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scifi_rewatchI’ve yet to reference this episode without first accidentally calling it “Mockingjay,” teehee. When fandoms collide! Not that I mean to draw parallels here.
The parallel in this episode is about siblings. Lots and lots of siblings. Most prominently we have Tyrion caught between the brother who can no longer help him, and the sister who has always wished him dead. We have Oberyn beating his worn drum about Elia. The Hound, too, is a little down on life, which brings out his old grievances against his brother (we get our third actor to play The Mountain here!). The ghost of Catelyn continues to loom large in Lysa’s mind. (Perhaps reaching) Jon isn’t making much headway with his brothers concerning the best ways to defend Castle Black, and (definitely reaching) Daenerys references Viserys once this hour. :P
Meanwhile, we get a fresh reminder this week that the Stark sisters are at long last primed for a reunion. I’d be in love with this episode anyway for purely biased reasons; it includes a scene that I’ve long waited to see. *swoon* Beyond that, there’s really some fantastic, character rich interactions between other people, as well as the introduction of the female gaze. :D Hallelujah!
Summary
King’s Landing
Jaime chastises Tyrion for not sticking to the script from last week, and instead throwing his life away. Tyrion is defensive, though more resigned than angry now; he couldn’t bear to hear Shae lie. He admits that he loved her. He also enjoyed sticking it to Tywin, making sure that his easy plan to puppet his sons' lives wouldn’t work so well. Of course now it comes down to finding a champion. Jaime, unfortunately, can’t play; his recent training with his left hand isn’t going so well. He also drops an ominous clue about whoever it is that Cersei is choosing to represent the crown.
We see for ourselves in the next scene—it’s the Mountain! Cersei watches as the man easily eviscerates a courtyard of men. One guy tries to throw down his sword and beg for mercy, but the Mountain just hacks him to bits anyway. Cersei walks through the gore to get to him, pleased at his physical prowess. He asks who he will be fighting, and Cersei responds with, “Does it matter?” Nope, doesn’t seem to.
Bronn is the next person to refuse to stand for Tyrion. Dressed in finery he’s apparently accepted a match offered by the crown to marry a dimwitted noblewoman (which might also require killing her older sister in order to attain her birthright.) The best Tyrion can offer in terms of financial compensation is a piece of the north—dicey gamble, I’d think, that he’d be allowed to rule it by this point. Bronn doesn’t like the cold anyway. Beyond his material demands, Bronn points out that, friend to friend, Tyrion’s never risked his life for him, either. Disappointed as he might be to lose the guy, he has no qualms in putting himself first. Tyrion is sympathetic, and they shake hands for what definitely feels like a final goodbye.
Third time’s a charm, perhaps. Oberyn arrives to visit! He recounts Cersei’s recent chat with him, and how her genuine feelings with her daughter mixed with her manipulative agenda to sway the man against her brother. Tyrion acknowledges this unique attribute, Cersei’s penchant to have “honest feelings do dishonest work.” Oberyn then recounts the first time he met Tyrion—before Tyrion could remember, due to being a baby—and the culminations of the factors that have made up the man’s life; being thought of as a freak, and his sister wanting to see him dead (this time because of her mother.) But in utilizing the Mountain as her champion, this little sibling drama suddenly has a purpose for Oberyn; he can avenge Elia’s murder! He can be Tyrion’s champion! The Lannister man appears to be a bit overwhelmed with relief at this.
Meereen
Daario has managed to sneak in through Dany’s window. She’s only slightly bemused. Man’s feeling a bit restless; his skills of “war and women” aren’t being well utilized here. He asks to kill her enemies rather than patrol the streets of Meereen, though he promises to do that if she asks, since he’s pledged to her. As for women...well, there’s only one he wants. So Dany, wine in hand, decides to oblige him. She sits in her chair and commands that he takes off his clothes. After he strips, we see his naked body before her, as she looks up appraisingly.
In the morning, Daario is leaving while Jorah is coming. Jorah isn’t too pleased with this turn of events, but Dany agrees that she also doesn’t trust the sellsword; now that their sexual escapade is over, she’s sending him and the Second Sons to take back Yunkai. All sounds well and good, except that she also intends to kill the masters. Jorah advises caution, invoking a higher philosophy. There’s good and bad on either side of a war. Dany protests that she’s dealing with something evil and tangible—slavery—and she means to end it. Jorah reminds her that he was once a slaver, and that if Ned had killed him he wouldn’t be here to help her now. So Dany reconsiders, and decides to send Hildazr, from last episode, as an ambassador to Yunkai.
