The Longest Night — Game of Thrones: ‘And Now His Watch is Ended (3x04)’
“The revenge you want will be yours in time… if you have the stomach for it.”
Writer(s): David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Director: Alex Graves
Key events: Locke torments Jaime over losing his hand, Brienne then teaches him about revenge. The Brotherhood bring the Hound to trial, and Beric Dondarrion returns to fight him. Varys displays his influence to Tyrion before meeting with Ros and Lady Olenna. Margaery commands the love of the common people, much to Cersei’s concern — Sansa and Margaery befriend one another. Bran Stark shares a dream with Jojen. Ramsay tricks Theon by leading him back to his torture chamber. The Night’s Watch brothers grow frustrated with Craster’s treatment of them, and a mutiny occurs with Craster and Lord Commander Mormont killed in the chaos — Sam and Gilly flee together. Daenerys seizes the Unsullied and reclaims Drogon before murdering Kraznys and the other slave masters.
SPOILERS FOR SEASON SEVEN OF GAME OF THRONES BELOW:
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And they’re off! Season three of Game of Thrones explodes into life just like that. Suddenly, we’re not so much looking forward as we are being thrown. After three episodes of place-setting, we’re into the middle third of the season, and we’ve landed with a bang. ‘And Now His Watch Is Ended’ isn’t necessarily an episode concerned with revenge, but it does preach the value of patience in planning bolts from the blue. The two scenes that define this episode have the sudden impact they do because they arrive without warning and because their ramifications for both plot and character are so hugely significant, but they’re the fantastic culmination of weeks-long signalling. Even the scenes that are no larger than two people exchanging words extol the virtues of playing the long game when trying to get what you want. The planning is so patient, so thorough, so calculated, that once the dust settles — literally in the case of Daenerys’ show-stopping climax — shocking moments seem completely inevitable. This is adaptation-era Thrones at its very best.
Ever since he was introduced at the front end of season two, the contempt for Craster among the Night’s Watch brothers has been brewing under the surface, and Lord Commander Mormont’s placating of him has only made matters worse. Old wounds are opened in this episode, Karl fookin’ Tanner says too much, and both Craster and Mormont meet their inevitable ends. And much like her actions in season one, Daenerys has quietly studied events at play and waited patiently as the men around her attempt to control her destiny, only for her to make a huge power play that places her future back in her control. We’ve known for two seasons that Daenerys can speak Valyrian, and we’ve known for weeks that Daenerys can understand Kraznys’ misogynistic ramblings — he’s been walking into a fiery trap from the moment we met him, and his end is pure fist-pumping spectacle.
To understand the role that patience plays in these elaborate plans, however, we have to retreat slightly to the final moments of last week, as Jaime Lannister lost his sword hand. He’s barely recovering this week, moping and feverish while his severed hand sags from a string around his neck, and he’s already prepared to give up. Brienne’s treatment of him seems harsh initially, referring to his missing hand as nothing more than “a little misfortune”, but this is Westeros, and losing a hand is just about the lightest form of punishment a person can receive. She stokes a fire in him and reminds him that he must stay alive to pay them back, and that dying now will only serve Locke and the men who took his identity from him. Revenge and anger might be only two things capable of keeping Jaime alive, and Jaime’s perhaps the only thing standing between her and being alone with a callous, evil group of men on the road.
Elsewhere, Ramsay has taken Theon on a merry dance around some unknown locations in the North as part of his plan to torture him and verify whether Bran and Rickon escaped Winterfell. It turns out all he needed to do was present Theon with a chance to reunite with his sister Yara and consider who his “real family” are (“My real father lost his head in King’s Landing”). All that foot crushing and finger slicing was for nought: stick him in a damp tunnel underneath (what Theon believes is) Deepwood Motte and he confesses that Bran and Rickon were never found and that two orphan boys were murdered in their place. It’s the news Ramsay has been waiting to hear since his father Roose ordered him to seize Winterfell from the Greyjoys — he’s completed his task. But acting independently of his father now, Ramsay has taken Theon back to his torture chamber — Theon is no longer an informant, but Ramsay’s plaything to with whatever he wishes, and all he had to do was wait.
So now we understand that patience in exacting revenge has taken many forms across the map in Game of Thrones this week, how do the episode’s two defining sequences stand above the rest? For starters, events beyond the Wall in the episode are not only startling and chaotic but also incredibly sad. Mormont was a giant of a man, a woolly, benevolent leader, and a key mentor for Jon Snow as he remained distracted by events further south. The Night’s Watch are without a Lord Commander, the brothers are splintered and fractured all over the place, and the two brothers responsible for this mess — Rast and Karl fookin’ Tanner — have control of Craster’s Keep. What on earth happens when the White Walkers come for their next offering?
On the complete other side of the map, the explosive climax to the hour finally sets Daenerys’ plans in motion. Her vision has shifted slightly, however: having been made aware of the slavery and poverty in Essos, she’s decided that she can’t leave for Westeros without liberating a sizeable portion of the common people. Essos is a continent ruled by violent slave maters and this incredible power play sees her slaughter dozens of them. She takes the Unsullied army for her own, delivers the wonderful line that “a dragon is not a slave”, and heads for Yunkai. Despite her occasional shortcomings and slightly limited range, Emilia Clarke’s still a fine Daenerys and she’s at her best in moments like this, where Dany’s authoritarian streak blasts through to take centre stage. It’s one of Game of Thrones’ most fondly remembered sequences, and revenge and patience are at the heart of it all.
9.5
Lost ravens:
— ‘And Now His Watch is Ended’ starts a run of episodes for Game of Thrones that continues right up until the last moments of season four. It’s an episode full to the brim with fantastic character moments, devilishly smooth dialogue, and some of the show’s most memorable spectacles. As started before, it’s adaptation-era Thrones at its very, very best.
— Brienne is acting less out of a sense of duty to Catelyn Stark and more out of wanting to protect Jaime this week, which is understandable given the horrors he’s suffered over the past two episodes. It’s the beginning of their lovely arc together which still holds weight on a character level four seasons on.
— Varys reveals a lot of his past to Tyrion as a way of showing that patience and a pure thirst for revenge can return surprising results when combined with influence. He’s waited years to meet face to face with the sorcerer who castrated him, and now he’s powerful enough to do just that. “Influence grows like a weed” if you’re persistent and patient enough. In a wonderful exchange, he and Olenna also reveal that they’re keeping an eye on Littlefinger’s relationship with Sansa Stark, which will lead to Littlefinger holding “the key to the North” if they’re not careful.
— The common people are taken with Margaery, and their fascination with her leads to a better reception for Joffrey. Cersei looks on, concerned once more as Margaery’s influence over her son continues to grow. Margaery also has plans to marry Loras to Sansa, as these families look to tie themselves to each other and lock themselves in place.
— Sam and Gilly escape the mutiny at Craster’s Keep with Gilly’s son. Rast makes idle threats as he shouts into the night, but he’ll never catch them now.
— Bran’s dreaming with Jojen this time, as Catelyn appears in the vision and orders him not to climb before dropping/pushing him from the tree. It’s hard to view Bran’s arc without the distraction of what he becomes, but this part of his storyline is a little puzzling until he silences Hodor in ‘The Rains of Castamere’ by controlling his mind. For now, Bran has no control over his own.
— The scene involving the Hound and the Brotherhood does a little too much exposition to catch us up with why Beric Dondarrion and the Clegane family hate each other so. But once it’s established that Beric has been brought back into the show to fight the Hound in his trial by combat, the cliffhanger makes for a tense scene. It’s yet another chance in this episode for someone to get revenge.
