A short, concise title mentioned a few key times in this episode. The pacing for this episode didn’t feel as frantic as Episode 1 for the season as the story now has caught up and has begun to move forward at a decent pace. Yet many major things are happening in this episode as the game is shrinking in many ways with regards to the pieces and yet expanding too as new ones are introduced.
First, Bran is back. We see him receive the first story in this episode where he travels back in time, guided by the Three Eyed Raven to Winterfell. He sees his father as a child practicing with his uncle Benjen. Ned is snarky yet caring at this stage.
Another key person that we get to see for the first time is the fabled Lyanna Stark. Like Ned, she is still reasonably young and she enters on a stallion, wild and wispy, sharing that spirited personality that Arya exhibits. Also, we see Hodor as a young stable boy with the name Willis. Here, he actually speaks coherently and Bran acknowledges this. Bran wonders just how Hodor became a simpleton and it’s probable we’ll find out during this season.
Just as Bran begins feeling comforted about the scene, the Three Eyed Raven returns him to reality. He feels excited knowing more about the past because he’s able to return home for a brief moment. Yet his true reality is in dealing with the upcoming war. Leaving the cave, he meets Meera outside to discuss his visions. Meera is clearly unhappy about their situation because she realizes that the real fighting is being done outside the safety net of the cave. Then one of the Children of the Forest reminds her of her own importance to Bran. Yet specifically what that importance is remains to be seen.
From there we travel to Castle Black where Ser Alliser Thorne is about to bust down the door where Ser Davos Seaworth and a few men keep Jon Snow’s body safe. Just as the Castle Black traitors are about to bust through the door, Wun Wun and the Wildlings burst down the Castle door and hold the men at bay. The mutiny ends with Edd casting Ser Alliser Thorne and the other traitors (including Olly) out of the castle to the South. Definitely, it does not feel as though we’ve heard the last from them.
One thing I have to remark is how Edd managed to leave the Castle and find the Wildlings unnoticed by the other Brothers. It’s not as if Edd is a proven thief/acrobat nor a ninja of any skill. Honestly, I was expecting some brothers to return with Edd’s head on a pike.
Next we turn back to King’s Landing where a drunk brags about approaching the former queen Cersei during her Walk of Shame. The idiot does not last for long as Ser Robert Strong smashes the fool’s head into the wall where he was taking a piss. But my guess is that Ser Robert Strong is being used by Cersei for getting petty vengeance against all who have slighted her. He returns to Cersei who appears meditating. There’s no word between the pair but he follows her around obediently. She does see the blood on his bracers and she is not shocked, implying that she most likely is providing him secret commands to find dissenters and eliminating her enemies, which mostly are those who ridiculed her heavily during her walk. She then leaves her room but is compelled back in because Lannister men have been ordered by Tommen to detain her for her safety. It’s a tense moment and an awkward one for the Lannister men who at one time obeyed her orders.
We return to Jamie and Tommen presiding over Myrcella’s funeral where Tommen reveals his weakness for failing to protect his family members.
Jamie reminds Tommen that everyone fails and that he should see his concerned mother. As Tommen leaves, the High Sparrow enters which causes an uneasy discussion about Jamie’s judgment due to his crimes. The High Sparrow displays his own human side where he acts without pretention and admits his fear of the gods and death. Yet when Jamie threatens to slaughter the High Sparrow, other Sparrows enter the Great Sept of Baelor to intercede. At that point, Jamie has a moment of realization that he would fail futiley attempting to kill the High Sparrow for no gain.
The speech the High Sparrow gives Jamie is showing another side of a power play, leadership and governance. Here, the High Sparrow’s form of power is faith/religion and the power of a perverse form of socialism. Throughout the series we see the Sparrows as abandoning their families and names to become part of a larger group with a single minded purpose. Their true motivation for their militant operation has yet to be revealed but they seem to operate as a collective against the rich. Sure, they targeted prostitution, debauchery and homosexuality, but their aim was at those with wealth. We haven’t really seen them criminalize the poor in the same manner.
