With less time spent on establishment and set-up, many of the scenes this week are able to provide a more in-depth insight into the characters (and the new additions to the cast are more immediately and obviously entertaining), while sword-fights, torture and one sexually charged encounter with a crossbow help get the blood pumping for both characters and audience alike. Great stuff.

‘Dark Wings, Dark Words’ airs at 9pm on Monday 8 April on Sky Atlantic. To whet your appetite, here are ten teasing lines of dialogue from the episode…

» “I don’t blame him. And I don’t blame you either. We don’t get to choose who we love.”

» “Men only want one thing from a pretty girl.”

» “We should have stayed well out of all this, if you ask me, but once the cow is milked, there’s no squirting the cream back up her udders, so here we are to see things through.”

» “And everything thats happened since then. All this horror thats come to my family. It’s all because I couldn’t love a motherless child.”

» “If it’s revenge, I still got faith in it.”

» “Two hundred brothers, killed by dead men, and you’re still here… whimpering. Does that seem fair to you?”

» “You’ve got nothing to fear from us. The Lords of Westeros want to burn the countryside. We’re trying to save it!”

» “Is there an idiot – in any village – who trusts Littlefinger?”

» “I imagine it must be so exciting… to squeeze your finger here, and watch something die over there.”

» “Some people will always need help. That doesn’t mean they’re not worth helping.”

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

Are you looking forward to the episode? Let us know below…