Game of Thrones

As Game of Thrones episodes go, this one was fairly dark. That's saying a lot in a show that traffics in Red Weddings and beheadings. This episode, more than some others, seemed to spend a bit less time on the heroes and a bit more on the innate cruelty of living in this particular world. It left me pining away for the sweeter days when we got to watch Ramsay Bolton flay Theon until he renamed him. I kid. But it did make me miss the sexual libertine, Oberyn. At the end of the day, this episode needed more Oberyn. And yes I'm saying that largely because his accent reminds me a bit of the guy from The Princess Bride.

To the episode:

The episode begins with Grey Worm learning to read. A tack that we've already seen the Onion knight use to escape getting beheaded. It's no wonder that Grey Worm is taking his time to read. Sadly, Dany's servant didn't have him reading a passage about a love triangle. Sadly, he'll have to discover that the old fashioned way. Of course, the last love triangle wound up with the woman in Dany's employ being locked in a safe for life with her lover. (Wouldn't it be great if they had food and water and all those jewels and were still chilling in that vault? No. Eh, I guess they're dead).

From there, we continue with the unfamiliar story of Dany freeing the slaves. Oh wait, that's all she does. However, this time the citizens of little Egpyt are forced to free themselves using swords from Grey Worm. I'd be a little pissed if I was them as some of the other cities had dragons flying around them. Also, is everyone just going to keep marching after Dany? What is the food situation like? How are the supply lines? Couldn't she just settle some people down in a democratic little Egypt?

The dark part of the episode starts here, when Dany, protector of all things good, eschews mercy to nail 150 men up on some boards and then stands over the city lovingly listening to their screams. I think the old Dario Naharis could have this woman, but I'm not sure about the new guy. He worries me. He needs to toughen up.

From there we begin the Jaime Lannister reclamation tour. (This tour just makes the way they bungled the "rape" scene with Cersei all the worse. If we're going to continue down this path with him as an oathkeeper he probably should leave the raping to the men at Crastor's Keep.) While I'm enjoying the fight scenes with Bron, I'd like to see the two of them start piercing each other with more than their swords. Note: I mean their dueling wits. Jaime's chat with Tyrion is enlightening, and Nicolas Causter-Waldo did a wonderful job evoking the character he played in Season 2, strapped to a post, threatening everyone around him. He's a very good actor as is Peter Dinkleage, and if we need to have a couple of people to root for on this show, and I'd like them to be included.

Jaime has a chat with his sister that doesn't end in incest, which is a plus. And finally we get back to what makes GOT so great. People setting out on the open road. Would I have picked Podrick and Breanne? Probably not. I wanted to see Tywin Lannister taking to the open road with Bron or Maester Pycell, but I guess the two of them will have to do. And it seems important that Jaime gave up his sword to Breanne, passing on his birthright, and perhaps acknowledging that he'll never be the same fighter again.

We get to spend a little time on the love boat with Littlefinger. Who confirms both that he was involved in the killing of Joffry and that his ambition knows no grounds. If there is a real player in the game of thrones who seems like he might win, it's Littlefinger. He plays by his own rules, and he is always giving villain like monologues in which he says things like,
S: What do you want.
LF: Everything.

That's classic super villain stuff. I can just see him twirling his mustache for seasons to come.

The Tyrell's sweet old Lady Olenna are implicated, as many suspected, in the murder. She gives her daughter the rather sage advice of seducing young Tommen before Cersei has a chance to turn him against her. Margery, bless her vixen like heart, sneaks into Tommen's room and chats him up, settling for a kiss on the forehead before leaving. Tommen, who looks about 13 or 14, blissfully roles back over thinking of what a nice visit he had with the young Tyrell lady. This is, uh, a bit unbelievable. He may have been reflecting on her nice visit, but I'm not sure it would have been peaceful.

The latter half of the show moves up North. Up North, we're briefly reminded that the new Lord Commander hates Jon Snow and we learn that Locke, he of the hand cutting off, is just hanging out with the Knight's Watch for a bit, just minding his own business, until, yah, death to Jon Snow. In the meantime, Sam laments giving Gilly away just as a bunch of marauders are pillaging and eating their way through the villages like they are at the drive through at McDonald's. Which, yeah, Sam, Either way, maybe don't send your girlfriend to a whorehouse. I'm just saying.

And then we head North of the wall where a new character, or a newish character, who's name is tough to decipher is laying waste to the food and women at Crastor's keep, cussing up a storm like he's an essential character in Wolf of Wall Street. Are we troubled by his brutality? His cruelty? How many truly cruel people are we to see in GOT before we get tired of it, or ask how low people will sink. How many super villains can be created?

Despite the fact that I'm in favor of just ending the Bran story line by having Hodor hurl him off a cliff to go live among the wolves, it's nice to see some pieces finally converging. And I'll admit that the showdown at the Keep, with Locke, Snow, Bran, new evil guy etc. will bring some satisfying pieces into play. Plus, two wolves! I think we're all happy that the wolves have some company. If the brutality and raping at Crastor's Keep, one more reason that they should not have played the Jaime scene as they did last week, isn't enough, we have people sacrificing babies to the White Walkers.

But wait, if you were like me, the scene where the Walker started carrying the baby away really made me start to wonder. How come when the baby looked up the WW just kept carrying it. And, oh wait, where's he going. Is it some kind of city? Is it a village where the WW, who all look kind of grandfatherly in their own way are raising these kids up? Are we about to see a village full of kids kicking around a soccer ball on a thin sheet of ice with some clumsy WW goalie who is laughing because he loves the vitality of youth in comparison with his agedness? Are we going to witness the greatest turn of events in the history of television, greater than anything Lost or X-Files put forth. What if the WW were really just a boogieman story because everyone else was so bad. Maybe they are just a group of gay old men raising kids the right way in the ice, teaching them to grow food and play in hot springs.

Huh. Nah. It turns out they are just handing them over to some guy who looks like the love child of Voldomort and a goat in order to be turned into an army of death machines. I had thought better of you WW. I'm sad.