Game Of Thrones and the Women of Westeros 4/10
The Children
Previously…
I went into The Watchers on the Wall here.
I just want to take a second to appreciate the credits. They change based on whatever physical transformations the places they show have gone through (Winterfell turning into a burnt out husk of itself, for one), they add almost every new place the show visits, and the rusty, aged clockwork toy movement has always been a thing of beauty. I really can’t wait to see them next season and what changes they bring.
Anyway, the credits take us to the usual places of the season along with Moat Cailin and Braavos, neither of which we visit, but I like the look of them, so it’s cool. My only disappointment is that they haven’t yet taken us north of The Wall. Maybe next year?
In a (gigantic) nutshell…
This was a jam-packed finale and a damned lot happened, so let’s get to it!
The show picks up where we left off, with Jon Snow riding out to kill (or be killed by) Mance. The Wildlings quickly capture him and Mance is super bummed Jon is wearing Night’s Watch black again instead of Wildling… I guess the prevailing fashion is skins and furs (with occasional bones and teeth for FLAIR!). When Mance lets him into his tent to “negotiate,” Jon reveals his Wildling adventure was all part of Qhorin Halfhand’s plan, even up to killing the guy, that Jon would gain their trust and learn their plans. Mance wants to know if Ygritte defected to be with Jon, but Jon miserably tells him she’s dead, that it wasn’t by him, and that she tried to kill him a damned lot first, which doesn’t cheer Mance up, really. Maybe drinking to her will work. Jon, after some hesitation, joins him in a toast as Mance insists poison is his least favorite way to kill. So… DRINK!
They talk about how the giant Mag, whose bloodline is all ancient and fancy, is dead by Jon’s (also dead) farmer friend, Grenn. Sucks to be them. DRINK! Incidentally, there could be a drinking game to whenever a character drinks in this show, but then the Cersei or Tyrion scenes would give us all a case of the deads, so maybe not. Anyway, Jon’s proposal is that Mance takes his toys and goes home. Mance thinks he’s just saying that because The Watch gave all it could last night and are low on out of weapons and oil and bodies… at least living ones. Jon tries to bluff, but Mance sees through it, but says he wants no more bloodshed.
Mance wants his people south of The Wall and safe from the White Walkers. If Jon lets them through the tunnel, they will stop slicing up every Black Brother they meet. If not, they will kill their way through them first, then go south. I’d say that seems fair, but Jon decides to eyeball a knife and Mance correctly assumes he came to kill him, even if it meant his own death. Mance throws in his face that the action would go against the very codes Jon’s sworn by, “killing a man in his own tent when he’s just offered you peace.”
We don’t find out how Jon would have answered that as warhorns are heard outside. Mance grabs Jon and demands to know if it’s the Night’s Watch attacking. But Jon confirms they don’t have the men to do it. The Wildlings start fighting back, but Mance stops them as he knows they’re outnumbered. Then it’s Stannis and Davos (!!!). Davos pimps Stannis out as king, as usual, and Stannis hints Mance should kneel. Mance refuses and, in this universe, that makes him funeral fodder. Davos notes Jon’s attire and questions a Night’s Watch man hanging with Wildlings. I immediately hope the show gives them an awesome scene commiserating about all the other assholes in Westeros they’re dealing with, but no. Davos just takes offense at Jon calling Mance the “King Beyond The Wall” as Stannis is the “one true king.” Jon’s all “Dude! My Dad DIED defending your guy! Okay?” Jon insists Mance could have tortured and killed him and didn’t, so should be shown mercy… like being imprisoned and interrogated because that’s nicer. He also tells Stannis to burn all of the dead.
FINALLY, we get to King’s Landing. I mean, I’m not super eager, because Maester Qyburn is fiddling with The Mountain’s remains, but at least it’s somewhere besides The Wall. The Viper did not kill The Mountain, but he did poison him with his blade and everything must smell awful if Cersei can’t take it, even with all the booze I’m just assuming she’s got in her system. Grand Maester Pycelle thinks Qyburn fiddling with The Mountain rather than letting him die is creepy. I agree, but am conflicted by how much I hate Pycelle. Cersei agrees with me on that, at least, and sends him away so Qyburn can work. He seems to think he can save The Mountain, but thinks he’ll be different (as in Pet Sematary different? Maybe.). Cersei doesn’t seem to care as long as he can still kick ass and goes off to find Daddy.
