Intro: I’m watching Game of Thrones for the first time. I don’t know anything about it more recent than this episode.
This is very exciting, because two of the predictions I made came true in this episode! We’ll see those near the end…
King’s Landing: Well, Ned’s definitely dead. The episode opens with his blood dripping off the executioner’s sword. As his head is hoisted high for all to see, Sansa faints and a guy in the crowd has grabbed Arya and shielded her eyes from the sight. This is obviously someone who knows who she is, but I’m not sure who this man is. He drags Arya off, cuts her hair, and tells her to act like a boy, then throws her into a bunch of captives and slaves apparently about to set out north for The Wall to bring recruits for the Night’s Watch. I don’t quite understand what’s going on here, except that whoever this is, he thinks he’s doing Arya a favour by hiding her and smuggling her out of the city – which is probably at least half true, since no doubt she’d be in worse trouble if Joffrey caught her.
Two bully boys try to pick on Arya, saying “he looks like a girl”, but she fends them off with her sword. So, it looks like she’s headed north with this slave caravan. Definitely not what I thought would happen to her – I figured she’d survive on the streets of King’s Landing and turn into a tough street urchin.
We see more of Joffrey being delightful, ordering the tongue cut out of a bard who dared to sing a song about him in a tavern. Then he drags Sansa to the battlements and orders her to look on the head of her father, stuck on a pike. She’s obviously too terrified to disobey, but she lets out a snarky comment, which is enough for Joffrey to say, “My mother told me a king should never strike his lady”… and then order his guard to hit her instead. Charming.
Sansa sees Joffrey is standing close to an unguarded drop off the battlement and she bravely decides to try and push him off, but is foiled by the same guard, who sees what she’s planning and grabs her. But he doesn’t tell Joffrey, who hadn’t noticed. And when they leave he warns Sansa to behave, in a voice that implies that he’s partly looking out for her so she doesn’t get into even more trouble.
The Wall: Jon receives news of his father’s death. He’d previously decided to stay with the Watch rather than desert and ride to aid Robb and his army, but this is too much. He wants to leave now and kill Joffrey. He rides off into the night, past Samwell who tries to stop him. But he doesn’t get very far before Sam and a group of friends from the Watch intercept him and convince him to come back.
Commander Mormont knows what happened, but says since Robb decided to return there’ll be no punishment. He’s more worried about the Wildlings and White Walkers from north of the Wall, after a report from another border post that they too found bodies with the tell-tale blue eyes indicating White Walker infection. The commander orders a patrol in strength with him at the head to find out what’s happening, and also to find the missing Benjen. They ride off into the cold, dark north.
Tywin’s Army: Tywin realises Robb has the upper hand, now he’s captured Jaime. He orders Tyrion to go to King’s Landing, take the role of Hand of the King, and rein in Joffrey so that Tywin can get things under control. He also order Tyrion to leave his lady friend behind, but he discusses this with her and she suggests she goes with Tyrion anyway. So I guess she’s going to end up in King’s Landing too.
Robb’s Army: Robb and Cat also receive the bad news about Ned by raven. Cat goes to see Jaime and orders the guards to leave them. She yells at him and hits his face with a rock, and is about to smash his whole head in, but somehow Jaime talks her out of it. I’m still not quite sure exactly how. Maybe Cat doesn’t really have what it takes to be a killer.
The news of Ned’s death means Robb is now definitely the head of House Stark. His bannermen and their followers don’t take the news lightly either. One declares that they don’t need a dirty rotten king in the south telling them what to do, and declares the only king he needs is a King of the North: King Robb. Robb appears dumbstruck as the call goes around and soon everyone is rallying to the call of “King of the North!” We leave before we see Robb’s reaction, but I think he’ll eventually accept this, with all due humility.
Across the Narrow Sea: Did the witch woman’s ritual work to save Drogo? Not exactly…
Daenerys wakes up and Jorah regretfully informs her that she has lost her baby. He says that the witch woman said that the baby was pulled out already dead, and that it was deformed, covered in scales like a lizard. Whether this is actually true or not is not clear – it could just be a story that the witch told as she stole the baby and hid it somewhere among her friends. I think there’s a non-zero chance of this baby appearing more grown up later on.
Daenerys asks about Drogo. It seems he lives, but is in an unresponsive, comatose state. When Daenerys confronts the witch woman, the witch reveals it was never her intention to heal Drogo fully. Her promises of help were all just an effort to get revenge! When Daenerys protests that she saved her, the witch points out that it was too late, she’d already lost her village, her friends, everything, and so now Daenerys would know what it feels like too. And with Drogo unable to command, the Dothraki horde have abandoned him and ridden off with a new leader, leaving Daenerys behind with nothing but Jorah and the small group of captured slaves.
Daenerys is distraught. She can’t bear to see Drogo reduced to this state… so she suffocates him with a pillow. And there’s prediction one: I thought Daenerys would kill Drogo at some point. I didn’t get the circumstances quite right, but I did say she’d probably kill him.
She orders a pyre to burn Drogo’s body, and has the witch woman tied to it, to be burnt alive. She also places the dragon eggs by Drogo’s body. Jorah urges her to keep the eggs and sell them, so she can return to Westeros with money. But Daenerys refuses. He thinks she might be going to commit suicide by throwing herself on the pyre once it’s lit. He’s half right – she does indeed walk into the flames…
But when the fire has died in the morning, Daenerys is sitting among the ashes, unharmed. And the dragon eggs have hatched. She carries three tiny dragons. (Prediction number two! I knew the eggs would hatch!) This obviously impresses the group of ex-slaves around her. I suspect they will become new loyal followers and the beginning of an army that Daenerys will now begin to gather around her.