The capture of Winterfell wasn't shown because of costs.
Similarly, might as well kill Amory Lorch now since his proper death would be far to expensive to bring to screen. And since Chiswyk and Weese aren't going to appear, it sticks with Arya's approach of killing people who are an immediate threat (as opposed to saying 'Cersei, Joffrey, Tywin' off the bat and ending the series).
Jojen and Meera are cool, but not really important, Bran can work that stuff out by himself - but there's every chance they'll turn up to have a look around Winterfell after the Boltons have been and come across him. EDIT: Thinking more about these two, they never need to turn up at all. They're just there for exposition. Continued with book spoilers below **
The dragons being stolen gives Dany a reason to go to the House of the Undying without having to **** about showing her speaking to every man and his dog before going there as a last resort to get help.
Irri being dead guarantees no stupid lesbian nonsense on a boat later for the sake of gratuity.
The problems in that episode for me are:
Worrying developments with Jon and Ygritte. I hope she's not going to flirt with him until he decides to defect. But I can see that being a possibility. Bloody waste of screen time, too. Should have ended with the sword hitting the stone.
Robb and Tullisa - COC SPOILER BELOW*
Tywin being nice to and confiding in someone he believes to be a commoner - he's a man who had an entire barracks ra
pe a girl just to make a point about commoners mixing with the nobility.
*
She's blatantly Jeyne, but is she onside with her mum and Tywin's plans and acting as a spy? Or is it Roose sending letters to the Lannisters? Their relationship is a touch silly now that Cat is in the camp - why would Robb do something supremely stupid like marry her when his mum is hanging about reminding him not to be an idiot? **Chances are Bran and Rickon will stick together, both heading for the wall with Osha and most likely Luwin, between them covering introducing Bran to the ways and legends of the far North as well as all the bits of history of the Seven Kingdoms. Meaning no need for the Reeds at all.
<message edited by nfe on 08 May 2012 15:00>