Dragonstone
Selyse interrupts Melissandre while she’s in the bath. She’s a bit baffled by this (and it actually leads to a little bit of a jealous tiff about Stannis’s affections), but she feels the need to talk before they go on their imminent voyage. Stannis wants to bring Shireen, but Selyse worries about her daughter’s heresy, whether it’s genuine or a cruel jape, and would rather leave her home. Mel responds that Shireen must come on the journey. She implores Selyse to look into the fire to hear from the Lord of Light; she doesn’t need the sorts of potions and tricks that others do in order to believe. She doesn’t even get jokes, because most jokes are lies and she’s devoted to the truth. And the truth is Shireen must come.
The Night’s Watch
Jon and the other surviving rangers return to the Wall, clapping hands with Sam and Olly, all the good stuff. Thorne interrupts to be dickish about Ghost, but he’s only getting started. At a meeting later, he bulldozes over Jon’s suggestion that they plug the tunnel northward, having not the strength to defend it against giants and Mance’s huge army. Thorne bullies the first builder into agreeing with him, and Jon seethes as he sits back down next to Sam. They could see Mance’s fires in the distance when leaving Craster’s; they’re coming…
The Riverlands
People keep on keeping on on the road!
Arya and the Hound
This twosome approaches more carnage, and a man dying of a belly wound. He’s in a bit of a philosophical state about his end of days; he even tried walking back to his hut until the hurt became too bad and he remembered his hut was burned down. As for the identity of the culprits, “I stopped asking a long time ago.” He’s debating whether it’s better to live or embrace nothingness; is nothingness good or bad? Arya, unphased, says that “nothing is just nothing.” The Hound feeds the man some water and then stabs him quickly through the heart. It’s the quickest way to die, he’s telling Arya, before he’s suddenly attacked by a bite to the ear!
The bite is from a man; the Hound snaps his neck. His companion is a bit bemused by this turn of events, and lets out some information; they came for the bounty on the Hound’s head. The Hound assumes this is about deserting the king, to which the man replies that Joffrey is dead; this is about the Polliver thing. Arya recognizes these two men as Rorge and Biter, Yoren’s captives for the Night’s Watch, though she doesn’t know their names for her list. Once Rorge introduces himself, Arya stabs him through the heart. “You’re learning,” the Hound says.
Later, he tries unsuccessfully to clean out the wound. Arya comes up to him with fire to burn away the rotted flesh; he physically recoils. He blames her for his troubles, grousing about his bad fortune of late. This turns into remembering how the Mountain had burned him as a child, simply for playing with one of his toys. The worst part was being betrayed by his brother, and later by his father who covered it up. Speaking of feeling along in the world. Arya, visibly sympathetic to the plight of her enemy, offers to wash out and sew up the wound.
Brienne and Pod
The twosome stop at an inn, and Brienne is relatively upbeat about it until Pod seems a little too upbeat in return. Don’t get used to this pampering, buddy. More to the case, they have an overly chatty waiter serving them meat pies…it’s Hot Pie! After badgering Brienne about what she’s doing out here, she snaps out her mission, hoping to get him to leave. Instead, he seems oddly knowledgale about “Winterhell.” Brienne assures him that she’s on a mission from Sansa’s mother, to keep her safe, but Hot Pie says nothing more.
In the morning Pod suggests that Brienne keep their mission on the down low; lots of Lannister spies. They are interrupted again by Hot Pie who decides to give them his backstory with Arya. He’s also baked her another wolf—a better one this time. On the road again, and now assuming that the Brotherhood would want to sell her, Pod suggests Lysa in the Eyrie, the girls’ last living relative with money. Sansa might be there, too. Two roads diverged in a wood, and Pod and Brienne lead their horses towards the Vale.
The Vale
Sansa exits the Eyrie to the first snow she’s seen since leaving the north. With her House music playing behind her, she builds an elaborate sand castle of Winterfell. Robin comes out and she explains that this place was her home, but now it’s burned to the ground. Robin asks if there was a moon door, and when Sansa says no, he promises that when they’re married, he’ll throw anyone she doesn’t like out of his. Sansa smiles at this. But when Robin moves to insert a moon door in her Winterfell, knocking down a tower, she grouses that he’s ruined it. Robin grows immediately defensive, saying it was ruined anyway because it lacked a moon door, and he starts stomping it to the ground. Sansa strikes him, and he runs away from her back inside, though she tries to apologize.
