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scifi_rewatchLast episode caused an intentional upset with the death of Joffrey. This week, the drama wasn’t so intentional. It garnered what I’d consider to be the show’s worst publicity to date (involving the issue of sexual violence), causing people involved with the production to stay silent, then speak out in defense of their work, and causing debates amongst fans and the media about what exactly happened, and why. Life goes on, of course, and the show moved into production of season five…but when the season four Blu-ray came out, only one episode didn’t feature any commentary (extrapolated from a boiledleather.com ask, anyway)…you can guess which one. :P
But anywho, beyond that scene, there’s a lot to address in this episode. Thematically, I think it was a pretty strong one, over all. And I hope that in the future, with this show and with all art and media, creators will take more of a moment to be conscientious when depicting issues of violence and trauma and how they manifest in society—the real and the fictional, which if the latter is worth a damn, IMHO, remains genuine to human issues. (And I promise, I’m mentioning all of this up here, not only because it’s important but because I’m focusing more on the specifics of the episode below!)
Summary
King’s Landing
Picking up basically where we left off, Joffrey is still recently deceased in his mother’s arms and Cersei is still screaming for Tyrion to be arrested. He’s ultimately led away, at which point the Queen realizes that Sansa is missing. Tywin orders for the capital to be sealed off; no one can leave until we find her! The bells begin to toll, announcing the king’s death, and the woman of the hour, as led by Dontos and hidden inside a blue cloak, runs through narrow alleyways and to a dingy waiting by the water. Dontos rows for a period of time—it gets dark and they have to clear the visible harbor—and he stops by a ship standing in the water. At his urging, Sansa climbs aboard and is helped up by…Petyr Baelish!
She barely has time to get her bearings before Dontos, who is expecting payment for his part in this, is killed by Littlefinger’s men. At first holding a hand over her mouth to calm her, LF explains that Dontos, being a drunk fool, couldn’t be trusted to keep his mouth shut about what’s transpired. Sansa protests that Dontos was helping her because she saved his life, to which Littlefinger produces that the necklace she’s wearing, his family heirloom from the two episodes back, is a fake that he himself ordered. As Sansa repeats what Littlefinger told her about the capital a little more than a year ago—“we’re all liars here”—he takes her below deck to get settled, promising her that she’s safe now and that they are sailing “home.”
The next day, Margaery sits in mourning clothes, disturbed and perhaps a little sympathetic as she recounts Joffrey’s fear as he died. Her grandmother, Olenna, remembers what it was like to see her own husband’s body, but her main objective now is to build Marg back up. Things may look a little dire, with two murdered husbands, but marriage to Joffrey would have been hell, and she is more the queen now than ever before; the Lannisters still need the Tyrell alliance.
Cersei and Tommen stand vigil over Joffrey’s body until Tywin enters to speak to the new king. A long teaching moment ultimately leads to Tommen realizing that wisdom, aka listening to your advisors, makes a good king, at least according to Grandpa. Tywin then takes Tommen away, obviously to Cersei’s displeasure, and they continue to talk. Jaime takes his second son’s place as he and his sister watch over his first one. Cersei is haunted by a threat that Tyrion promised her in season two—that her joy would turn to ashes in her mouth. She wants Jaime to avenge their son—aka by killing Tyrion, who would certainly worm his way out of a trial, she claims. Jaime, obviously, is not amenable to this idea, so he tries to comfort Cersei physically. After a little bit of PDA Cersei pulls away and Jaime becomes frustrated, asking “why must I love a hateful woman?” He then starts to sexually assault her, answering her protestations with “I don’t care.”
Later, we visit Oberyn and Ellaria at the brothel from two episodes ago, where they have picked up where they left off with the male and female prostitute. This leads to a little sexual tastes “sexposition” from Oberyn, who claims he is bisexual because he doesn’t want to miss out on any of the world’s pleasure. The orgy is ultimately interrupted by Tywin’s arrival. He and Oberyn speak privately about Joffrey’s death—could Oberyn be a suspect? And was Tywin aware of what the Mountain did to Elia all those years ago? They quickly move past this; in fact Tywin wants the prince to sit on Tyrion’s trial, and to be an advisor to Tommen. He claims, despite their bad blood, they need the seven kingdoms united, partially because of Greyjoy and wildling drama to the north, but more importantly because of Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons (a few hundred years ago, only the Dornish prevailed against Dany’s ancestor.) In return, Tywin promises that if Oberyn plays ball, he can have an audience with the Mountain.
Finally, Tyrion receives a visitor in the form of Pod. The squire delivers the 411—murder trial in a fortnight. Tyrion is a bit flabbergasted by the whole thing, being innocent of the crime. Now he’s turning his wheels about who did it (and who framed him,) which is a difficult case to crack, particularly since Cersei is out of the running. Unfortunately she’s still making things difficult for him, by snagging up all potential witnesses. This leads to the shocking revelation that Sansa has disappeared into thin air; although Tyrion dismisses that she might be the murderer, her absence makes him look more guilty. But he has bigger fish to fry and he can’t see Bronn, so he asks for Jaime. A final bit of bad news from Pod—he’s been propositioned by an unknown person to claim that Tyrion had a specific poison in his possession during the wedding. Realizing that his squire might be killed for refusing to play ball, Tyrion orders him to leave the city post haste.
