By John Keegan and Gregg WrightWell, how was that for an opening? Just like that, Renly Baratheon is totally out of the picture. Sure, it may not beat the sheer boldness of storytelling on display in the death of Eddard Stark, but at the very least, I was much more surprised by this scene than I was by Ned's death. True, part of that was due to my being spoiled ahead of time that Ned would lose his head. But I was spoiled about Renly's death as well. As with Ned, I knew that Renly would be killed, but knew little of the circumstances or the timing. I expected him to be killed at some later point in the season. So to have him be killed so suddenly, at the very beginning of the episode, and in a manner that totally defied my expectations, was enough to leave my jaw agape.