******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 is it, the season finale. The last we'll see of Westeros for a long summer, hopefully it won't last seven years.
At The Twins everything is burning. The army of the north that had been happy and drunk is now being slaughtered. The Hound and Arya are trying to ride their way through the chaos. Arya, who had been knocked out by her companion, comes to just in time to see some of the soldiers of the Frey walking around with "The King of the North," the dire wolf's head attached to Robb's headless body.
Tyrion, Sansa and Shae are walking through a garden together. Some people snicker at them while passing and we find out that Tyrion has a list of people just like Arya. Sansa asks Tyrion if he plans to kill them, which he doesn't. So Sansa suggests "sheep sh**ing" them, a trick Arya used to do to her. Take a mattress, cut it open, fill it with sheep excrement, and sew it back up. It stinks to high heaven and no one knows where it's coming from. This scene is the most likeable Sansa has been in all three season. Tyrion gets called off to a small council meeting.
At the meeting Joffrey is smiling and unable to contain himself. They announce that Robb Stark is dead; Joffrey says he's going to serve his head to Sansa at his wedding. Tyrion tells him that is unacceptable and that Sansa is no longer his to torment. Joffrey calls his uncle a little monster causing Tyrion to commit treason, yet again, and threaten the king.
Tyrion: "You should speak to me more softly then, monsters are dangerous and just now kings are dying like flies."
Joffrey wants to have Tyrion's tongue ripped out and yells, "I am the king!"
Tywin: "Any man who says 'I am the king' is no true king. I'll make sure you understand that when I've won your war for you."
Joffrey yells at Tywin about him being a coward and staying at Casterly Rock while his father won the real way. Tywin excuses Joffrey from the council meeting saying he is tired, Joffrey protests. Joffrey acts like a petulant child as the king is essentially sent to bed without supper.
Tyrion and Tywin argue back and forth. Tywin urges Tyrion to consummate his marriage; Tyrion wonders how he could ever do that after what they have done to the Starks. Tyrion has serious problems with the Red Wedding. When the imp asks Tywin when he has ever acted in a way that wasn't for his best interest Tywin answers that the only time is when he didn't drown Tyrion on the day of his birth like he wanted to.
Bran, the Reed kids and Hodor find an abandoned castle along the wall to camp out at for the night. While they are bedding down for the night Bran tells a story that he had heard about the castle, one of the long ghost stories that he used to love when he was younger. The moral of the story is that if you kill someone who is a guest in your house the gods will never forgive. An allusion to....
Walder Frey is in the dining hall gloating to Roose Bolton about what they have done. Servants are working all around them to clean all of the blood off of the floor. Frey goes on about how everyone thought they were better than him and now look at them, all dead. Frey asks Bolton, who is the new warden of the north, whatever happened to Theo Greyjoy. Bolton talks about how his men killed all of the ironborn who were in the north, but that his boy, Ramsay Snow, Roose Bolton's bastard son, was still holding on to Theon.
Ramsay, whose face we recognize from all of the torture but now have a name for, is eating a sausage in front of Theon. For a second it appears as if Theon thinks he is eating, well, what Theon lost last time we saw him. Ramsay makes fun of him for thinking this. As Theon is begging to be killed after Ramsay decides to rename him "Reek". Ramsay then proceeds to beat him until he'll say his new name.
In the castle with Bran and his friends there are strange sounds and a bit of a rumbling in the floor. All of a sudden a door opens and out comes Sam. Meera Reed holds a knife to his throat for a second but once they start talking everything is fine. Sam knows who they are after a second, says that he would be dead if it weren't for Jon Snow. Bran begs Sam to take him north of the wall.
Balon Greyjoy is reading a letter he has received telling him that he needs to pull all of his soldiers out of the north. As he is reading Yara, Theon's sister, his slowly unwrapping a box. Balon reads that the box contains Theon's "favorite toy" and if the Iron Born don't leave the north they will receive more boxes with more pieces of Theon. The Greyjoys are disgusted by the box and put it away. Balon announces that he won't leave the ground he has gained. Yara is furious. She plans to take the fastest ship with the 50 best men to go save her little brother. We see her boarding a ship and ready to go.
Sam reluctantly lets Bran and crew go to the other side of the wall. He gives them the dragon glass weapons that he found while telling them about the white walkers. Sam begs them to reconsider and come to Castle Black, they refuse and we see them walking through the tunnel to the other side of the wall.
Davos Seaworth and Gendry are talking to each other in the dungeon about how they are just two low born boys from Flea Bottom. Davos asks why Gendry fell for Melisandre so quickly.
Gendry: "You're me. Never been with a woman, never talked to a woman, really. Then she comes at you; big words, no clothes. What would you have done?"
Davos talks about never wanting to be a lord but doing it so his son would have a better life, tells Gendry his son is dead for following him.
Shae is watching the ships leave King's Landing and Varys comes to talk to her. Varys talks about how he knows the love between her and Tyrion is true and tries to give her a bag full of diamonds to go start a new life anywhere else. Varys says that Tyrion is one of the few people who could actually make Westeros a better place, but Shae complicates things. In the end, Shae throws the diamonds back at Varys and says she'll only leave if Tyrion tells her to.
