Game Of Thrones "The Pointy End" Review

All hell has broken loose in King's Landing, and it pales in comparison to the insanity taking place North of The Wall. Armies gather in various locales around Westeros. The Lannisters are aggressively taking control of the seven kingdoms. Tywin's prepared to fight Robb's army. Jaime's raiding Catelyn's home land and killing the entire lot of River Lords. Cersei's placed her family in the most powerful positions in King's Landing. Ned's locked in a dungeon, awaiting his inevitable death for committing the crime of treason. Meanwhile, Jon Snow's vows to the Night's Watch prevent him from joining Winterfell in battle. Of course, Snow and the rest of the Night's Watch have their own sets of problems. Namely, the evidence that the White Walkers no longer sleep beneath the ice. "The Pointy End" moved its characters into the places they need to be for the final two episodes of the season. I think the show's more awesome than ever, and I can't wait to see how the madness unfolds.

There were various scenes throughout the episode in which characters pledged their allegiance to a select group of people. In King's Landing, Littlefinger and Varys pledged loyalty to the realm because they only serve the realm--no matter how deplorable the family is. Robb required the men of Winterfell to become active in their oath to save Ned's life, and the men responded well to the request. Commander Mormont, at The Wall, reminded Jon of the oath and vows he took. The solidarity among men's important. In some cases, honor and history motivate certain men to battle. In other cases, men are bought. Mostly, men are bought by those with power to give them things. Honor, as we've seen the last few weeks, is a quality near extinction in Westeros. Winterfell's the last place to place high regard on honor. Catelyn's crazy sister wouldn't give her knights to Winterfell because she needs to protect her own house from the nonsense of the Lannisters. The family killed her husband and took her brother-in-law prisoner so what's stopping them from attacking The Eyrie?

Tyrion Lannister, in fact, promised Shaggard, son of Dolph, the vale of The Eyrie should he and his other wild men and women provide safe passage home. The promises of gold and whores weren't what the wild men wanted. The clan sought power. Tyrion promised to deliver because Lannisters pay their debt. As smart as Tyrion is though, the man doesn't see the future. His face said everything about his feelings on the new royalty in King's Landing. Tyrion's faced expressed a mixture of doubt and dread. Fear entered his face when Tywin sent his son into the front lines of the impending battle with the Starks per the request of Shaggard. Tyrion loathes Joffrey and cares not for his brother and sister's conspiratorial games and incest. The scene's so interesting because Tyrion's a brilliant man. He's probably as brilliant, if not more, than Littlefinger and Varys. But he's caught off-guard and unprepared by the news and Tywin's decision to send him into battle. Tyrion cannot disarm his father with his intellect nor his words nor can he have any influence in the kingdom because Cersei left him out (and he doesn't even know that).

History sometimes unfolds in sweeping, memorable monologues with two prostitutes fornicating in the back round or while characters watch other characters butcher one another. Sometimes, history's revealed slowly--such is the case of The Mad King and the Targaryans. Dany's the lone survivor of the Targaryen family. Tywin ordered the children's throats be slit as sleep peacefully in their beds. Catelyn and Robb's scene established the stakes for the Stark family besides the motivation to save Ned's life, which is to prevent the Lannisters from repeating those actions on Arya, Bran, the youngest brother whose name I don't recall and the other members of the Stark family. The Starks stand between the Lannisters and absolute power in Westeros. Of course, the golden-haired clan has no idea the Dothraki's prepare to sail across the Narrow Sea to show them how bloody and brutal war can be.

One of the Dothraki's protested to Drogo following Dany's orders to not harm the wives of the lamb men who were killed as the Dothraki's gathered enough ships to sail. Drogo fought the protester when he insulted the Khaleesi. Now, the word fight doesn't capture what happened in the scene. A reader who hasn't seen the episode might think an actually fight happened rather than complete domination that only the Smoke Monster enjoyed during his heyday on LOST before he decided to take the form of John Locke. Drogo's the most badass character on the show. No character compares. If Joffrey flinched when Ser Barristen (or is it Barrister) threw his sword on the floor then he stands no chance once the Dothraki's wage war on King's Landing.

George R.R. Martin wrote the episode. Benioff and Weiss couldn't have gotten the author of the books for a better episode. "The Pointy End" is busy and action-packed, and the fictional geography alone would make my head spin as a writer. Another great episode.

Other thoughts:

-The opening scene with Syrio and Arya stole the episode. If Syrio survived, he would've been the most badass character on the show as he nearly takes out six men with a wooden stick. As Arya prepares to flee, he reminds her what she should tell the god of death--"not today." Arya stabs a slightly older boy in the stomach when he tries to take her to Cersei. The girl's all alone in King's Landing. Sansa didn't include Arya in her letter, which motivates Robb and Catelyn even more to wage war on King's Landing. Arya's awesome and I look forward to the Lannisters paying for what they put the poor girl through.

-Daniel Minahan directed the episode for the third week in a row.

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