“Game of Thrones” has been en fuego this year, and the only question is will it keep that fire going for the rest of the season. Let’s find out in our look at the latest episode, titled “First of His Name”, below.
Note: If you have not seen the episode yet, do not read past this. Also, this review is for non book readers. Please do not share any details from the books in the comments or they will be deleted.
1. The Land of Insanity
There’s a lot of craziness that is going on in Westeros at any given moment, but there are few places where more concentrated crazy exists than The Eyrie. Going back there, even with Peter Baelish involved, this place is an absolute nightmare. Lysa Arryn and her son Robin are just bananas, and when Littlefinger and Sansa go there, I couldn’t help but perpetually feel like something awful was going to happen.
Well, more awful than just experiencing Robin’s standard babbling and Lysa’s orgasm screams, which are both pretty damn bad.
The Eyrie seems like it’s going to be a fixture of the show for at least a little bit as Littlefinger continues to make her power play. Tasty tidbits are already coming out – like how long Littlefinger’s plan really goes back – but god, we have to pay the price for that. If I see one more scene of Robin breastfeeding, I am out, “Game of Thrones”!
2. Cersei and the Once and Future Queen
Going into this episode, I really worried for the safety of Margaery Tyrell. After all, last week began Margaery’s sexy offensive on the now King Tommen, and we couldn’t help but feel that was going to put her at loggerheads with Cersei. But in this episode, a different tact was taken, as Cersei began to encourage Margaery to woo her son and to be the Queen once again.
The only reason I could see this happening was because she’s trying to move Tommen away from Tywin, and she perceives Margaery as easier to manipulate than her father. Whatever the reason, it was unexpected, and bravo to Lena Headey for just crushing that scene. The emotional scale was all over the place, and there were moments where I wasn’t sure if Cersei was going to hug Margaery or have her killed. When Cersei admits to Margaery that Joffrey was in fact a monster and that Tommen could be a great Queen, it briefly feels like she could be making some semblance of a breakthrough.
3. But Then She Keeps Trying to Get Her Brother Killed
She couldn’t be all good, of course, as Cersei continues her quest to ensure her brother Tyrion being found guilty of the murder of her son (even though she certainly knows he didn’t do it). In this episode, she starts trying to get the pulse of the judges and push them towards her line of thinking – especially Oberyn Martell. While it doesn’t work incredibly well, I don’t believe, it does lead to some very fascinating character work and revelations, particularly from Tywin when it comes to the latter.
Things are coming back to roost, it feels, as Tywin informs Cersei that they are – more or less – completely broke, and in deep debt with the Iron Bank of Braavos. With Davos moving Stannis towards Braavos for a meeting with the Iron Bank, it really feels that these two sides are going to come crashing together in a not so literal way soon, and I really can’t wait to see it. Especially because it takes us to Braavos, which in my personal place is the coolest place in the show (which we’ve never seen nor really heard anything about).
Either way, Cersei, for all of her strangely friendly overtures to Margaery, still is plotting. Everyone would be wise to see that.
4. Water Dancing with The Hound
As per usual, Arya and The Hound continue to be the most entertaining part of the show. I could watch him mock her and her beliefs on sword fighting all day long, and you can’t help but feel that every moment she’s with him, she’s learning an important lesson about life, and about how to accomplish her goals.
Continued belowIt also makes it all the more tragic – and fitting – that The Hound himself is the last person on Arya’s kill list, a list that was far greater than I remembered and filled with several names I didn’t recognize right off the bat. I’m not certain where exactly their story is taking us, but as long as Rory McCann and Maisie Williams are doing their thing, I couldn’t possibly be more in with them.
5. The Ups and Downs of Being Subjugated
On one hand, it was a great episode for being someone under someone else’s thumb, as Craster’s wives burn down his place after the Crows come and take out the mutineers – in epic fashion, in some cases (particularly Locke’s). That whole storyline wrapped up in stunningly quick fashion, and honestly, felt a bit tacked on and ultimately fruitless. As much as I enjoy a good fight scene and Hodor breaking some necks, that whole thing didn’t carry a lot of weight, with it opening and closing over the span of two episodes. In many ways, they could have just skipped that bit and almost nothing would have been changed, but it’s not the direction they went.
Regardless, Craster’s wives are off to choose their own path now, which is different than the leftover slaves in Yunkai and Astapor that Daenerys had freed. After all, now that the Mother of Dragons is long gone, the masters have retaken their cities, and the slaves are subjugated once again. While it certainly feels that this was a road block put into the story simply because George R. R. Martin (and thus the show runners) were not ready to send Team Daenerys across the Narrow Sea, it does feel like a natural fit considering her recent goals. All I know is that those who run Yunkai and Astapor now? They made a huge mistake, and they’re about to meet their reckoning in a Lilliputian woman with shockingly blonde hair.
