The ‘previously
on…” sequence at the episode’s beginning featured two season one scenes to
remind the audience about Lysa’s existence and about Jon Arryn’s death. Jon
Arryn’s death happened in the first episode. It was the inciting incident of
the series. Arryn’s death moves Ned to accept the role of the Hand of the King.
Ned suspected the Lannisters. The Lannisters, of course, did not poison Jon
Arryn. The mystery was never solved. Season 4, though, is the season of answers
to mysteries. Benioff and Weiss revealed Joffrey’s killer two episodes after
his poisoning. So, a three and half season mystery is revealed in the early
part of the episode. Lysa and Littlefinger kiss in her throne room after Robin
took Sansa away to show her her quarters. Lysa, passionately engaged with
Littlefinger in kisses and embraces, reminds Littlefinger of the day he told
her to pour poison into her husband’s ear. The line is spoken fast.
Littlefinger moves on to other matters. Lysa moves on to other matters, namely
threatening Sansa, and the Jon Arryn reveal barely makes more than a faint
ripple in a very small pond that seemed not caused by a massive rock hitting
the water but by an accidental stone falling into the pond very softly.
Littlefinger, in two episodes, has become the most dangerous man in Westeros.
The Jon Arryn scene did not have the gravity of last week’s dual reveal about
Joffrey. Littlefinger, the boy teased in his days in Riverrun, who lost Cat to
Ned, and almost lost Lysa to Brandon (is that right?), changed. Littlefinger
explained why he acted against the crown after he rescued Sansa from King’s
Landing. Littlefinger continues to tell Sansa why he made the decisions he
made, and how the Bloody Gate and its surrounding archers relates to his role
in the game of thrones. The Bloody Gate sits below hills, at the mouth of the
Eyrie. Archers perch on both sides of the pass. Men and women walk single file
through the gate, towards the mountain. The Eyrie’s the strongest stronghold in
King’s Landing because of its invulnerability to attack. The Eyrie’s an
after-though, run by a man woman and her mad son. That’s part of Littlefinger’s
brilliance.
Littlefinger
doesn’t anticipate unexpected threats because he is the unexpected threat.
Across Slavers’ Bay, Dany listens to her men tell her about the vulnerability
of King’s Landing. The new child king could divide the kingdom under a new
threat from a Targaryen, because he’s illegitimate, a bastard, born from incest.
Jorah continues to update the queen on the news throughout the seven kingdoms,
including the return of the council in Yunka’I (along with slaves), and the new
rulers in Astapor. Dany declines to sail for King’s Landing, for she believes
she cannot hope to rule the seven kingdoms because she cannot successfully rule
Slavers’ Bay. Dany’s the outlier in King’s Landing. Littlefinger represents the
most dangerous kind of power play. He lacks the morality of Dany, the sense of
justice and doing what’s right for the kingdom; like many men in Westeros,
Littlefinger thinks about himself, and Dany thinks about everyone but herself:
the innocents suffering in chains behind tall walls, thickly protected with
stones and gates.
Margaery began
charting her way to the throne before Cersei conversed with her about her
future in the family. Tywin told her that allies are not borne from a mutual
love and desire for friendship, but from owing tremendous amounts of money to
the Iron Bank in Braavos. Reliance on others reveals vulnerabilities; if not
vulnerabilities, then a weakness. Olenna wouldn’t allow her granddaughter to
marry a brute, so she removed the brute. Cersei reflects on her love for
Joffrey, her love for Tommen, and, later, in a moment of honesty, her feelings
about her absent Myrcella, who’s swimming in the Water Garden in sunswept Dorne
where men do not harm little girls. Cersei objects to Oberyn’s comment about
men and little girls, arguing that all men harm little girls. But Cersei hasn’t
been to Dorne in a long time. Oberyn’s made of different stuff from others in
Westeros. He shares in Cersei’s sorrow for her son for he feels sorrow for his
murdered sister. Cersei wonders why anything like power matters after the death
of someone so dear, and Oberyn muses that vengeance may suffice. Cersei thirsts
for her brother’s death the way he thirsts for a sweetly rich red wine because
she has little else. Her love, her Jaime, has drifted from her, or she from
him; and her most loved child is dead. As she talks with Margaery about Tommen,
one could read in her lines a sort of mute sadness about the effects of her
son’s goodness. A good man has not sat on the throne for 70 years, surmises
Cersei, and that’s because good men don’t survive the throne. She thinks
something sad about her only remaining son.
Northeast of
King’s Landing, Arya continues to say her nightly prayer. Oberyn would join her
in her revengeful prayer of remembrance. Vengeance keeps men and women going
where there’s little else. Arya practices water dancing and then suffers the
insults of Sandor about her water-dancing master, Syrio Forel. Syrio
represented another good, pure, honest man that was sent away from the physical
world by men less good than he and less apt with a sword in hand. The Hound’s
point to Arya about Syrio is that a lesser man beat the brilliant water dancer
because he had the smarts to carry a big sword with him. So, the theme
continues: the bad and powerful reign while the good and weak suffer that reign
or meet a violent end.
Jon Snow,
though, is different from the lot in King’s Landing, like that silver-haired
lady in Slavers’ Bay. Snow and his group of volunteers slaughter the mutineers
at Craster’s Keep. Afterwards, the women gather near the Night’s Watch. Jon
offers the women safety, or, as much protection he can. The women wish not to
go with men. Craster beat and raped them. Men of the Night’s Watch beat and
raped them. They ask for Jon to burn down the Keep and let them find their way
in the wilderness, which Jon agrees to with a solemn, silent ride. Of the many
pursuant of power in the Seven Kingdoms, two leaders wish to free folk from
entrapment rather than entrap the free. There’s a better image in “First of His
Name” to remember: Arya puts Needle into The Hound’s stomach, but her Needle
can’t penetrate his protection. The Hound slaps her to the ground. She’s not
strong enough yet. One day, though…
Other Thoughts:
-Bran will
continue North. The stuff with Locke was but a brief aside.
-The
Podrick/Brienne team has great potential.
-David Benioff
and D.B. Weiss wrote the episode. Michelle MacLaren directed.
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