WARNING: For the words are dark and full of spoilers…
Season Four, Episode Four: “Oathkeeper”
Written and Directed by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
This week’s episode felt more focused that what we saw last time. Instead of bouncing from person to person and place to place all across the known world, we got the chance to settle in with a smaller number of characters, but at the expense of neglecting several interesting story arcs. We were also treated with a big reveal in Westeros’ version of Unsolved Mysteries, and, for perhaps the first time in the history of Game of Thrones, show-watchers and book-readers are now on equally-confusing footing after a major plot reveal. Ready?
Quick Breakdown
Game of Thrones can be hard to keep up with. There are so many gripping story arcs and interesting characters (many with uncommon names) that visiting them all in a single episode would mean one of two things: Either the episodes double in length, or we spend so little time in any one place that the show feels disjointed and, soon enough, those story arcs become less gripping and the characters less interesting. It’s odd, but it feels sometimes like Game of Thrones‘ greatest strength is also its most obvious blight. (George R. R. Martin and, by extension, the show’s writers, seem to try to alleviate this by occasionally killing off important characters — like Joffrey’s death two episodes ago — but I’m not convinced anyone really dies in Westeros. Ned Stark, who was beheaded in season one, was still mentioned at least twice in this week’s episode.)
To the show’s credit, though, they have overall done an excellent job of pacing. This week’s episode is a great example. It is very different from what we saw last week, where we seemed to sacrifice depth in favor of dipping our toes into nearly every story arc in the Seven Kingdoms and across the Narrow Sea, but it is, for the most part, just as successful. It isn’t without flaws, though, and the odd juxtaposition of these two episodes back to back makes the series’ few blemishes more glaring than usual. Let’s start from the beginning:
The episode opens in Essos, just outside of Meereen. Grey Worm is learning to speak the Common Tongue (English, really) from Missandei. There’s some real chemistry here. They exchange stories about their lives (or lack thereof) before becoming slaves until Daenerys calls upon Grey Worm to rally the Unsullied and lead a slave rebellion in the city. Before he leaves, though, Dany asks about his English lessons. “Missandei is teacher good, my queen.” he tells her. I suppose that’s progress.
Inside Meereen’s walls, the Unsullied infiltrate disguised as slaves. They bring weapons to arm the real captives, and, after an inspiring speech from Grey Worm, they all decide it’d be in their best interest to revolt against the masters of Meereen. The slaves outnumber the masters three to one, Grey Worm tells them. With those odds, it’s not long before before the city is won by the slaves in the name of Daenerys Targaryen, mother of dragons and breaker of chains (etc.).
After her victory, Dany saunters through the crowd all presidential-like, shaking hands and kissing babies. As a measure of due process, she orders all of the hostaged masters of Meereen to be nailed to the signposts leading into the city, just as the slave children were before as she and her army made their way in. “Sometimes it is better to answer injustice with mercy,” Ser Barristan asks of her. “I will answer injustice with justice,” she says to him.
Daenerys is very good at what she does, and she shows no signs of stopping before reaching the iron throne. But that’s totally fine with me. Her quest to be queen of the Seven Kingdoms is one of the more compelling arcs is the series (much more than Bran’s, for example), and I often find myself wishing she got more screen time instead of the relatively small pieces we’ve been given so far this season.
Back in King’s Landing, Bronn is still teaching Jaime to fight using only his left hand (since, ya know, that’s all he’s got). After an intense sparring session where Bronn removes Jaime’s fake hand and slaps him with it (which was hilariously cruel), the two sit down to rest and talk about Tyrion. After not long at all, Bronn convinces Jaime to go see his brother in jail and try to help him out.
Jaime manages to score some cool-points in this episode (but not nearly as many as he lost last week for forcing himself on his sister). First, he pays a brotherly visit to Tyrion to let him know that he believes he is innocent and wants to help him. The conversation between the two is mostly somber, but there’s a tinge of hope in knowing that Tyrion finally has someone who matters rooting for him .(He definitely didn’t kill Joffrey, by the way, but we’ll get to that in a bit.)
