Intro: I’m watching Game of Thrones for the first time. I don’t know anything about it more recent than this episode.
Wow, a lot is happening in this show, really fast, and it’s hard to keep track of it all. Let’s see how we go.
You know, I don’t remember anything happening in the Land of the Dothraki at all in this episode.
In King’s Landing, the intrigue continues, with Ned digging into things that might be best left alone. The tournament continues, and the knight called The Mountain is bested at the joust by a young pretty-boy with long blond locks who presents a rose to Sansa before proceeding to knock The Mountain off his horse. Sansa almost swoons – I guess she’s not as doting on Joffrey as she appeared to be before. Or at least she’s realised Joffrey hates her guts and marrying him might not be the best way to ensure her happiness and longevity. The Mountain takes offence at Pretty-Boy and grabs a sword, intent to cut him down. The Mountain’s own brother (the one scarred when The Mountain held his head in the fire when they were younger) intervenes and fights him to save Pretty-Boy, until King Robert calls things to order and The Mountain stands down, then runs off.
Later in private, we see Pretty-Boy shaving another young man’s chest, the conversation revealing that Bare-Chest is currently fourth in line to the throne, so he must be related to King Robert. Pretty-Boy says wouldn’t it be good if Joffrey and the other couple of people ahead of him met unfortunate accidents and Bare-Chest became king… And then we see that Sansa probably has no hope with Pretty-Boy, unless he’s into playing on both teams.
Arya meanwhile is practising her combat skills by chasing cats. She follows one into the dungeons under the castle, where she finds huge dragon skulls. We’d previously heard (from Viserys, I think??) about these dragon skulls lining the throne room. It seems they’ve been removed since the Mad King died. Anyway, while Sansa is exploring the dragon skulls, two people enter the dungeons, talking about some plot to do bad things to Ned Stark. One of them is the eunuch Varys, one of the advisors on the King’s council, and I forget who the other was. Arya overhears enough to report back to her father, after having to escape the dungeons via some dirty tunnel after getting locked in.
Ned is interrupted when listening to Arya though, and called to see the King. Robert has news from Jorah Mormont, the translator travelling with the Targaryens to help them with the Dothraki language. I knew he was a spy of some sort! Anyway, a raven has brought the news that Daenerys is carrying Drogo’s child, and Robert is livid. He knows a child will unite the Dothraki and Targaryens and he fears the Dothraki horde invading across the Narrow Sea. The answer, he says, is to have Daenerys and her unborn child murdered, and he gives the order. Ned refuses, not wanting to kill a woman or an innocent child, but Robert insists, and his council backs him. Ned hands back his Hand of the King badge and leaves to pack to go home to Winterfell. Robert is Not Happy.
In an interesting scene we see King Robert and his wife Queen Cersei talking to one another, for I think the first time in the series. It’s clear they hate one another, and probably always have, but are sort of “best frenemies” as they know it’s up to both of them to hold the Seven Kingdoms together, and that would be much harder without the pretence of their ongoing marriage.
In Winterfell, Bran is still down, but sounds more keen to learn to shoot a bow if he can do so from his horseback harness. He wants to know where his mother is though, and the old advisor guy can only offer empty promises that she’ll be home soon.
Cat Stark however, has turned away from Winterfell towards a new location, called The Eyrie. For some reason she doesn’t want to take Tyrion back to Winterfell, but instead takes him here, which is where her sister lives – despite the fact that she hasn’t even seen her sister for many years and apparently they don’t get along. It’s really unclear to me why on earth she would go here. On the way there, her group is attacked by bandits or something, and her guards fight them off with the help of Tyrion once she releases his bonds. Tyrion does indeed seem keen to help, and is not acting like a guilty person.
The Eyrie turns out to be a tall, broad tower of stone, which has been hollowed out to form living space inside, easily defended. Cat’s sister, Lysa, is instantly unlikeable, and she is still suckling a boy about ten years old. It turns out this boy is the son of Jon Arryn, the previous Hand of the King, who I guess was Lysa’s husband. She refers to him as the seed, saying “the seed is strong” – which is a phrase heard before by Ned in King’s Landing during his investigation into Jon Arryn’s death! I think it was the armoursmith’s apprentice who told him that, and it seemed to make no sense at the time. Hmmm.
Lysa hates Lannisters and throws Tyrion into a cell… an odd cell which is missing one entire wall. The missing wall opens into a vast cliff face with a deadly drop. Looking from the outside, the cell looks like a nesting spot for some enormous flying creature. Given the name “The Eyrie”, I would not be at all surprised if there are giant eagles around, and Tyrion has been stuck here to serve as eagle food.
I dont remember anything at The Wall happening in this episode. If it was, it was probably just Jon Snow chatting with other Night’s Watch recruits.
The episode ends in King’s Landing, with Jaime Lannister calling out Ned Stark and trying to cut him down with a sword. Stark defends himself well, until one of Jaime’s cronies stabs him in the back of a leg with a spear or something. Ned goes down, and Jaime runs off without landing a killing blow. This all seems a bit sudden and violent, and I’m not sure why Jaime doesn’t bother killing Ned now that he’s gone out of his way to fight him in the first place. Ned’s left bleeding in the street as the credits roll…
please continue with this recaps, I enjoy them so much :) and I know of a lot of people that enjoy them a lot too, through me