Dragonstone
News travels fast, and Stannis shares with Davos that Joffrey is dead. He’s more pissed than ever at his former Hand since Melissandre’s second leech apparently worked; maybe sacrificing Gendry would have increased Stannis’s power, had Davos not let the boy go. Davos counters that the real thing they need right now is soldiers, presumably not to storm King’s Landing, though it’s weakened right now, but to go to the Wall as they promised at the end of last season. Either way, they’re having trouble rallying supporters and they don’t have the gold to pay sellswords (which Stannis finds distasteful anyway.) The two men aren’t on good terms; Stannis doesn’t think his pal his pulling his weight.
Davos next goes to Shireen for a reading lesson where she chastises him about certain bad habits. She’s a no nonsense task master, like her father, but Davos takes the new book she offers, about a first sword of Braavos. This sends him reminiscing about his life as a smuggler in Essos, and the Iron Bank…suddenly he has an idea. He has Shireen write a letter to the bank, as addressed by Stannis.
The Riverlands
The Hound is at least a little lost; he and Arya are meandering slowly towards the Vale. As they water their horses they are stopped by a peasant who owns the land—Arya diffuses what could turn nasty by explaining that Sandor is her father and they are peasants, too, on the run after their home burnt down and her mother died. She also claims that Sandor fought for House Tully during the war, which earns him favor with said peasant. He offers the twosome shelter in the barn, and food as prepared by his daughter.
Minor tensions continue over dinner—the Hound wants some ale and a quick meal, and the peasant wants to pay homage to the gods and reminisce about the good old days, when Hoster Tully was in charge and they were safe. He claims the Freys, beyond being terrible overlords, are cursed for breaking their guest rite to the Starks. Guest rite is still important to this pious man. He also wishes to offer the Hound, who is obviously formidable, some jewels in exchange for helping around the farm and maybe scaring some raiders away. Although the Hound agrees to this over dinner, the next morning he just whacks the peasant atop the head and takes the jewels anyway. Arya is aghast, but the Hound dismisses the whole situation with a nihilistic attitude—I just understand the way things are and I do what I have to in order to survive. Now that she’s nearly alone in the world, she might think of doing the same.
Night’s Watch
Sam recounts what his brothers did to be sent to the Night’s Watch—mostly rape—and then endures lewd jokes from Slynt and Thorne as he goes to visit Gilly. She’s plucking feathers off of dinner in the kitchen while watching baby Sam, and although having to endure the same lewd jokes, she’s not been assaulted and she’s not particularly concerned about it. Sam, on the other hand, is, and he wants to keep her safe. Gilly seems a little more perturbed that the sexual desires about her that he foists onto the other men he doesn’t seem to share.
Instead, he ultimately takes her to Moles Town where she can clean and watch babies in a brothel (he draws the line at the rest of it,) but Gilly is upset, claiming he’s just sending her away to make himself feel better, not out of anything neutral. Even here it seems she won’t be well liked, just by way of being a wildling.
The other wildlings in our story are busy wreaking havoc—they attack a northern village, starting with Ygritte, who shoots dead a man in conversation with his young son. The entire town is soon destroyed, but the Thenns pull out the young boy, first tormenting him with promises of eating his parents, and then ordering him to “tell the crows at Castle Black.”
The Night’s Watch are up in arms, but upper management—and a reluctant Jon—assert that they have to save their energies for Mance. They are interrupted, however, by the arrival of rangers—Grenn and Edd! They’ve escaped from the mutineers at Craster’s where they were held captive for not playing along; Karl, Rast and the others are content to sit pretty with Craster’s food and his daughter/wives. Jon realizes that they have to kill the mutineers—not out of justice but because they know the truth that Mance might ultimately torture out of them—the Night’s Watch’s numbers are no match for the wildling army.
Meereen
Daenerys and company finally make it to the opulent gates of Meereen. The slavers send out a champion, with the understanding that she will pick a champion of her own to fight him. After some deliberation she chooses Daario, essentially because she can spare him the most. With some mutual displays of pissing, the Meereeneese champion charges Daaario, horseback to person; Daario kills the horse when he comes close enough, and then finishes off the rider.
Daenerys then addresses the Meereenese slaves in Valyrian, claiming that the folks she freed in Astapor and Yunkai are now behind her; aka the enemies of the Meereenese slaves are beside them. She then orders the catapults forward and they fire on the city…projectiles fall, but they are not deadly objects; they are the shorn collars of the former slaves. A Meereenese slave picks one up, and then looks at his master.
Thoughts
To start on a light note, my work password/code phrase for this season was “Sansa Gets Out of Dodge.” :P Hell yeah! I’ve been waiting since the final third of “A Storm of Swords” to see this season. Ahem—THE STARKS HAVE LEFT THE LANDING—I REPEAT; THE STARKS HAVE LEFT THE LANDING. *drops mic*
So here’s my issue(s) with the rape scene—let’s just get this out of the way right now. First of all—yes, it’s rape. When one party says “no” and the other party persists in sexual activity, this is rape. In fact, the earliest commentaries on this episode were conflicted about the point—not everyone was denying that Cersei was assaulted. So I want to be cautious before damning the entire production, the show runners in particular, for having some twisted agenda to demonize Cersei and advance misogynistic propaganda. I think people are pressed for time in a production, lots of people are involved in different parts, and something might start out differently than it ended up. Was it lazy and irresponsible, yes. Does it speak to a larger cultural issue about rape, probably.