Littlefinger makes his presence known at this time, walking towards her. When Sansa expresses remorse for action, Littlefinger counters that Lysa should have disciplined him long ago. She’s back to reminiscing about Winterfell, assured that she’ll never see it again. Littlefinger counters this, walking around the snowy ruin, and posits that she should destroy her old home in order to make a new one. Sansa abruptly changes the subject to Joffrey’s murder, and Littlefinger professes that the true reason he did it was to avenge Catelyn. He and Sansa share small smiles, which turns into more as he philosophizes about a “better” world where she might’ve been his child. In the absence of that world, he moves in to kiss her instead, unknowingly witnessed by Lysa. Sansa breaks away, shocked.
Later, Sansa answers her aunt’s summons by the moon door. After a vaguely threatening conversation about what happens to the bodies, Lysa accuses her niece of putting the moves on her husband. Sansa tries to protest—he initiated it!—but Lysa only gets more angry, and drags her face forward to the moon door. Everyone who stands between her and Petyr are dead, she yells at her niece. Littlefinger enters the room and coerces Lysa to let Sansa go by promising to send the girl away. Once Sansa is safe, he takes his sobbing wife in his arms and promises her he’s only loved one woman…”your sister.” Lysa’s face barely registers the indignation before he pushes her through the moon door, and to her death.
Thoughts
Our first shocker death in awhile! After Joffrey things were getting kind of quiet. :P Karl, Rast and Locke I’d call inevitable, but this? We have a finale to build up to now.
There’s relatively few differences in canonical material from the Vale, save that Littlefinger physically helped Sansa with the snow castle construction, and Lysa spilled the beans about their involvement in the Jon Arryn poisoning/Stark downfall there. Otherwise there’s a couple missing characters, a dialogue change from “Only Cat” to “Your Sister” that stirred up some fandom quibbling, and minor tweaks to Robin’s involvement and Lysa’s silence vs screaming at the very end, nothing big, imho.
Like everyone who has to worry if their favorite material will be cut, I waited with bated breath for the snow castle, and it was marvelous. Sansa’s wonder at the wintry mix, the Stark music behind her, the detailed prop…I got teary. I identify strongly with her thematic diaspora and loss. This has really been a Sansa showcase season (and it’s not over yet!) Slightly stronger divergence from canon was Littlefinger and Sansa centering on avenging Catelyn, though it makes sense to me that this would appease the girl. It’s been a long time since she’s been in the company of anyone willing to stand up for the people she loves, rather than hurt them. Petyr’s words to Sansa reminded me a bit of Gatsby pining over Daisy—of course I could be biased in that direction simply because I know GRRM based Littlefinger off of the character. :P Not so much with the daughter/lover thing, which…ick. But all par for the course in this relationship, alas. Sophie and Aiden did well with it, and then I must commend Katie Dickie for her final moments. Talk about unhinged.
Some of the ladies this episode don’t come out looking so good. Clinging to fantasies can cost you, whether it’s the fantasy of a love affair with a man who doesn’t want you, or the zealotry of looking for supernatural answers in flames while ignoring any repercussions, or allowing a butcher into your midst for the most gruesome revenge possible. Lysa, Selyse, Melissandre and Cersei can be cruel and alienating since they turn narrow-minded and unsympathetic to those around them. They’re too stuck in their ways. In contrast, Daenerys starts out with an absolutist worldview, claiming that the only way to eradicate slavery would be to kill the masters, until Jorah helps her to realize that people aren’t just good or evil. None of these other women recognize that.
I’ve grown more appreciative of the Melissandre/Selyse scene; it’s the first time when female nudity is about the female gaze. Selyse assesses Mel’s body and even allows herself to feel some jealousy, which is a nice bit of character complexity for this usually one-dimensionally religious woman. We also grow to understand how her social awkwardness with anything that isn’t straightforward may have played her into Melissandre’s hands. Selyse was looking for easy answers, a right and wrong. Melissandre, charismatic as she is, knew how to draw this woman into the fold. It’s such an intriguing scene because, like Cersei, Melissandre is so focused on her endgame that she’s justified lying, the powders et al that she shows off, as simple necessity. In the novels she doesn’t share this information with anyone, but that’s small potatoes. Also, as discussed earlier, Selyse isn’t aware of her husband’s infidelity and doesn’t have such antagonism with her daughter. But one thing that made readers pause was Mel’s insistence that Shireen be aboard the boat. Uh oh…is the show making something explicit that hasn’t come to pass in the books yet? Mel spends a lot of time culling human sacrifices…eep.
