TV Review: GAME OF THRONES S2E4, GARDEN OF BONES

[Twitch is reviewing Game Of Thrones on an episode by episode basis throughout the current season. Please note that these are being written from someone who has very deliberately NOT read the books so as to come to the story fresh and will not be reading the books until after the series concludes. Should you wish to compare and contrast the books to the show please be courteous to those who have not read them yet by limiting discussions to the timeline currently played out on screen as well.]

Hey, hey, the gang's all here. Long absent faces return to The Game Of Thrones in the David Petrarca directed episode Garden Of Bones, the result being an episode positively jam packed with action - the story moving forward dramatically on several fronts.

Things kick off with a return of Robb Stark after a two week episode, and he's bringing his wolf with him. The Stark-led army of Northmen continues to carve through Lannister forces - this particular battle laying down casualties at a five to one rate. This does not go over well in King's Landing, to say the least.

Joffrey - also returning after a couple weeks away - has turned the corner from spoiled child to full on tyrant. Spreading lies about the Stark's behavior on the battlefield to justify his behavior Joffrey has Sansa stripped and publicly beaten in his throne room, a public shaming stopped only when Tyrion arrives and publicly defies the King's authority - comparing him to the Mad King in the process. A unified public face for the Lannister family? That's over and done with now, Tyrion now working against his own family on two fronts. But while he may have just created a very powerful enemy in Joffrey, Tyrion does at least gain an upper hand on Queen Regent Cersei by exposing one of her in-the-family lovers and forcing a change of loyalty.

Meanwhile Daenerys finally gets out of the desert and is offered refuge in the port city of Qarth after a bit of shouting and stamping of feet. We get just a taste of Qarth here but finally the Daenerys storyline appears to be moving forward again. while I doubt we'll get much of the dragons for a while yet at least we'll get some interesting new characters and locations out of her story from this point forward rather than just moping about in the desert.

The key developments, however, occur in the camp of Renly Baratheon. Lord Baelish arrives to a hostile welcome from Renly - a welcome he counters by suggesting its possible that he could simply open the gates for Renly when his forces arrive at King's Landing. And then Baelish is off to his main mission: Convincing Lady Stark to exchange Jaime Lannister for her daughters. Yes, he said daughters - claiming falsely that they have Arya in hand as well as Sansa - and he brought with him a chest of bones as a sign of good faith from Tyrion Lannister. Baelish claims they are the remains of Ned Stark for burial back in Winterfell but can we believe this? He's lied about everything else and Queen Cersei certainly did NOT approve the return of Stark's remains. Either Baelish is lying again or Tyrion has gone against his sister.

As for where Arya really is, there's torture involved and a bizarre twist of fate that sees her recruited as Tywin Lannister's cup bearer. Can the Stark girls just hurry up and kill some Lannisters, please?

But back to the Baratheon camp, where Stannis - who actually is the rightful King of Westeros - has arrived to give his brother Renly one chance to join him rather than go into battle. Neither man will bend and with Renly having the superior numbers Stannis has to turn to other means to deal with his brother. Put it this way ... while we've seen magic directly at play in regions outside of Westeros or on the very fringes - the White Walkers, the undead attack in Castle Black, Daenerys' dragons - all the talk has been that what magic may once have been actually in Westeros has passed. It's back. And Stannis' prophet-lover Melisandre turns out to be absolutely the real deal, unleashing something that should wreak havoc upon Renly's forces to begin the next episode. Cliffhanger? Damn straight.

Absent this week: No Theon, no Jon Snow. No Bran or anything in Winterfell at all. No Jaime Lannister, either, who is presumably still tied to a stake somewhere.