After a slow but informative start Game
of Thrones is back into the swing of things this week. It's got
everything the last episode lacked and more. This week's episode
acted as 'here is what's happened since last season' part two. Except
this time we got even more scheming, more new characters and so much
more sword fighing.
The episode starts off with Bran
walking through the woods, trying to shoot that mysterious three-eyed
crow that keeps appearing in his dreams. As he's aiming to shoot he
remembers the lessons his brothers Robb and Jon taught him all the
way back in the pilot episode, and pulling at our heartstrings in the
process when Eddard's disembodied voice echoes through the woods,
“and which one of you was a marksmen at ten?” While it was an
unimportant scene, merely added to introduce the characters, it's
parallel to the scene in the woods makes it a painful reminder of how
far the Starks have come since then, and been torn apart.
In this same scene we're introduced to
a boy that turns out to be Jojen Reed (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), who
tells Bran that the crow is Bran himself which is why he can't kill
it. After this, Bran wakes from his dream with Shaggydog and Summer
(who oddly seems to have changed colour) staring at him. They later
on come across Jojen Reed again but this time outside the dream,
where we find out that he has been looking for Bran, with his sister
Meera.
Jojen seems to understand much of what
is happening to Bran and explains to him that what he is doing is
warging (being inside and seeing through the eyes of) Summer, his
direwolf. But that his abilities are not nearly limited to that but
he has the gift of Sight: to see the distant past, and present
thousands of miles away, and the future. The Reed siblings are a nice
introduction to the story, and Brodie-Sangster has the wise old man
in a young boys body thing down to a 'T'. While Meera is a nice
change and seems comfortable with her role, despite Osha's misgivings
that a boy like Jojen needs his older sister to protect him.
Meanwhile in Robb's camp, news has
reached them that Catelyn's father, Hoster Tully, has died and that
the Ironborn torched and massacred everyone in Winterfell before
fleeing. On the journey towards Riverrun one of Robb's Lord's casts
doubt on the decision to march for Riverrun when there's no fighting
to be had and during the process makes the observation that Robb's
war was lost the day he married Lady Talisa.
While Lord Karstark is an embittered,
grumpy old man he makes an interesting observation that seems to be
shared (although unspoken) by others in Robb's camp including
Catelyn, who is still her son's prisoner. And it's intersting that
Robb should not listen to his mother, despite frequent ability to
demonstrate a political understanding of the North and Riverland
lords, whom she is both familiar with via marriage and birth. Yet
while Catelyn's warnings are unheaded, Lord Karstark voicing his
doubts show that she is not alone in her doubts about Robb's hurried
marriage.
Perhaps one of the most boring scenes
however was Catelyn's talk with her daughter-in-law. What was
possibly supposed to be a heart-to-heart really became a confession
for Catelyn, where the writers decided to lay blame on her
(unsurprisingly) for all the events that have happened because she
broke a promise to the gods to treat Jon Snow better if he recovered
from a case of pox he'd contracted when he was younger.
While they are trying to develop and
show another side to Catelyn's character, especially regarding Jon
who she so vehementally hates, blaming her for the events of the
series is entirely unnecessary and ridiculous and rather just seems
as if they are punishing her for being human. Yes, hating Jon Snow is
misdirected and unfair on him but so is placing the blame on her all
these events.
Arya meanwhile, has apparently told
Gendry and Hot Pie all about her deal with Jaqen H'ghar, the good
looking and much missed foreign assassin from last season. Gendry, in
a rare moment of insight, berates her for misusing the gift when she
single-handedly could have ended the war in her family's favour by
having Tywin Lannister and King Joffrey killed. The argument is cut
short when they are set upon by a band of men wandering through the
woods calling themselves the Brotherhood Without Banners and led by a
man named Thoros of Myr (Paul Kaye).
After the initial confrontation, the
group are taken to a local inn where Arya, still unknown to the group
as a Stark, challenges Thoros to a duel when he doubts her ability to
swordfight. She hesitates and is immediately disarmed much to her
embarassment, but the moment ends when a prisoner is dragged in and
unmasked. It turns out to be the Hound, who apparently escaped after
the Battle of Blackwater Bay. Arya, who recognises him unsuccessfully
tries to escape unnoticed, and is identified by the Hound as “the
Stark bitch”. Now that Arya's been recognised, it'll be interesting
to see how the Brotherhood reacts since as their title suggests they
are without allegiance.
Things are also looking bad for Theon,
who last season was last seen being knocked out by his men and then
abandoned while the Bolton forces arrived to retake Winterfell. He is
now prisoner to those men and being tortured in an unnamed location.
All hope seems lost for him, except for a servant (Iwan Rheon) who
promises to come back later and free him. While Theon was never
particularly my favourite character, especially after his actions in
season two, it was still upsetting to see him be tortured. Hopefully
his sister finds out and is able to come to his rescue.
However on a much lighter note, this
episode it seems Sansa is possibly going to be taken underwing by the
Tyrells. She is invited to tea by Margaery and her grandmother, the
Tyrell matriarch Lady Olenna Redwyne (Diana Rigg). The bluntly spoken
Lady Olenna, otherwise known as the Queen of Thorns, is a riot to
watch and absolutely stole the scene, if not the episode. The
so-called Queen of Thorns seems to have a few schemes up her sleeve
though, especially in regards to her grandaughter's marriage to King
Joffrey.
For Sansa, it seemed a relief for her
to finally tell someone what Joffrey had done to her. After the
equally dangerous and lonely company Sansa found herself in last
season, it then is nice to see that she has a possible friend in
Margaery. Although not she is not completely trustworthy, since this
is Game of Thrones and everybody has an agenda, but her seeming
sincerity and kindness may be what Sansa needs and is desperate to
find. And this is obviously something that Shae has noticed too, as
she tells Tyrion “we need to protect her”.
This was a great episode, it was
captivating and I couldn't look away even for a minute. It's also a
nice change of pace that in the past two episodes we haven't had an
unncessary sex scenes which leaves more time for the advancement of
the plot.
Review by Sofie Kiriakidis
