For the better part of four seasons, whether you realized it or
not, this show has been presided over by two patriarchs, Ned Stark and Tywin
Lannister. And now they are both dead, which means we'll get to see a
referendum on parenting styles, (Thank you GOT for giving us the
wonderful scene of a son killing his father on Father's Day) though I suppose
Tyrion has already delivered an arrow or two that suggests Tywin may have made
an error or two in his past.
From his opening scene, skinning a deer while upbraiding his
oldest son and telling him that it was time to become a man, Tywin has been the
force running the Seven Kingdoms. I suppose I should have seen this coming,
(like I did the inevitable Hound vs. Brienne fight) particularly when Tywin
said that the gold in the mines had dried up and when his daughter told him
that all of her children were a product of incest. Things suddenly stopped
looking bright. And yet, up until the moment that Tyrion actually fired, it was
hard to believe that you could kill Tywin; you just listened to his next set of
instructions.
Charles Dance has been wonderful as Tywin Lannister, and his
acting will be missed. He instilled Twyin with a quiet calm, an intelligent,
yet demanding villainy that made the show and the Lannister family the most
interesting people to watch on the show. Perhaps though, Tyrion did him a
favor, killing him on the privy before he had to watch the downfall of
everything he had tried to build. Stannis is riding around in the north and the
people of Dorne will probably not be too happy with the melon head made of
Oberyn. It's conceivable that he died at the just the right time.
If the first three seasons were about the downfall of the Stark
house, and it was, at least according to the show runners, then the fourth
season was about the quick slide of the Lannisters as well. First Joffrey, then
the gold mines, then the incest playing out, and now the death of Tywin. What
it means for the show on the whole is that a lot of the chess board is now
open.
Another way to describe this episode is to say: shit! A hell of a
lot just happened. I'm tempted to say, perhaps fairly, that they back loaded
this season unnecessarily. This episode, combined with the last, felt like the
beginning of a great movie trilogy as opposed to the winding up of a fourth
season of a television show. And that is much to the show's credit. It's very
rare that a show feels like it's gaining momentum as it reaches its midpoint.
That's no guarantee that it won't bog down faster than Dany in the city of
Mereen, but at this point the show is firmly going strong.
In brief, though I was initially annoyed to be back up North with
emo Jon Snow the plot changed quickly. If not for spoily book readers, I'd have
had no idea that Stannis was behind the charge at Mance's camp. That said, I
was happy that Mance got to say that he'd like his people to shelter behind the
walls as opposed to take them. It seems like another opportunity was missed for
people to come together as opposed to killing each other, and it wasn't quite
taken. I was excited to see Stannis do something besides look dour, and I
assume he'll keep heading north.
Though Jon Snow has long been the least interesting of the Stark
children, at least in terms of real action, this episode presented a turn for
his character that is hopeful. Jon actually showed some agency, saying to
Tormund, "I have no king." And yet, he's retained many of the solid
qualities that made Ned Stark beloved such as honor and executing a harsh deed
by your own hand as opposed to contracting it out. (Side note: we're not
actually sure if he's Ned's child. He could just as well be a foster child,
Dornish prince, a Baratheon or the first dark-haired Taergaryn for all we
know. I'm guessing by the eyes the red woman made at him that he's got some
claim on nobility, even if it's just Ned's). This actually makes his arc the
easiest to root for as Sansa 2.0 is with Petry, Arya is developing a bit of
cold-heartedness, Theon is Reek and Bran is well: a dragon rider?
As for Stannis, I'm not too hopeful that he's going to win a war
against the white walkers, but at least he's doing something, (besides
Melisandre) for once.
Elsewhere in the North, Bran finished his thankfully truncated
journey to the tree of all hope where he met the three eyed raven that's been
bothering him since season 1 episode 2. Were the CGI skeletons kind of
terrible? Yes. Was the death of the kid from Love Actually kind of a non-thing
because we didn't get to know him well, sure? Is anyone else a little less
excited about little girls who fire bomb skeletons than about Lannisters who
can't help but in fight and bed their sisters, sure? But at least something is
happening to Bran, which is a plus. And I'm not sure what Gandalf the tree
means when he says that Bran is going to fly, but I think we all hope that it's
a dragon and that he's not turned into a three-eyed raven.
As a set piece, the North now seems like it will take a more
prominent and magical role. It's up to the show runners to keep the same degree
of interest and insight into characters and relationships, which, up until now,
has been what has made King's Landing feel so vital.
