Braavos
Arya is
now in the creepy house of creepiness getting inpatient with Jaqen H’Ghar
because all she’s been doing is sweeping the floor. Of course this is all part
of her apprenticeship to become a Faceless Man. Jaqen is also wonderfully
creepily vague and cryptic about their god, the Many Faced God and also tells
Arya she should become “no-one”. And a guy Jaqen gave a drink too just died
which seems to be a thing in the House. Arya is juuuust a bit out of her depth
To
emphasise this she’s fiercely questioned by another woman there, who asks who
she is with a coin she knows nothing about – when Arya doesn’t answer to her
liking, the woman hits her. Jaqen intervenes, saying Arya isn’t ready which
Arya, foolishly, objects to, saying she’s ready to be “no-one”. Jaqen points out she has Arya’s stolen silver,
Arya’s clothes – and Arya’s sword. How can she be “no-one” when she’s
surrounded by Arya Stark’s things?
She throws her things in the water, one by one until she reaches needle and, tearfully, she can’t do it. She hides it instead.
She returns to her sweeping and is led to the next stage in her training – cleaning a body with the woman who hit her. She’s not allowed any questions.
Kings
Landing
In a
covered palanquin, Cersei travels through the streets while the crowd hails and
adores her – because they think she’s queen Margaery. Ouch. She doesn’t have
the happiest smile on her face as she watches her son, Tommen, the king marry
Margaery.
On the wedding
night Tommen is all nervous and sweet and so afraid he hurt Margaery. Oh
Margaery is going to eat him alive. He’s all naïve and innocent and is all
sweetly conflicted because he has so much now because his brother died and he
may be one of only two people in the entire world who is sad about that; at
least he doesn’t feel guilty because of it
Unfortunately,
Margaery tells us that Olenna has left Kings Landing while commenting that
Cersei still is – she artfully starts to drive a wedge between Tommen and his
mother, making Cersei look over-protective and controlling and seeing him as a
child.
So when Tommen is walking with his mother and she’s trying, with far less skill, to stick her knife in Margaery, he tries to get her to go back to Casterly Rock.
Cersei is not amused and goes to visit Margaery and her friends (Margaery greets her with “I wish we had some wine for you, it’s a bit early in the day for us” – first blood Margaery). Cersei seems to be playing nice, even when Margaery makes a sex joke about Tommen’s prowess (I suppose sex within the family isn’t a taboo subject for the Lannisters though). Surprisingly Cersei doesn’t try for one dig – what is this? Surrender or more plotting?
The High
Septon is visiting a brothel (like everyone else on this show ever. Westeros
has the first sex-worker based economy. They should rename their coinage after
sex acts) and his sex games are particularly blasphemous. He’s interrupted by
Lancel and the Sparrows raiding the brothel who drag him into the street, naked
and force him to walk down the street while chanting “sinner”, hitting him
whenever he tries to cover himself.
Later he
takes his complaints to Cersei and her council. Some are shocked that he
visited a brothel (Lord Tyrell is wonderfully doubtful about his whole “ministering”
to prostitutes) while Pycell calls it a man’s own private business which should
stay private (since he also visits brothels). The Septon demands the High
Sparrow be executed
Cersei
goes to the enclave of the Sparrows looking for the High Sparrow. The place is
crowded and poor and they minister to the sick and hungry – the High sparrow
himself is wearing the same simple robes as the rest and helping give out food;
he even denies they have a leader since “High Sparrow” is a name their
detractors gave him. He’s very sympathetic and gentle, but he doesn’t deny is
disavow what happened to the Septon calling it lancing the boil of hypocrisy.
Cersei…
agrees and has arrested the High Septon and thrown him in prison. She argues
they need a strong faith because the faith supports the crown.
I think she’s playing with fire trying to empower this religious group, especially one concerned with “sexual morality”. She’s going to get burned.
It also
looks like her pet evil Maester is playing Frankenstein with the Mountain’s
body.
The
North
The
Boltons still control Winterfell – and hold Theon enslaved. They’re also still
flaying people and displaying the skinned carcases. They aren’t having an easy
time of it though – some northern lords are refusing to pay taxes, only
accepting a Stark overlord. Of course, Ramsay is responding by slaughtering
people which he thinks is effective even if Roose, Lord Bolton and his father,
doesn’t think they can hold the north by terror alone. Roose lays out the
situation for Ramsay – House Bolton cannot hold the north if the lords rebel
and their pact with the Lannisters was with the now deceased Tywin and it’s not
like the Lannisters are the most reliable of allies. To become a great house
they need allies. To get allies, they need to marry off Ramsay. And Roose knows
just who to choose
Which is
when Baelish and Sansa arrive in the North. Oh Sansa, there’s just no good end
to your story is there? Unsurprisingly, Sansa is not thrilled at the idea of
marrying Roose or Ramsay given what they did to the North and (as far as she
knows) little brothers. She emotionally rails against it but Littlefinger urges
her to take the opportunity for power, for security – and to use it to seek revenge.
She
considers this and seems to agree
Brienne
and Pod are still following them. Brienne takes a moment to question Pod and
learn his origins and he keeps being so upbeat and cheerful, saying how proud
he is to be her squire since she’s such an amazing fighter (even if she is
surlier than his previous lords). Brienne finally seems to accept him as her
squire – and that it’s her job to train him to be a knight and to start
training him. Brienne also talks about her own past – how she was mocked for
being big and tall and ugly and only Renly offered comfort and kindness. It’s a
wonderful exposition of her loyalty to him.
