Speaking of her kin, a lot of Plot-with-a-capital-P gets piled on her brother and sister this week. The plot to marry Loras to Sansa hits a snag when seemingly every noble in King’s Landing finds out about it. Little Finger decides to send a strapping young squire to make Loras squawk (take that as you will) and then uses that information to his advantage, trying in his underhanded way to ingratiate himself to Sansa. Meanwhile, Cersei and Tyrion get brought before their dad to go over some business regarding the Lady Stark as well. There’s no room for love in this kingdom, and Tywin plans to marry Tyrion to Sansa (which makes Cersei smile) and to marry Cersei to Loras (which kills the aforementioned smile). This is actually where the episode ends, which is kind of weird considering that while it is a plot-important moment, the revelation isn’t really killer. After all, who hasn’t been engaged to Sansa at some point?
Meanwhile, Robb is having to deal with some treason in his ranks, after the young Lannisters who were caught in the previous week are brutally and shockingly murdered by Lord Carstark, who wanted revenge against the Lannisters for Jaime killing his son. This doesn’t sit well with Robb, who proves that he is better at beheading traitors than Theon was. This effectively loses him half his army, though, and thus he must find a way to win back the armies of the man whose daughter he was supposed to marry. I cannot wait to see how that goes on, but this movement of the episode also helped me to better understand the kind of man Robb is. He is much like his father, Ned, in that he values honor, loyalty, and honesty to his great detriment.
Also, John Snow got laid.
Well that’s unfair of me. Unlike a lot of the sex stuff in Game of Thrones, this bit with John Snow actually had some narrative force behind it. Snow is still facing a lot of uncertainty and hostility from the wildlings who think he might be trying to scam them, so after Ygritte stands up for him she asks for a show of fealty, so to speak. Fans will recall that the Night’s Watch took a vow of celibacy, so Ygritte wants Snow to break the vow. She could have chosen something a bit harder to persuade someone to do, however, but the two have a moment of intimacy, Snow invents oral sex, and then they have a reverie wherein they imagine they can live forever just with one another.
This is a good romance, something that has been building for a while, and a movement forward that doesn’t just serve to shock, but also to deepen relationships and make us question loyalties.
This just leaves us with Jaime and Brienne, who are brought to a castle where they are not, so far, being treated as wretchedly as they had been. Jaime gets some much-needed medical aid for his stump, and then he and Brienne share a bath together, where she both asserts he power and womanhood, and Jaime gives us a backstory to help us understand his I’m-so-evil-aren’t-I? posturing. The story of how and why he came to kill the Mad King is moving and effecting, and oddly enough gives us another dose of Ned Stark. Turns out Jaime was so sure that the honorable Ned Stark wouldn’t believe his tale that he didn’t even try. This scene is fantastic until the moment that Jaime lurches forward, Brienne catches him, and he asks that he be called by his given name. This is after he gives a delivery of some lines on par with “Strong men also cry” from The Big Lebowski. But I can look past all of that because this scene finally tipped me into a bit of empathy towards Jaime.
There was some stuff with Davos and Stannis too, but honestly aside from letting us know that Stannis’s wife is nuts, his daughter is deformed and locked in a tower, and Davos is alive and illiterate there’s not much here yet. I’m glad Davos might make it out ok, but I can’t talk much more about this because I just don’t know.
And now we end with Dany, who continues to be the only character I literally cheer for week after week. While Jorah and Barriston talk about their duties to her, their past together, and what the future could hold, Dany tries to give The Unsullied new names, as their current ones are all vermin and louses. However, the new general of the army points out that he had a different name when he was enslaved. The name he has now is the one he had when Dany set him free. So he will keep the lucky name, thank you. It’s another instance of showing us how the actions of these characters have implications beyond what they know, and Dany is building up quite a reputation for herself, which should serve her well in the years to come.
So that’s that. After a few episodes on some firm down notes Game of Thrones is back, and I’m eager to see what we are in store for next week.