I didn’t think the returned gold was a test, I assumed it was Littlefinger doing a favor for Tyrion with the assumption he will get repaid in kind in the future.
Deadwood, Rome, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones… HBO must have more casting calls for whores in a decade than Nevada has had in a century.
Sopranos had more than a few whores too.
And as my post said, “this has nothing to do with the plot, merely a bit of background detail.” I’m presuming my question does not reveal who will be losing limbs and heads in future episodes. If it does … that’s weird.
Well, how else would you handle the exposition but with naked whore characters? Is it done differently in other films? 
When that song came on right after the amputation, I thought I had accidentally changed the channel on my remote for a few seconds there until I realized that was the same song.
Cut the hand, cut to black.
Which is the first clip?
What a fantastic episode. This show is firing on all cylinders this season. I’ve been gripped for every second. And that ending… wow. (Once again a big thank you to all the book readers for not giving away - or even hinting - that that was going to happen.) It’s scenes like that one that make me glad I’m watching the TV show before reading the books. I’ve been reading each book after each season, and was tempted to keep going after I finished book 2, but I’m so glad I’m experiencing the show this way.
But the entire hour was packed with killer moments. The small council scene with the chairs was hysterical. Every second with Brienne and Jaime was gold. Dany was a total bad ass - and you just know she is not giving up one of her dragons that easily.
Having fun? Maaaaaybe. Not getting paid? Not a chance. One way or another, they (and their owners) were paid.
Which is why they would never return the money. For a start, it’s not like they would earn much. And a fraction of something is still better than nothing. But mostly, it’s not theirs to keep. It would go mostly to Littlefinger. He’d be the only person who could refuse the payment (and even then he would probably have to throw the girls a coin out of his own pocket). And if that had happened, Tyrion would know it was him refusing his payment, and probably be worried.
I had assumed it was set up by Tyrion as part of his gift to Pod, just to make him feel good, but it hadn’t occurred to me it might also be a test of his loyalty.
More boring than Stannis? Is that possible?
I agree, loyalty test. If it was just to boost his confidence Tyrion wouldn’t have overdone it that much.
Pod’s lucky he’s young and has a short refractory period since I doubt those girls would be able to get his pants off before he finished. It might have made for a funny story for the girls to tell later, but there’s absolutely no way they’d have done it for free.
I didn’t even think of this. This is a great idea. He paid for them earlier and told them to refuse Pod’s “payment” to make Pod feel like a boss.
Stannis isn’t boring. Or at least his storyline isn’t boring. But lovestruck doofus tries to woo shy girl with overly strict father and no personality, ugh. Sam’s character might work if he were smart but awkward but he just seems like an awkward dumbass most of the time. Having him pine for the most boring girl in the world just brings the whole thing to a screeching halt.
In fact pretty much everything north of the wall is really boring. I understand it’s a significant part of the plot, but there are hardly any likable scenes or characters.
I think the problem is that the stakes/consequences of Sam and whatever little side errand he champions is trivial. Compound that with a bland character that you don’t really want to root for makes for a boring viewing experience. It’d be the same if they devoted as much screen time to Hot Pie.
Plus people who don’t like the North’s stories are clearly harboring a bourgeoise southern bias.
I’m scared, guys. What if the writers just fucked this one up?
It doesn’t make sense for that to have been a loyalty test. If you assume that Pod is an enemy agent, why would he keep the few coins in that pouch and thereby reveal his disloyalty? And I doubt that they’re ever going to revisit that event, so I doubt they’re going to make it clear that it was a setup on the part of Tyrion. So we have to accept the story as presented; that Pod was just that good in bed (although that’s hard to believe about a first-timer).
The idea isn’t that Tyrion thinks he might be an enemy agent, but that Tyrion wants to see whether Pod can be trusted. If Pod hadn’t returned the money, thinking Tyrion would never know, then this would show Pod can’t really be trusted.
Didn’t Pod already show he could be trusted by saving Tyrion’s life?
I thought Littlefinger probably wouldn’t take the money.
My question is why did Arya ask the Hound if he remembered the last time he was there? Was that suppose to be the same place the butcher’s boy was killed when they were on the road?
Because too many people like to overthink every little thing. I would be extremely surprised if the whores not accepting payment and Tyrion and Bronn’s WTF look of astonishment as anything more than a bit of comic relief.
Or the other possibility is that he didn’t actually go through with it for some reason or another. That actually seems more reasonible given how nervous Pod acted. And that would presume that Pod has some reason that actually matters to the story.
But I highly doubt that Tyrion is testing his squire to see if he returns a bag of coins that was supposed to be spent on whores that Tyrion wouldn’t even miss in the first place.
I think we are really overanalizing a bit of comic relief.
Yes, it was the same place where the Hound killed the butcher’s boy. Or at least that’s my understanding of the scene - I can’t think of anything else that Arya could have been referring to.
Wait a minute. The butchers boy was killed near King’s Landing. Then Arya travelled to Harrenhal, escaped and was travelling north to find Robb. Why would she be back near Kings Landing? I don’t think it is the same place.