Speaking of the female gaze, we have Daario undressing under Dany’s supervision…yowza. After being bombarded with the male-oriented pornos once per episode, I wished the producers would give us some quid pro quo—but nah, we just see his naked backside. :P Oh well. In the novels Dany and Daario are also sexual, but at a later date. Also she doesn’t send him to Yunkai; she’s being more defensive than offensive with that situation. But it works well for the show, to characterize that she doesn’t fully trust him, and also to evolve her strategy with dealing with the masters. There’s little more about the Jorah/Dany scene that I can say, other than I loved the points they raised, and that I agreed with both of them in turn. Really gives you a lot of meaty details to think about.
Poor Jon isn’t having so much luck in collaborating with his brothers. It’s all pretty par for the course with Thorne, just more urgent, plotwise, because we’re getting near the end of the season here and Mance is coming. :P Jon’s frustration is nothing new. His insistence on plugging the gate is, however; perhaps they didn’t have time for it, as the timeline is more rushed in the book.
HOT PIE SIGHTING! It’s always nice to see a familiar character from the show. He doesn’t appear again in the novels, though Brienne learns about Arya from another source, but it works well here. Ben Hawkley fits so well back into that loveable chatterbox role, and apparently they wanted to give him a chance to make a more distinctive wolf bread piece. :P This also allows Pod the chance to suggest the Eyrie, since Lysa has money, so it appears that Brienne might soon meet up with the very people she’s seeking! My one quibble would be that Pod has a point—and canon Brienne would agree with me—it is indeed dangerous to be so open about their quest to find two very valuable young women. But Brienne’s back and forths with Pod on the show do have their charm. :P
And now, for a look at the carnage of war, we join up with Arya and the Hound. Unlike with the last peasant they met, who was devoted to one side over another, this guy doesn’t differentiate between men with swords. It’s a nice, subtle reminder of how destructive this pastime is for everyone. I’m enjoying Maisie’s progression with the character, who is unphased at the mercy killing. She’s also entering a new philosophical attitude of embracing the idea of nothingness, perhaps a reprieve from all of the senseless horror she’s seen. And yet Arya retains a sense of empathy—towards an enemy on her list of all people—as he tells her of his troubled childhood. People are complicated. Granted, in the novel they just mercy kill the man, philosophizing aside.
They also don’t run into Biter and Rorge—in fact these two have a later run in with Brienne and Pod in canon. It becomes apparent now that the bounty Tywin suggested last episode was a way to re-introduce these old characters—and a way for Arya to kill someone on her list. Granted, I found it a little strange that Rorge just stood there, but Arya’s passionate jab to the heart seems appropriate to her current state of mind.
Finally, we have King’s Landing. Tyrion receives three visitors regarding his need for a champion. In the books Jaime is nowhere near involved in any part of Tyrion’s trial, though it’s accurate that he’d be unable to fight. The interaction with Bronn is largely true to canon, except that Lollys, his intended, has been in the background of the books for awhile; she was gang raped during the book/season two riot, and also Shae was her handmaiden for awhile. Also, notably, it’s her mother, not her father, with a title. Similarly with Oberyn, when he visits Casterly Rock as a child, it’s with his mother. Again, it would be nice if the show included more references of women in power, just saying.
There’s a lot to appreciate in these scenes regardless; the dry humor with which Tyrion and Jaime consider killing off Tywin’s legacy, the enduring friendship between Bronn and Tyrion despite (or perhaps because of) Bronn’s unfailing self-centeredness, but more than anything else, Oberyn and Tyrion. Perhaps a bit dramatic, but by this point that’s a defining trait for Oberyn, and a moving performance. He’s obsessed with his sister’s fate; in fact I’d say he’s more offering to be Elia’s champion than Tyrion’s. His remembrance of Cersei’s childhood hatred for her brother was also memorable (one might ask why he’d be so cruel as to bring it up, but perhaps he’d consider blunt honesty to be more kind.) Peter’s reaction to all of this, I’d argue, is even stronger acting than the last episode. He’s so hurt, even as he expects this from Cersei.
Cersei is a testament to how hatred can warp you. Unable to conceive of Tyrion’s innocence as a child, this continues on into adulthood. Though she, along with Westerosi norms, sees him as unnatural and deformed, and it is she who walks blithely over the remains of innocent people in order to achieve her desires. On its own, I’d say the Mountain gore scene is a little over the top—we get it, he’s bloodthirsty—but it also stands as a chilling externalization of Cersei’s emotional gauge at the moment. Cersei in the show can be different from Cersei in the books, but in both cases Joffrey’s death leads her onto one path alone—unbridled vengeance.
