Recently, Empire Online reported (beware, spoilers!) that director Neil Marshall—he of “Blackwater” fame—was on board to direct the final episode of season 4 of Game of Thrones. We knew this wasn’t quite right, but we’re glad to see that Variety and its sources were able to clear up the issue: Marshall is directing the penultimate episode—again, beware, there are spoilers—much as he did in season 2.
The pattern of the show has become one where the penultimate episode is always especially momentuous—“Baelor” in season 1 featured Ned Stark’s death, “Blackwater” of course featured the big battle over control of King’s Landing, “The Rains of Castamere” contained the Red Wedding. It’s now quite clear that the producers are sticking to the tried-and-true formula, and bringing Marshall back to direct what may well be the biggest and most ambitious episode the show’s ever done—bigger than “Blackwater”, producers have hinted in the past—is a good sign.