I mean to say that—everyone agrees that the Mountain is a rapist. He’s an antagonist to more than just women. He’s a brutal stranger who invades Elia's home, kills her children, and has violent sex with her before killing her, too. This is the image of “rapist” that is the most acceptable—an outsider, a brute; no one has qualms with condemning him. (Also, just to get it out there somewhere, whether or not Tywin OK’ed the Mountain’s rape of Elia—and canonically he was disturbed by this—there’s no doubt that he ordered the murders of Oberyn’s niece and nephew. No children of Rhaegar Targaryen could survive to claim the throne. And just to judge this scene in terms of canon—it’s a bit overly dramatic, as tv can be. There’s little way that Tywin would conduct business in a brothel, or suffer Oberyn’s direct insults to his character/family. Moving on!)
Jaime is different. Jaime has a lot of sympathetic attributes. Disregarding the incest component, as the twins themselves do, Jaime feels “entitled” to Cersei, as most men felt and were legally “entitled” to their wives and lovers. They’ve had a long-standing relationship, after all, three children together, and genuine love between them. Even in real life, and with marital rape and other forms of sexual assault now legally identified in many quarters, this sense of entitlement still persists. So thematically, I could have bought that Jaime raped Cersei, so long as the storyline didn’t stop there, but also dealt with the aftermath. This could actually add depth to Jaime’s character, as well as Cersei’s, rather than just casting them in one-dimensional roles.
Either way, this ultimately comes back not to a conscious choice by production, but a snafu that can’t be rectified. (Also canonically things were even more murky, because Cersei said no, but made it explicit that her objection had more to do with the location than anything else, but Jaime eventually talked her into it. And Martin isn’t good at writing women in the throes of passion (oh, Jaime, yes, I’m home!,) just putting it out there.) There’s not really much more to say, except that I am still devoted to this show, and I hope that its strengths multiply and its flaws diminish.
So! There’s a lot of thematic goodness in this episode, and I’m going to start with my favorite—which I dub The Stark Sisters Under the Tutelage of Questionable Men. Sansa’s plot is largely true to the books, except in some ways she’s more proactive canonically. I already discussed how she and Dontos had been planning the escape for awhile—Sansa left Joffrey’s murder on her own and went to the godswood where she had new clothes waiting. There, on her own, rather than with Littlefinger’s prompting, she notes a stone missing from her hairnet (necklace on the show) and starts to put the pieces together about the murder. Things were too rushed for that on screen, and then it also brought to the forefront that Littlefinger is very actively trying to mold Sansa’s worldly outlook. There’s the deletion of a boatman and names for other minor characters, whatevs, but Dontos is still revealed to be Littlefinger’s agent, and the man has him killed for the same reasons as stated.
Arya’s journey with the Hound this week is loosely based on an interlude where Sandor tries to take refuge with her in a Riverlands village for awhile, offering his services, but the villagers recognize him and kick him out. Here, this is really a backdrop for Arya’s education in her companion’s nihilism. He even steals, breaking his own code, because he so fervently believes in a warped social Darwinist outlook in the face of the coming winter—to steal from “Cloud Atlas:” “The weak are meat and the strong do eat.” He’s not malicious, but he’s driven to serve his own survival. Arya, as we can see, is still clinging to a higher sense of morality. She’s more jaded by this point in the books—and with her arc with the Hound, the show is showing us this transition.
There’s another transition I see between what the Hound does, and what Ygritte (and what the other wildlings) do in the northern village. I remember that one fan reviewer was immediately put off by Ygritte’s killing of the father—understandably; he had a young child who witnessed it, and the show made sure to give us a few moments so we could paint this as a loving family. I think it’s a complicated issue, though. Sandor assaulted the peasant before because of his nihilistic beliefs; he also killed innocents while in service to the Lannisters. Ygritte feels in service to something larger than herself as well—she has to get her people to safety, which means following the orders of her army to engage or draw out an enemy force (the Night’s Watch.) It’s horrible and unforgiveable (for the entire army, not just Ygritte,) but with understandable motives. That being said, the Thenns remain one dimensional; all we know about them is that they eat people and taunt devastated boys. This scene didn’t happen in the novels; the wildlings only attacked Moles Town, which is very close to the Watch. But in general drawing the Watch out wasn’t as big of a deal anyway, because canonically there was no question as to the paltry number of NW men.
