Directed by David Nutter, it’s a particularly beautiful episode; from the opening close-ups of the battle-pieces on the war-map to the sweeping aerial shot of a CGI Yunkai, it’s truly a feast for the eyes.

The early parts of the episode feel a little choppy in the edit, but that’s mainly because the show is rushing to establish where everyone is at present so that things can get down to business later on. Robb, Catelyn and the Blackfish have made their way to the Twins to see Edmure wed to one of the Frey girls; Jon and Bran stumble past each other in the North; The Hound and Arya are also set for the wedding; while Daenerys sets her sights on taking the great slave city of Yunkai.

While the real meat of the episode takes place down at the Twins, there’s plenty of action elsewhere. Jon Snow is finally called upon to prove his loyalty to the Wildlings once and for all, and falls short. His unwillingness to kill an innocent man leads to the first of several wonderfully orchestrated sword-fights throughout the episode, and while Jon gets to kill Orell and make his escape, Orell gets the last laugh, using his final moments to will his eagle to damn near scratch Jon’s face off. And what now for poor Ygritte, who looks as angry as she does betrayed; after all they’ve been through, how could Jon leave her behind?

Jon might not know, but in making his escape, he’s also left his little brothers behind. Unbeknownst to him, Bran, Rickon, Osha etc are hiding out in the nearby windmill. We’ve seen hints of Bran’s “powers” in his dreams, but this is the first time we’ve genuinely seen them in the real world, and the moment he wargs into Hodor to quiet the big man is quite something. It’s out of nowhere and even the worldly Osha and the wisened Reeds are stunned. If Bran can warg into people, what potential does this open up for the boy without legs? (If nothing else, the sequence at least gives us the immortal phrase “No more Hodor-ing!”)

There’s also the tearful goodbye between Bran and Rickon, as the elder boy sends his little brother away with Osha to somewhere safer than north of The Wall.

Rickon has never been a character that the show has bothered with, so when he was given so many lines all of a sudden, you’d be forgiven for thinking he was not long for this world. But if we never knew Rickon, we do know Bran, and their separation proves genuinely affecting. And Natalia Tena’s fearsome Osha will certainly be missed.

Over on the other side of the world and Dany, increasingly smitten with Daario Naharis – much to the obvious annoyance of Jorah Mormont – sends the pair, along with Grey Worm of the Unsullied, to take Yunkai unawares. It’s another exhilarating action sequence, during which the three heroes use three distinct weapons to tear swathes through the Yunkish defences. Daario may be little more than a bargain basement Kevin Sorbo in Hercules up to this point, but his plan works like a charm here.

And then there’s the wedding at the Twins. Oh boy.

There are plenty of nice moments during the wedding, most of them involving awkward glances and knowing looks between characters, but the scenes at the Twins are dominated by David Bradley’s prickly old Walder Frey, who is a deliciously nasty bastard, being as lewd and crude as possible to try and get a rise out of Robb, knowing that the King in the North has to swallow it down with a grudging smile.

But who could predict that he was a piece of work capable of instigating the massacre that closes the episode? We should have seen it coming really; Edmure’s unexpectedly pleased with his new wife, Robb and Talisa are in love and fawning over their unborn baby, while everyone else makes polite conversation and enjoys the music and the wine. Put simply, for Game of Thrones, everyone at the wedding was far too happy.

It’s a horrifying sequence, as Frey takes vengeance far out of proportion for the wrongs done to him, and with the help of Lord Bolton, who has been one of Robb Stark’s most trusted and capable generals over the past few seasons. Of all the violence on display, the vilest of all is the fate of Talisa, who is stabbed repeatedly in her belly, killing both her and Robb’s unborn heir. It’s extremely graphic – perhaps overly so – but the blood doesn’t stop there as Robb and Catelyn both take arrows to the body, while the rest of the Northmen outside are slaughtered too – even Robb’s Direwolf Greywind is turned into a pin-cushion.

By the time Catelyn takes Frey’s wife and calls for a stop to the madness, you’ll be in a state of shock; of disbelief. Ned Stark’s death established that anyone was fair game in this story, but surely the King in the North was safe, given that his conflict with the Lannisters has been driving the entire show? It seems not, and as Lord Bolton plunges his sword into his former friend, the betrayal is complete and in one fell swoop, the Lannisters win the war.

Michelle Fairley as Catelyn has been consistently doing some of the best work on the show for three years now, and in her look of disbelief you can see the sum of all the hardships Catelyn has endured; all the people she’s lost. She stares vacantly into space, having lost everything, totally broken – and by the time her throat is quietly slit too, and the screen fades to black, you’ll likely have a similar look of abject disbelief and anguish on your face. (There’s even a 24-style “silent clock”, in the form of the music-free end credits, just to let you really digest what’s just happened.)

As shocking as the moment is, it’s devastating in a different way to the loss of Ned Stark. Ned was a character that most people loved – flawed as he was – and Sean Bean an actor that was always charismatic and accomplished. Ned Stark *was* the show. Robb Stark, on the other hand, was often saddled with story-lines that weren’t as compelling as what was going on around him. His love story with Talisa never felt as big or as earned as, say, Jon and Ygritte’s up North. Robb was always more interesting when dealing with the weight of the crown – such as dealing with rebellious Rickard Karstark a few weeks ago – but that side of his character was never explored often enough.

While the loss of Richard Madden will doubtless upset many of his young female fans, the ensemble of the show will feel the loss of Fairley more heavily, as her strong portrayal of Catelyn Stark turned what was ostensibly an ancillary character – there to act as Robb’s conscience – into a riveting, sympathetic and wholly rounded figure in her own right.

What’s really devastating, though, is all the stories that Tywin Lannister, Roose Bolton and Walder Frey’s scheming has robbed us of (pun, again, intended). We’ll never get to see Robb take vengeance for his father’s death; we’ll never get to see him confront former best friend Theon Greyjoy for betraying him; we’ll never get to see him take Casterly Rock from the Lannisters; we’ll never get to see Catelyn reunite with Bran, Rickon or Arya. And, oh, Arya Stark.

Not only was she present at her father’s beheading, but now she’s also found herself at the scene of her mother and brother’s massacre. Arya was so close to being reunited with her true family, only to witness her last bastion of hope sputter out and fade to nothing, just like the light in Greywind’s eyes as she watches helplessly, hopelessly on.

Game of Thrones has always been a brutal show, but this really takes the biscuit. The story was set in stone a long time ago by the pen of George R. R. Martin, but it’s still exceptionally brave for a television show to cull so many of its important characters/actors in one go. Wherever things go from here in the aftermath, Westeros – and Game of Thrones – will never quite be the same again. But after three seasons of compelling, funny, frightening, richly told plots and beautifully drawn characters, who wouldn’t want to stick around to see what comes next?

Aired at 9pm on Monday 3 June 2013 on Sky Atlantic.

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

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