She informs him she is not marrying/bearding for Loras Tyrell and being sent away to Highgarden. Tywin informs her he doesn’t care what she wants. She reminds him she was ready to kill Tommen during Blackwater Bay rather than have him killed by Stannis and Pals and she sees Tywin and Margaery fighting over who gets to puppeteer her “last boy” as equally horrible, so she’ll do equal damage and reveal the incestuous truth about the children. Tywin pretends he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. My personal theory is that he’s always known on some level, but doesn’t care as long as his bloodline is on the throne, but Cersei seems to think he genuinely didn’t know. Either way, she threatens to shake out that dirty laundry all over Westeros if he sends her away and walks off to find Jaime, who’s still pretty pissed at her successful efforts to off my sweet Tyrion. They argue about her still blaming Tyrion for birth-killing Mumsy and he tells her she can’t choose her family. She says she can and chooses him, then gets incesty. Jaime resists, but is swayed by her having told Tywin, saying she’d tell the world, then kissing his golden hand. We cut away from their table sex to Meereen where…
Daenerys is queening over supplicants. One is an old former teacher-slave who flatters her, which she likes, then drops the hammer that he wants to go back to slave-teaching in a fancy house, which she likes a lot less. She points out she’s made barracks and mess halls, but he says he doesn’t feel safe with all the damned kids with their punk rock and skateboards, picking on the elderly and he wants his purpose back and, much like Ser Murtaugh, he’s too old for this shit.
She’s not happy, but says if he’s free, then he’s free to choose. She lets him enter a one-year contract. Ser Barristan thinks the masters will abuse this new option, but it’s done so… NEXT!
Like last time she had office hours, it’s a freaked out goat or sheep herder with a bundle of bones and we all know how Drogon likes to barbecue the herd. But it’s worse than that. He presents his daughter’s burned remains, then he weeps, then I weep, then our cries travel on the wind to Arizona, where George R.R. Martin laughs with evil glee (I presume). Dany meets with Missandei and Grey Worm later and learns Drogon’s been missing for days. Since she can’t rein him in, she takes his siblings down to the catacombs, luring them with sheep corpses. The sad violins kick in as she chains them up, crying and walking away as they screech after her.
Back at Castle Black, Aemon is presiding over the dead, lamenting that they protected the south, even though no one will remember their names. Hey, that does suck! At least commission a wall or something! Sam, Jon, and the other brothers help him light the giant pyre. Stannis and family (Shireen!) watch that action as Melisandre stares at Jon Snow. He’s creeped out and so am I. He then goes off to Tormund in the dungeon, who wonders why Maester Aemon treated his wounds. BECAUSE HE’S AWESOME! OKAY? Also, sworn duty. He then asks Jon if he loved Ygritte, because she loved him. Tormund could tell by how much she talked about killing him. Wildling dating rituals are brutal, y’all. Jon asks if Tormund has any funeral preferences for the dead. He doesn’t care as “the dead can’t hear us,” but does think Ygritte should be laid to rest in the “real north.” So Jon builds her a pyre near the sacred trees, lights it up. Then we get sad violins as he walks away crying. What’s the flipside of a running gag? A running bummer?
Things don’t get happier as we join Bran and Company, suffering their way through the snow. Jojen’s not doing so well and Meera begs him to rest, but he refuses, then collapses. He’s fine with that as they’ve reached the MAGIC tree (seen above). Before they can get there, wights (or the Ray Harryhausen version of them) burst through the ice for some old fashioned ankle grabbin! Meera tries to fight them off her brother as Summer dives for the one pulling at Bran (and gets lots of juicy bones to gnaw). Hodor just stands there hodoring loudly until Bran takes over his body and puts him in Super Hodor mode. He helps Meera fight, but they’re still losing.
Jojen yells to Bran in his white-eyed warg trance to save himself just before a particularly nasty skeleton stabs Jojen repeatedly (I am shocked! I’ll tell you why later). Two of them are closing in on Bran when they just explode. Bran snaps out of it and turns to find a creepy little girl standing at the mouth of the cave under the tree telling him to come with her and telling Meera her brother is lost. Jojen tells Meera to go with them as more skeletal wights pop up. Meera cries, then mercy-slits his throat before running to the cave. The little girl tosses a fireball at Jojen, so I guess we’re not going to get Walker Jojen. The skeletons chase them, but get all explodey at the mouth of the cave.
