The Longest Night — Game of Thrones: ‘The Night Lands (2x02)’
“We are sworn to protect.”
Writer(s): David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Director: Alan Taylor
Events: Tyrion is now Hand of the King — he sends Janos Slynt to Castle Black and instates Bronn as head of the City Watch. Arya reveals her identity to Gendry — both are under the protection of Yoren, who fends off City Watchmen looking for Gendry. Daenerys discovers that one of her bloodriders has been beheaded during his search for civilisation in the Red Waste. Theon returns to Pyke, only to find that his father has no interest in helping the Starks, and plans to invade the North himself. Davos enlists the help of the pirate Salladhor Saan. Jon discovers the truth about Craster’s sons, Sam meets Gilly.
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Before the final moment of the episode provides us with a somewhat hackneyed cliffhanger, as Jon Snow spies on Craster before being bopped on the head, ‘The Night Lands’ remains relatively low on incident. Instead, it’s one of the early episodes of Game of Thrones that clearly helped towards developing its reputation for building drama, character depth, and organic narrative progression out of intimate conversations and private scheming. Put simply, it’s an episode that prioritised the power of the voice and mind over that of swords and magic. That doesn’t necessarily mean the show has worsened because its priorities have changed over the years, it just excels at different things now.
These early scenes, however — where two characters sit around a table, discussing the true nature of power, politics, and money, and how something as seemingly priceless as loyalty can be bought and sold if the right price is offered — are where the heart of the show truly lies. After ‘The North Remembers’ focused on outlining the initial steps of season two’s plot, ‘The Night Lands’ is a patient hour that sits in the finer details of its characters and their intentions. It’s an episode dedicated to deconstructing traditional notions of authority, exposing corruption that’s present in all political circles, and identifying the mentors and protectors of the “grotesques” whose responsibility it is to drag the Known World into a new age, even if they’re not aware of it yet.
All over the map, we’ve now identified some trustworthy faces to follow. Even in a story such as this, where duplicitous, slimy figures creep in and out of corridors and hallways, befriending folk in one scene and betraying them in the next, a group of benevolent protectors have emerged and managed to stand out. In something of a chain of security, Yoren protects Gendry, whilst Gendry protects Arya. The gold cloaks of the City Watch catch up with Yoren’s travelling band to “retrieve” Gendry on account of him being one of Robert’s many bastards, but Yoren stands in the way and sends them back to King’s Landing. And once Gendry’s aware of Arya’s true Stark identity — that she’s not an orphan boy named Arry after all — he keeps her under his watch.
As season one ended, Arya was left to fend for herself, surviving by trading dead pigeons for stale pies, so it’s (falsely) reassuring to see her with people she can learn to laugh with and enjoy the company of. Yoren is eventually killed by Polliver and his men in ‘What Is Dead May Never Die’, but she’s under Gendry’s attentive eye, and her companionship with Hot Pie develops to keep each of them strong. Through seasons two and three, the trio learn to distrust the intentions of the corrupted adults who surround them, relying on each other until they can rely on themselves.
Much further north at Craster’s Keep, another one of the show’s most beloved characters is beginning to emerge, as Sam finally begins to break free of the residual effects of his abusive upbringing. It’s Gilly who ultimately inspires him to be decisive, as she reveals to Sam that she’s pregnant — potentially with one of Craster’s doomed sons — and that she needs to escape the Keep with them. The Sam of season one would have likely backed away and returned to Jon’s coattails, lamenting his inability to seize an opportunity to save someone. But his brief time with the Watch has changed him, and he reminds Jon that, as a band of brothers, they’re sworn to protect the downtrodden. Jon buries his head from it, and scares Gilly away, but Sam is determined to see through a vow he’s written for himself.
Across the Narrow Sea in the Red Waste, the death of one of her bloodriders, Rakharo, provides an opportunity for Daenerys to shield Irri, one of her handmaidens, from the horrors of him being decapitated by a rival khalasar. They’re presumably located somewhere in the parched wasteland that rolls out in front of them, and on the hunt for blood. Irri wails and panics as she screams that Rakharo’s mutilation will prevent him from joining his ancestors in the Night Lands, the “land of the dead in the Dothraki belief system.”
But Daenerys kneels with Irri, dries her tears, and ensures her that Rakharo will make it there, just as Jorah sat with her in ‘The North Remembers’ and implored her to be the strength of her tribe. From this point on, Daenerys’ belief in herself to grant her followers their hopes and dreams gets stronger, and her speeches and monologues are delivered not from kneeling positions but with both feet on the ground and with her shoulders as wide as they can stretch. Her arrogance and faith in herself take many knocks during her adventures to Qarth and continue even when she’s inside the city’s walls, but they’re all necessary lessons in her preparation for true leadership.
8.5
Lost ravens:
— Not everyone in this show has such a benevolent mentor to care of them, sadly. Theon’s a dick, and it’s truly astounding to see him be so arrogant after everything he goes through as Reek. It’s a testament to Alfie Allen’s terrific performance as Theon that it’s such a jolt to return to the beginning of his arc. Once he arrives home at Pyke he expects to be treated like royalty, until he finds out he’s groped his sister, Yara, as opposed to a sex worker, and that his father has named Yara one of the commanders of the Iron Fleet over him. In King’s Landing, Ros is forced by Littlefinger to stop mourning the death of her colleague’s infant child, and to return to making him money. The warning he gives her in case she can’t return to work is bone-chilling, and shows how trapped Ros really is.
— We don’t check in with Stannis this week until the very end. It’s the episode where he begins to lose himself somewhat to the Lord of Light. Melisandre promises him a son, and they’re the words Stannis has longed to hear. The wooden sigils fall to the floor from the Painted Table, as Stannis and Melisandre have sex. It’s an act that will eventually Davos of the true power of the Lord of Light, and leave Renly Baratheon dead in his own camp. Davos and Matthos are currently away, hiring the services of Salladhor Saan for the upcoming invasion of King’s Landing. Matthos rightly calls out Salladhor for threatening to rape Cersei, but Salladhor has a sharper tongue, and ultimately talks him down.
— Sitting in rooms with Tyrion Lannister proves to be a fun exercise this week, as he provides some of the funniest dialogue in the season: “The fool! He had no idea you were already bought. “ / “I’m not questioning your honor, Lord Janos. I’m denying its existence.” The same, too, goes for Samwell Tarly, who reminds Jon that Gilly is a “person, not a goat.”
— Theon: “They say hard places breed hard men, and hard men rule the world.”
— Gendry: “You shouldn’t insult people that are bigger than you.” Arya: “Then I wouldn’t get to insult anyone.”
— Fair play to Yoren, whose threat to one of the City Watch gold cloaks produces perhaps the best line of the episode: “People worry so much about their throats, they forget about what’s down low. Now I sharpened this blade before breakfast. I could shave a spider’s arse if I wanted to. Or, I could nick this artery in your leg and once it’s nicked, there’s no one around here who knows how to un-nick it.”