What we see here, particularly with the mutineers storyline, is the show’s attempt to give Jon & co something to do before the finale. :P So suddenly it’s a big deal to quell the threat of the mutineers coming under enemy hands. Grenn and Edd also weren’t prisoners—they got out pretty immediately, like Sam and Gilly—but obviously the main thrust here is that Jon has found a practical way to be a hero! Yay! He was disappointed that he couldn’t do justice by the peasant village. Meanwhile, tensions remain prickly between him and Thorne. Show Jon has a lot going on. :P
Sam also doesn’t take Gilly to Molestown in the books—there’s certainly sexual danger at the Watch, but they arrive too late for any of that (as Jon reminds us, Mance still is coming!) Also, they would have traveled through tunnels, not over ground, to get there, hence the name. What I found intriguing after multiple watches was how this story parallels Tyrion and Shae. The men want to play protector and the women want a more equal role in the relationship. Oh, chivalry. I like both couples (on the show—also Sam/Gilly in the books,) because there is genuine affection between them. It’s actually not all about sex! :O
To wrap up King’s Landing, neither Margaery nor Olenna are POVs, so we wouldn’t see a scene like this, but I really liked it. Drew out complexities in Marg’s character; just because she knew Joff was a monster doesn’t mean she didn’t have sympathy for him as he died. (It sort of mirrors how Tyrion saw him in his final moments in the book—he realized that his nephew was still a scared, young boy. Marg, on the show, centered on how he was looking to Cersei to make it stop.) Politically speaking, of course, Olenna is helping her granddaughter get her ducks in order; setting up the new chess pieces. I’m full of metaphors. :P
I also love the scene between Tommen and Tywin—probably the funniest of the episode, in a subtle way. From the very start, as Tywin was prompting the boy about what makes a good king, I was groaning, “come on, son, he just wants you to say ‘listen to grandpa.’” :P It was well staged, too, with Tywin starting on the other side of Joffrey’s body, and then ending up in front of his living grandchild. Lena’s look of hurt and betrayal as her father took Cersei's last child away from her were wonderful, as was the tension between her and Nickolaj. I already discussed the sex controversy, but there was so much more leading up to it—Jaime trying to comfort her but also trying to keep Tyrion out of it; Cersei bent on revenge against one brother and tethering with her relationship with the other from her throes of grief. Powerful stuff. Grandfather and grandson, in particular, weren’t from the novels, but it gave the Lanisters a somewhat human feel as they either grieved or picked themselves back up.
In his cell, Tyrion also tries to work through just who would want to kill the king (and subsequently blame him for it.) Not Cersei this time—with irritation I read some "unsullied" theories that flouted all character development by positing that the queen would kill one of the children whom, she’s claimed for years are her only reason for living. Tyrion centers more on Tywin here, dismissing Sansa’s possible involvement far more easily than he does in canon. Their whole relationship has been so whitewashed, and maybe one could argue that if they’d talked as much in canon as they talked on the show, Tyrion would know her character better. Anywho. He also gets to show off his heroic side in ordering Pod to leave the city rather than face execution for not turning against him. Luckily, Pod—who is around 12 in the books—didn’t have to make this decision, though he ultimately does leave for reasons I’ll discuss in an upcoming episode! /zips lips As usual, the big omission from canon is that far fewer people are involved—book Tyrion actually gets a few visitors, including Bronn. But I suppose this is meant to showcase his isolation. Tyrion hasn’t lost hope yet, but already the cards of this upcoming trial are stacked against him.
In Dragonstone, canon Stannis is more of a stickler; he won’t be a full believer until all three “pretenders” die, so he’s not on Davos’s case as much about the Gendry/Edric thing. Seems a bit too pedantic for the show, really—isn’t two enough to believe in blood magic?—and it drives up interpersonal tension. Also, like with the Night’s Watch, they have to give team Dragonstone more to do, so they pulled up a book five plot involving the Iron Bank (conveniently introduced in the previous episode. :P) With Shireen, we also get more background into Davos’s past, which we don’t in the books, but it’s a nice exchange, good for character development. They’re a fun and unusual twosome.
When it comes to Daenerys, we are now at the borderline between what I don’t like about her storyline, and (finally!) what I do. The “battle” and Dany’s address to the entire city of Meereen (must have had a good mic on :P) isn’t at all believable, but is kind of intriguing in a metaphoric way—talk about combining military action and socio-economic propaganda. (Also major kudos to the CGI, design, whatever folks are responsible for that gate—it was magnificent!) In the books there was a standard siege; we’ll get more into that in upcoming episodes. The champions fight was accurate in that Dany’s champion won, except that an uncast character (who defecated on his own rather than joined in a literal pissing contest) defeated the Meereenese one. (The khaleesi didn’t want to sacrifice Daario; he was too easy on the eyes. :P I mean hey, she can’t get to a brothel as easily as the Westerosi folks.)
As a final note, to go back to Oberyn—well, first I’ll say that speaking of sexposition and metaphors, I guess, “wanting it all,” aka his unbridled passion, fleshes out his character and is perhaps foreshadowing for the future. /zips lips Also, perfunctory issues, but in the books Doran had already been offered a seat at the table, the Mountain’s head, yadda yadda, but it’s always better to see these things play out on screen.
And speaking of which, I suppose this is why Tywin (and others in King’s Landing) must concede that Daenerys is a threat. In the books, they’re largely dismissive of her, and only hear vague rumors. But on the show, we, the audience, know full well that Daenerys has burned down every obstacle in her path. Other characters need to be aware of this, in order to connect her to the broader story. It’s just an example of how the show must be more blatant, and more insistent on drawing different storylines together. Martin’s books, in many ways, are the exact opposite. He strives to show us just how complex the world is, and how subjective people are because they can’t see the full picture. The books continue to be ever expansive and less cohesive; it’ll be interesting (and certainly controversial) among fans to see how the show adapts this.