After that, Jaime meets with Brienne, where he gives her a new set of armor and the sword that was forged from the Stark’s valyrian steel. He tasks her with keeping her oath to Catelyn Stark by protecting Sansa (and Arya, if she finds her alive), who Cersei is desperately trying to have killed. Because of this, Brienne names her new sword — and this episode, I guess — “Oathkeeper.” Jaime gives her Podrick, the best squire in King’s Landing, and, after some awkward love-glances between the two, he sends her on her way. In just one scene, Jaime manages to help out Brienne, who needs something to do, Podrick, who needs to get out of town, Sansa, who needs protect, and Tyrion, who is at least a little better off with the guarantee that Podrick isn’t testifying against him. That’s a big change for a guy who, not long ago, was slaying kings and attacking Ned Stark in the streets of King’s Landing.
Somewhere out to sea, Petyr Baelish and Sansa discuss the leads in Joffrey’s murder. Sansa consults the clues in her handy dandy notebook (which doesn’t actually exist) and, by process of elimination, gets Littlefinger to admit that he was responsible for killing the king. Finally! We’ve got a confession. Turns out, he used Ser Dontos’ family necklace, which was given to Sansa as a gift and wasn’t actually an heirloom at all, to conceal the poison and get it near the king. It’s then later revealed that Olenna Tyrell was the one who plucked the poison from around Sansa’s neck and gave it to Joffrey. Baelish’s description of his motive for the murder is fittingly cryptic. “Always keep your foes confused,” he tells Sansa. “If they don’t know who you are or what you want, they can’t know what you plan to do next.”
Late one evening, Margaery sneaks in to Tommen’s chambers. She’s set to marry him sooner or later, and, seeing as her last two husbands are both dead now, he looks a confused mixed of afraid and aroused after seeing her come in. She sweet talks him for a while (which is very successful) and encourages him to keep her visit a secret from momma Cersei, who will no doubt try to turn him against her. She talks a lot about “getting to know” him and how she “will be his” after they’re married. It’s an odd scene with some weird sense of sexual tension that, thankfully, results in nothing more than a kiss on his forehead before her departure.
The rest of the episode is spent further north. (Here’s where things get weird for book readers, as most of this either never occurred in the novels, has been altered some, or has yet to be seen, which is a pretty big deal.) We revisit Castle Black and Jon Snow, who is still trying to rally the Night’s Watch to help kill the mutineers north of the wall in Craster’s Keep before they can tell the Wildlings by how much they outnumber the men of the Watch. Jon is at first scolded for this idea, but eventually Allister Thorne (otherwise known as the old guy with fluffy hair who is mean to everyone) decides that it’d be a good chance to send Jon up there to get himself killed, so he agrees.
Jon rallies a small group of men to take with him to Craster’s Keep. One of those men is the new fellow in town, Locke, who is best known for chopping of Jaime Lannister’s hand back in season three. Locke is sworn to Roose Bolton, who is partly responsible for the massacre of the Starks and the Red Wedding. This is all very bad news for Jon Snow, who is, along with his half-brothers Bran and Rickon, one of Locke’s newest targets. Their journey north is all but guaranteed to end with one of the two dead.
Meanwhile, a lot is going on near Craster’s Keep. Karl and his merry band of mutineers are having a great time raping Craster’s daughters and drinking wine from the skulls of slain men Night’s Watch. A baby is born, the last of Craster’s sons, and, after some debate, he is taken to be given to the White Walkers (more on this later).
Bran and his crew are nearby, and they overhear the baby crying. Instead of exploring on his own (since he can’t because, ya know, his legs don’t work), Bran does his Animorphs thing and takes control of his direwolf, Summer. He explores that way for a while, until he manages to simultaneously discover Jon’s direwolf, Ghost, in a cage near Craster’s Keep and get his own direwolf captured.