Back at the Red Keep, Tommen finally visits Cersei. It’s a dangerous move for Tommen to be near his mother as Cersei’s motives are always misguided and she acts manipulative. He desires to rule with strength which he lacks and turns to his mother for advise. This is the worst move he can make and you can immediately see Cersei’s wheels of machinations turning in her head the moment he returns to her arms. She acts distant from him not because she is angry with him but to make him desire her approbation and “become his mother” once again. Yet the way Cersei decides to rule and act on vengeance is very shallow. For instance, the most important question to her that she asks Tommen the minute he steps through the door is “which color gown did Myrcella wear?” That demonstrates her narrow concern about the plight of the kingdom or anything else. She is petty and will go after those who humiliate her, which is why she fails constantly. One of the creepier things in that scene though was the way we see the pair being watched from outside the window. In the books, it’s hinted that Varys’ little birds spy network is all over the city and even assassinate Maester Pycell and Kevan Lannister. The fact that Tommen is reunited with Cersei probably has been partly motivated to reintroduce chaos by Varys for Daenerys to return to the kingdom.
We cross over to the Narrow Sea in Meereen where Tyrion works with the remnants of Daenerys’ small council in figuring out what to do. Yunkai and Astapor are retaken by the Masters into slavery, which motivates Tyrion in seeking another form of aid. He turns to the two imprisoned dragons, both of whom we learn are not eating. Tyrion gets his famous “I drink and I know things” line in before discussing how the dragons of old were enormous beasts but later shrank to the size of a cat because of the Targaryen’s captivity over them. Thus, Tyrion goes to unchain them.
During his unchaining of the two dragons, Tyrion speaks of his desire for the name of a dragon from his uncle. This is one of the first times we learn about Tyrion’s interest in dragons, which has been mentioned more times in the book but not in the series (from what I can recall). The dragons allow Tyrion to remove their chained collars and do not toast him. Of course, he’s quite nerve wracked by the experience and tells Varys to “punch him in the face” if he ever comes up with an idea like that again.
Over in Braavos, Arya continues her training as a beggar and is beaten up once again by the Waif. She does hear her this time around but still cannot get an edge over the Waif. Jaqen appears and attempts to get Arya to tell him her true name in exchange for a more comfortable life. Arya though remains staunch as she continues to name herself as “no one.” Even if she does not appear truly convicted of this identity, Jaqen does request for her to follow him, suggesting that she can move on. As she goes to grab her bowl of money from begging, Jaqen tells her that she no longer is a beggar for her next trial.
On a side note about this scene, I can see where they’re taking this but I’m not convinced she’s ready or that the scenes they’ve given Maisie make her seem ready for a massive transition. Outside of receiving punishment, Arya’s disposition makes us infer everything that she goes through to deserve being pushed forward. We don’t see her growing as a person in the two scenes with her still being blind. We can feel sorry for her but how has making her into a blind beggar changed the way she thinks? Instead, we’re force fed to accept that something has switched to make her into the object that Jaqen wants to transform.
Back to the North we have Roose meeting up with Ramsay and see a new character in the son of the Lord Karstark who was beheaded by Robb. Ramsay reveals to Roose that they were able to trace the direction that Sansa are heading in Castle Black. But Roose is disappointed that Ramsay’s men could not recapture Sansa and it’s clear that his faith in Ramsay is near an end, since Ramsay’s decision is to invade Castle Black, slay Jon Snow and get rid of anyone in their way. However, we also see that Roose is a strategist and does not want to attack Castle Black as the other houses in the North would look down upon the Boltons. He tries giving Ramsay some sage advice as well as pointing out that Ramsay is crazy.
At that point, Maester Wolkan shows up and declares that Walda has given birth to a baby boy, which is Ramsay’s son. Clearly, Ramsay understands his position in all of this and makes his move by assassinating his father and declaring himself the new Lord Bolton. Harald Karstark already seems to be in cahoots with Ramsay as he is not shocked by this turn of events. In fact, he’s encouraging as Maester Wolkan’s slight exhibition of compassion for the resting Walda and her child is one of annoyance and he orders the Maester to address Ramsay with his proper title.
