[6] According to Nielsen Media Research, "Mhysa" was seen by 5.4 million household viewers in the United States, a twenty-eight percent increase compared to the second season finale, "Valar Morghulis".

Nearby, Arya and Sandor, who witnessed the desecration of Robb's corpse earlier, pass a group of Frey soldiers who are boasting about the event.

"Mhysa" was written by executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, based on George R. R. Martin's original work from his novel A Storm of Swords.

[10] According to analysts, the success of the episode significantly helped Game of Thrones to surpass True Blood as the second most-watched series on HBO, after The Sopranos.

[11] "Mhysa" received generally positive reviews from television critics, with some of them addressing the finale's anticlimactic closure of the third season and for establishing new storylines for the fourth.

[14] Writing for Today, Drusilla Moorhouse remarked that "After last week's shocking massacre, most fans braced for more tragic deaths in season three's finale.

"[15] In her review for Zap2it, Terri Schwartz wrote that "Nothing can ever quite redeem the deaths of Robb and Catelyn Stark, but at least larger forces are taking shape that are propelling this series into Season 4.

Daenerys is as powerful as she's ever been, Jon Snow returns to the Wall while Bran heads north of it and the Greyjoys ready an assault to finally save Theon from his captor.

Then there's the fact that Stannis decides to sail north to the Wall to aid the Night's Watch in their fight against the White Walkers, which seems like it's going to end up being the greater, global conflict in the future of 'Game of Thrones'.

[3] Sims, writing for audiences who have not read the novels, described the episode as lacking "a lot of serious plot movement or major twists and may have fans gnashing their teeth a little bit as they wait nine months for season four.

"[3] VanDerWerff, writing for audiences who have read the novels, wrote that "On a plot level, not a lot happens in 'Mhysa'", but praised the episode in addressing the series' "value of one human life is in the face of a kingdom.

"[3] She also mildly criticized the series' template of when "something terrible happens in Westeros, Dany offers a glimmer of hope over in her story line", referring to it as its "Achilles' heel".

"[17] The episode's final scene, in which Daenerys, "the blondest possible savior figure",[18] appears with "uncharacterized brown people" as "[being lifted] up as their messiah and praising her for saving them from bondage",[19] was criticized by at least four commentators[19] as having colonialist or even racist undertones.

[4] They asked why the series chose to portray the Yunkish as nearly uniformly dark-skinned, rather than as ethnically diverse as in the source novels,[4][18] to which George R. R. Martin replied that this was because the scene was shot in Morocco with local extras.