Daenerys Stormborn Targaryen
Daeny's dragons are getting big, and they are getting a bit wild, too. Daenerys almost gets bitten when she tries to cool down a fight over fresh meat.
She and her army are on the way to Meereen, another slave city, to free those slaves. She comes to a mile marker decorated with the corpse of a young girl slave, and is told that every mile marker along the way is similarly decorated. There are 163 miles to Meereen, and Daeny demands to see every corpse before they bury it. She will not be coddled.
Daario Naharis, now played by a new actor, counsels her that she needs to know a land to rule it, to understand the ways of the slaves following her in order to truly lead them. He charms her.
Sansa Stark
Sansa is crushed by the news of the death of her brother and mother. Not just the fact of the deaths, but the details - the direwolf head sewn on Robb's body, Catelyn's body thrown in the river after her throat was cut to the bone. She believes she is now alone in the world. She refuses to eat, despite the browbeating of Shae and the entreaties of her husband Tyrion. Tyrion clearly wants to help her, but he can't. Sansa retreats to the Godwood, not to pray but to avoid people talking to her.
There she is stalked by Ser Dontos, the man who Joffrey ordered drowned in wine until Sansa intervened. She averted Dontos' death by telling Joff it was bad luck to kill someone on your name day.
Dontos is pitiful, but he wants to help Sansa. He gives her a necklace that his mother's mother wore. We finally see a smile from Sansa as she accepts this gift nobly.
Shae
Shae is upset with Tyrion - with how he tries to take care of Sansa, with how he refuses to have sex with her. She confronts him with Tyrion's plot to have her removed to safety, bribing her with diamonds to leave the city. Tyrion doesn't know what she's talking about, but Shae doesn't believe that. Nevertheless, when Shae asks him point blank if he wants her to stay, he doesn't answer. Shae storms off, and a spy watches it all. Are the two sweethearts no longer?
Jaime/Cersei
Qyburn has fitted Jaime with a new hand made of gold. He has also cured Cersei of some mysterious symptoms, which she won't discuss with Jaime. Jaime tries to get close with Cersei again, but she tells him that too much has happened since he left her alone to face Robert's death, the Battle of the Blackwater, the rise of Margaery, Myrcella's departure, etc. She tells him that he "took too long". They are interrupted by the spy who watched Shae's departure from Tyrion. Are the two sweethearts no longer?
In the North
Tormund Giantsbane and Ygritte wait for reinforcements from Mance Rayder. While waiting, Tormund accuses Ygritte of not really wanting to kill Jon, else her arrows would have found fatal places instead of merely painful ones. They are interrupted by the arrival of reinforcement. They are the Thenns, a tribe of men from North of the Wall who kept to themselves before the uniting force of Mance. The Thenns claim to be the last of the First Men, and they are also cannibals...which explains their popularity.
Meanwhile, Jon reminisces about Robb to Sam. He says he wanted to hate Robb, because he was better than Jon at everything, but he couldn't. Sam turns that about, pointing out that Jon is likewise better than Sam at everything.
Jon goes in front of the leaders of the Night's Watch, to answer for his crimes against them. The panel is made up of Janos Slynt - he of the betrayal of Ned Stark and former leader of the City Watch in King's Landing - Ser Alliser Thorne, Jon's former teacher as Master at Arms and no fan of Jon - and Maester Aemon. Jon is accused of murdering Qhorin Halfhand. He confesses to killing him, not as a murder but as a means to infiltrate the Wildlings. Halfhand was dead meat, anyway, and made his death a useful one by giving Jon some street cred with Mance Rayder. Jon ends up confessing to lots more, too. To eating with the Wildlings, climbing the Wall with the Wildlings, and to breaking his vows by laying with a Wildling girl. He points out that Rayder has an army of 100,000 Wildlings, including the Thenns, the Hornfoots, the Ice River clans...even giants. It's interesting to note that Janos scoffs at the idea of giants, but Thorne and Aemon do not. Jon relates that the Wildlings who are south of the Wall will attack Castle Black in coordination with Mance's massive army north of the Wall.
Aemon unilaterally frees Jon, to the dismay of Thorne.