The parallel in this episode is about siblings. Lots and lots of siblings. Most prominently we have Tyrion caught between the brother who can no longer help him, and the sister who has always wished him dead. We have Oberyn beating his worn drum about Elia. The Hound, too, is a little down on life, which brings out his old grievances against his brother (we get our third actor to play The Mountain here!). The ghost of Catelyn continues to loom large in Lysa’s mind. (Perhaps reaching) Jon isn’t making much headway with his brothers concerning the best ways to defend Castle Black, and (definitely reaching) Daenerys references Viserys once this hour. :P
Meanwhile, we get a fresh reminder this week that the Stark sisters are at long last primed for a reunion. I’d be in love with this episode anyway for purely biased reasons; it includes a scene that I’ve long waited to see. *swoon* Beyond that, there’s really some fantastic, character rich interactions between other people, as well as the introduction of the female gaze. :D Hallelujah!
Summary
King’s Landing
Jaime chastises Tyrion for not sticking to the script from last week, and instead throwing his life away. Tyrion is defensive, though more resigned than angry now; he couldn’t bear to hear Shae lie. He admits that he loved her. He also enjoyed sticking it to Tywin, making sure that his easy plan to puppet his sons' lives wouldn’t work so well. Of course now it comes down to finding a champion. Jaime, unfortunately, can’t play; his recent training with his left hand isn’t going so well. He also drops an ominous clue about whoever it is that Cersei is choosing to represent the crown.
We see for ourselves in the next scene—it’s the Mountain! Cersei watches as the man easily eviscerates a courtyard of men. One guy tries to throw down his sword and beg for mercy, but the Mountain just hacks him to bits anyway. Cersei walks through the gore to get to him, pleased at his physical prowess. He asks who he will be fighting, and Cersei responds with, “Does it matter?” Nope, doesn’t seem to.
Bronn is the next person to refuse to stand for Tyrion. Dressed in finery he’s apparently accepted a match offered by the crown to marry a dimwitted noblewoman (which might also require killing her older sister in order to attain her birthright.) The best Tyrion can offer in terms of financial compensation is a piece of the north—dicey gamble, I’d think, that he’d be allowed to rule it by this point. Bronn doesn’t like the cold anyway. Beyond his material demands, Bronn points out that, friend to friend, Tyrion’s never risked his life for him, either. Disappointed as he might be to lose the guy, he has no qualms in putting himself first. Tyrion is sympathetic, and they shake hands for what definitely feels like a final goodbye.
Third time’s a charm, perhaps. Oberyn arrives to visit! He recounts Cersei’s recent chat with him, and how her genuine feelings with her daughter mixed with her manipulative agenda to sway the man against her brother. Tyrion acknowledges this unique attribute, Cersei’s penchant to have “honest feelings do dishonest work.” Oberyn then recounts the first time he met Tyrion—before Tyrion could remember, due to being a baby—and the culminations of the factors that have made up the man’s life; being thought of as a freak, and his sister wanting to see him dead (this time because of her mother.) But in utilizing the Mountain as her champion, this little sibling drama suddenly has a purpose for Oberyn; he can avenge Elia’s murder! He can be Tyrion’s champion! The Lannister man appears to be a bit overwhelmed with relief at this.
Meereen
Daario has managed to sneak in through Dany’s window. She’s only slightly bemused. Man’s feeling a bit restless; his skills of “war and women” aren’t being well utilized here. He asks to kill her enemies rather than patrol the streets of Meereen, though he promises to do that if she asks, since he’s pledged to her. As for women...well, there’s only one he wants. So Dany, wine in hand, decides to oblige him. She sits in her chair and commands that he takes off his clothes. After he strips, we see his naked body before her, as she looks up appraisingly.
In the morning, Daario is leaving while Jorah is coming. Jorah isn’t too pleased with this turn of events, but Dany agrees that she also doesn’t trust the sellsword; now that their sexual escapade is over, she’s sending him and the Second Sons to take back Yunkai. All sounds well and good, except that she also intends to kill the masters. Jorah advises caution, invoking a higher philosophy. There’s good and bad on either side of a war. Dany protests that she’s dealing with something evil and tangible—slavery—and she means to end it. Jorah reminds her that he was once a slaver, and that if Ned had killed him he wouldn’t be here to help her now. So Dany reconsiders, and decides to send Hildazr, from last episode, as an ambassador to Yunkai.
