Episode four is still my favorite -- for very biased reasons -- but episode five is a solid addition to the series so far.
A number of wonderful Easter eggs for book readers, a small glimpse into the politics at the White Tower, and some much needed humanization of a character too many book readers misunderstand as completely stoic to the point of being nearly without emotion.
I can't say that Loial meets my full expectations, but I'm satisfied with the acting. There was one conversation that felt a bit too much like exposition for me to find it realistic, but it didn't pull me out of the moment enough to ruin it. My only real concern here is that I feel like a couple of specific characters are going to end up combined, which is a change I'm wary of, but am willing to keep an open mind about, should it come to pass.
Absent a list of objective criteria to base my vote upon, I must continue to base my votes on one metric: how much I enjoyed it overall. To that end, this episode is 10/10.