Synopsis
Bran dreams he is running. The
three-eyed raven appears and he tries to shoot it with his bow. He
misses and a boy appears and says he can't kill it because it is him.
Bran awakes. Osha asks if it was another wolf dream. He says no and
starts to tell her but she doesn't want to hear of the black magic.
She packs up and the group keeps moving.
Robb and Talissa are interrupted by
Roose Bolton who comes with news.
Catelyn mourns her father. They will go
to Riverrun for the funeral. Robb comes and tells her of the sacking
and burning of Winterfell and that Bran and Rickon have disappeared.
Theon is strapped to an X and cruelly
tortured.
Jaime and Brienne march. He continues
taunting her and asks about her service to Lady Stark. He knows she
wasn't with her at Winterfell. He is surprised when he figures out
she served Renly and goes on to insult him. He realizes she loved
him. A trader sees them and stops for a chat. Jaime thinks they've
been recognized but Brienne refuses to kill him.
Joffrey is being fitted for his wedding
garb. Cersei tries to make conversation about Margaery but he loses
his patience with her fast.
Sansa tells Shae Littlefinger only took
interest because he loved her mother. Shae probes but gets nothing.
Shae says she will stop him if he tries anything. Loras arrives to
take Sansa to take air with Margaery and Lady Olenna. He knows his
courtesies but barely remembers her. He takes his leave when they
reach Margaery. Margaery introduces Sansa to her grandmother, Lady
Olenna. Olenna is frank and funny. Sansa is at a loss for words as
Olenna puts down the men in her family. The three go to a table as
Olenna goes on. Then she asks for the truth about Joffrey. Sansa
stutters and says what's expected, but on probing, she admits Joffrey
is a monster.
Lord Karstark complains of the
“distraction” of Lord Hoster's funderal. He says he thinks Robb
lost the day he married Talissa. Catelyn and Talissa talk. Catelyn is
making a sort of amulet as a mother's protection for her boys.
Talissa asks if they work and Catelyn says “after a fashion”. For
Bran he lived, but will never walk. And it saved Jon Snow from the
pox. She then admits the bargain she made—to forgive Ned and love
Jon if he lived, and she believes all the hardship that has come on
them is all because she could not love a motherless boy.
Mance asks Jon if it was hard to kill
the Halfhand. (yes) He tells Jon the way he united all the wildling
tribes, with their rivalries and seven languages. He says he told
them they would die if they didn't all get south, because that was
the truth. We get our introduction to wargs as Orell soars in the
body of an eagle. He's scouting. He was at the Fist of the First Men
where he says what he saw is dead crows.
Rast taunts Sam, trying to convince him
he doesn't deserve to have survived. He tells him to lie down and
rest. Sam falls to his knees. Grenn and Edd go back for him. Sam
wimpers about being left. They try to get him up. Rast is an ass, but
Mormont comes back and forbids Sam from dying. Rast complains so
Mormont puts the responsibility on him.
Bran wakes up to a noise. Osha and
Summer are guarding and go to look. Summer snarls and the boy from
Bran's dream steps out. Osha puts a spear to his throat then his
sister puts a knife to Osha's. Summer sniffs the boy and calms, so he
approaches Bran, introducing himself as Jojen and his sister as Meera
Reed.
Gendry tries to get Arya to explain her
choices in the deaths she requested. They are a little lost. She
wants to get to Riverrun. They hear singing and hide but an arrow
lets them know they've been spotted. Arya tells the men if they keep
moving on, she won't kill them. They know there are also two others.
They are the Brotherhood Without Banners and they are fighting for
the smallfolk, trying to save the countryside. Thoros promises to
feed them and then send them on their way.
Shae is in Tyrion's chambers. She is
worried about Sansa. Roz warned about Littlefinger. Shae says they
have to protect Sansa but then gets jealous when Tyrion calls Sansa a
great beauty.
Joffrey has sent for Margaery. He wants
to make sure she has anything she needs while he is away hunting. He
probes about “the bedside of a traitor” and Margaery plays coy,
using the rumors of Renly's homosexuality to hint about lack of
consummation. She smartly tries to blame herself so Joffrey is in a
position to reassure her. She then asks about his crossbow and if
he'll show her how it works He even lets her hold the weapon and he
asks if she could do it. “I don't know, your grace. Do you think I
could?” This clearly turns him on.
More Theon torture, this time with
questions. Why he took Winterfell. He answers and is tortured more
anyway. They put a bag over his head and tighten the screw through
his foot. A man takes the bag off and says Theon's sister sent him.
He loosens the screw and says he will come back for him that night.
Jojen tells Bran that Bran can get in
Summer's head. Bran asks if the raven is warging, too, but Jojen says
it is something different. Visions. Osha is snotty about Jojen
needing his sister to protect him. Bran saw his father die and Jojen
says it wasn't a dream; he saw it, too. Howland Reed supported Ned
during the rebellion, which Jojen says he also saw. But most of what
he's seen is Bran.
Thoros and Arya talk, Arya telling how
they escaped. She pulls a sword and Thoros pulls his, disarming her
quickly. Thoros says they can finish their meals before they go.
Anguay comes in with a large hooded prisoner: The Hound. He
recognizes Arya as a Stark girl.
Brienne and Jaime reach a bridge. They
take the bridge and he sits in the middle of it. As she tries to get
him up and he steals her second sword. The two of them fight, him
with the advantage that she needs him alive, so she can't kill him.
She finally knocks him down as riders come onto the bridge. The
trader they saw had identified them and they are taken prisoner by
men with Bolton's flayed man on their banner.
Notable Quotes:
Jaime (to Brienne about Renly): I don't blame him. And I don't blame you, either. We don't get to choose who we love.
Lady Olenna (about Renly): Gallant, yes, and charming, and very clean. He knew how to dress and smile and somehow this gave him the notion he was fit to be king.
Show/Book
In my reread I just passed this section
from Lady Olenna and though the book version is longer, the show
captures the flavor of Lady Olenna and what she says very well. Diana
Rigg is perfect in this role.
Review
Margaery is masterful with Joffrey—so
impressive. The Theon torture stuff is hard to watch... almost harder because we know who that is now and we know Theon is going to get his hopes crushed. I like the Wildling intro--these rounded characters who are different from the biases that have been spewed about them from characters south of the wall, particularly the night's watch. Overall I'd call it a pretty good episode.