Names: one’s
last name, the name one had before one become a slave, the names of those one
wishes to kill, the names of the dead, brutally murdered by a beastly mountain.
Names have power in Westeros. Robert Baratheon’s signature had immense power.
His signature pardoned Jorah Mormont. Roose’s decision to share the Bolton name
with his bastard Ramsay moves Ramsay to his knees, overcome by the meaning and
import of becoming Ramsay Bolton. The Hound wonders why Arya utters the names
of those she wants dead. Her answer veers away into a playful chat about the
satisfaction of watching people, but before it veers she responds that it makes
her feel better. Prince Oberyn, the Red Viper, insists The Mountain say the
names of the people he killed, confess to their deaths, and offer up the name
of the one who ordered the murders. The Red Viper’s obsession with hearing The
Mountain’s confession, with fighting him to the death, after he had stabbed him
through the chest with a spear, loses him his life and Tyrion’s life. The
Mountain confesses to the crime after breaking The Red Viper’s jaw and
voraciously finishes by smashing Tyrion’s champion’s head in. “The Mountain and
the Viper” concludes with a final name—Tywin hereby announces that Tyrion
Lannister is sentenced to death.
David Benioff
and D.B. Weiss promised fans of the books and the series that the
trial-by-combat would be the best fight in the history of television. The
trial-by-combat was not the greatest fight scene in the history of television.
Many fight scenes have been staged and choreographed throughout since the
beginning of the silent film. Fight scenes don’t succeed or fail because of
visceral physicality but because of the fight’s story, i.e. why the characters
fight. It’s an obvious statement, but it’s overlooked in an entire industry.
Tell someone professional wrestling tells stories all the time, and that person
will scoff, roll his or her eyes, cackle at such a ridiculous statement because
all wrestling is is grown men, oiled up, doing stuff in their underwear. ANGEL
staged an excellent fight in its fifth season episode “Destiny,” in which Spike
and Angel race to a mystical grail in the desert that’ll grant whomever drinks
it first is the fated champion mentioned in the Shanshu prophecy. Spike and Angel
fight for nearly three acts over the ‘cup of perpetual torment.’ Their fight
involves more than drinking from the cup for the sake of quickening of a
prophetic destiny; it involves their complex personal history through the
decades, and it’s also spectacularly badass. The Mountain and the Red Viper
fight is splendidly described in the books, but it is merely decently rendered
on film. The viewer sees glimpses of Oberyn’s expert fighting ability, but his
mastery of the art eludes the viewer. We’re more told than shown that he’s
great. The Mountain looks oafish and uncoordinated. The writing clearly sets up
the surprise cinematic moment when The Mountain destroys Oberyn.
The only moment
the fight reaches exulted territory that the show runners promised during the
last two weeks happened when Oberyn had put the spear through The Mountain’s
chest and screamed for a confession and screamed for The Mountain to say Tywin
ordered him to murder his family. Oberyn dropped the false pretenses of his
arrival in King’s Landing. His earlier conversations with the Lannisters were
lightly honest. He played a cool, lax game in which he alluded to truths the
power and influence of court that do not allow further elaboration. So, he
played little games, dropping this or that detail about his family’s tragic
history to see whether or not Tywin or Cersei will twitch when those precious,
dear Martell names were uttered. Oberyn screams for more bloody revenge. Tywin
finally squirms in his chair seconds before The Mountain bursts to life. The
moment lasts briefly and in another moment The Mountain kills The Red Viper and
Tyrion’s hope for pardon.
Tyrion converses
with Jaime before the trial-by-combat. The brothers remember their cousin,
Orson, who had the misfortune of falling headfirst to the ground, which made
him ‘simple.’ Orson killed beetles by smashing them with a rock. Jaime did not
think about Orson’s actions beyond the thetic stage. Orson didn’t think about
what he did. Tyrion disagreed. For years he watched Orson in hopes of
discovering the reason why he chose to smash beetles with rocks day after day.
Tyrion didn’t believe his cousin did not have something going on in his mind.
He believed his cousin had a type of sense, but he could not crack why he chose
to kill thousands of beetles in his life. He never learned the answer. He
couldn’t learn why it happened to those innocent beetles. Tyrion imagines
himself as the beetle, his family as Orson and the rock. And his family smashes
his fate like Orson smashed the beetles that had the misfortune of being born
in Casterly Rock.
Other Thoughts:
-The
trial-by-combat happens in the final scene. The penultimate scene is the
aforementioned Orson story. The rest of the episode splits between The Eyre,
the sacking of Moat Cailin, and Dany’s response to Robert Baratheon’s pardon of
Jorah Mormont. Dany sent Jorah away from Meereen after learning of his
betrayal. Jorah expressed remorse, and then love. Jorah relayed information to
King’s Landing in season 1 when he traveled with Viscerys and Dany amongst the
Dothraki. Dany sent him away because she couldn’t trust him after he sold her
out, her child, and her brother, for the sake of a royal pardon. There’s
another minor story happening aside from the Jorah exile, which is Grey Worm’s growing
crush on Missandei, whom he saw naked. They converse about what happened while
they each bathed. Missandei wants to know his name from before. Grey Worm does
not know. Their slow courtship should delight many fans of the series, but
their indoor scene was flat and uninspired. Grey Worm delivers a monologue
about why he wouldn’t trade what happened to him as a boy (becoming an
Unsullied) because it led him to Dany, his triumph over the masters, and his
meeting Missandei.
-Sansa lied her
face off because she’d rather trust someone she knows than a group she doesn’t.
Benioff and Weiss made Sansa’s transformation clear when she entered the last
scene dressed like Maleficent. Arya arrived at The Eyre and then erupted into
laughter when she heard Lysa died three days (it was my favorite part of the
episode).
-The sacking of
Moat Cailin showed more of the Bolton brutality, and also the family’s habit of
breaking oaths.
-David Benioff
and D.B. Weiss wrote the episode. Alex Graves directed.
-Next episode
will be bonkers.
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