‘Game of Thrones’ season 3, episode 9 preview: ‘The Rains of Castamere’

Let’s start with the bad news, just to get it over with: There is no new “Game of Thrones” season 3 episode airing next week. It is Memorial Day Weekend, and HBO does not want to waste one of its most-popular shows (and an especially notable episode) on a night when it would not have good ratings data to report.

Rather, you are going to see “The Rains of Castamere” in two weeks, but judging from everything that we are seeing in the first promo below, it appears to be every bit worth the wait. The first thing worth remembering here is that with this show, the ninth episodes have historically been more important than even the tenth. In season 1, this is where Ned Stark found himself executed for his “crimes.” Meanwhile, in season 2 this was the Battle of Blackwater. Like with many other serialized shows, this is in some ways the true finale to the events of this season, whereas the actual finale itself is geared more to bridge the gap to what will be in this case season 4.

Some of the story-lines teased this time around include Robb Stark preparing for a wedding, Jon Snow potentially battling his own former people, Arya continuing to threaten violence without enough substantial evidence to back it up, and the continued progression of Daenerys now that she has an addition 2,000 men in her army in the Second Sons. (If there is anyone that is going to challenge the Mother of Dragons, we are not seeing it.)

Are you okay with waiting such a substantial period of time for an episode … especially if it is one like this? If you want to read our full “Game of Thrones” review from Sunday night, you can do so over at the link here.