We spend much of the episode catching up with those who were absent from last week. Bran, Rickon, Hodor et al are making their way to The Wall in search of refuge, after surviving the rout of Winterfell last season. They’re joined by Meera Reed and her brother Jojen, who, like Bran, seems to have a second sight of sorts, and wants to help Bran understand the things he sees.

Thomas Brodie-Sangster makes a solid impact; his portentous Jojen is a rare character on the show that seems at ease with both themselves and the world around them.

Another new character who makes a fantastic first impression is Paul Kaye’s Thoros, who stumbles upon Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie in the woods. Thoros claims to fight for no king, rather for a Brotherhood that aims to help the common people through the war. Paul Kaye might seem like curious casting for a show like this, but his fun-loving, carefree Thoros is instantly engaging.

Elsewhere, Jaime Lannister is still being led across the country by Brienne, and the scenes between that pair continue to be a huge amount of fun. Nikolai Coster-Waldau plays the role of Jaime perfectly; just look at the look of glee and relief on his face when he has a sword back in his hand after so long. His campaign of switching between abuse and polite conversation with Brienne is as relentless as it is entertaining, and the bridge-top duel that serves as the episode’s climax is very well staged.

In King’s Landing, Margaery continues to increase her stock as one of the main players in the game. Here, we meet her wonderfully spiky grandmother, the Lady Olenna, played with consummate class by Dame Diana Rigg.

Margaery is a tricky character to pin down, as she seems to play a different person depending on who she’s with, but with her grandmother the masks drop and she seems herself. And if Margaery is increasingly prominent, so Natalie Dormer is fast becoming one of the show’s best performers; the scene she shares with Jack Gleeson’s Joffrey is by far the episode’s best, as Margaery masterfully gets the monstrous King onside in a way that Sansa never could. It’s a tense and disturbing encounter, fizzing with sexual tension, and Gleeson and Dormer play the hell out of it.

There’s incredible work too, from Michelle Fairley as Catelyn, who recounts a story about the early life of Jon Snow. It’s essentially a chunk of exposition, but in Fairley’s hands it becomes a wonderfully evocative insight into her character – one that also informs so much about Jon. The two might be worlds apart in the show’s geography, but in that moment, we have a crystal clear picture of their relationship.

Theon Greyjoy, meanwhile, is reaping the karmic rewards of his ill-advised coup of Winterfell, being held captive and viciously tortured by… well, it’s not quite made clear just yet, but that turns out to be quite an effective withholding of information. We’re just as in the dark as Theon is, and we share in his confusion and terror.
If there’s a complaint about series three so far, it’s a familiar one – that the show skipped over a major battle. Up in the North, Sam and co are marching back to The Wall, having apparently lost 200 men to the undead wights seen at the end of last season.

There was supposedly a huge battle/massacre, but we never get the impression that they’ve been through that, and as a result it’s very difficult to get invested in the stakes of these characters; we haven’t seen what it is they’re running from. The weight of what they’ve been through is spoken of, but never felt.

On the whole, ‘Dark Wings, Dark Words’ is a much more satisfying episode than the opener; one that brings us up to speed with everyone missing last week, and also introducing nearly all of the remaining new characters for season three. While the limitations of translating this epic tale into the TV format sometimes inevitably rear their head, they only very rarely spoil things.

When actors like Coster-Waldau, Dormer and Fairley are at the top of their game – as they are in this episode – then any quibbles about skipped battles or departures from the books are quickly forgotten, as you’re reminded that these are some of the best actors on television, playing some of the richest characters on television.

Just as well it’s already been officially renewed for a fourth season then

Aired at 9pm on Monday 8 April on Sky Atlantic.

> Order the Season 3 boxset on Amazon.

> Buy the complete Season 1-2 boxset on Amazon.

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