The Longest Night — Game of Thrones: ‘Garden of Bones (2x04)’
“Volantis? You’re far from home.”
Writer(s): Vanessa Taylor
Director: David Petrarca
Events: In Oxcross, Robb Stark springs a surprise attack on Lannister forces overnight, the next morning he meets his future wife Talisa, who’s currently working as a field nurse; In King’s Landing, Joffrey publicly humiliates Sansa in the throne room before Tyrion interrupts proceedings and talks Ser Meryn Trant down to size; At Harrenhal, Arya Stark begins reciting her list, while the Mountain orders the torture of nearby villagers, Tywin Lannister arrives and names Arya as his cupbearer; Daenerys and her travellers arrive at the walls of Qarth, and are eventually granted entry by Xaro Xhoan Doxos; Baelish returns Ned’s bones to Catelyn in the Stormlands, while Renly and Stannis parley; Melisandre gives birth to a shadow as Davos watches on in horror.
DON’T PROCEED IF YOU’RE NOT COMPLETELY CAUGHT UP WITH GAME OF THRONES, YOU FOOLS.
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‘Garden of Bones’ is largely recognised by both the Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire communities as the first major deviation from the source material. Entirely new scenes, written exclusively for the visual medium, are introduced in this episode as the show gets in some early practise at riding without stabilisers. Even as someone who hasn’t read the source material, the atmosphere of the adapted scenes and completely new scenes during this hour are noticeable in ways that the writers might not have envisioned — but these new scenes are still effective drama, and by their very nature they mirror several culture clashes that take place throughout the episode.
As many bonds and partnerships were significantly dented or completely severed in the previous episode, new ones are formed here, albeit with mixed fortunes and potential. Robb might meet his future wife Talisa for the first time, and we might be made aware that Tyrion will care for Sansa from arm’s length in King’s Landing, but Daenerys is encountering the exploitative, conniving Thirteen of Qarth and Arya is taken into Tywin Lannister’s staff at Harrenhal. So as Game of Thrones gains the confidence to not only adapt the scenes outlined in George R. R. Martin’s novels, but to use his characters to develop fresh plotlines and take the show in new directions, it still shows that it’s willing to plunge its characters into uncertain depths just as the books would.
After spending three episodes trudging through the Red Waste (it seems that choice was a deliberate one made by the writers), Daenerys and her tiny, tired khalasar have finally arrived at the walls of Qarth. Her entry into the city doesn’t quite go to plan, as the Thirteen leaders of the city remain stubborn despite her protests. Her situation looks desperate until Xaro Xhoan Doxos “invokes Sumai” (a blood oath) to grant her passage through the gates. It’s arguably the first major example of the show veering off-piste and designing its own devices for plot progression, as the source material instead sees her meet with Quaithe and two of the Thirteen and stay with Xaro Xhoan Doxos in his palace.
It’s not deliberate, but this clash between the Game of Thrones writers, who are beginning to take control of the show they’ve designed, and the source material they’ve spent the previous thirteen episodes adapting almost verbatim, is neatly mirrored by Daenerys’ confrontation with the Thirteen outside the city walls. Two completely disparate perspectives, two separate parties, with one perhaps needing to work harder to sway favour with the other, until they reach something of a compromise. Now, the transition from Game of Thrones treading in A Song of Ice and Fire’s footsteps to walking out on its own is more harmonious than Daenerys’ reluctant arrangement with the Thirteen, but watching two cultures meet in such a contained environment evokes the status of the writers’ room at this point in the show’s timeline.
In the Riverlands, a similar encounter occurs — only in a significantly cooler climate. Following his successful surprise attack on a band of Lannister soldiers in Oxcross, Robb Stark meets Talisa Maegyr for the first time. She’s working as a medic in the aftermath of the battle, and Robb helps her amputate a young soldier’s leg. She’s impartial, commenting that Robb and Roose Bolton’s men are not her men. She challenges Robb on his involvement in this war, that he’s something of a hypocrite to lead an army despite having liberal leanings, before asking what his plan of action is once the fighting stops. For the first time, Robb doesn’t have an answer to her question and can’t squeeze in the last word.
As their conversation ends, Robb inquires about her place of birth. The revelation that she’s a thousand miles from her home of Volantis completely dumbfounds Robb, leaving him gazing at her as she rides away from the battlefield, still chastising him over his direct and influential role in the War of the Five Kings. We discover in later episodes that Talisa underwent medical training and headed to Westeros when a slave rescued her brother from drowning. The experience of this slave’s actions was so profound that, in the present day, they influence her every word. In more ways than one, after winning battle after battle after battle, Robb has finally met his match.
