Emelia Clarke, left, as Daenerys Targaryen, and Nathalie Emmanuel as MIssandei in “Game of Thrones.” (HBO photo)
You-know-what alert. This is a recap of Episode Three of Season Four of “Game of Thrones.” If you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading. If you haven’t seen Episode 2 yet either, what is WRONG with you? Anyway, you can stop reading too. There’s a moment in “Breaker of Chains,” where Tyrion Lannister, imprisoned for allegedly poisoning Joffrey, says the one person he is sure didn’t do it is his sister Cersei. If you read or watch mysteries, you might take that to mean she dunnit. Did she? I’ll never tell, but cold-blooded Joff isn’t even cold before other players in the eternal power struggles of the Seven Kingdoms begin plotting to fill the vacuum left by the boy king’s wedding day death. Last week’s episode was a shocker to anyone who hadn’t read George RR Martin’s books, almost as much of a shock as last season’s Red Wedding slaughter of the Starks. As the third episode begins, Dontos has spirited Sansa away from the wedding scene during the chaos that follows Joffrey’s death. He takes her to a small boat and assures her he is taking her to someplace safe. Through the fog, the eerie outline of a ship slowly emerges. They approach the side of the vessel and Sansa climbs aboard… straight into the arms of Baelish, who has paid Dontos to befriend the young woman and to deliver her to him. Even the necklace Dontos gave to her, saying it was the only thing of value left from House Hollard, was fake. Sansa learns that after Baelish makes sure Dontos is paid for his services: with an arrow to the eye. Back at King’s Landing, Joffrey’s body with painted stones over the eyes is visited by still grieving Cersai , Tywin and her son/nephew Tommen, who is next in line for the throne. There’s a wonderful scene where Tywin quizzes the boy on what makes a great king. For each of Tommen’s first answers—holiness, justice, strength—Tywin relates the story of a king whose reign was ruined by one of those traits. Finally, the boy gets it right: Wisdom, the one element the previous kings, including Joffrey, lacked. “A wise king knows what he knows and knows what he doesn’t,” grandpa tells the boy, impressing upon him the need to listen to his counselors at all times. Jaime shows up to mourn his son and comfort his sister. Cersei bitterly declares she wants Tyrion dead for killing Joffrey. “You’re a hateful woman,” Jaime sneers.” Why have the gods made me love a hateful woman?” Denied her physical comfort since returning one-handed, Jaime forces himself on Cersei and pushes her to the floor next to Joffrey’s bier, as Cersei keeps hold of the boy’s dead hand. The death of Joffrey was a seminal event in “Game of Thrones,” and not just because it’s the death of a major, endlessly hateworthy character: Whatever fragile peace was in place at the end of the war has now collapsed and the major players have been re-activated (not that anyone had gone into retirement from scheming and power-grabbing, of course). Tywin makes a carefully considered move as he looks forward to Tyrion’s trial for murdering Joffrey. There will be a three-judge panel, including Mace Tyrell, himself and, in a stunning display of strategic thinking, the Lannisters’ sworn enemy, Prince Oberyn. If he’s willing to forge an alliance with the Lannisters, Tywin promises him he’ll be able to exact his revenge on The Mountain for killing his sister, Elia. In prison, Tyrion is visited by his faithful squire Podrick, who secrets some hard cheese and a candle into his cell. Tyrion learns that he will be tried in a fortnight and who the three judges will be. He immediately gets the self-serving brilliance of Tywin’s thinking. Podrick is too loyal not to tell Tyrion that he’s been offered a bribe to testify against his master. He hasn’t given the unknown briber an answer, but Tyrion is terribly distressed by this news. He knows that if Pod doesn’t testify, he’ll be murdered. He urges the boy to get out of King’s Landing as soon as possible and not to refuse to testify because of his loyalty to Tyrion. Also unsure of the future is the new queen, Margaery, who’s also unsure of her status, since her marriage to Joffrey was never consummated. What luck, she complains to her grandmother: One husband Renly was gay and having an affair with her brother, Loras, and ended up dead. Now her second husband ends up dead even before the marriage was consummated. “I must be cursed,” she sighs. “Nonsense,” Olenna snaps. “Your circumstances have improved markedly.” Most anxious to take advantage of Joffrey’s death is Stannis Baratheon, who needs an army to back up his claim to the throne. Davos Seaworth, the king’s hand, all but eclipsed by the influence Melisandre holds over Stannis, points out that soldiers win wars, not prophecies. Davos repairs to his secret reading lessons with princess Shireen, but suddenly gets an idea. He asks Shireen to take dictation as he frames a letter to the Iron Bank, to be sent under Stannis’ name. Of momentarily lesser significance are several digressions in the third episode meant to remind us that other players are still on the horizon. We revisit Arya and the Hound on their continuing journey, during which they are befriended by a poor farmer and his young daughter. In “gratitude,” the Hound steals what little money they’ve been hording. Arya is outraged, but the Hound assures her that the man and the child don’t have what it takes to survive and will surely be dead in a year’s time anyway. Samwell Tarly is increasingly worried about Gilly, one of the Free Folk whom he has rescued and clearly fallen in love with. It’s no good her living as the only woman among a hundred men of the Night’s Watch. He tells her they all have one thing on their minds and lay awake at night thinking of her. And what about Samwell? Does he think about her at night too? She asks. The terminally shy Samwell once again cannot express his true feeling, but spirits her away from Castle Black to a job in a brothel, with the stipulation to the owner that Gilly is not be used as a prostitute Mance Rayder’s growing army of Wildings, including the cannibalistic Thenn, attack a small village and kill almost all of the inhabitants, except for a young boy who, after being informed the Thenn will be gnawing on his freshly dead mom and pop, is dispatched to Castle Black to warn the Night’s Watch that their days are numbered. If the Wildings breach the Wall, they will run amok over the entire land. But the Watch knows it doesn’t have the manpower to hold the wall against the Wildings. The situation seems hopeless. We also catch up with Daenerys who is continuing her march through the east with a growing army of freed slaves and the Unsullied. Her arrival at Meereen is challenged by the city’s champion, who rides out of the city gates on a black steed, dismounts and urinates on the ground. Daario Naharis volunteers to fight the peeing-champion, not only single-handedly but without a horse. Daenerys questions his decision, but he assures her that a man is smarter than a horse and of course proves it. Celebrating the victory, Daenerys addresses the city, assuring the slaves that she has freed them and inviting them to join her army. The episode may lack the kind of gotcha cliffhanger ending that sent us reeling last week, but in a way, there are several cliffhangers: Joffrey’s death has set all kinds of things in motion. The fragile peace is a thing of the past.
News Source:www.blog.sfgate.com
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