[rating=5.00]
The episode opens with Arya, last seen boarding a ship after escaping the offered protection of Brienne, and snatching a bag of coins from a badly beaten and (we assume) dying Hound, reaches her destination of Braavos.
She’s taken to the House of Black & White, looking a bit like a rejected, Muppet-less set design for the movie Labyrinth, where she’s met with the blank stare of an unfamiliar face, and told “no one here by that name” as she asks for Jaqen H’ghar, who’s instruction he’d given years before is what’s brought her here.
Left with nowhere else to go (despite being told she has “everywhere else to go” by the stranger at the door), she lingers outside the building, reciting her now greatly truncated death list prayer, given that daily life in Westeros has taken care of most of it for her. After a weather-changing montage that is assumed to take place over several days, like some kind of Fight Club-esque initiation, she tosses the coin in the sea before abandoning her attempt to get inside.
Thus begins an episode of Game of Thrones peppered with character’s short-sighted intentions and frustratingly poor decisions. Much like its title, the characters grow increasingly myopic, and responding to the world around them with the same unyielding extreme.
The first of several such decisions comes when Podrick, having stopped at an Inn with Brienne, who apparently doesn’t have the heart to relinquish him as her squire, spots Sansa Stark across the room, sitting with Littlefinger and guarded by several knights. As Brienne approaches, she bows to Sansa, pledging her protection, as was ordered by her late mother.
While Littlefinger points out her lack of ability to protect Renly Baratheon, who’s murder she’s still blamed for, not to mention Catelyn Stark herself, suddenly the notion that Sansa is in hiding is tossed out the window, as her identity is discussed freely. The fact that they have multiple knights guarding them aside, it’s a sharp contrast to the last time Brienne & Podrick brought up the name of the Starks in an Inn, for fear of being associated with a House commonly thought to be a traitor to the crown.
Brienne then inexplicably picks a fight with Littlefinger’s knights, if for no other reason than give viewers a few moments of fast-paced, gratuitous violence in a season that so far is taking it’s time moving the plot into place. Brienne, of course, manages to take down a couple knights while outsmarting the rest as Podrick gets a moment of obligatory comic relief before an out-of-character moment of insight.
At this point, he rationalizes, both Stark girls have refused her protection, and their mother who made her swear to it is dead. Podrick argues that this relieves Brienne of her oath, and pleads with her to not carry out her next plan, which is to follow Littlefinger & company as the travel on the East Road.
Back at King’s Landing, Cersei is ready to go to war after receiving a package from Dorne containing a stuffed snake and a necklace that belonged to her daughter, Myrcella, identical to one she herself wears. In a Daenerys-like outpouring to Jamie, she threatens to burn their cities to the ground, a threat that comes off particularly hollow in the wake of her father’s death.
She also remains fiercely on the warpath for Tyrion, while he and Varys hide out on the road Volantis, which houses to the road to Meereen, anyone unfortunate enough to be a dwarf in Westeros runs the risk of their head being placed before her. She’s also fighting to maintain control of the small council, by filling it with sycophants, as her uncle Kevan is quick to point out.
As Kevan leaves the chamber frustrated, clearly having no interest in serving the crown by proxy, he decries her blatant attempt at manipulation, calling her nothing more than “the king’s mother,” the absence of Tywin is truly felt for the first time, and the stranglehold his family holds on the crown begins to loosen.
Jamie, meanwhile, agrees to head to Dorne on a diplomatic mission, while feigning interest in his bastard daughter’s well-being, only to get back in the good graces (and bed) of his twin sister.
While simultaneously in Dorne, Cersei’s rancor is mirrored by Ellaria Sand, who blames the Lannisters for Oberyn’s death. While his brother, Doran, admits his feelings of loss, he laments the law of Trial by Combat, and forbids Ellaria from carrying out any of the grim plans she has for Myrcella.
Back on The Wall, there’s little to no consequence for Jon Snow’s mercy killing of Mance Raydar, other than Stannis’s lip-service that ‘The King’s word is law,’ before offering him not only the Lordship to his home of Winterfell, but to legitimize him as Jon Stark.
Of course, he unsurprisingly seems intent to remain Jon Snow, having pledged his life and his sword to The Night’s Watch, who are conveniently in the process of electing their new Lord Commander. A long and overly played out scene akin to ‘C-Span: Live at Castle Black’ leads to Jon Snow’s victory, who’d been nominated at the last second by Sam. Beating out Alliser Thorne by a single vote, which will clearly not bode well, as he already considers Jon Snow a traitor.
The worst decision making, however, takes place at Meereen, as the Sons of the Harpy continue their attempt to dethrone Daenerys, one of them is captured and set to be executed per her decision, consistent with her severe, and often reactionary decisions.
It’s only after Barristan seeks private council with her and gives an important history lesson on her father, and why he was known as The Mad King. She forgoes his execution in order to give him a fair trial. It’s the one scene that really, truly resonates, as she hears just an abbreviation of the horrible truths regarding her father, and she begins to take steps reinstate the people’s trust in her family’s name.
Of course, Mossador, who was a slave in Meereen before Daenarys’ siege, takes matters into his own hands, killing the Son of the Harpy and leaving his body for public view. He sees his actions coming from devotion and servitude, as well as his own fear of returning “to the collar,” as he puts it.
What could’ve been a complicated narrative moment, one that would result in significant growth for her character, instead is met with her typical reactionary response, as she calls for Mossador’s public execution for killing someone awaiting trial, rather than provide him a trial of his own.
It’s a frustrating decision, which of course is met with scorn by the crowd, and one that she very nearly doesn’t make it out of. And it seems to leave us back at square one with Daenerys in terms of her growth as a character.
Arya, incidentally, makes it back into the House of Black & White, seeing the same expressionless stranger that denied her entry the first time (who’s very presence in Braavos seems to strike fear into the hearts of those who intended to steal Arya’s pigeon carcass).
“A man is not Jaqen H’ghar,” he tells her, before explaining that he is nobody, and that’s who Arya must become, naturally.
Much like the rest of this season so far, it was a long sequence to tell a short story, as the show continues to seem like it’s treading water instead of actually venturing toward anything. Even the final moments as Daenerys, back in her tower at Meereen, sees Drogon, the dragon that’s been MIA for a number of weeks, reappears briefly before flying off after a brief exchange.
This punctuated ending serves as an example of the absence of what defined these characters up until now are no longer in play, despite their attempts to cling to it otherwise. Much like the frustrating narrative of the current season.
4 Responses
A lot of characters and a lot of territory to cover. As with the books, there was bound to be a few slow spots. I think the big mistake was out pacing the source material.
I don’t have a problem with the overall pace, but there’s very little in the way of character development. Or, in Dany’s case, a case of character regression that was tremendously inconsistent with both her arc for that episode, and overall.
Weakest season yet? Aren’t we only two episodes in, or did you already watched the leaked ones and are foretelling?