The Longest Night — Game of Thrones: ‘The North Remembers (2x01)’
“Do you want to lead one day? Well learn how to follow.”
Writer(s): David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Director: Alan Taylor
Events: Tyrion Lannister is back in King’s Landing as Hand of the King; Joffrey Baratheon is now king, celebrating his name day, decorating the throne room, and torturing Ser Dontos; beyond the Wall, the Night’s Watch have arrived at Craster’s Keep, Jon Snow is suspicious of Craster; Robb Stark has Jaime Lannister as his prisoner, and delivers his peace terms to the Lannisters; across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys Targaryen and her band of followers are stranded in the Red Waste; we’re introduced to Stannis Baratheon, who’s plotting an invasion of King’s Landing to seize the Iron Throne.
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When all is said and done, and the curtain falls on Game of Thrones for the final time, it will have (hopefully) told us how children of terrible parents turned the world into a better place when the responsibility fell into their hands. Of the children who are still standing as we move into season eight (Jon, Daenerys, Sansa, Theon, and Tyrion, amongst several others), each has witnessed the damage caused by the world they’ve been raised in, and they’ve sought to resist its ghastly traditions. It’s a world where humans are discarded, where women are sold off here and there and treated like second class citizens, and where children inevitably pay for the mistakes of their elders. They’re aiming to end such a world forever.
Their methods of achieving this goal might be different from one another — Daenerys wants to “break the wheel” with fire and dragons, Tyrion is intent on introducing democracy to Westeros, and Jon is consumed with finally ending the Long Night — but their ideal result is the same: they simply want the world to be a fairer, kinder place. And no matter how the show ends, and no matter how many of these children don’t get to see their vision of the world come to fruition, ‘The North Remembers’ is our first true glimpse into a hopeful new age.
The character with the most ground to make up on their journey to leadership is perhaps Jon Snow, given that naivety and arrogance rule his character in equal measure. His Night’s Watch brothers have arrived at Craster’s Keep, the home of a former crow who lives beyond the Wall. Long story short: he rapes his daughters, makes them his wives, and forces them to provide him with more daughters. What happens to his sons is currently unknown, but it’s a crucial factor of his ill-tempered relationship with the Watch. Jon is rightly disgusted by this “tradition” of Craster’s, and takes an immediate dislike to him, coming inches from confronting him on it.
Lord Commander Mormont, though, introduces Jon to the nature of securing uncomfortable compromises with enemies. You see, the Keep is something of a safehouse for the Watch during their ranging due to Craster’s other quid pro quo arrangement: turning his sons over to the White Walkers and providing them with meat for their army. In return, Craster (and anyone under his roof) is granted amnesty. Mormont’s aware of the above, but his responsibility is only to his men. It’s in this moment that he pushes Jon against a wall and delivers the harsh truth: idealism and justice must be sacrificed if the safety of your flock depends on it.
Further south, two of Jon’s brothers are also learning how to lead for the first time. Bran is currently Lord of Winterfell, but only in name, as Maester Luwin deals with the trivial complaints of farmers from the surrounding North (“Listening to people you’d rather not listen to is one of your responsibilities”). The stakes are considerably higher in the Riverlands, however, as Robb sets out his plans to seek a partnership with Renly Baratheon. Robb has no desire for the Iron Throne, but he does wish to unseat Joffrey, rescue Sansa (Arya too, wherever she may be), and rule the North as an independent kingdom.
From the little we know of Renly, we know he’d be a better ruler than the other candidates, and right now, seeing him ride into King’s Landing alongside Robb and some hundred-thousand men is a very real and wonderful possibility. It won’t happen because Renly will be dead in four episodes’ time, murdered by his brother Stannis who’s simply willing to be ruthless in ways Renly isn’t, but Robb is still learning, and the vision he has is a welcome one all the same. As he did when attempting to win Walder Frey’s favour, Robb once again uses Catelyn’s Tully ties to other houses to secure the deal. Compromise is key, regardless of whether it’s with an enemy or a distant, benevolent friend, and it’s something Robb understands.
But while the rest of the world is seeking agreements, settling on compromises with enemies and friends alike, focused only on surviving and prospering, one such leader has no interest in those practises. Since becoming king, Joffrey has been displaying a ruthlessness that even Cersei didn’t expect. She strikes him in the throne room following a misguided taunt about her and Jaime, but where his previous response would have been to whimper in shock, he now warns her that she could be executed for disciplining him.
Minutes earlier, in one of the second season’s best moments, Cersei reminded Littlefinger that “Power is power”, but in the presence of her son she doesn’t heed her own warning. The result of their conversation is the revelation that Robert had bastard children with dozens of women all over King’s Landing. We, of course, dare to think that the order to slaughter them all is delivered by Cersei, but Joffrey’s the person behind it. He’s not interested in compromise or learning, or negotiation, or reason, he’s fully intent on stamping his authority down on his subjects, the population, and the people who are closest to him.
8.0
Lost ravens:
— Daenerys Targaryen might have three dragons and a loyal band of followers who stayed when the rest of the khalasar abandoned her, but she’s trapped in the Red Waste with no way to feed them. Jorah informs her that she must be their strength in such desperate times, and she’s capable of it. Eventually she will lead them to Qarth and get them out of these desperate times, but she’s not quite found it within herself to believe in her own abilities just yet. She’s free of her brother, but the inferiority complex remains in some capacity for now.
— This episode brings our first meeting with Ser Dontos, an unwitting pawn in Joffrey’s murder. Sansa saves him from being drowned to death by wine. The favour he returns allows her escape King’s Landing and, eventually, rise against the odds to command Northern houses as Lady of Winterfell.
— We’re also introduced to Gilly for the first time in this episode. I remember watching Skins concurrently with Game of Thrones once upon a time, and seeing Hannah Murray play both Gilly and Cassie in the two shows was unusual. She’s better as Cassie than she is as Gilly, but Gilly’s role in Sam’s storyline is one that’s often overlooked by other Game of Thrones fans, and will be receiving coverage in later editions of this series.
— Robb and Jaime hold a tense discussion as the latter is chained to a post in a makeshift cell at the Stark camp. Jaime’s his usual self, looking to mock and taunt and ridicule Robb at every turn in the conversation (“Have you grown fond of me, Stark? Is that it? I’ve never seen you with a girl”) but Robb leaves him in the company of his direwolf Grey Wind, who quickly silence Jaime’s sharp tongue.
— Hello, Stannis the Mannis! And Davos, and Matthos (remember him?), and Melisandre! We’re at Dragonstone for the first time, watching Melisandre bring magic into the show as she survives being poisoned by Maester Cressen. The hues of this episode are distinctly more hellish than anything we saw last season, and the scene in which effigies are burnt considerably contributes to this change. It’s strange to see just how evil Melisandre was once upon a time. We’re a lot more sympathetic towards her since she resurrected Jon Snow, obvously. And Davos, poor Davos, still loyal to his king despite his suspicions about the Red Woman and Stannis’ ties to her. I appreciate Show Stannis is different in many ways to Book Stannis, perhaps not as benevolent, but the ruthless, dark edge to him is, at least at this point, making him the best match for Joffrey.