Margaery, Olanna and Brienne...and Joffrey and Jaime...and Jaime and Brienne
Margaery is trying to pick out some jewelry for her wedding. Olanna thinks it's all crap. Margaery suggests that she let Joffrey pick out a necklace, and it would likely be a necklace of sparrow heads. Olanna warns her to keep her mouth shut. Still, it's clear that Margaery is not under any illusion about what she's getting into.
They are interrupted by Brienne, who informs Margaery that Renly was killed by a shadow with Stannis' face on it. She swears to avenge their king. Margaery points out that Joffrey is their king.
Speak of the devil...Joffrey spends 1:56 on screen in this episode, but delivers an industrial strength level of douchiness. He mocks Jaime's missing hand, mocks his lack of spectacular deeds, talks about how he, Joffrey, broke Stannis' army and saved the city, and how Margaery keeps the city folk fed only with his leave. He seems to forget that he ran to his mommy when the fighting got rough.
Incidentally, Joff mentions Ser Duncan the Tall. If you haven't read the tales of Dunk and Egg, you should do that to learn more of Duncan.
Brienne is guilting Jaime about his oath to return Sansa to safety. Jaime points out that he can't return her to her mother, and that King's Landing is as safe as anywhere for Sansa. Brienne is insistent that he fulfill his oath. Jaime is pensive.
Arya and the Hound
The action finally gets hot. Arya and Sandor ride through the remains of an attacked caravan - corpses and flies decorate the road. Arya is unmoved. Her main concern is getting a horse so she can get away from the Hound's stench, as she puts it. She bandies words with him, and Sandor finally reveals he intends to sell Arya to her Aunt Lysa in the Eyrie.
Hungry, they come upon an inn. However, there are five horses there, meaning there are five men there, and after all they just rode through corpses. A couple of the men come out of the inn to take a piss, and Arya recognizes Polliver as one of Gregor Clegane's men, and the one who stabbed her friend Lommy Greenhands in the throat with Arya's sword Needle when he couldn't walk.
Before Sandor can do anything, Arya has started to make her move into the inn. Sandor has no choice but to follow - Arya is his meal ticket.
The Hound is recognized by Polliver. Polliver wants Sandor to join their pillaging of the countryside. Torturing people day after day is getting tiresome, but there is good money to be made. Sandor plays it cool, but he makes it clear to Polliver that he won't be joining the team. Then it starts to get a little nasty in tone. There's talk of rape. Polliver expresses interest in Arya for that activity. Sandor demands some chicken.
Polliver: You lived your life for the King, and now you're going to die for some chickens?
Sandor: Someone is.
There is a pregnant pause, and then chaos.
Arya hangs back while the Hound shoves the table onto Polliver and starts killing his men. Sandor is knocked to the ground, but fights his way back up. He gets knocked down again, and a knife held to his throat. In one of the more gruesome deaths on the show (which is saying something), Sandor grabs the hand holding the knife, grabs the back of the guy's head, and repeatedly impales the head on the knife like a fratboy grabbing the back of a sorority girl's head at a drive-in.
Sandor is distracted. Arya grabs a sword from one guy and skewers him with it. Polliver is coming up behind Sandor, but Arya slashes him across the back of the legs. He goes down, and Arya retrieves Needle. She taunts Polliver with the same words he used before killing Lommy. She runs him through the throat in very cold-blooded, deliberate fashion. She used two swords to kill the two men. Also part of the title of the episode?
By the way, while the scene with Polliver happened in A Storm of Swords, it didn't happen that way exactly. The words and methods of this killing is actually from Winds of Winter with Raff the Sweetling, another of Gregor's men and the one that actually killed Lommy. He's been subsumed into the Polliver character for the series. Not a big deal, but interesting that a book that hasn't officially been released is already showing up in the series.
The episode ends with Arya on her new horse, following Sandor.
Scenes from Next Week
- Joffrey and Margaery's wedding
- A drunk Tyrion mocks the Lannisters
- Varys speaks with Tyrion about Tywin
- Bran has a vision, and knows where they need to go
- Melisandre, Stannis and Davos build a bonfire
- Jaime fights left-handed
- Joffrey demands that Tyrion kneel
- Someone getting hunted?