The Rewatch Project: Season 3, Episode 2

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.