Creepy Girl (whose name is Leaf, which I suppose we’ll learn next season) says they’re powerless in there. Bran asks who she is. “The First Men called us ‘the Children’, but we were born long before them.” She leads them further in as other creepy children take a peek. They end up, I assume, directly under the tree, which has an old man growing out of it. Bran asks him if he’s the Three Eyed Raven from his visions and he says he is many things, but this is his true form. Meera is destroyed that her brother died leading them there, but quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” Not really, but he says Jojen knew what he was getting into, being psychic, and that he’s watched them all their lives and led them here. Bran’s pissed Jojen had to die for him, but The Raven says he died so Bran could regain what he’s lost. Bran thinks that means he’ll walk again. “Nevermore” on that, but The Raven says he “will fly.”
And then we get to my only scrap of glee in this episode. It’s Brienne and Pod! The horses have run away and they argue whether Pod secured them. Those two! Then they come upon Arya waterdancing (another non-book surprise) while the Hound’s going twosies. Brienne bonds a little with a wary Arya over their named swords and being Action Girls. But the scene goes tense when the Hound comes back and Pod knows him. Brienne deduces Arya’s identity and tells her about her quest. But The Hound thinks she works for the Lannisters with a look at Oathkeeper. Arya refuses to go with her and the Hound backs her up, saying there’s nowhere to go with even her aunt dead now. They swordfight over who gets to babysit Arya. And it’s brutal. It gets even bloodier when they disarm each other. Brienne wins in the end by giving The Hound a Van Gogh (or pulling a Mike Tyson, if you prefer) and shoving him down a rocky hillside. She calls for Arya, but she’s escaped.
Arya finds the Hound near death at the base of the hill, lamenting that he’s been killed by a woman. He tells her to go with Brienne and to scratch his name off her to-kill list, taunting her when she remains silent, reminding her how her killed her friend, Micah (God, that seems so long ago), even says he wishes he’d raped her sister. But she’s unmoved. He resorts to begging, but she takes his coin purse and walks away, ignoring him as he calls after her to kill him. Damn, Arya!
My precious Tyrion is also waiting for death, but Jaime shows up instead, taking him through tunnels and telling Tyrion Varys helped arrange an escape and a ship to the Free Cities. They hug and part (Hmmm. See below), but Tyrion doesn’t take the route he’s told. He moves through the secret passages to the Tower of the Hand for my least favorite Tyrion moment.
He finds Shae half asleep in his father’s bed. She wakes, expecting Tywin, using the same petname for him as she had for Tyrion, “my Lion.” They stare at each other in shock for a moment, then fight to the death — Shae’s death, that is, by strangulation with a necklace. Tyrion cries that he’s sorry to her corpse, then takes Joffrey’s crossbow through the darkened halls to find his father… on the crapper. Tywin is surprisingly calm, guessing Jaime helped him and saying they can go and talk. Tyrion doesn’t let him stand, keeping the crossbow on him.
“All my life you’ve wanted me dead,” is the first thing Tyrion says. Tywin doesn’t deny it, but claims he admires Tyrion’s will to live and wasn’t actually going to go through with his execution. Tyrion believes him about as much as I do and softly says he just killed Shae. Tywin says she doesn’t matter, being a “whore.” That just makes Tyrion angrier, saying he’ll kill him if he says that word again and demands to know why he sentenced him to die, knowing he didn’t posion Joffrey. Tywin keeps dismissing him and trying to get him to go and talk in his chambers, but Tyrion won’t go where Shae’s body is.
“Afraid of a dead whore?”
And that’s it! Tyrion shoots him in the gut and reloads.
“You’re not my son,” Tywin says. Really? You think that’ll help?
“I’ve always been your son,” is the last thing Tyrion says before finishing him off and finding Varys, who can tell he’s done something awful, but doesn’t press him about it. Varys just packs him into a crate and watches them hoist it on a ship down at the docks. Varys starts back to the castle, but hears the murder bells. He basically says “fuck it” and we next see him sitting on board next to Tyrions crate. Another surprise for me, as a book-thumper!