Sansa
plays nice and courtly when introduced to Roose and Ramsay though the women of
Winterfell look on with icy eyes. When alone a female servant calls her “Lady
Stark” and says “the north remembers”.
Ramsay
tries to reassure Baelish that he will be a wonderful, caring husband (and it seems
Baelish has been remiss with his spies, ignoring Ramsay because he was a
bastard). Roose worries how the Lannisters will react to the marriage (since
Cersei still wants Sansa dead) but Baelish points out just how weak the
Lannisters have become without Tywin. Roose isn’t convinced, he’s curious as to
what Baelish is plotting since he’s still in touch with Cersei yet also betraying
her – really, Roose, don’t try to follow Baelish’s machinations
The
Wall
Stannis
now has to deal with Jon not quite as an equal, but certainly as someone due a
great deal of respect since he’s Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. Jon,
naturally, refuses Stannis’s offer to becoming the new Lord Stark because he’s
all honourable (which Stannis doesn’t consider a good thing since it’s honour
that got Ned killed). They also discuss the wildlings and what to do with
Alliser Thorne with Stannis advising getting rid of him (since he doesn’t have
much respect for the whole “keep your enemies close” adage).
Instead, John gives Ser Alliser a high honour as First Ranger, respecting his experience and skill. But when someone else refuses his order to command one of the ruined keeps, Jon has him taken outside clearly for execution. The man looks to Alliser – who doesn’t support him. The man is dragged outside where he babbles apologies to Jon who stands ready with a sword (like Ned, he does his own executing). He begs for mercy and Jon executes him.
Volantis
Poor Varys
continues to try and manage Tyrion who is still in his petulant funk. Tyrion
insists on going out into the city where we see it’s another slave city, the
slaves marked with facial tattoos. There they find an ex-slave, a red priestess
preaching to a crowd and she speaks in favour of the “dragon Queen”. She looks
directly at Tyrion which unnerves him.
Instead
they go to a brothel where Tyrion is duly snarky to someone who believes it is “good
luck to rub a dwarf’s head.” In the brothel we have more naked women and Tyrion
hears more people toasting Daenerys’s name – Varys points out that Daenerys is
hailed by both priests and sex workers.
With charm
and wit and flattery, Tyrion talks one of the sex workers into sleeping with
him and then, much to his shock stops and says he can’t. I’m sure issues over
Shae
But when
he’s alone he’s joined by… Jorah! He isn’t completely out of the picture after
Daenerys banished him. He decides to tie up Tyrion to take him to the queen
Since this is Jorah I’m going to assume Daenerys, but there’s a few queens to choose from at the moment.
Tommen –
in some ways I’m oddly torn. I think it’s a sign that his parents failed him in
raising him to be this innocent and naïve when he’s a prince in the royal court
(and second in line to the throne), he shouldn’t be this innocent, it’s
dangerous. Yet, that same neglect is probably why he isn’t a raving monster
like his older brother.
While I
miss Olenna, I think it’s telling that she has left. Cersei is in the capital
trying to rule in Tommen’s stead while Olenna has left, knowing Margaery doesn’t
need anyone to hold her hand.
I’ve
always loved the political machinations of Game
of Thrones and I find where the Lannisters are now to be fascinating. There
has always been a streak of needing to be cruel and ruthless to win politics
and Westeros, that honour and being good would just get you killed (witness the
decimation of House Stark – lampshaded this episode by Stannis - and the
continued rise of Baelish) but the Lannisters are a really good example of
going too far the other way. They have no friends, no-one who will go to bat
for them and the allies they have are unreliable: the Tyrells are merrily
dancing around them taking what they can get, the Boltons are so appalling as
to be an almost liability; their grasp is weak because they have no actual
friends or supporters and, with Tywin dead, no-one who is even respected. We
even have this expressly stated by Roose Bolton of all people saying the key to
being a great house is through alliances – something Team!Ruthless doesn’t
really have; they have people who will follow them around taking what they can
and then will happily drop them if they have to.
Which makes me wonder about Sansa – in some ways this is a return to her marrying Joffrey. Marrying the abusive, sadistic megalomaniac. But Sansa isn’t the innocent she was then… I hope we’re actually seeing a situation where Ramsay needs to watch out.
And equally to worry about Jon who treats Alliser with honour and respect – the acts of a classic Stark (honourable, but harsh and uncompromising in that honour). Classic Starks get killed.
Baelish is
still the one to watch – just how far do his ambition stretch?
Brienne and
Pod, I do love them together as Brienne starts to accept him as her squire. Of
course there’s a lot of alluded to issues behind this – for all her amazing
skill and even for her having a squire, Brienne isn’t a knight. I can see why
she resents Pod for all he’s such a nice guy, because her having a squire must
feel like a mockery when she isn’t a knight and can’t be one – for all she
spends her life chasing the trappings of “true” knighthood (and doing more so
than actual knights with her honour and her oaths and her desperation to pledge
service), she’s never really one (which also makes the rejections of her doubly
galling). She agrees to train Pod but, ultimately there’s the background that
she is training him to be something she cannot be, even though she’s so very
qualified for the role. There’s a lot to Brienne’s story which is only alluded
to with her attitudes and could, I think, be more overtly touched upon, but it
is there.