But anywho, beyond that scene, there’s a lot to address in this episode. Thematically, I think it was a pretty strong one, over all. And I hope that in the future, with this show and with all art and media, creators will take more of a moment to be conscientious when depicting issues of violence and trauma and how they manifest in society—the real and the fictional, which if the latter is worth a damn, IMHO, remains genuine to human issues. (And I promise, I’m mentioning all of this up here, not only because it’s important but because I’m focusing more on the specifics of the episode below!)
Summary
King’s Landing
Picking up basically where we left off, Joffrey is still recently deceased in his mother’s arms and Cersei is still screaming for Tyrion to be arrested. He’s ultimately led away, at which point the Queen realizes that Sansa is missing. Tywin orders for the capital to be sealed off; no one can leave until we find her! The bells begin to toll, announcing the king’s death, and the woman of the hour, as led by Dontos and hidden inside a blue cloak, runs through narrow alleyways and to a dingy waiting by the water. Dontos rows for a period of time—it gets dark and they have to clear the visible harbor—and he stops by a ship standing in the water. At his urging, Sansa climbs aboard and is helped up by…Petyr Baelish!
She barely has time to get her bearings before Dontos, who is expecting payment for his part in this, is killed by Littlefinger’s men. At first holding a hand over her mouth to calm her, LF explains that Dontos, being a drunk fool, couldn’t be trusted to keep his mouth shut about what’s transpired. Sansa protests that Dontos was helping her because she saved his life, to which Littlefinger produces that the necklace she’s wearing, his family heirloom from the two episodes back, is a fake that he himself ordered. As Sansa repeats what Littlefinger told her about the capital a little more than a year ago—“we’re all liars here”—he takes her below deck to get settled, promising her that she’s safe now and that they are sailing “home.”
The next day, Margaery sits in mourning clothes, disturbed and perhaps a little sympathetic as she recounts Joffrey’s fear as he died. Her grandmother, Olenna, remembers what it was like to see her own husband’s body, but her main objective now is to build Marg back up. Things may look a little dire, with two murdered husbands, but marriage to Joffrey would have been hell, and she is more the queen now than ever before; the Lannisters still need the Tyrell alliance.
Cersei and Tommen stand vigil over Joffrey’s body until Tywin enters to speak to the new king. A long teaching moment ultimately leads to Tommen realizing that wisdom, aka listening to your advisors, makes a good king, at least according to Grandpa. Tywin then takes Tommen away, obviously to Cersei’s displeasure, and they continue to talk. Jaime takes his second son’s place as he and his sister watch over his first one. Cersei is haunted by a threat that Tyrion promised her in season two—that her joy would turn to ashes in her mouth. She wants Jaime to avenge their son—aka by killing Tyrion, who would certainly worm his way out of a trial, she claims. Jaime, obviously, is not amenable to this idea, so he tries to comfort Cersei physically. After a little bit of PDA Cersei pulls away and Jaime becomes frustrated, asking “why must I love a hateful woman?” He then starts to sexually assault her, answering her protestations with “I don’t care.”
Later, we visit Oberyn and Ellaria at the brothel from two episodes ago, where they have picked up where they left off with the male and female prostitute. This leads to a little sexual tastes “sexposition” from Oberyn, who claims he is bisexual because he doesn’t want to miss out on any of the world’s pleasure. The orgy is ultimately interrupted by Tywin’s arrival. He and Oberyn speak privately about Joffrey’s death—could Oberyn be a suspect? And was Tywin aware of what the Mountain did to Elia all those years ago? They quickly move past this; in fact Tywin wants the prince to sit on Tyrion’s trial, and to be an advisor to Tommen. He claims, despite their bad blood, they need the seven kingdoms united, partially because of Greyjoy and wildling drama to the north, but more importantly because of Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons (a few hundred years ago, only the Dornish prevailed against Dany’s ancestor.) In return, Tywin promises that if Oberyn plays ball, he can have an audience with the Mountain.
Finally, Tyrion receives a visitor in the form of Pod. The squire delivers the 411—murder trial in a fortnight. Tyrion is a bit flabbergasted by the whole thing, being innocent of the crime. Now he’s turning his wheels about who did it (and who framed him,) which is a difficult case to crack, particularly since Cersei is out of the running. Unfortunately she’s still making things difficult for him, by snagging up all potential witnesses. This leads to the shocking revelation that Sansa has disappeared into thin air; although Tyrion dismisses that she might be the murderer, her absence makes him look more guilty. But he has bigger fish to fry and he can’t see Bronn, so he asks for Jaime. A final bit of bad news from Pod—he’s been propositioned by an unknown person to claim that Tyrion had a specific poison in his possession during the wedding. Realizing that his squire might be killed for refusing to play ball, Tyrion orders him to leave the city post haste.
