Things are starting to get interesting on Game of Thrones. Everyone is gearing up for war and now it’s only a matter of time. This episode covered a lot of information. Keeping track of everyone is now going to get complicated.
We started right off with Renly (Gethin Anthony) and Catelyn (Michelle Fairley) agreeing to be allies. Catelyn assures Renly that Robb (Richard Madden) doesn’t want the iron throne and just wants to be left alone. Renly agrees but doesn’t have very long to enjoy the new alliance. Melisandre’s ghostly bastard shows up and stabs him. Poor Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) was supposed to protect Renly but how do you fight a ghost? When the guards rush in to see what’s going on they see Brienne leaning over Renly. They assume she killed him. They certainly aren’t the brightest bunch but what else were they to think. Brienne doesn’t give them time to raise the alarm and kills them in an awesome show of swordsmanship. These guys really should have been taking lessons from her. Catelyn Stark is good under pressure. She knows they will hang Brienne if she stays. When you’re faced with 80,000 guys wanting to kill you, do the sensible thing and run. Later when they are away from danger Brienne swears fealty to Catelyn as long as she doesn’t hold her back from killing Stannis if she gets the chance.
I’m not even sure why Stannis (Stephen Dillane) wants to be king. No one likes him and they think his priestess is a bit nuts. With what we know I’m certainly not going to say that out loud. So that leaves Sir Davos (Liam Cunningham). He’s either brave or stupid, I’ll go with brave. He tells Stannis that he shouldn’t bring Melisandre (Carice van Houten) to the fight to take King’s Landing. The men will see her as running things and that wouldn’t be good. Stannis is a bit put out by this because really he has no power. Melisandre won this battle for him without anyone getting killed. That’s because all of Renly’s followers are cowards. As soon as he was dead they switched sides. I guess you go with who can pay you or in this case you don’t want to get on the bad side of some evil red witch who can kill you. Stannis reluctantly agrees but gets his pay back. He puts Davos in charge of taking Kings Landing from the sea. That will teach you to talk about this woman!
Okay I’m going on record right now for wanting Theon (Alfie Allen) dead! He’ll deserve it trust me. He’s still trying to get someone in Pyke to believe he can lead men. Of course no one believes he can, except his first mate. He puts a bug in Theon’s ear that maybe they should skip going after the fishing villages and go for bigger fish. He suggests Torrhen’s Square, which is under the protection of Winterfell. Theon thinks he’s crazy because they can’t hold it. Then the light bulb finally goes off in Theon’s head. They won’t need to because as soon as Winterfell sends aid they will go for an even BIGGER fish, Winterfell. See I told you Theon needs to die.
It’s unfortunate that Brandon (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) doesn’t know what his dreams mean. When he learns Torrhen’s Square has been attacked he does the right thing and sends aid. Osha (Natalie Tena) asks about his dreams and he tells her that waves crash over the walls of Winterfell and kill everyone. I wanted to scream at the TV that it was Theon, but I knew they wouldn’t hear me.
The hate/loath relationship between Cersei (Lena Headey) and Tyrrion (Peter Dinklage) are great to watch. When they find out that Renly is dead Cersei cheers the killer. Except that means Stannis now has an army that is much bigger then theirs. Tyrrion tried to get information from Cersei about the defenses of the castle. Cersei refuses to tell him so he has to rely on his spy. Lancel (Eugene Simon) tells Tyrrion that they are producing wildfire, a very nasty substance that burns anything. Tyrrion can’t believe this so does a little investigating. It seems there’s a few left over pyromancers from when the Targaryen’s reigned still floating around the castle. Sure enough they have been producing wildfire. Bronn (Jerome Flynn) thinks this is a stupid idea because during battle people get stupid. If someone is hurling this stuff and gets killed they could drop it inside the castle and you would burn your own people. Sometime I wonder why they don’t listen to their henchman because they are always right. Tyrrion can’t believe they have made enough to stop Stannis’ ships and says so. The pyromancer gets offended and shows Tyrrion the 7,000+ casks they have. Basically King’s Landing is sitting on a powder keg.
Baby dragons! They were very cute and I certainly would love to have one, but I don’t think Dany would give one up. Dany (Emilia Clarke) is trying to figure out what to do now. She’s been saved from the red waste and now living in Qarth. Everyone wants to meet the Mother of Dragons so Xaro holds a party. She is introduced to all sorts of interesting people. Xaro shows her around a bit then offers her a proposal. If she marries him she can have half his wealth to buy ships and men to take back the iron throne. He also tells her that Robert Barratheon is dead and Westeros will be easy pickings since everyone is fighting each other. She considers this deal but talks to Sir Jorah (Iain Glen) first. He tells her that it’s a bad idea. That she wants to gain allies in Westeros and not invade with a foreign army. Dany learns something very important from the exchange. She realizes that Jorah is in love with her. She agrees to let Jorah find her ships to take her back to Westeros.
I have no idea where they filmed the scenes for Fist of the First Men but damn it looked cold! The Night Watch is still trying to stop Mance Rayder from attacking the Wall so they brought the fight to him, except they are a bit out numbered. So it’s decided that a small group of men will sneak attack and try to kill Mance. It’s a good plan and one that Jon (Kit Harrington) wants to be a part of. The Lord Commander (James Cosmos) agrees and they head off. This was a small scene but they aren’t skimping on the little things. The location looked brutal and I really felt sorry for those guys standing out in the cold. The best thing was they CGI Ghost into the background! Yeah HBO for not forgetting about the direwolves!
I’ve saved the best for last. I absolutely adore Arya. I love her in the books but to see her come to life on the TV is a total fangirl dream. It’s all because of Maisie Williams. She has Arya perfect! Anyway Arya is still acting as Tywin’s cupbearer and serving him as his men talk about the war. Tywin (Charles Dance) isn’t happy that they are losing all because of Robb. He asks Arya her opinion because he knows she’s from the north. Arya praises Robb and makes him larger than life. Saying he rides to battle on the back of a giant direwolf. Tywin asks if she thinks Robb can’t be killed. She tells him straight that “Anyone can be killed”. Tywin isn’t a stupid man and knows Arya is talking about him. Arya has an ally amongst the Lannister men. One of the men she saved from the burning cage is Jaqen H’ghar (Tom Wlaschiha). He tells her he owes her three lives. She just has to tell him who she wants dead. At first she doesn’t believe him but he’s very convincing so she tells him to kill the Tickler. When the man falls from the battlements with a broken neck we know Jaqen H’gar has done the dead.
Things are really starting to move along and pretty soon it will be over. I can’t believe they only have 5 episodes left to get everything done. There’s still a lot they have to cover so I think the next few episodes are going to cover a lot of ground. So I suggest you hold onto your hats and just enjoy the ride. I know I will.