We last find Arya, having gotten hold of a horse, on the coast of the Vale, staring at a ship. She find the captain and asks to go north to the Wall, offering to pay and work. He doesn’t recommend it and, besides that, he’s going to Braavos (home of Syrio Forell!). She kind of ecitedly pulls out the coin Jaqen H’ghar gave her and gives ti the the captain, who seems shocked. She says “Valar morghulis” and he replies “Valar dohaeris” and offers her a cabin. He warmly welcomes her aboard the ship, and insists that she will have her own cabin. She looks at the receding land of Westeros as children sing in (according to a Reddit AMA with the composer, Ramin Djawadi) a Valyrian influenced language.
So… Lady Stoneheart? No? Okay.
The Women of Westeros…
It’s a shame for Dany, that she has to lock Rhaegal and Viserion away when it’s really Drogon who’s done the damage, but what’s the alternative? He may be the more aggressive, but she’s had the other two fry up a few people as well. Who’s to say they can tell the difference between her enemies and an innocent toddler? On that note, I wish Dany had spent more time training her babies up and less time flirting with Daario. Incidentally, I much prefer Show Dany to Book Dany as we spend less time in her head where it’s all “Oooh, Daario’s sooo dreamy!” I don’t know if the other book-thumpers would agree, but Show Dany exudes way more dignity.
I don’t have much to say about Missandei as she didn’t do much more than translate in this episode. But it seems she and Greyworm have moved up a bit in Dany’s version of a small council with Jorah gone. I wouldn’t mind seeing her sitting in on any strategy powwows next year.
Cersei has been in a more chipper mood since Tyrion’s sentencing. I’m never going to like Cersei or root for any of the decisions she makes or think she deserves any of the things she wants, but she’s always interesting and I definitely enjoyed her shoving the truth down her father’s throat and mocking him for being so blind. She seems to think she holds all the cards now, but we’ll see how that works out next year
As exciting as it was, I was bummed out to see Brienne fight in such a brutal, bloody battle. Not because she’s a woman, obviously, but because she’s lived her life with such high and noble ideals. Arya lost her innocence somewhere between her first kill and Jaqen H’ghar, but Brienne’s actually held on longer and likely still sees a world where good triumphs and evil is punished. Yes, she’s been in some hard situations and seen some awful things and she’s no stranger to killing a man, but I think she’s often gained the upper hand more quickly (the bear aside) and never fought down and dirty. So I suppose I’m just saddened that her world get a little darker with this fight. I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I think that, had Arya’s life not taken such a hard turn, she might have been Brienne.
Arya’s world actually seems brighter for a change. I’m not sure if I would call her happy in that final shot. I honestly think the last time we saw Arya happy was when she was training with Syrio Forel. But there was an air of excitement about her, from the moment she heard the word Braavos. She definitely got this episode’s Crowning Moment of Awesome with the ship and the swelling music. Her choosing not to kill the Hound was interesting as well. On one hand, leaving him to die slowly and painfully is a better punishment for his crimes than a mercy-kill. But I think a part of her might not have been able to do it. As much as she hates him, I think they’ve grown to understand and even respect each other in their travels. I’m going to miss their little team.
Poor Meera. Neither the book nor the show give us much insight into her character and why she does what she does. But she’s extremely brave, capable, and giving at all turns and doesn’t get much in return. I got very misty at Ellie Kendrick’s halting delivery of her line to the Raven. This show has done an amazing job as far as the giving certain female characters more depth and dimension than their book counterparts, so I hope Meera gets some of that action next year.
And we meet Leaf, even if her name wasn’t said. At this point, book and show, we don’t know much about Leaf except she’s super old, looks like a kid, and her hands spit fireballs. I guess that’s all we need for now. I don’t often find magical, all-knowing characters interesting to watch or read of as you rarely see them struggle and they’re almost always more plot device than characters in their own right. So I have no idea whether Leaf will intrigue me going forward. I do predict we’ll see a different actress in the role next year. With the wait between, the girl will be a foot taller by season 5.
Selyse and Shireen are seen, but have no lines. Neither does Melisandre, but she does manage to give me the creeps, even with only 8 or 9 seconds of screen time. Bravo, Carice van Houten.
