Arya and The Hound meet Brienne of Tarth during the season finale of Game of Thrones.
* This story contains spoilers
In fact - it's just one big spoiler.
Read on at your peril
He had saved the kingdom while serving on the privy council.
So it was only appropriate Tyrion Lannister was finally able to dispense some justice of his own while his father Tywin sat astride a castle toilet on the season finale of Game Of Thrones.
Fans of the show had been forced to agonise for weeks over the ultimate fate of the show's most popular character, who had been sentenced to death by his parent after losing his trial by combat.
Following a daring jail break carried out by his brother Jaime, the former Hand Of The King ended up heading back towards his father's chambers to butt heads one final time rather than escaping.
After the shocked dwarf had choked his old lover Shae to death upon finding her in Tywin's bed, in what could be argued was a case of self-defence, he grabbed a crossbow and headed off in search of his old man.
The pair had what would be their fateful final battle of words in The Hand's personal privy, a somewhat appropriate location given the depths their relationship had plumbed.
Cool as ever despite staring a lethal weapon in the face, Tywin tried to play down the fact he had sentenced his boy to death, and insisted it would never have been carried out.
After demanding he drop his weapon so they could speak in his chambers, Tyrion said: "All my life you've wanted me dead."
His powerful father replied: "Yes, but you refused to die. I respect that, even admire it. You fight for what's yours.
"I'd never let them execute you - is that what you fear? I'd never let them take your head. You're a Lannister, you're my son."
The argument took a bitter turn after Tyrion confessed he both loved and had killed Shae, which causes Tywin to mock him by insisting it did not matter, as she was merely "a whore".
When Tyrion demands he stop using the disparaging term he refuses to back down, saying: "And what you'll kill your own father in the privy? No you're my son, now enough of this nonsense."
The dwarf demanded his father explain why he sentenced him to death despite the fact he knew he was innocent, but despite being held at crossbow-point he refused to discuss the matter more while sitting with his pants down.
As confident as ever, he said: "Enough - we'll go back to my chambers and we'll speak with some dignity."
When his boy told him he could not face being in the same room as his dead lover, he could not resist mocking him once more.
However it was a costly mistake, as he received a crossbow bolt to the chest after incredulously declaring: "What, you're afraid of a dead whore?"
The proud warrior could hardly believe what had come to pass, telling his youngest child he was "no son of mine," as the smaller man slowly reloaded before delivering a final blow.
It was an unedifying end for a man who had made his family the most powerful in all of the Seven Kingdoms, showing great skill as a battlefield commander, politician and diplomat in the process.
Meanwhile, Tyrion's bacon is saved by his old ally Varys, who, after hiding the killer in a box and loading it on a ship about to set sail, decides to join him aboard once he realised he was aiding an assassin.
It was the worst way to close what had been a painful day for the proud Lord of Casterly Rock.
Earlier in the show he had been left shaken after daughter Cersei revealed the rumours of incest about her and her brother were true, and threatening to tell everyone if he would not cancel her marriage to the gay knight Ser Loras Tyrell.
She told him: "Everything they say is true about Jaime and me. Your legacy is a lie."
As he stewed over the revelation, Cersei sought out Jaime, and had sex with him once more in the hallowed Round Room of the White Sword Tower.
Toilet-related deaths were a theme running through the episode, as The Hound Sandor Clegane seemed to meet a painful end after abandoning a bowel movement to defend Arya Stark.
He engaged in a brutal duel with Brienne Of Tarth, who demanded he hand the child over after discovering the pair as she continued her march towards The Eyrie.
Sandor, suspicious she was working for the Lannisters due to her weaponry, refused the demand, and despite almost killing the fearsome female fighter on several occasions during the battle, ended up getting knocked over a clifftop.
Arya evaded Brienne's attentions by hiding in the midst of the battle, and had what seems to be her final discussion with The Hound.
After he first urged to go with Brienne to safety, he ended up pleading with her to end his life.
As he lay on the ground he told her: "Unless there's a maester hiding behind that rock. Aye I'm done.
"I'm ready. Go on girl, another name off your list. You kept promising me."
The badly wounded warrior the gets desperate, goading her about killing her friend the "butcher's boy," before being reduced to begging.
However she refused to finish him off, though it was left ambiguous whether this was because she wanted him to suffer a prolonged and painful death, or whether they had grown so close during their travels that she could not follow through and carry out the deed.
Arya looks set to embark on an epic journey in the next season, as the show ended with her securing passage aboard a ship.
At first things look bleak as the captain refuses to offer her a cabin and take her to The Wall, however her fate takes a turn when she discovers the boat is bound for the Free City of Braavos.
Seizing the opportunity, she shows him the iron coin Jaqen H'ghar, one of the Faceless Men order of assassins hailing from the metropolis, gave her.
She tells him the secret words, "valar morghulis," and he agrees to take her on board after replying "valar dohaeris".
Arya is then shown sailing away on the ship, looking back at the land behind her as she prepares to enter a dramatic new chapter of her life.
Other key developments in the episode included Stannis Baratheon and his Iron Bank funded army of sell-swords relieving the men of the Night's Watch.
His cavalry is shown effortlessly taking care of the Wilding infantry, and he soon captures Mance Rayder, the self proclaimed King-Beyond-The-Wall, who had been in the middle of peace negotiations with Jon Snow.
Jon told Stannis and his sidekick Davos Seaworth: "I know he's the king. My father died for him. My name is Jon Snow your grace, I'm Ned Stark's son."
The pretender to the throne replied: "Your father was an honorable man. What do you think he would do to him?"
The steward replied: "I was this man's prisoner once. He could have tortured me, killed me. I think my father would have taken him prisoner, hear what he has to say."
Jon also warned that his father would have warned them to burn the dead, due to the impending danger of the White Walkers, a task that was carried out both outside and at Castle Black itself.
He also built a funeral pyre of his own outside the castle for his former lover Ygritte, allowing her to die in her homeland.
Perhaps the most important plot development of all was Bran Stark finally making it to the weirwood tree of his visions.
It came at a heavy cost, with his travelling companion Jojen being killed by undead skeleton warriors just outside, but the party ends up being saved by the mysterious fireball throwing "children" that have lived there since before the first men.
Bran is finally then taken to the "three eyed raven," who appears in the form of an old man.
He told the boy: "He knew what would happen. From the moment he left he knew and he went anyway.
"I've been watching you all of you all of your lives. With a thousand eyes and one. Now you've come to me at last Brandon Stark, though the hour is late. He died so you could find what you've lost. You'll never walk again, but you will fly."
Finally, Daenerys Targaryen decided to lock up her dragons after discovering one had burnt a child to death while flying around in the countryside.
They seemed devastated after being chained up underground, and is a decision that seems certain to have massive implications for her attempts to secure The Iron Throne.
The fate of The Mountain Gregor Clegane also seems uncertain, as despite his system being full of deadly manticore venom which had been laced on Oberyn Martell's spear, Cersei ordered an unscrupulous mystic to keep him alive whatever the cost.
What happens next will be a topic of discussion for the whole of the next year as fans count the days until season five of the show finally begins.
- Daily Mail
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