Dragonstone
Selyse interrupts Melissandre while she’s in the bath. She’s a bit baffled by this (and it actually leads to a little bit of a jealous tiff about Stannis’s affections), but she feels the need to talk before they go on their imminent voyage. Stannis wants to bring Shireen, but Selyse worries about her daughter’s heresy, whether it’s genuine or a cruel jape, and would rather leave her home. Mel responds that Shireen must come on the journey. She implores Selyse to look into the fire to hear from the Lord of Light; she doesn’t need the sorts of potions and tricks that others do in order to believe. She doesn’t even get jokes, because most jokes are lies and she’s devoted to the truth. And the truth is Shireen must come.
The Night’s Watch
Jon and the other surviving rangers return to the Wall, clapping hands with Sam and Olly, all the good stuff. Thorne interrupts to be dickish about Ghost, but he’s only getting started. At a meeting later, he bulldozes over Jon’s suggestion that they plug the tunnel northward, having not the strength to defend it against giants and Mance’s huge army. Thorne bullies the first builder into agreeing with him, and Jon seethes as he sits back down next to Sam. They could see Mance’s fires in the distance when leaving Craster’s; they’re coming…
The Riverlands
People keep on keeping on on the road!
Arya and the Hound
This twosome approaches more carnage, and a man dying of a belly wound. He’s in a bit of a philosophical state about his end of days; he even tried walking back to his hut until the hurt became too bad and he remembered his hut was burned down. As for the identity of the culprits, “I stopped asking a long time ago.” He’s debating whether it’s better to live or embrace nothingness; is nothingness good or bad? Arya, unphased, says that “nothing is just nothing.” The Hound feeds the man some water and then stabs him quickly through the heart. It’s the quickest way to die, he’s telling Arya, before he’s suddenly attacked by a bite to the ear!
The bite is from a man; the Hound snaps his neck. His companion is a bit bemused by this turn of events, and lets out some information; they came for the bounty on the Hound’s head. The Hound assumes this is about deserting the king, to which the man replies that Joffrey is dead; this is about the Polliver thing. Arya recognizes these two men as Rorge and Biter, Yoren’s captives for the Night’s Watch, though she doesn’t know their names for her list. Once Rorge introduces himself, Arya stabs him through the heart. “You’re learning,” the Hound says.
Later, he tries unsuccessfully to clean out the wound. Arya comes up to him with fire to burn away the rotted flesh; he physically recoils. He blames her for his troubles, grousing about his bad fortune of late. This turns into remembering how the Mountain had burned him as a child, simply for playing with one of his toys. The worst part was being betrayed by his brother, and later by his father who covered it up. Speaking of feeling along in the world. Arya, visibly sympathetic to the plight of her enemy, offers to wash out and sew up the wound.
Brienne and Pod
The twosome stop at an inn, and Brienne is relatively upbeat about it until Pod seems a little too upbeat in return. Don’t get used to this pampering, buddy. More to the case, they have an overly chatty waiter serving them meat pies…it’s Hot Pie! After badgering Brienne about what she’s doing out here, she snaps out her mission, hoping to get him to leave. Instead, he seems oddly knowledgale about “Winterhell.” Brienne assures him that she’s on a mission from Sansa’s mother, to keep her safe, but Hot Pie says nothing more.
In the morning Pod suggests that Brienne keep their mission on the down low; lots of Lannister spies. They are interrupted again by Hot Pie who decides to give them his backstory with Arya. He’s also baked her another wolf—a better one this time. On the road again, and now assuming that the Brotherhood would want to sell her, Pod suggests Lysa in the Eyrie, the girls’ last living relative with money. Sansa might be there, too. Two roads diverged in a wood, and Pod and Brienne lead their horses towards the Vale.
The Vale
Sansa exits the Eyrie to the first snow she’s seen since leaving the north. With her House music playing behind her, she builds an elaborate sand castle of Winterfell. Robin comes out and she explains that this place was her home, but now it’s burned to the ground. Robin asks if there was a moon door, and when Sansa says no, he promises that when they’re married, he’ll throw anyone she doesn’t like out of his. Sansa smiles at this. But when Robin moves to insert a moon door in her Winterfell, knocking down a tower, she grouses that he’s ruined it. Robin grows immediately defensive, saying it was ruined anyway because it lacked a moon door, and he starts stomping it to the ground. Sansa strikes him, and he runs away from her back inside, though she tries to apologize.
