Game of Thrones New Episode Review: 'Sons of the Harpy' Provides Bloody Ending

HBO aired the latest Season 5 episode of Game of Thrones, entitled "Sons of the Harpy," on Sunday, and the fourth episode of this year provided a satisfying and thrilling hour that revitalized several characters.

Let's start in the North, where Jon Snow maintained his steadfast stance that he would not ride south with Stannis Baratheon to take over Winterfell. Jon is a fan favorite character for good reason, but it's hard to deny that he can be almost boring at times. His sense of duty and honor and the like rivals that of his father, Ned Stark, to the point where he is little more than a soldier rather than a fully fledged human being.

But the writers have smartly given Jon a decision to wrestle with that truly tests his sense of duty and honor. Stannis is offering to make him a true Stark and to become Lord of Winterfell, the place he caled home. On paper, it's the easiest decision Jon could ever make: stay in a frozen castle with a bunch of men bored for 95% of the time until the next threat strikes, or rule his homeland as a lord. But Jon is so driven by his moral code that he feels obligated to stay.

To have Stannis tempt Jon with this offer is one thing, but Melisandre offered a temptation of a different variety. Jon, in his usual fashion, deniedher advances, which led to both a humorous and chilling moment in which the Red Priestess said the famous words "You know nothing, Jon Snow." The important point here is that Game of Thrones is adding a new dimension to Jon as the writers force him to wrestle with these decisions and either give into temptation or fight it.

Stannis, who has been one of the most boring characters in a world full of rich colorful ones, also received some much needed development in this episode when he delivered a heartfelt speech to his daughter. Stannis may have a one-track mind when it comes to reclaiming the throne, but "Sons of the Harpy" showed that he is a father who loves his child despite her deformities and who has love in his heart.

Further south, the show took one of its most maligned characters in Sansa Stark and transformed her, as well. Her life has pretty much been miserable since the first episode of this series, but now she is more or less in control of her own fate. She's still at the center of Littlefinger's machinations, but he's at least looping her in on the plan and giving her options. She either becomes Wardeness of the North when Stannis takes Winterfell, or she seduces Ramsay Bolton and works him like a puppet. An aggressive Sansa would do wonders for this storyline, so let's see what she does next.

In King's Landing, Cersei struck back at Margaery, who spent all of last week gloating now that she had married Tommen and become Queen. But as we suspected, the Queen Mother wouldn't go down so easily, so she used her new connection with the High Sparrow to have Loras thrown in jail. This proved once again that Cersei is a force to be reckoned with, but it also showed how ineffective Tommen currently is as king. He can't free Loras without bloodshed, so he's stuck. More dangerously, Cersei has armed a group of religious zealots, which is not going to end well.

We're seeing this play out in Meereen, where Dany continues to be a weak ruler plagued by problems. The Sons of the Harpy made their move in a brutal, bloody final sequence that left Grey Worm and Ser Barristan for dead. If they are gone, then Dany's loose grip on the region becomes even looser. Tyrion Lannister can't get there fast enough to advise her.

Speaking of which, Jorah and Tyrion paddled their way over toward Meereen, and the imp immediately guessed Jorah's identity based on a couple of minor details. Jorah assumes that Dany will accept Tyrion as an offering and forgive him, but the dwarf is right when he said the Mother of Dragons might just as soon accept him and kill her former guard.

Jamie and Bronn headed to Dorne and it was everything I hoped it would be. This team up is already paying dividends. The fight scene showed just how castrated Jamie is when it comes to swordfighting, though his gold hand luckily saved him from a fatal blow. More of these two every week, please.

Meryn Trant is on his way to Braavos, where a certain young Stark girl is reciting his name with plans to kill him. Interesting...

One noticeable aspect of this episode was its structure. Rather than bounce around from place to place frequently, stories took place in large chunks. We spent time in King's Landing, Dorne, The Wall, etc. for multiple scenes in a row rather than scattered throughout the episode. This structure made everything flow more smoothly and helped the viewer keep track of things.

"Sons of the Harpy" was an outstanding episode, and as usual, we can't wait until next week.