The Ghost of Harrenhal

When Dagmer proposes assaulting the Northern town of Torrhen's Square, Theon realizes that will leave Winterfell poorly defended for a takeover.

Jaqen H'ghar, disguised as a Lannister guardsman, offers Arya "three lives" in return for saving him and two others from their burning caravan cell.

[1] There are numerous divergences from the source material: in the books Lord Baelish is sent by the council to negotiate with the Tyrells only after Renly is dead; Theon's departure from Pyke is not shown, and Dagmer Cleftjaw is a scarred old master-at-arms who is fond of Theon because Cleftjaw trained him when Theon was a boy; Arya is a scullion instead of a cupbearer and is not able to interact with Lord Tywin; and the character of Xaro Xhoan Daxos has been drastically changed making him a black heterosexual of humble origins and giving him a vault that is never mentioned in the books.

The episode's interior shots were filmed at The Paint Hall studios, close to Belfast, where the main sets are located.

[7] Co-Producer Chris Newman said that until then they had been able to reproduce the lands north of the Wall by adding artificial snow, but now they needed a bigger landscape.

According to David Benioff, they always "wanted something shatteringly beautiful and barren and brutal for this part of Jon's journey, because he's in the true North now."

[8] The other main location introduced in the episode was the gardens of Qarth, which were filmed at the Benedictine monastery of the Croatian island of Lokrum.

The island of Lokrum is only 680 metres offshore from Dubrovnik, the location used for King Landing's exteriors, and can be reached by boat in 15 minutes.

The website's critical consensus reads, "'The Ghost of Harrenhal' utilizes some unexpected character pairings to explore GOT's shifting power structure and build momentum leading into the second half of the season.

Generally the series has done a remarkable job, even as it rushes through a lot of story, of making their threads feel connected, even when they’re not in each other's presence.

Jon Snow and his men in black have felt like the most disconnected from the rest of the story this season: they're playing the show's long game, the existential threat of the White Walkers.

Elio Garcia of Westeros.org shared this view, saying that while many individual scenes were very good he missed a strong narrative thread connecting the multiple storylines.

Garcia extended his harsh criticism to the scene depicting the aftermath of Renly's death and specially the decision to portray Loras' reaction to the murder of his lover with a contained grief instead of the book's homicidal rage.

[13][14][17] Writing for The Huffington Post, Maureen Ryan commended Maisie Williams for being able to hold her own in a scene with the charismatic Charles Dance.

Lacob described Christie's acting superlative, rendering a tragic air to Brienne,[14] while VanDerWerff noted how Fairley's subtle performance with just a hint of tears and wavering voice made the scene almost a perfect one.

[18] Other aspects that were praised by the reviewers were the production choice of filming in Iceland due to the magnificence and beauty of the shots, and good work done by the CGI team in making the dragon look like a real animal.

[20] Also, the reviewer Myles McNutt who coined the term "sexposition" to describe the use of sex in the show, noted that this was the first episode that did not feature nudity.