******SPOILER ALERT*********
Normally we would never recommend you leave a page on HNGN to go elsewhere, but if you haven't watched this Sunday's "Game of Thrones" you probably don't want to go any further. There be spoilers up ahead, you have been warned.
This week's episode opens up with Arya waking up in the middle of a field. She takes a quick look around and sees that the Hound is sound asleep. Seizing her opportunity to scratch off one of the names on her list Arya sneaks over to him with a large stone over her head, before she can smash his head in the Hound slowly opens his eyes and offers Arya one shot to kill him. Arya trembles and thinks about it for a minute but eventually lowers the stone. Arya and the Hound start to ride off on a horse, Arya is telling the Hound that no one is worse than him and asking when they'll be back in King's Landing. The Hound tells Arya they aren't going there, they're going to the Twins so he can sell Arya back to her family.
Daenerys learns that the "powerful friends" of the Yunkai are the "Second Sons," a group of mercenaries. She decides to invite them to camp to talk in an effort to persuade them to join her army. Jorah asks Daenerys why the Second Sons would consider joining her army. Daenerys: "Men who fight for gold can't afford to lose to a girl."
Three of the army's commanders show up. The one who appears to be the leader is especially brash and disrespectful to Daenerys, not a sentence comes out of his mouth without at least one sexual innuendo. The other two are more in the background. Although they make a comment about one being young for a captain and it is said that he is only a lieutenant. Daenerys gives the commanders 2 days to consider their options and sends them away with a mass amount of wine.
At Dragonstone Melisandre introduces Gendry to Stannis. They speak briefly before Gendry is sent away to a room to get dressed and comfortable. Stannis is as close to angry as we ever see him with Melisandre, he knows that they are going to sacrifice Gendry and thinks it is meant to torture the boy. Melisandre talks about how it's important when leading a lamb to the slaughter to make sure that the lamb never sees the blade coming.
In his prison cell we see Davos attempting to teach himself to read from the book Stannis' daughter gave him. The look of accomplishment on his face after he finishes reading a page is priceless, it's not the kind of expression you would ever expect from a man rotting away in a dungeon. Someone is coming so Davos quickly hides the book. It's Stannis.
Stannis starts off by talking about what a good man Davos' son was and how sorry he is about his death. The two are obviously still close friends, even if Stannis imprisoned him. Stannis talks about Gendry and how he must be sacrificed, Davos tries to talk him out of it. Stannis offers to free Davos as long as he never raises his hand against Melisandre again. Davos mentions that Stannis could have freed him at any time; Stannis obviously chose to do so now because he needed the counsel of his friend. Davos talks about his son and how he doesn't believe in any of the gods. Stannis talks about the visions he saw in the flames and that it's impossible to not believe in god when you've seen proof that their god exists; and that Davos has seen the proof too when Renly was killed so he should believe.
The commanders of the Second Sons are in their camp discussing their options. They decide the best choice is to slip past the guards in the middle of the night and murder Daenerys. To decide which of the three of them will do the deed they draw coins. The young lieutenant is given the job.
Tyrion goes to visit Sansa as Shae is finishing up preparing the young Stark for her wedding. Tyrion and Sansa have some words alone. Tyrion says that he didn't ask for the wedding, that Sansa will no longer be a prisoner. He tries to say that he understands how she feels, Sansa asks how he could, and Tyrion takes it back. Tyrion tries to smooth things over by promising he'll never hurt Sansa.
Cersei and Margaery are about to walk into the wedding together. Margaery says something about how they will soon be sisters in her usual cheerful way. Cersei goes on to talk about the song "The Rains of Castamere," which is basically the Lannister theme song. Cersei explains that the song is about the House Reyne and how they were destroyed by the Lannisters. She also mentions that House Reyne was the second wealthiest house, much like the Tyrells are now. Cersei ends the conversation with a chilling threat: "If you ever call me sister again I'll have you strangled in your sleep."
Sansa is preparing to walk down the aisle for her wedding when Joffrey shows up beside her. Gleefully he announces that since her father is dead as "father of the realm" he'll give her away. The hatred on Sansa's face is intense. As they walk down the aisle the crowd is somber at best, it looks like an execution not a wedding. The only two people that look to Sansa with any sense of encouragement are Bronn and Margaery. In one more act of cruelty Joffrey takes away the step stool that Tyrion was to use once they reach the altar. The first act of the wedding is when the groom is supposed to cover the shoulders of the bride with a shawl, of course Tyrion can't reach. He tries to and fails, resulting in embarrassment and shame for the couple and laughter from the audience. Finally Sansa kneels down for him and the wedding commences.
Gendry is wandering around his accommodations looking uncomfortable. It is clear that he has never been around such wealth. Melisandre comes into the room and they have a discussion about that very topic. Melisandre is obviously trying to seduce Gendry as she explains that the Lord of Light made everything possible so he could be right there at that time. She starts to undress him and eventually he relents. As the two start to have sex Melisandre ties up his arms, then his legs and jumps off. She grabs 3 leeches and puts them on to Gendry, including one on the place a man would least want a leech. Davos and Stannis come in to the room; Melisandre explains that they needed to see proof of the power of the blood. Melisandre takes the leeches off of Gendry and throws them in the fire. With each one she says a name. "The usurper Robb Stark. The usurper Balon Greyjoy. The usurper Joffrey Baratheon." The last leech, the one representing Joffrey, explodes in the flames.