Arya and the Hound ride past some soldiers talking about the slaughter of the Starks. One of the soldiers in particular talks about how hard it was for them to attach the wolf's head to Robb's body. Arya walks over to the soldiers and asks if she can have some food. She offers to pay with her special coin. She drops it on the ground and when the soldier that was most boastful goes to pick it up she starts stabbing him with a knife she had hidden. The Hound ends up killing the other three soldiers. After killing the man Arya picks up the coin and says "Valar Marghulis." The Hound tells Arya next time she plans on killing someone to tell him first.
Jon Snow is trying to clean up with at a watering hole when Ygritte is behind him with her arrow pointed straight at him. Snow tells her that he knows she won't shoot him and that they love each other but he did what he had to. Ygritte says, "You know nothing, Jon Snow." She ends up shooting him three times before he is able to ride away.
At Castle Black Sam and Gilly are meeting Maester Aemon. The Maester starts to question whether or not Sam still remembers his vows; Sam says of course he does. Since they are sworn to protect all of man they need to bring in Gilly and the baby because of what is lurking north of the wall. Gilly says the name of the baby is Sam. The Maester sends every raven out to warn of the white walkers.
Davos is hanging out with Stannis' daughter reading through various messages that ravens have brought. He finds the one from Castle Black and goes to alert Stannis.
Stannis and Melisandre tell Davos that Robb Stark is dead insinuating that the blood sacrifice they had done earlier had worked and now they must kill Gendry. Davos stands up for him, pleads for Gendry's life.
Stannis: "What is the life of one bastard boy against and entire kingdom?"
Davos: "Everything."
Stannis: "The boy must die."
Davos takes Gendry to a row boat and sends him off. It is obvious that Gendry has never been in a boat before; he sits the wrong way before rowing off to safety.
At Castle Black a rider approaches and collapses immediately after entering the gates. It is Jon Snow. Sam rushes him off to have his wounds taken care of.
Very tentatively entering the streets of King's Landing is Jaime Lannister. After being yelled at by a few people who think he is merely a peasant Jaime goes to see Cersei. Cersei starts crying upon seeing him.
Stannis is reprimanding Davos once again, and once again Davos has been sentenced to death by Stannis for arguing against the red magic and Melisandre. Talk quickly turns to the white walkers and Davos tells Stannis that he will be needed to rebuild the army to fight off the white walkers. Melisandre agrees and spares Davos' life, the irony of which Stannis brings up.
Melisandre: "The war of five kings means nothing. This is the only war."
Outside of Yunkai Daenerys and her troupe are waiting for the slaves to free themselves and come out of the city. For a second Deanerys appears afraid that they aren't going to come out. Eventually they do. She announces that they are free, not because she has freed them, but because everyone is free. The slaves start to chant "mhysa," which means mother. Daenerys walks out into the crowd of slaves and is carried on their shoulders as the camera pans out from above, ending season three.
After last week people must be breathing a sigh of relief that there wasn't complete carnage at the end of this episode and that some beloved characters are still standing. The finale was able to put a few storylines to bed while setting the stage for a couple other storylines. Jaime Lannister was finally able to return home, well, most of him was able to return. It'll be very interesting to see how the grumpiest man in the seven kingdoms feels about his son's missing appendage.
Both Sam and Jon Snow found their way back to Castle Black which is apparently running just like normal. It's easy to forget that early in the season, probably about two months ago, the Knight's Watch had a little bit of a mutiny on the other side of the wall. Yet there is no real mention of what happened or the fallout from the ordeal. This may have been left open ended on purpose but it really needs to be addressed at some point, there can't be a mutiny without any consequences.
Seeing Yara get ready to go save her brother was one of the highlights of the episode. The ironborn are fierce fighters and a bit of a wild card in the show, the idea of their 50 best warriors going off to pick a fight is quite enticing. After the Red Wedding viewers are yearning for the Boltons to get their comeuppance, is there any better way than sending Yara and a pack of killers hell bent on revenge?
Whenever a group goes through the wall it is foreboding, especially with the white walkers showing up with more and more regularity. Therefore things are looking a bit grim for Bran, Hodor and the Reeds. There is a little bit of hope for the heir to the Stark throne because of the weapons Sam gave them but it still feels ominous.
Daenerys' dragons and army keep getting bigger and bigger. Their arrival in Westeros has to be approaching, they appear to be unstoppable.
It remains to be seen what will happen with The Hound and Arya. Where are they going? What is going to happen when they get there? Is The Hound actually a good guy as the show seems to be hinting at? The two managed to get along without Arya threatening to kill him this week, so who knows?
Overall season three was pretty amazing. It delivered what was by far the biggest shock to viewers, at least to the ones who haven't read the books. The reaction following the Red Wedding online was insane. People seemed to lose their minds a little when Ned Stark died in season one, that was nothing compared to the way people reacted to the Red Wedding. With season four still a long, long way away we shall leave you with a clip of people reacting to the Red Wedding and George R.R. Martin laughing like a sadist at the way he broke their hearts. Enjoy.
