A compelling mid-season climax, The Wolf and The Lion is also the point where the series took flight for me, with sharp dialogue and an impending sense of menace looming over Ned Stark (Sean Bean), saddled with the task of unravelling a mystery in the vipers' nest of King's Landing. When his daughter Arya (Maisie Williams) glimpses at a disguised Varys (Conleth Hill) plotting with the same man who interacted with the Targaryens a few episodes ago, we start to genuinely appreciate the scale of the series and the intrigues between the surface, with dark machinations ticking like the gears of the superb title sequence.
Both spymaster Varys and social climber Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) take shape as fearsomely skilled players. Other notable scenes are a bitter heart-to-heart conversation between King Robert (Mark Addy) and Queen Cersei (Lena Headey), providing nuance to a relationship made of mutual loathing, and the confrontation between Ned and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau), the latter beginning to show glimpses of humanity under his smug facade.
7/10
Both spymaster Varys and social climber Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) take shape as fearsomely skilled players. Other notable scenes are a bitter heart-to-heart conversation between King Robert (Mark Addy) and Queen Cersei (Lena Headey), providing nuance to a relationship made of mutual loathing, and the confrontation between Ned and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau), the latter beginning to show glimpses of humanity under his smug facade.
7/10