grip on his army, after his Karstark followers murdered two hostages and faced his justice; and Tywin Lannister deciding to marry Tyrion and Cersei off, to the child Sansa and the not-that-interested-in-women Loras Tyrell respectively, to their utter dismay. But the atmosphere was one more of unsettling, almost horror-movie-esque chills than the usual gore and nudity (while containing no shortage of gore and nudity, of course). Beric Dondarrion, the Lightning Lord, struck down brutally in a trial by combat with the Hound and revived by strange necromancy, wearily told Arya that being repeatedly brought back to life slowly chips away at your soul. Over in Storm's Landing, we are finally introduced to Stannis Baratheon's queen, Selyse, a strange witch-like woman with the bodies of her three stillborn boys in glass jars; and his daughter, a sweet girl disfigured by some strange leprosy-like illness. And Jaime Lannister, developing week by week from golden playboy into tragic figure, told Brienne about how he got the name Kingslayer, and brought into question whether keeping one's vows is always the right thing to do, when faced with a mad king bent on burning an entire city. As with every week, a stunning piece of television, if a tricky one to keep up with. One tiny nitpicking criticism, though: how come in the middle of an icy tundra filled with a presumably freezing army of men and women, Jon Snow and Ygritte had that cave filled with warm volcanic springs all to themselves? I'd expect four hundred people huddling into that pool like Japanese macaques. But I suppose they needed to get their Northern nudity in somehow.