Even knowing what was going to happen didn’t prepare me for what I watched in Episode 09 of GAME OF THRONES. The Red Wedding finally took place and House Stark took yet another massive loss that was right up there with Ned getting his body separated from his head. And what happened to Talisa was just brutal. They even did poor Grey Wind dirty!!!

Michelle Fairley and Richard Madden both deserve major recognition for their work in the episode. From the moment Catelyn Stark realized something was amiss right up to her end, Fairley was just on point with more emotion being evoked in her face than in words and in those scenes made me actually feel something for a character that up to this episode I had been more annoyed by than not.

For his part Madden was just heartbreaking as he watched his wife be murdered and then the moment where he turned to Cat and said “Mother” in a way that was both a mix of childlike longing and resignation for what was happening was just really well done.

This was a major gut punch of an episode, possibly the biggest and most brutal shock of the series, but I am really excited for what comes next. George R. R. Martin is an evil genius for writing these characters that you grow so attached to and then just doing the most terrible things to them when you least expect it.
And judging by all of the reaction videos on Youtube, most fans are feeling just as gobsmacked by this episode as I was.