At the wedding Olenna Redwyne attempts to explain to her family what their relations will be after all of the marrying is completed. In what is pretty much the only moments of levity in the episode she finally concludes that Margaery's brother Loras will become her father in law.
Tywin walks over to a clearly hammered Tyrion and demands he stop drinking. Tywin goes on to remind Tyrion that he needs to put a baby inside of his new bride as quickly as possible. Tyrion keeps drinking.
Joffrey goes up to Sansa and talks about how excited she must be about being married to a Lannister. Although it wasn't the Lannister she desired. Then he talks about how she'll get to have a Lannister baby, and it doesn't much matter which Lannister it's from either. Joffrey then suggests that he'll go into Sansa's bedroom in the middle of the night to have his way with her.
Joffrey calls for the "bedding ceremony." Tyrion says there will be no bedding ceremony. Joffrey commands that there will be one and Tyrion slams down a knife into the table and says, "Then you'll be f***ing your own bride with a wooden c**k." Joffrey is furious; Tywin tries to calm things down. Tyrion plays it off as a bad joke told by a man who was far too drunk.
Sansa and Tyrion are in their bedroom. Tyrion tells her that Tywin demanded that he consummate their new marriage. Sansa, who never drinks wine, pours herself a glass and starts to get undressed. Tyrion stops her, says he can't. Tyrion: "If my father wants someone to get f***ed then I know where he can start."
The lieutenant of the Second Sons breaks into Daenerys' tent while she is taking a bath. He holds a knife to the throat of her servant before explaining that he had a gift for her. Out of his bag he dumps the heads of the other two commanders. He explains that they ordered him to murder her, so he killed them. Swears his allegiance to Daenerys.
Sam and Gilly are making camp for the night in a shed. Sam, as usual, is proving to be worthless while starting a fire. Outside you can hear ravens squawking, throughout the scene the squawking gets louder. Sam and Gilly are talking about naming the baby, Gilly mentions that she doesn't really know any boy's names. The raven squawking gets deafening and Sam goes out to with his sword to find out why. A white walker is coming out of the woods. Sam holds up his sword and tries to attack it. The white walker just grabs the steel and it shatters, he then throws Sam to the side and goes toward Gilly and the baby. Sam reaches for the stone knife he found. Sam runs and stabs it into the back of the white walker; it screams, turns to ice and shatters. The episode ends as Sam, Gilly and the baby run away with all of the ravens following them.
So much happened in this one episode that it was hard to keep up. After a few episodes in a row of foreshadowing this episode exploded with action. This episode really only focused on about half of the characters, there were no Jon Snow, no Bran, no Robb Stark and no Jaime Lannister storylines. Yet the storylines that were focused on had monumental developments. Daenerys' army keeps growing and it's beginning to look like inevitability that she will eventually regain the Iron Throne. Gendry's future is looking quite bleak as Melisandre was able to show how powerful her magic can be with the aid of just a small bit of his blood. Then there was the most depressing wedding in history.
One of the brilliant things about this show is the way they can take tiny moments that last a mere second or two in an hour-long episode and attach so much importance and meaning to them. Two struck out from this episode. First would be when Joffrey shows up alongside Sansa to walk her down the aisle. The instant he appears on screen you know his intentions from the smirk on his face. In that one camera shot Joffrey's unspeakable cruelty becomes clearer than it has in the three seasons spent building it up. Joffrey killed Sansa's father after promising to spare his life, he forced Sansa to stare at her father's head on a pike, he held her prisoner, he broke off his marriage to her yet forced her to stay in King's Landing, and his family forced Sansa to marry Tyrion. Joffrey has done everything in his power to ruin Sansa's life up until this point. Then he has the audacity to walk her down the aisle at the wedding only Tywin Lannister wanted. Joffrey could very well be one of the most sadistic characters to ever grace a television screen.
The second brilliant moment of the episode came when Sam and the Gilly were in the shed talking about baby names. Gilly is struggling to think of any boy's names and mentions that she doesn't really know many. In most other shows this would just be a throwaway line. Then after a little bit of thought the viewer remembers where Gilly came from. All of the male babies at Craster's were sacrificed to the white walkers while Craster made all the women his wives. Gilly has never known a man not named Craster before the Night's Watch showed up at their place; of course she doesn't know any boy's names. One simple line of dialogue reveals a crushingly depressing back story once it's given a minute's thought. There are plenty of shows on television that haven't put that much thought into an entire episode, let alone one line of dialogue.
HBO is being almost as cruel as King Joffrey and Game of Thrones is taking an extra week off for Memorial Day. Although, with how many people have died in the three seasons maybe they deserve to have Memorial Day to reflect on it. In two weeks expect to see what is happening with the Wildlings and all the rest of the Starks. Perhaps there will be family reunions for Arya and Jaime Lannister. Also expect to see Yunkai fall pretty soon. Only two more episodes left this season, see you in two weeks.
