ITA, kat. I understand why they are putting minor characters' stories from the books on characters we know on the show, but this particular one was not, in my opinion, a good choice or handled well. Totally does not fit my understanding of Littlefinger (which is not much, he's pretty peculiar, but still there are a few things I think I know).

I do appreciate her refusal to acknowledge that Theon is anyone she would be happy to see under any circumstances. But it's a tiny little comfort.

Arya's adaptation, otoh, I am loving. Seeing all those faces in storage is amazing, and the game is well presented.

I withdraw what I said earlier about GRRM knowing or approving the Sansa storyline. (His lack of acknowledgement in his blog post that he approved or was consulted about the scene means, to me, that he didn't know.)

kat and t, I agree with both of you that this does not seem to fit with Littlefinger's motivations in either world. I hated that they went there with her. Not that it's any better to go there with Jeyne Poole but, it just sucks.

Also loving Arya stuff.

Has it been two weeks since we saw Daenarys? It seems like forever.

Last night's ending was horrific, but I can't agree that it was out of character for Littlefinger to set Sansa up like that. The only thing that separates him from Joffrey and Ramsay is better acting. He's utterly without morals.

He's without morals, but he does have weak spots, and Sansa has seemed to be one of them. Though, if he's setting himself up to save her, that does fit into what we've seen of him.

Yeah, I think Littlefinger has had a consistent loophole/blind spot/I don't know what to call it in his general "Fuck you, pay me" world view when it comes to Catelyn and by extension Sansa. I didn't read him ever selling Sansa out like that. And I've read that the writer (or maybe the director) of this episode has said that at least in TV show land, we should assume that Lord Baelish doesn't actually know the extent of Ramsay's sadism, but that just doesn't jibe with what we've seen of who he is. Maybe only Varys has been more connected, more in the know, and more pulling the strings behind the scenes than Littlefinger. I don't buy that he hasn't heard what a twisted little puppy Ramsay Snow is. It just didn't sit right with me.

I don't know if it's even a matter of him not selling out Sansa as much as I suspect his end game is to have her for himself and he would want to protect her as his possession meanwhile. Morality certainly doesn't come into it.

I was sufficiently disturbed by last night that I'm not sure I'm going to keep watching the show. It was just so narratively unnecessary and gratuitous to me. It told us nothing about the characters we didn't already know, and if anything negated the growth we've seen in Sansa becoming a player in her own right. I know what kind of show I'm watching, and I don't expect it to be pretty or easy for anyone, but that scene was beyond what I bargained for even with this particular brand of grimdark.

Gliding over the frightfulness of that last scene: but didn't Sansa look like Queen Elizabeth I in that dress? (I think it was the giant collar.)

I think that the producers doomed themselves to this as soon as they changed Sansa's storyline and merged it with the book character who isn't in the tv show. And sadly, we were doomed to watch it. It was both horrific and predictable.

They didn't doom anything. They didn't have to follow that storyline to the letter. They could have adjusted it for the fact that, you know, Sansa is a very different character and a very different person.

Patti Lupone on Penny Dreadful! I love this show.