Dragonstone
News travels fast, and Stannis shares with Davos that Joffrey is dead. He’s more pissed than ever at his former Hand since Melissandre’s second leech apparently worked; maybe sacrificing Gendry would have increased Stannis’s power, had Davos not let the boy go. Davos counters that the real thing they need right now is soldiers, presumably not to storm King’s Landing, though it’s weakened right now, but to go to the Wall as they promised at the end of last season. Either way, they’re having trouble rallying supporters and they don’t have the gold to pay sellswords (which Stannis finds distasteful anyway.) The two men aren’t on good terms; Stannis doesn’t think his pal his pulling his weight.
Davos next goes to Shireen for a reading lesson where she chastises him about certain bad habits. She’s a no nonsense task master, like her father, but Davos takes the new book she offers, about a first sword of Braavos. This sends him reminiscing about his life as a smuggler in Essos, and the Iron Bank…suddenly he has an idea. He has Shireen write a letter to the bank, as addressed by Stannis.
The Riverlands
The Hound is at least a little lost; he and Arya are meandering slowly towards the Vale. As they water their horses they are stopped by a peasant who owns the land—Arya diffuses what could turn nasty by explaining that Sandor is her father and they are peasants, too, on the run after their home burnt down and her mother died. She also claims that Sandor fought for House Tully during the war, which earns him favor with said peasant. He offers the twosome shelter in the barn, and food as prepared by his daughter.
Minor tensions continue over dinner—the Hound wants some ale and a quick meal, and the peasant wants to pay homage to the gods and reminisce about the good old days, when Hoster Tully was in charge and they were safe. He claims the Freys, beyond being terrible overlords, are cursed for breaking their guest rite to the Starks. Guest rite is still important to this pious man. He also wishes to offer the Hound, who is obviously formidable, some jewels in exchange for helping around the farm and maybe scaring some raiders away. Although the Hound agrees to this over dinner, the next morning he just whacks the peasant atop the head and takes the jewels anyway. Arya is aghast, but the Hound dismisses the whole situation with a nihilistic attitude—I just understand the way things are and I do what I have to in order to survive. Now that she’s nearly alone in the world, she might think of doing the same.
Night’s Watch
Sam recounts what his brothers did to be sent to the Night’s Watch—mostly rape—and then endures lewd jokes from Slynt and Thorne as he goes to visit Gilly. She’s plucking feathers off of dinner in the kitchen while watching baby Sam, and although having to endure the same lewd jokes, she’s not been assaulted and she’s not particularly concerned about it. Sam, on the other hand, is, and he wants to keep her safe. Gilly seems a little more perturbed that the sexual desires about her that he foists onto the other men he doesn’t seem to share.
Instead, he ultimately takes her to Moles Town where she can clean and watch babies in a brothel (he draws the line at the rest of it,) but Gilly is upset, claiming he’s just sending her away to make himself feel better, not out of anything neutral. Even here it seems she won’t be well liked, just by way of being a wildling.
The other wildlings in our story are busy wreaking havoc—they attack a northern village, starting with Ygritte, who shoots dead a man in conversation with his young son. The entire town is soon destroyed, but the Thenns pull out the young boy, first tormenting him with promises of eating his parents, and then ordering him to “tell the crows at Castle Black.”
The Night’s Watch are up in arms, but upper management—and a reluctant Jon—assert that they have to save their energies for Mance. They are interrupted, however, by the arrival of rangers—Grenn and Edd! They’ve escaped from the mutineers at Craster’s where they were held captive for not playing along; Karl, Rast and the others are content to sit pretty with Craster’s food and his daughter/wives. Jon realizes that they have to kill the mutineers—not out of justice but because they know the truth that Mance might ultimately torture out of them—the Night’s Watch’s numbers are no match for the wildling army.
Meereen
Daenerys and company finally make it to the opulent gates of Meereen. The slavers send out a champion, with the understanding that she will pick a champion of her own to fight him. After some deliberation she chooses Daario, essentially because she can spare him the most. With some mutual displays of pissing, the Meereeneese champion charges Daaario, horseback to person; Daario kills the horse when he comes close enough, and then finishes off the rider.
Daenerys then addresses the Meereenese slaves in Valyrian, claiming that the folks she freed in Astapor and Yunkai are now behind her; aka the enemies of the Meereenese slaves are beside them. She then orders the catapults forward and they fire on the city…projectiles fall, but they are not deadly objects; they are the shorn collars of the former slaves. A Meereenese slave picks one up, and then looks at his master.
Thoughts
To start on a light note, my work password/code phrase for this season was “Sansa Gets Out of Dodge.” :P Hell yeah! I’ve been waiting since the final third of “A Storm of Swords” to see this season. Ahem—THE STARKS HAVE LEFT THE LANDING—I REPEAT; THE STARKS HAVE LEFT THE LANDING. *drops mic*
So here’s my issue(s) with the rape scene—let’s just get this out of the way right now. First of all—yes, it’s rape. When one party says “no” and the other party persists in sexual activity, this is rape. In fact, the earliest commentaries on this episode were conflicted about the point—not everyone was denying that Cersei was assaulted. So I want to be cautious before damning the entire production, the show runners in particular, for having some twisted agenda to demonize Cersei and advance misogynistic propaganda. I think people are pressed for time in a production, lots of people are involved in different parts, and something might start out differently than it ended up. Was it lazy and irresponsible, yes. Does it speak to a larger cultural issue about rape, probably.
