“The dragons are gone, the giants are dead and the children of the forest forgotten.”
This week’s episode of Game of Thrones,’What Is Dead May Never Die,’ was the first of the season that really felt like it was moving ahead full steam. It also served as a marvelous showcase of the primary theme of the entire series; power. The quest to obtain power is happening in nearly every corner of Westeros. Who truly has that power and what exactly that means is another story, or perhaps riddle, all together.
Thankfully Jon Snow survived his meddling into Caster’s “son sacrificing” ring, but from the looks of it not without a beating. As he begins explaining himself to Mormont, he realizes that Mormont already knows about the boys and has decided to turn a blind eye, which does not sit well with Jon. Jon reveals that he saw something take the baby, but he’s not sure what it was (please be White Walkers!). Mormont claims to not know either, but assures Jon that they will definitely be seeing them again.
Bran is continuing to have his direwolf visions. Despite Luwen’s insistence that these are merely dreams and nothing more, Bran knows better. He recalls being told stories of magic; of people being able to inhabit animals, but Luwen is quick to dismiss all of this too. Luwen has studied these ideas and theories at great length and all he got for his quest of knowledge was a trinket and no faith in the continued existence of magic.
Renly Baratheon has set himself up as if he was king already, complete with an ornate crown of antlers. He’s taken a new wife, Margaery, who happens to be the sister of his secret lover, Loras. He’s pompous and smug, but he does have something that many of the other men questing for power do not; numbers. When Catelyn Stark arrives, just in time to see Brienne of Toth overtake Loras and become a member of the King’s guard, there’s almost nowhere one can turn without seeing soldiers. Granted, they don’t exactly seem fighting ready, as Cat so eagerly points out when she asks for Renly’s help in aiding Robb. “My son is fighting a war, not playing at one.”
The story then follows Renly to the bedroom, where his advances are shunned by Loras, not only for his choosing Brienne to be a part of his guard, but also because in the two weeks that Renly has been married to his sister, she has remained untouched, and Renly’s subjects are beginning to become suspect of their new self-appointed king. When Margaery comes into the bedroom, Renly immediately jumps to excuses, but she reveals that she already knows his truth. She even suggest inviting Loras to join them or that she could simply turn over and pretend the she is her brother (oh, weird). Bottom line, she knows that she has to bear a child to appease the people and for them to seem truly strong.
Theon continues to be conflicted about his place in things. He’s still reeling from putting the moves on his own sister. Despite being abandoned and given away to the Starks by his father so many years ago, he can’t help but continue to want to please him and be a part of his retaking of power. His father’s favor lies with his sister, though, driving an even bigger dagger into Theon’s heart. Theon ends up posed with a choice; to warn Robb and return to the Northern army or remain with his father. In a fairly powerful scene, he basically renounces his ties to Robb and is ceremoniously baptized.
Tyrion, as he is every episode, is the highlight of the episode. His systematic tearing down of the small council has been nothing less than brilliant, and continues to be so. He comes up with a plan to see who remains in Cersei’s pocket. Through a clever use of storytelling and editing, Tyrion lays out three separate plans to Varys, Littlefinger and Grand Maester Pycelle, ending each plan with the reminder that Queen Cersei must not know.
It’s not long before Cersei furiously confronts Tyrion, exposing Pycelle as the snitch that he is. Tyrion, in turn, confronts Pycelle, who insists he’s always worked in the best interests of the Lannisters, but still finds himself thrown into a black cell for his loose lips. While Littlefinger is quite upset at being used in such a way, Varys is quite impressed with Tyrion and shares with him a riddle about who really has power, leading to Tyrion’s rebuttal, “I’ve decided I don’t like riddles.”
Much as they promised last week, the gold cloaks have returned to Yoren and his ragtag group headed to the Wall. Yoren yet again refuses to give up Gendry and dispatches four or five of the knights (all after he’s being hit with an arrow, no less) until they gang up on him, a la how they took down Ned last season, and then put an end to his life. The remaining gold cloaks round up the wayward bunch and mention sending them all of to Harrenhal, which Littlefinger mentioned earlier in the show as being haunted.
The episode wraps with one of the young ones, having took an arrow to the knee, demanding to be carried. The knight that comes over helps him in a different way, by plunging Needle almost entirely into his throat. The knights are still demanding Gendry, and in a moment of quick thinking, Arya offers that the boy they just killed was indeed the bastard they have been hunting. Little do they know they Arya is lying and that she also aided the men locked in the cage, which I can only imagine will come to importance soon.
Overall, I think this was the best Game of Thrones episode of the season. I feel like a broken record on this, but this really has become Tyrion’s show. Every scene he’s in is just perfect. I’ve said it before but seriously, go ahead and put his name on all those awards. The previous episode has already come a long way with the technical side of things, but this week’s was superb. The editing and cinematography of Tyrion’s deception and Theon’s decision were both mind-blowing and poetic in their own ways. Lastly, I found it humorous that after last week’s sexplosion that the two instances of imminent sex were both stopped short, proving that the show can have restraint when it desires so.
What did you lovely readers think? Let us know in the comments, and, as always, please keep them Book-Spoiler free or they shall be deleted.
– Matt Hardeman