This doesn’t sit well with Bran, who insists that the group must make a detour to rescue the direwolves. While doing some recon, the group manages to get ambushed and captured themselves (which is no help to anyone, including the direwolves). Hodor is chained and mocked (and worse, poked with a spear) outside, while the rest of the group is brought before Karl. They’re threatened and interrogated for a while until Jojen has a seizure/probable vision and collapses on the floor. It is reveal that Bran is who he is, much to the delight of Karl.
This is a detour from what happens in the novels, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. There have been several occasions throughout the show where it deviates from the book but ultimately ends up at the same destination. I am assuming that’ll happen here too. (And, frankly, the rest of Bran’s story arc in the novels is pretty boring. This adds a little bit of excitement to the characters.) I don’t want to give away any future spoilers for show-only folks, so I’ll keep the rest to myself. This deviation, however, is not what has some book-readers upset. What happens next, though…
The last scene shows a White Walker on (dead) horseback riding across the snow with the baby in its hands. It eventually stops just before an altar surrounded by what looks like an igloo stonehenge. The White Walker places the child on the altar and walks away. Shortly thereafter, the baby is approached and picked up by another White Walker (this one looks like it’s got a crown molded into its head), who then touches the kid and turns its eyes blue, presumably causing it to join the growing ranks of White Walkers/wights. To someone who has only seen the show, this is an intriguing reveal, but it feels like a fairly natural progression in terms of what has been seen so far. To someone who read the novels first, however, this is a brain-shattering revelation. Here’s why:
(WARNING: This section is likely to delve into some lore both past and future that may or may not spoil something for you that you don’t want to know yet, especially if you’re a show-only person. Proceed at your own risk. If you’re worried, you can skip to the rating to be safe.)
It was speculated for a bit and eventually confirmed that the White Walker shown at the end with the crown molded to its head was in fact the Night’s King, and the place he’s in is speculated to be the Land of Always Winter. This is a character we’ve never seen — not in the books and not in the show, until now — in a place we’ve only heard of. The fact that he exists, and that he presumably leads the Walkers (meaning that they’re a lot more sophisticated than previously thought) is huge.
It is essentially revealing part of the novels that hasn’t been published yet. As fast as the show is progressing relative to the pace the books are being written, we all knew it was only a matter of time before the series caught up and eventually surpassed the novels, but no one expected it this early or to be this revealing. For probably the first time since the show aired, those who have read the books are going to be left speculating for the entire week (and perhaps longer) right alongside those who haven’t.
Rating
B+
The pacing of this episode did a good job of highlighting just how difficult it is to fit all of these characters into such a detailed series (notable absences from Arya and the Hound, Tywin Lannister, Prince Oberyn and Stannis and his crew, and very little screen time for Dany and her Unsullied or Tyrion).
It more than made up for that though with a couple big reveals, one of which was exciting as it was sudden and confusing. The series’ slight (give or take) departure from the novels feels refreshing to book readers and goes mostly unnoticed to the show-only folks, but I am left wondering how that will change the future trajectory of the show.
Closing Thoughts
Bran’s story arc is deviating from the books in a presumed attempt to be more interesting, but I still don’t really find him all that compelling. Never have. He’s a fairly boring kid (even considering all that Warg stuff), and his main companion only has one line of dialogue.
Cersei accused Jaime of being a traitor this week, right after wishing her other brother dead and calling for the head of Sansa Stark. She’s not doing herself any favors unless she wants to be alone until she dies (which I kind of hope is soon).
Podrick with my favorite quote of the week, regarding Brienne: “I won’t slow you down, sir… [long pause] …m’lady.” He’s a charmer.
Bronn seemed genuinely concerned for Tyrion during his chat with Jaime. That means a lot coming from a sellsword. He seems to be becoming a Lannister favorite, at least in regards to Jaime and Tyrion.