Just south of the wall, Arya's storyline came to its inevitable
moment of change. Ever since Brienne announced that she was going north it's
been pretty clear that Brienne and the Hound would end up in a sword fight.
(Toots own horn for predicting it a few episodes back...gets sad because I
liked the Hound). The sword, and fist fight comes to a brutal end, with the
Hound plunging down the side of a cliff to his near death. Arya takes the
opportunity to hide away from her captors, which, side note, why didn't they at
least take her horse when they went looking for her?
Though Arya has long been the Stark child that's easiest to root
for: she's young, not stupid, and not a male, her arc has had her bear witness
to most of the terrible moments to befall her family. She'd be dead if it
weren't for the Hound, and though she's long promised to kill him I was rooting
for it not to happen. (The actual death scene, or torture scene between the
Hound and Arya is one of the times where the externality of a television show
falls far short of the interiority of a good novel. It's unclear whether she
took the wine and didn't kill him because she's cold-hearted, or because she
couldn't bring herself to kill him. As it is, it appears that she did it to
make it worse. However, if that's the case then she's instantly become less
likeable and more reminiscent of a killer than of someone seeking justice or vengeance.
If she couldn't bring herself to do it because she knows that he protected her,
well then....
Down in King's Landing Cersei is trying to revive Sir Gregor with
the help of the guy who helped saved Jaime, but who is also the most likely to
create Frankenstein. He even goes so far as to say, "It may change him a
little," which I suppose is supposed to sound ominous, except that Sir
Gregor is already a murderous bastard, so I'm not entirely sure how a change
would make him worse. Personally, I'm hoping he gets into musical
theater.
From there, she walks in to tell her father that she will not be
obeying him, revealing another chink in the Lannister armor, and confessing her
incestual relationship with Jaime. Nothing gets her more excited than being
terrible, so she goes off and beds Jaime on a hard wooden table. Can someone
please get these people a down comforter? As it is, though Jaime is clearly on
a more positive character arc, it's clear that Cersei still holds his sword in
her sway.
In Mereen, Dany sits imperiously listening to petitioners. Oh,
except, now she's hearing from people who want to be sold back into slavery. So
much for the freedom arc. To put the final nail in the coffin, a petitioner
shows up with the bones of his three year old daughter, killed by her largest
dragon, Drogon. Dany considers her options before chaining up her two remaining
dragons like dogs, and, in case you missed it, the breaker of chains is now
reapplying chains. Her children are now her captives, and it's probably time
she left Mereen or just let her dragons fly around terrorizing everyone because
simply ruling isn't all that fun. Luckily fire doesn't burn her, because I was
afraid her two little dragons were going to try and make a beautiful S'more out
of her when she walked out.
We finally head south for Tyrion's escape, engineered by Jaime and
Varys. Unfortunately, for Twyin and Shae, Tyrion takes a slight detour into a
murderous rage before departing. Shae's motivations, like Arya's earlier, are a
bit unclear. Was she always a whore for only money? Did she turn on Tyrion when
he turned her away? As it is, she's lying in Tywin's bed and calling him
"My Lion." This does not further endear her to Tyrion who strangles
her before picking up a crossbow. The change is not subtle, as the camera shows
Tyrion's face shifting into darkness before he fires a couple of crossbow bolts
into his father. (Happy Father's Day). One of the fine moments in the episode
is Varys hearing the bells toll and immediately boarding the ship with Tyrion,
realizing that his fortunes have changed without anyone having to tell him. He,
like Tyrion, is a survivor.
And so as we head into the fifth season, the board has been
cleared again. I assume we'll head south with Tyrion and Varys, and to Bravos
with Arya. I realize that these moves have provided problems for book readers
and Martin, who realize that at some point the world needs to contract as
opposed to expand. And yet, as I said before, it's rather impressive for a show
to have so many interesting plot lines and characters that are still building
in momentum after four seasons. It's that feeling of momentum that's palpable
when the camera pans to Arya on the deck of a ship bound for Bravos, and I
realized that it's the first time since she left King's Landing in episode 1
that she hasn't been someone's captive or charge. She's headed towards
something unknown, somewhere out across the glittering sea is something
hopeful. A journey which runs in parallel to the viewer, who, with so many
chess pieces scattered across the board, is now sitting at home too, watching
the same glittering sea, wondering what will come next.
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