Building on the events of the last episode: Daenerys’ flight from Meereen on-board Drogon, Stannis’ child-sacrifice and Cersei’s incarceration this finale really sings.

Building on the success of last week, the showrunners stuck to the format: designating the final half hour to a great set piece to move everything forward, or skyward.

After seven slow and tempestuous hours, the Game of Thrones wheel finally begins to turn.

Weiss and Benioff clearly learnt nothing from that episode in season four and they’ve gone and done it again.

The third hour of season five delves deeper into the mechanisms of Kings Landing and The House of Black and White.

As with episode one there’s an awful lot of exposition due to the vast number of storylines.