And in the episode’s decisive moments, we’re finally given a full-frontal view (sorry) of the dark magic which has begun to leak into the show by way of Melisandre’s influence over Stannis. Davos, who isn’t — as he tells us numerous times between his first appearance and the end of season seven — a learned man, is instructed by his king Stannis to escort Melisandre to the mainland. Before he finds out the reason for these orders, Davos and Stannis share a conversation which properly explores the context of their relationship for the first time in the show. Davos served Stannis during Robert’s Rebellion by using his experience of smuggling to get supplies to the Baratheon seat of Storm’s End — Stannis considered this to be an act of loyalty and a crime in equal measure, and so knighted Davos before removing half of his fingers.
It’s a brief insight into the history of a man who’s never known anything except the ways of a smuggler. A knighthood, being part of a king’s council, and now dealing with the prospect of this king being influenced by magical forces, was far beyond anything Davos expected to experience during his entire life. But he’s the man tasked with smuggling Melisandre to the mainland and into a pitch-black cave. He looks on in horror as Melisandre gives birth to smoky, oily, demon-resembling shadow assassin.
Davos is a man defined by simple things: resourcefulness, raw materials, loyalty, his roots. He’s spent his life around wood, steel, water, and local produce. But his eyes are now bearing witness to things his mind can’t explain — and in some ways, he embodies the audience in this scene. Season one was defined by aspects like that of Davos’ existence, and until Daenerys’ dragons appeared in ‘Fire and Blood’ we were left wondering when the fantasy gears behind this show would begin to grind. But as the shadow crawls, fully grown, out of Melisandre, Game of Thrones stops dipping its toe into fantastical waters, and dives right in.
8.0
Lost ravens:
— Arya’s suddenly hardened and numb, responding to the deaths surrounding her at Harrenhal with little more than a shrug. There’s very little panic in her expression while all around her, fear is on show. Hot Pie urinates on himself after narrowly avoiding being chosen for execution. She recites her list for the first time in this episode following Yoren’s tale of Willem last week, adding Polliver as he abuses prisoners begging for food. Before she can be chosen for torture, Tywin Lannister arrives and selects her to be his cupbearer. God I’m looking forward to their scenes together.
— Ned’s bones are returned to Catelyn by Petyr Baelish, who’s uncharacteristically flustered in their scene, moving from being his usually cunning self to resembling his actions in his final moments. He tearfully tells Sansa that he loves her just as Arya swings the blade across his throat in that scene, and in this one he proposes that fate has given Catelyn the chance to marry him. It’s a show invention, this scene, and it’s a controversial one amongst the A Song of Ice and Fire readers, but it at least serves as a timely reminder that Baelish is in love with Catelyn.
— The Brotherhood and their war against the Mountain in the Riverlands are all mentioned for the first time. We’ll have to wait a little while to meet them, though.
— In the throne room, Joffrey continues his maltreatment of Sansa. He forces Meryn Trant to undress her in public and almost gives the order for Trant to injure her, but he’s prevented from doing so by Tyrion’s arrival. Tyrion talks Trant down to size (“That was a threat. See the difference?”), takes Sansa from the hall, and offers her the chance to have her engagement to Joffrey reversed. Sansa replies, with a measured poker face and a delivery that still sounds broken by the death of her father, that she is loyal to her king Joffrey, her one true love. Tyrion marvels at her resilience: “Lady Stark, you may survive us yet.”
— The following scene, though, has proven controversial to say the least and is unfortunately symptomatic of a problem Game of Thrones had before they responded to negative feedback during the writing phase of season six. In a protracted exchange that sees Joffrey torture Ros and her colleague under threat of crossbow impalement, the show uncomfortably sexualises violence against women and shoehorns it in for shock value. The show invented this scene to provide further evidence of Joffrey’s cruelty and sadism, and our sympathies don’t rest with Joffrey in this scene at all, and even on a character level, the scene ventures into realms of Joffrey’s mind that we’ve only been given occasional glances into. But the events of this scene can be implied and still have the same effect. Take the closing moments of ‘Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken’, where Ramsay rapes Sansa on their wedding night: instead of showing Ramsay committing this terrible act, the camera pans towards Theon’s pained expression as we hear Sansa’s moans of painful anguish from the other side of the room. It’s something the show has grown out of now — just look at how Sansa regained her agency from Ramsay and Baelish in season six — but there’s a reason columns like this had to be written after ‘Garden of Bones’: http://www.wetpaint.com/joffreys-sadistic-sex-scene-did-game-of-thrones-finally-go-too-far-702428/
— Stannis and Renly parley in the Stormlands, with neither conceding to the other. Renly will be dead by the time the next episode ends, and we’re going to miss him. Here, Stannis offers him the chance to sit on his council should he take the Iron Throne. Renly refuses, and it’ll prove to be a fateful mistake.
