[MASSIVE spoilers throughout. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200 if you haven’t watched the episode.]
The writers of Game of Thrones have been on point this season when it comes to naming their episodes. From the opening “Two Swords” to “The Laws of Gods and Men“, there have been some heavy thematic influences in how the plot is related to the title. This week was the finale of Season 4, entitled “The Children”. Again, multiple meanings, and several layers deep.
Most importantly, though, this episode essentially banishes any of the remaining “parents” in Westeros to death and raises the children up to take their place. With that come trials that the kids are not prepared for, futures full of doubt and unknown, and in some cases, absolute redemption. This is the Game of Kids’ Thrones now.
In order to fully understand what’s taking place, we need to take a step back and examine how the children of each of the Houses of Westeros are changing and defining themselves.
House Lannister
It’s no surprise that the episode takes place on Father’s Day and incorporates paternal relations. The most turbulent of these is between Tywin and his kin, and how they’re not only the most powerful family in the Seven Kingdoms but also the most embattled. Everyone, except Jaime, blames Tyrion for the deaths of Tywin’s wife and Joffrey. Whether they actually believe that Tyrion was behind either of those events is beyond the point; they want a scapegoat and he’s the easiest target. In a prior episode, Tyrion describes his siblings as “the Cripple, the Dwarf, and the Mother of Madness”. It’s a fitting description of chaos, and one that only Tywin can contain as the pin in the grenade. He wants the Lannister legacy to continue.
But that all changes. The children rebel. They take control.
Cersei confirms to Tywin that the rumors of her affair with Jaime are true. She then goes on a sort of openness rampage, making her next stop Jaime’s room to let him know that they no longer need to hide their sins. Jaime has become a sympathetic character, putting family — his true family, Tyrion — first above all. He actually cares about his welfare, arranging for his escape with the help of Varys. He no longer cares what Tywin wants him to be.
And then Tyrion, escaping through the catacombs under the Tower of the Hand, realizes that now is is one chance to say goodbye to his father and his name forever. As he arrives in Tywin’s bedroom, he finds Shae lying in bed, alone, now Tywin’s whore. Tyrion doesn’t fear death; he expects it. But he doesn’t expect his heart to be broken twice by the woman he loves, and so brutally. He murders Shae in a fit of passion, whispering the tearful words “I’m sorry… I’m sorry.” He’s not sorry for her death, but for forcing her away.
He grabs Joffrey’s crossbow and makes his way toward Tywin’s toilet, where the elderly Lannister is having a rather precarious bowel movement.
“Whore.”
Tyrion almost refuses that women he loves could be treated like Fleabottom prostitutes, and when his father utters the word he dares him to say it again.
“Whore.”
And then that’s it. A bolt through Tywin’s heart, dead while taking a shit. Not very Lannister-like. And Tyrion escapes, no longer thinking (or wanting) himself a child of the family.
Happy Father’s Day, Tywin. The Lannister name is shattered.
House Targaryen
Daenerys, child of the oppressive Mad King, has been battling all season long with her own demons, the least of which are her own dragon children. Now running rampant and resulting in the death of children, they need to be locked up. Unfortunately Drogon, the biggest of the three beasts, has become feral and disappeared, escaping months earlier as Dany made her way into Mereen.
Her children have betrayed her, she feels. But, perhaps, she’s betrayed them. Perhaps she’s not the great mother she thinks she is. When she’s introduced to her subjects, she’s given a title paragraphs long, and dragons seem to just be a footnote in it. Is this who she is?
All season she’s been pushing Westerosi values onto the people of the Eastern Continent. It mirrors a bit of what happens in the real world, where we (the Western saviors) march into countries freeing oppressed peoples, only at times leaving ash and death in our wake, for better or worse. I’ve noted how she’s taking on aspects of Western culture best left in the past, and now she clearly doesn’t understand the ways of the East, or of her own life.
The savior is becoming the new oppressor.