I’ve mentioned before that Book Shae and Show Shae are two different characters. On the show, Shae has had more to do, an implies painful history, and I personally found her more interesting. I thought that meant her death would also be different. And it was, but not in a good way for me. I would have been fine with Shae trying to kill Tyrion if we first had some kind of closure. A few episodes ago, Bronn made it clear he’s out to do whatever it takes to keep himself at whatever level of power he can. I could have seen Tyrion’s last talk with Shae to have been something like that or to, you know, exist, before the killings. I guess, with the changes to the Tyrion/Shae relationship and the development they gave her character as opposed to Book Shae, I just wanted more from her ending. More nuance, more insight into her motivation, just more than two words, some grunts, and choking noises.
Passing The Bechdel Test….
Arya and Brienne’s little discussion of sword names and histories count, up until they mention their fathers. And Missandei and Dany have a brief exchange about the shepherd’s daughter, Zalla. It’s kind of a squeaker, though.
Other Notes (minor book spoilers below)…
I must admit, I was underwhelmed by the three-eyed Raven. I was expecting Treebeard’s humanoid uncle, not a garden variety old man just sitting in some roots.
So Show Jojen is dead, but Book Jojen is still kicking. I’m trying to figure out what that means. Does that mean Book Jojen is going to eat fireball pretty quickly in The Winds of Winter? I guess I won’t know till it hits bookstores, if that even happens in my lifetime.
So quite a few things were left out of Tyrion and Jaime’s goodbye, book to show. I won’t go into exactly what, but they didn’t part on the friendliest terms in the book and quite a few fans think the show wimped out on that. I actually don’t have a problem with that. There was also no mention of Tysha between them or between Tyrion and Tywin. Of course, as much as Book Tyrion thinks about Tysha, there really is no dialogue about her or any direct actions of his caused by her. So… Eh, I’m okay with it.
I’m a little less okay with the changes to Shae and Tyrion’s final meeting. I can even understand why the showrunner made it more like self-defense than it was in the book. Without getting into Tyrion’s inner monologue, it would be really hard to still like his character after seeing him up and kill the woman he loves. Hell, I had issues coming to terms with it as a reader. I’m just annoyed they made her try to kill him without even a word between them. As I said above, they gave Shae too much depth on the show to have her go out in such a shallow way. I’m not saying he couldn’t have still killed her, but that it could have gone down in a way that was more satisfying in light of the changes previously made.
But, as a general observation, the show is not letting Tyrion’s arc and mental state get quite as dark as the books did, possibly because they don’t want the audience to stop rooting for him. So I understand why they did it. I just don’t think it had to be done at the expense of paying off Shae’s character development.
I try not to let the show’s deviations from the books get to me too much. I really do try to see it as a separate animal, but no Lady Stoneheart? I’ve been reading that there might be no Lady Stoneheart in season 5, either. While we’re on missing persons, what about Coldhands? If they don’t greatly affect the central narrative, then I can see cutting them in the interest of economy. But I don’t like it much. This show does tend to play down the book’s fantasy at times, but I’m wondering if, should they keep cutting out interesting fantasy elements, we’ll just be watching an alternate universe of The Tudors, here.
RIP Shae and Jojen. Your lives were short and brutal and I think you deserved better. Eat brimstone, Tywin! As for the Hound, I still refuse to believe you’re dead.
Fangasms…
So Varys has gone traveling with Tyrion! My theory is that the show is making that change because Varys has a way of delivering exposition that will come in handy with us going to new cities with new customs and characters. Either way, I’m looking forward to it. The show has definitely given Varys a larger role to play, with those cozy throne room chats and I, for one, love it!
I also loved that they found a way to bring Brienne and Arya together. It was definitely something I never knew I wanted. The events leading to the Hound’s… demise (book or show, I’m not saying it’s a death till I see a corpse) were more interesting and immediate doled out by Brienne than by an infection. And I think it was a balm to see one of the members of Team Good get a win after how viciously The Mountain destroyed The Viper. Not that the Hound hasn’t been partially redeemed, but even at his best, he’s still Team Gray.
This episode was bummerific on the whole, so I loved that they ended on Arya’s last scene with a note of hope and anticipation.
The locations, music, performances and general quality of this show are still amazing and I think it can stand up next to most feature films. Despite my complaints above, I am happy to have it in my life and miserable that I have to wait so long for it to come back.
Next up: Season 5, episode 1: The Wars To Come
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