[MASSIVE spoilers throughout. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200 if you haven’t watched the episode.]
This week’s episode of Game of Thrones was fine, but unfortunately not very memorable. It could have (and should have) had a lot more emotional effect than it actually did, with the big narrative zinger — the Lord Commander vote — coming as almost a small mention instead of the huge news it should have been.
The entire thing seemed a bit all over the place, with the action low and the talking high. I feel like I wanted more out of this, since we know there are wars coming. I’m just hopeful they don’t all end up at the tail of the season, since that could make the path there feel longer than it should be.
At least we have Arya, who’s quickly becoming the star of the show that we never knew we had.
Arya’s journey has been an odyssey. From Winterfell to King’s Landing, to the Hound and to the Towers, she’s endured so much more than anyone else on the show, and she’s done it mostly alone. This frail little girl has thicker skin than any Lannister or Baratheon. She’s on a singular journey, with a story that’s essentially unrelated to anything else happening in the battle for Westeros, but that’s also why she may have a huge role in it down the line. It seems like every episode she’s been thrown into a completely new and foreign situation, often life threatening, and she’s survived. And she’s done so because of the hatred in her heart for those who have wronged her family, whispering their names each night before sleep. She plans on killing them, but isn’t ready yet.
That’s why she’s made the trek to Braavos. She has to accept her life as a faceless assassin before going back to the West. When she makes it to the House of Black and White (with a black and white door, no less) she’s greeted by an elderly man who turns her away.
“I have no where else to go,” she says.
“You have everywhere else to go,” he replies, giving her fair warning about what the House actually is — a place of death.
That’s why it’s terrific when we learn later on that the elderly man is actually Jaqen H’ghar, the one who gave her the coin that set her on the journey across the sea. Jaqen can change his face, something we should remember from past seasons, and something that Arya will need to learn to do as well. However, I think we may not actually be looking at Jaqen at all. We may actually be looking at Syrio Forel. The Braavosi expert swordsman trained Arya at King’s Landing, and we never really saw him die. In fact, we first meet a captured Jaqen while leaving King’s Landing with the same caravan that was taking Arya to the Wall, but obviously never made it that far. This is pure speculation at this point, but could Syrio have changed his face into Jaqen’s and survived, secretly mentoring Arya this entire time?
“Who are you?” she asks him.
“No one. And that is who a girl must become.”
Her sister Sansa is headed on a different path. She’s now fully succumbed to Little Finger’s deviousness, turning away Brienne’s rescue attempts during a chance meeting at an Inn. She’s a devil in training, but her training is going so slowly that it’s not really very interesting. I hope the show steps up her plot, as it would be important to see her acting out what she’s learning. For now, she just sits there and drops a random comment, something we usually do when we see her on screen.
Last year we saw the brutal death of Oberyn Martell, expertly played by Pablo Pascal. Oberyn, the younger brother to the Prince of Dorne, had always wanted vengeance for the death of his sister Elia at the hands of the The Mountain, blaming the Lannisters for her demise. After his death, his paramour Ellaria went back to Dorne to prepare for some sort of vengeance herself. Will this lead to anything? Probably, but we don’t know to what extent. The Lannisters are at their all-time weakest, and the youngest children either dead or under the Tyrell control. The Martells hold Princess Myrcella Baratheon (Lannister) in their capitol, thanks to a deal that Tyrion struck with them, and a threat on her life is a threat to the Lannister name itself.
With Jaime heading down to take care of the situation and bring back his daughter, that leaves King’s Landing (and all of the Seven Kingdoms) under the control of Cersei and her rather ineffective Small Council. It’s telling that even her uncle, Kevan Lannister, doesn’t want to stick around to help, thanks to the evil that emanates from Cersei’s soul. If it’s not apparent yet, the situation for the Lannister family is dire. They may very well be at their end.
This is reflected in Tyrion’s journey as well.
He’s lost all hope, unknowing and uncaring of where he’s headed to next. Yes, he’s supposedly to meet Daenerys, but does he care? No. Varys tries to convince him that he has a place, but Tyrion still doesn’t believe it. He considers himself worthless, apart from the bounty on him that is causing dwarves all across Westeros to go headless.
Meanwhile, the person he’s supposedly heading to meet isn’t fairing any better.
Daenerys is in crisis mode. Not only are her dragons lost, but she now has a full rebellion brewing. The Sons of the Harpy are killing slaves and Unsullied to make their claims of control of Mereen known. When one of the Harpies is captured, she opts to put him on trial because it’s “the right thing to do.” She’s pushing her ideology onto a culture that clearly doesn’t want it, and that culture is not accepting it. Not only are the Harpies upset, but the slaves are reacting erratically. When a slave kills the captive Harpy, she chooses to kill him to set an example about justice. This only causes the tensions to boil over, as the chants of “Mhysa mhysa (mother mother)” turn into hisses directed at her.
And even when the giant dragon Drogon appears to her in her time of need, he only abandons her, showing a sort of disapproval in her actions.
She’s lost her dragons, she’s lost the city’s leaders, and she’s lost the people she set out to protect. Dany is in a downward spiral where trust will be difficult to come by.
And so this episode was kind of depressing. Even the biggest moment, where we should have been pumping our fists in the air or clapping and cheering, was much more muted.
Jon Snow has been pivotal to the events of the North. He understands the Wildings as people. He understands the honor of wearing the Black. He knows that a darkness is coming, far worse than any war that the Seven Kingdoms are fighting right now. His entire life has been about the Night’s Watch, its honor, and its history. Nothing would make him happier than continuing to be a part of it. And when he’s finally elected Lord Commander, it kind of just happens.
For one, we never really knew that an election for a new leader was taking place, and it was fairly quiet until about mid-way through the episode. Shouldn’t this have been a far bigger event? Jon Snow is achieving a huge level of leadership. Though it’s not quite on par with his brother Robb’s ascension to status as King in the North, Jon’s role now is insanely important. This is possibly one of the biggest positions in Westeros, and yet the buildup of it was almost glossed over.
With everything that’s happened to the Stark family, it should be a celebration to see something finally go right, and yet much like this episode it never quite delivered. It was watchable for things to come, but I’m getting weary of writing that each week. We need big events (or need our big events made even bigger) to maintain the high from last season.
Images courtesy HBO
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