I mean to say that—everyone agrees that the Mountain is a rapist. He’s an antagonist to more than just women. He’s a brutal stranger who invades Elia's home, kills her children, and has violent sex with her before killing her, too. This is the image of “rapist” that is the most acceptable—an outsider, a brute; no one has qualms with condemning him. (Also, just to get it out there somewhere, whether or not Tywin OK’ed the Mountain’s rape of Elia—and canonically he was disturbed by this—there’s no doubt that he ordered the murders of Oberyn’s niece and nephew. No children of Rhaegar Targaryen could survive to claim the throne. And just to judge this scene in terms of canon—it’s a bit overly dramatic, as tv can be. There’s little way that Tywin would conduct business in a brothel, or suffer Oberyn’s direct insults to his character/family. Moving on!)
Jaime is different. Jaime has a lot of sympathetic attributes. Disregarding the incest component, as the twins themselves do, Jaime feels “entitled” to Cersei, as most men felt and were legally “entitled” to their wives and lovers. They’ve had a long-standing relationship, after all, three children together, and genuine love between them. Even in real life, and with marital rape and other forms of sexual assault now legally identified in many quarters, this sense of entitlement still persists. So thematically, I could have bought that Jaime raped Cersei, so long as the storyline didn’t stop there, but also dealt with the aftermath. This could actually add depth to Jaime’s character, as well as Cersei’s, rather than just casting them in one-dimensional roles.
Either way, this ultimately comes back not to a conscious choice by production, but a snafu that can’t be rectified. (Also canonically things were even more murky, because Cersei said no, but made it explicit that her objection had more to do with the location than anything else, but Jaime eventually talked her into it. And Martin isn’t good at writing women in the throes of passion (oh, Jaime, yes, I’m home!,) just putting it out there.) There’s not really much more to say, except that I am still devoted to this show, and I hope that its strengths multiply and its flaws diminish.
So! There’s a lot of thematic goodness in this episode, and I’m going to start with my favorite—which I dub The Stark Sisters Under the Tutelage of Questionable Men. Sansa’s plot is largely true to the books, except in some ways she’s more proactive canonically. I already discussed how she and Dontos had been planning the escape for awhile—Sansa left Joffrey’s murder on her own and went to the godswood where she had new clothes waiting. There, on her own, rather than with Littlefinger’s prompting, she notes a stone missing from her hairnet (necklace on the show) and starts to put the pieces together about the murder. Things were too rushed for that on screen, and then it also brought to the forefront that Littlefinger is very actively trying to mold Sansa’s worldly outlook. There’s the deletion of a boatman and names for other minor characters, whatevs, but Dontos is still revealed to be Littlefinger’s agent, and the man has him killed for the same reasons as stated.
Arya’s journey with the Hound this week is loosely based on an interlude where Sandor tries to take refuge with her in a Riverlands village for awhile, offering his services, but the villagers recognize him and kick him out. Here, this is really a backdrop for Arya’s education in her companion’s nihilism. He even steals, breaking his own code, because he so fervently believes in a warped social Darwinist outlook in the face of the coming winter—to steal from “Cloud Atlas:” “The weak are meat and the strong do eat.” He’s not malicious, but he’s driven to serve his own survival. Arya, as we can see, is still clinging to a higher sense of morality. She’s more jaded by this point in the books—and with her arc with the Hound, the show is showing us this transition.
There’s another transition I see between what the Hound does, and what Ygritte (and what the other wildlings) do in the northern village. I remember that one fan reviewer was immediately put off by Ygritte’s killing of the father—understandably; he had a young child who witnessed it, and the show made sure to give us a few moments so we could paint this as a loving family. I think it’s a complicated issue, though. Sandor assaulted the peasant before because of his nihilistic beliefs; he also killed innocents while in service to the Lannisters. Ygritte feels in service to something larger than herself as well—she has to get her people to safety, which means following the orders of her army to engage or draw out an enemy force (the Night’s Watch.) It’s horrible and unforgiveable (for the entire army, not just Ygritte,) but with understandable motives. That being said, the Thenns remain one dimensional; all we know about them is that they eat people and taunt devastated boys. This scene didn’t happen in the novels; the wildlings only attacked Moles Town, which is very close to the Watch. But in general drawing the Watch out wasn’t as big of a deal anyway, because canonically there was no question as to the paltry number of NW men.