House Stark
The Stark children are fascinating. They’re clearly the protagonists of the series, the ones who adhere strictly to family values and the Old Gods, who put love of one another ahead of the Realm. They all seem to be heading towards great things, and have been on the most incredible journeys themselves.
Bran Stark has the most mystical paths, it seems. Upon reaching the heart tree home of the Three-Eyed Crow his band of survivors is attacked by the undead (and skeletal!) wights. Jojen, already nursing an illness, is mortally injured and pleads for his sister to leave him behind and continue her quest with Bran and Hodor. They’re saved by another child — or rather, by one of the Children of the Forest, first of the inhabitants of Westeros. They’re thousands of years old, and the ones who have carved the faces in all of the trees we’ve been seeing throughout the series.
Their abode, inside the giant heart tree in the frozen North, is home to the reason Bran has been on this mission. The dream-sequenced crow is actually one of the Children, now an old man who has used his power to guide Bran to him. Why? Well, all we know is that Bran is meant to fly, not walk. Flight is sacred in Westeros, with constant references to ravens, crows, and dragons throughout the show. If Bran is meant to fly, he could rule the skies as any one of those, especially with the imminent evil of the Night’s King approaching.
Also in the North, and the subject of several near misses with Bran, is Jon Snow. He knows enough of the Wildlings to break them. After Ygritte’s death in the prior week and the decimation of the Night’s Watch and the Free Folk because of his leadership, Jon wants to end the war. Treating with Mance Rayder (or killing him) would break the clans and scatter them. It isn’t until Mance brings up the coming evil of the Night’s King and the White Walkers that Jon realizes that his duty as a protector of men extends to the Wildlings as well as the rest of Westeros.
Unfortunately that’s all abruptly halted as Stannis arrives, fresh from securing coin from Braavos and led to believe by Melisandre that his true enemy is in the North. Mance is captured — saved by Jon, in fact — and the Wildlings are broken. The amazing overhead shot of Stannis’ army advancing around the Wildling camp is reminiscent of the same kind of shot and feeling as the Red Wedding last season. Stunning.
Once barely a squire to the Lord Commander, Jon is going to be key to the future of the Wall, even though he’s broken his vows to both the Wall and the Wildlings.
And then there’s Arya.
Arya, Arya, Arya.
She’s a wonderful character, a sort of young and wild Joan of Arc that has adopted The Hound as her new Father. The two have been a terrific duo, a perfect Yin Yang, who need each other more than they’d ever lead us to believe. But we know. When the unlikely meeting with Brienne (herself a much more classic Joan of Arc figure) leads to one of the most epic one-on-one battles in the show’s history, the Hound is beaten to a pulp and left for dead.
Pleading for mercy, Clegane asks Arya to finish him. He’s been on her “list”, and he reiterates all of the things he did to her family that warrant a death. But, she won’t do it. She knows she’s already won. She’s learned and acquired everything she needed of him, but to kill him and exact revenge would be a sort of second death to her own actual father. She’s sympathetic towards him for not having exacted his own revenge on his brother, the Mountain (who now lies in a state of zombification at the hands of Qyburn back at King’s Landing).
Maybe she’s leaving him to die because she actually formed a bond, or maybe she genuinely wants him to suffer. We don’t know. What we do know is that her path is now headed towards Braavos in one of the best closing scenes of the season. A children’s choir fittingly sings the theme song to the series. She’s on a boat, headed towards the sun, with her sword and experience at her side and open water ahead of her. She’s done being a Stark. She’s done with Westeros.
And so are we, for another year.
The closing, extra-sized episode to a wonderful season managed to top almost everything else before it, except maybe the battle for the Wall. The production values were incredible, and we got more than satisfying endings to many of the characters. An unbelievable roller-coaster of an episode (and season), we’re left with hope and with fear at the same time.
As the children ascend to the main leadership roles of the world, so with them come inexperience and chaos. For a show with so many defined paths throughout the House lineages, we really don’t know what’s going to happen next. We’re on a boat too, heading towards open water, with a group of lost children along for the ride.
All images courtesy HBO
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