Littlefinger makes his presence known at this time, walking towards her. When Sansa expresses remorse for action, Littlefinger counters that Lysa should have disciplined him long ago. She’s back to reminiscing about Winterfell, assured that she’ll never see it again. Littlefinger counters this, walking around the snowy ruin, and posits that she should destroy her old home in order to make a new one. Sansa abruptly changes the subject to Joffrey’s murder, and Littlefinger professes that the true reason he did it was to avenge Catelyn. He and Sansa share small smiles, which turns into more as he philosophizes about a “better” world where she might’ve been his child. In the absence of that world, he moves in to kiss her instead, unknowingly witnessed by Lysa. Sansa breaks away, shocked.
Later, Sansa answers her aunt’s summons by the moon door. After a vaguely threatening conversation about what happens to the bodies, Lysa accuses her niece of putting the moves on her husband. Sansa tries to protest—he initiated it!—but Lysa only gets more angry, and drags her face forward to the moon door. Everyone who stands between her and Petyr are dead, she yells at her niece. Littlefinger enters the room and coerces Lysa to let Sansa go by promising to send the girl away. Once Sansa is safe, he takes his sobbing wife in his arms and promises her he’s only loved one woman…”your sister.” Lysa’s face barely registers the indignation before he pushes her through the moon door, and to her death.
Thoughts
Our first shocker death in awhile! After Joffrey things were getting kind of quiet. :P Karl, Rast and Locke I’d call inevitable, but this? We have a finale to build up to now.
There’s relatively few differences in canonical material from the Vale, save that Littlefinger physically helped Sansa with the snow castle construction, and Lysa spilled the beans about their involvement in the Jon Arryn poisoning/Stark downfall there. Otherwise there’s a couple missing characters, a dialogue change from “Only Cat” to “Your Sister” that stirred up some fandom quibbling, and minor tweaks to Robin’s involvement and Lysa’s silence vs screaming at the very end, nothing big, imho.
Like everyone who has to worry if their favorite material will be cut, I waited with bated breath for the snow castle, and it was marvelous. Sansa’s wonder at the wintry mix, the Stark music behind her, the detailed prop…I got teary. I identify strongly with her thematic diaspora and loss. This has really been a Sansa showcase season (and it’s not over yet!) Slightly stronger divergence from canon was Littlefinger and Sansa centering on avenging Catelyn, though it makes sense to me that this would appease the girl. It’s been a long time since she’s been in the company of anyone willing to stand up for the people she loves, rather than hurt them. Petyr’s words to Sansa reminded me a bit of Gatsby pining over Daisy—of course I could be biased in that direction simply because I know GRRM based Littlefinger off of the character. :P Not so much with the daughter/lover thing, which…ick. But all par for the course in this relationship, alas. Sophie and Aiden did well with it, and then I must commend Katie Dickie for her final moments. Talk about unhinged.
Some of the ladies this episode don’t come out looking so good. Clinging to fantasies can cost you, whether it’s the fantasy of a love affair with a man who doesn’t want you, or the zealotry of looking for supernatural answers in flames while ignoring any repercussions, or allowing a butcher into your midst for the most gruesome revenge possible. Lysa, Selyse, Melissandre and Cersei can be cruel and alienating since they turn narrow-minded and unsympathetic to those around them. They’re too stuck in their ways. In contrast, Daenerys starts out with an absolutist worldview, claiming that the only way to eradicate slavery would be to kill the masters, until Jorah helps her to realize that people aren’t just good or evil. None of these other women recognize that.
I’ve grown more appreciative of the Melissandre/Selyse scene; it’s the first time when female nudity is about the female gaze. Selyse assesses Mel’s body and even allows herself to feel some jealousy, which is a nice bit of character complexity for this usually one-dimensionally religious woman. We also grow to understand how her social awkwardness with anything that isn’t straightforward may have played her into Melissandre’s hands. Selyse was looking for easy answers, a right and wrong. Melissandre, charismatic as she is, knew how to draw this woman into the fold. It’s such an intriguing scene because, like Cersei, Melissandre is so focused on her endgame that she’s justified lying, the powders et al that she shows off, as simple necessity. In the novels she doesn’t share this information with anyone, but that’s small potatoes. Also, as discussed earlier, Selyse isn’t aware of her husband’s infidelity and doesn’t have such antagonism with her daughter. But one thing that made readers pause was Mel’s insistence that Shireen be aboard the boat. Uh oh…is the show making something explicit that hasn’t come to pass in the books yet? Mel spends a lot of time culling human sacrifices…eep.