What we see here, particularly with the mutineers storyline, is the show’s attempt to give Jon & co something to do before the finale. :P So suddenly it’s a big deal to quell the threat of the mutineers coming under enemy hands. Grenn and Edd also weren’t prisoners—they got out pretty immediately, like Sam and Gilly—but obviously the main thrust here is that Jon has found a practical way to be a hero! Yay! He was disappointed that he couldn’t do justice by the peasant village. Meanwhile, tensions remain prickly between him and Thorne. Show Jon has a lot going on. :P
Sam also doesn’t take Gilly to Molestown in the books—there’s certainly sexual danger at the Watch, but they arrive too late for any of that (as Jon reminds us, Mance still is coming!) Also, they would have traveled through tunnels, not over ground, to get there, hence the name. What I found intriguing after multiple watches was how this story parallels Tyrion and Shae. The men want to play protector and the women want a more equal role in the relationship. Oh, chivalry. I like both couples (on the show—also Sam/Gilly in the books,) because there is genuine affection between them. It’s actually not all about sex! :O
To wrap up King’s Landing, neither Margaery nor Olenna are POVs, so we wouldn’t see a scene like this, but I really liked it. Drew out complexities in Marg’s character; just because she knew Joff was a monster doesn’t mean she didn’t have sympathy for him as he died. (It sort of mirrors how Tyrion saw him in his final moments in the book—he realized that his nephew was still a scared, young boy. Marg, on the show, centered on how he was looking to Cersei to make it stop.) Politically speaking, of course, Olenna is helping her granddaughter get her ducks in order; setting up the new chess pieces. I’m full of metaphors. :P
I also love the scene between Tommen and Tywin—probably the funniest of the episode, in a subtle way. From the very start, as Tywin was prompting the boy about what makes a good king, I was groaning, “come on, son, he just wants you to say ‘listen to grandpa.’” :P It was well staged, too, with Tywin starting on the other side of Joffrey’s body, and then ending up in front of his living grandchild. Lena’s look of hurt and betrayal as her father took Cersei's last child away from her were wonderful, as was the tension between her and Nickolaj. I already discussed the sex controversy, but there was so much more leading up to it—Jaime trying to comfort her but also trying to keep Tyrion out of it; Cersei bent on revenge against one brother and tethering with her relationship with the other from her throes of grief. Powerful stuff. Grandfather and grandson, in particular, weren’t from the novels, but it gave the Lanisters a somewhat human feel as they either grieved or picked themselves back up.
In his cell, Tyrion also tries to work through just who would want to kill the king (and subsequently blame him for it.) Not Cersei this time—with irritation I read some "unsullied" theories that flouted all character development by positing that the queen would kill one of the children whom, she’s claimed for years are her only reason for living. Tyrion centers more on Tywin here, dismissing Sansa’s possible involvement far more easily than he does in canon. Their whole relationship has been so whitewashed, and maybe one could argue that if they’d talked as much in canon as they talked on the show, Tyrion would know her character better. Anywho. He also gets to show off his heroic side in ordering Pod to leave the city rather than face execution for not turning against him. Luckily, Pod—who is around 12 in the books—didn’t have to make this decision, though he ultimately does leave for reasons I’ll discuss in an upcoming episode! /zips lips As usual, the big omission from canon is that far fewer people are involved—book Tyrion actually gets a few visitors, including Bronn. But I suppose this is meant to showcase his isolation. Tyrion hasn’t lost hope yet, but already the cards of this upcoming trial are stacked against him.
In Dragonstone, canon Stannis is more of a stickler; he won’t be a full believer until all three “pretenders” die, so he’s not on Davos’s case as much about the Gendry/Edric thing. Seems a bit too pedantic for the show, really—isn’t two enough to believe in blood magic?—and it drives up interpersonal tension. Also, like with the Night’s Watch, they have to give team Dragonstone more to do, so they pulled up a book five plot involving the Iron Bank (conveniently introduced in the previous episode. :P) With Shireen, we also get more background into Davos’s past, which we don’t in the books, but it’s a nice exchange, good for character development. They’re a fun and unusual twosome.
When it comes to Daenerys, we are now at the borderline between what I don’t like about her storyline, and (finally!) what I do. The “battle” and Dany’s address to the entire city of Meereen (must have had a good mic on :P) isn’t at all believable, but is kind of intriguing in a metaphoric way—talk about combining military action and socio-economic propaganda. (Also major kudos to the CGI, design, whatever folks are responsible for that gate—it was magnificent!) In the books there was a standard siege; we’ll get more into that in upcoming episodes. The champions fight was accurate in that Dany’s champion won, except that an uncast character (who defecated on his own rather than joined in a literal pissing contest) defeated the Meereenese one. (The khaleesi didn’t want to sacrifice Daario; he was too easy on the eyes. :P I mean hey, she can’t get to a brothel as easily as the Westerosi folks.)
As a final note, to go back to Oberyn—well, first I’ll say that speaking of sexposition and metaphors, I guess, “wanting it all,” aka his unbridled passion, fleshes out his character and is perhaps foreshadowing for the future. /zips lips Also, perfunctory issues, but in the books Doran had already been offered a seat at the table, the Mountain’s head, yadda yadda, but it’s always better to see these things play out on screen.
And speaking of which, I suppose this is why Tywin (and others in King’s Landing) must concede that Daenerys is a threat. In the books, they’re largely dismissive of her, and only hear vague rumors. But on the show, we, the audience, know full well that Daenerys has burned down every obstacle in her path. Other characters need to be aware of this, in order to connect her to the broader story. It’s just an example of how the show must be more blatant, and more insistent on drawing different storylines together. Martin’s books, in many ways, are the exact opposite. He strives to show us just how complex the world is, and how subjective people are because they can’t see the full picture. The books continue to be ever expansive and less cohesive; it’ll be interesting (and certainly controversial) among fans to see how the show adapts this.
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