Maeaster Wolkan goes to get Walda who brings her baby for Ramsay to see. She’s obviously very nervous around Ramsay and voices her concern over Roose after she gets urgently summoned. Instead, Ramsay leads Walda into the dog kennels and has her fed to his dogs. This scene essentially transforms Ramsay into one of the biggest villains in this series as he selfishly declares to prefer being an only child while his mother-in-law and newborn brother are mercilessly killed by his dogs. Also, in playing off both the Maester and Walda’s situation, it goes to show that not everyone in the Bolton ranks are necessarily as psychotic as the majority of the people while establishing Ramsay as being utterly ruthless and ambitious to claim the North under his own.
Still we can see that while Roose too wasn’t the good guy in betraying Robb, he clearly did so as a strategic move to gain power. He wasn’t really as blood thirsty as Ramsay and used flaying as a tool for keeping people in line as well as instilling fear in his enemies. Yet to Ramsay it’s just a large game to him as well as sheer fun. Because of Ramsay’s methods though, his rule by absolute fear will gradually catch up as those under him may eventually be swayed to betray him once given the opportunity. Roose tries to point this out but it’s doubtful that Ramsay will heed his advice.
At any rate, we stay in the North as Sansa, Theon, Brienne and Podrick are gathered around a camp in the deep cold. Sansa and Brienne have a small discussion about Arya which seems to relieve Sansa as the fate of her sister was unknown to her. Theon does hear the conversation but it’s hard to say what he thinks of it. Theon does tell Sansa that lighting a fire is dangerous since they are trying to escape the Boltons. But he does want to leave them because he knows what Jon Snow will probably do to him. Sansa though attempts to reassure Theon that she will protect Theon from Jon Snow and Castle Black. Once again the topic of Theon joining Brothers of the Night Watch comes up as Theon can be forgiven for his past crimes.
However, Theon admits that he does not want forgiveness. In a touching moment, he tells her that he would be willing to sacrifice his life for her in taking her to Castle Black. Yet with Podrick and Brienne, he feels that Sansa has capable protection to seek out Jon Snow. In turn, his own desire is to return “home.” My guess in what he wants is probably to return to his true home in the Iron Islands. It’s possible that he wants to reconcile with his sister and deal with how his father has treated him. The other thing is that perhaps he wants to go home to see if he can rally support for Sansa and attone for his past crimes against the Starks in giving the North the proper navy they deserve.
From there, we turn to the Iron Islands where Yara reports to her father Balon on Deepwood Motte where the Glovers have retaken the post (which might also mean that the Glovers are allying with the Boltons). Yet Balon is persistent in continuing their assault on the mainland whereas Yara points out that the War of the Five Kings is over and that it’s an utter waste of resources to continue.
As Balon heads to another part of the Island, he is intercepted by a hooded figure, who claims to be his brother. Of course, this is Euron Greyjoy. Balon walks over an unsteady bridge and the pair have a conversation. We learn that Balon supposedly went mad or was captured. Instead, Balon has returned and declares himself The Drowned God and desires Balon to step aside (similar to how Ramsay and Harald Karstark talked about new blood being necessary). Balon disasgrees and strikes out with a dagger, only to clip Euron’s face but is sent over the bridge into the waters. This scene was talked about in the books but we never read about it. After that we see Balon’s funeral with Yara declaring that she will be seeking vengeance as well as being owed the seat to the Iron Isles. However, the priest tells her that law says otherwise but that things will be determined shortly, which implies the moot to decide whom the next ruler will be.
Finally, we turn back to Castle Black where Melisandre looks into the flames with her confidence shattered. Ser Davos steps in to offer consolation but Melisandre’s faith in herself and the Lord of Light are lies to her. Yet ser Davos tells her that he has witnessed the two miracles that occurred by her hand and wonders if she has any power to revive Jon Snow. Ser Davos essentially says “Fuck all of them” with regards to fate and her gods, similar to what Jamie said the previous aeek about prophecy and fate.
Thereafter, Melisandre clenases Jon Snow, cutting his hair and sending it into the fire while reciting a prayer/spell in a foreign language.
Her prayer becomes more desperate and she eventually mutters, “Please” in plain English. However, her efforts are for naught as he remains unconscious. After the group leaves, Ghost, who was sleeping on the ground this entire time, wakes up. Then so does Jon Snow, breathing heavily.