Speaking of the female gaze, we have Daario undressing under Dany’s supervision…yowza. After being bombarded with the male-oriented pornos once per episode, I wished the producers would give us some quid pro quo—but nah, we just see his naked backside. :P Oh well. In the novels Dany and Daario are also sexual, but at a later date. Also she doesn’t send him to Yunkai; she’s being more defensive than offensive with that situation. But it works well for the show, to characterize that she doesn’t fully trust him, and also to evolve her strategy with dealing with the masters. There’s little more about the Jorah/Dany scene that I can say, other than I loved the points they raised, and that I agreed with both of them in turn. Really gives you a lot of meaty details to think about.
Poor Jon isn’t having so much luck in collaborating with his brothers. It’s all pretty par for the course with Thorne, just more urgent, plotwise, because we’re getting near the end of the season here and Mance is coming. :P Jon’s frustration is nothing new. His insistence on plugging the gate is, however; perhaps they didn’t have time for it, as the timeline is more rushed in the book.
HOT PIE SIGHTING! It’s always nice to see a familiar character from the show. He doesn’t appear again in the novels, though Brienne learns about Arya from another source, but it works well here. Ben Hawkley fits so well back into that loveable chatterbox role, and apparently they wanted to give him a chance to make a more distinctive wolf bread piece. :P This also allows Pod the chance to suggest the Eyrie, since Lysa has money, so it appears that Brienne might soon meet up with the very people she’s seeking! My one quibble would be that Pod has a point—and canon Brienne would agree with me—it is indeed dangerous to be so open about their quest to find two very valuable young women. But Brienne’s back and forths with Pod on the show do have their charm. :P
And now, for a look at the carnage of war, we join up with Arya and the Hound. Unlike with the last peasant they met, who was devoted to one side over another, this guy doesn’t differentiate between men with swords. It’s a nice, subtle reminder of how destructive this pastime is for everyone. I’m enjoying Maisie’s progression with the character, who is unphased at the mercy killing. She’s also entering a new philosophical attitude of embracing the idea of nothingness, perhaps a reprieve from all of the senseless horror she’s seen. And yet Arya retains a sense of empathy—towards an enemy on her list of all people—as he tells her of his troubled childhood. People are complicated. Granted, in the novel they just mercy kill the man, philosophizing aside.
They also don’t run into Biter and Rorge—in fact these two have a later run in with Brienne and Pod in canon. It becomes apparent now that the bounty Tywin suggested last episode was a way to re-introduce these old characters—and a way for Arya to kill someone on her list. Granted, I found it a little strange that Rorge just stood there, but Arya’s passionate jab to the heart seems appropriate to her current state of mind.
Finally, we have King’s Landing. Tyrion receives three visitors regarding his need for a champion. In the books Jaime is nowhere near involved in any part of Tyrion’s trial, though it’s accurate that he’d be unable to fight. The interaction with Bronn is largely true to canon, except that Lollys, his intended, has been in the background of the books for awhile; she was gang raped during the book/season two riot, and also Shae was her handmaiden for awhile. Also, notably, it’s her mother, not her father, with a title. Similarly with Oberyn, when he visits Casterly Rock as a child, it’s with his mother. Again, it would be nice if the show included more references of women in power, just saying.
There’s a lot to appreciate in these scenes regardless; the dry humor with which Tyrion and Jaime consider killing off Tywin’s legacy, the enduring friendship between Bronn and Tyrion despite (or perhaps because of) Bronn’s unfailing self-centeredness, but more than anything else, Oberyn and Tyrion. Perhaps a bit dramatic, but by this point that’s a defining trait for Oberyn, and a moving performance. He’s obsessed with his sister’s fate; in fact I’d say he’s more offering to be Elia’s champion than Tyrion’s. His remembrance of Cersei’s childhood hatred for her brother was also memorable (one might ask why he’d be so cruel as to bring it up, but perhaps he’d consider blunt honesty to be more kind.) Peter’s reaction to all of this, I’d argue, is even stronger acting than the last episode. He’s so hurt, even as he expects this from Cersei.
Cersei is a testament to how hatred can warp you. Unable to conceive of Tyrion’s innocence as a child, this continues on into adulthood. Though she, along with Westerosi norms, sees him as unnatural and deformed, and it is she who walks blithely over the remains of innocent people in order to achieve her desires. On its own, I’d say the Mountain gore scene is a little over the top—we get it, he’s bloodthirsty—but it also stands as a chilling externalization of Cersei’s emotional gauge at the moment. Cersei in the show can be different from Cersei in the books, but in both cases Joffrey’s death leads her onto one path alone—unbridled vengeance.
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