HBO’s Game of Thrones is back this week with another episode of premium television goodness, and we’re here once again to provide five thoughts on the week’s episode, titled “Garden of Bones.” What’d I think of it? How goes the sweet, sweet action, deception and intrigue for all of the citizens of Westeros and beyond?
Find out after the jump, and please, keep notes from events in the books out of the comments.
1. OFF WITH JOFFREY’S HEAD!
Before I watched the episode, I noticed a lot of furor on the Twittersphere over something Joffrey did. Given the reprehensible things he’s done in the past, I found it hard to imagine he could do anything to top himself.
Oh boy was I wrong.
While there are a lot of competing factions in this show for viewers to root for, I find it hard to imagine anyone is really pulling for the Lannister clan, more specifically their truly monstrous King Joffrey. This kid, in a move to stand up to his diminutive in stature only uncle Tyrion, has Ros savagely beat her…co-worker. It’s a hard to watch scene, and just proves how sick this kid really is. He’s a fascinating character, surely, but god, what a disgusting urchin he is. I’m pretty sure if I ever saw the kid who plays him in real life, I might deck him.
2. Robb gets a little face time
One thing I’ve noticed is for the King of the North and the leader of the Stark clan, Robb Stark is someone who hasn’t really been able to strike out on his own very often. In fact, Jon Snow, the bastard of the Stark gene pool, has been given far more of an opportunity to strike out on his own than his rightful heir half-brother.
This episode though gave Robb a little time to stand up as his own, while also showing him off as someone who, for all his cunning on the battlefield, is not someone who has really thought all this through. The field nurse who seems like a fairly apparent love interest for Robb brought up good points as to his shortsighted plan (who DOES Robb plan to appoint King of Westeros if all goes to plan, after all?), but I was just enthused with the fact it gave him just a little time to do something besides plot and orate. Great work from Richard Madden.
3. Tyrion!
As the show is known to do, this episode gives Peter Dinklage a TON to work with as Tyrion. I’m not sure which scene I preferred – the one where he protected Sansa and stood up to his demonic nephew, or the one where he turned his sister’s servant, lover and cousin against her. Both were great and highlighted his strengths, and will look great on Dinklage’s eventual Emmy reel. Just more phenomenal work from Dinklage.
4. Arya’s surprising protector
If I had to make a list of my three favorite GoT characters, they’d be, in some order, Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow and Arya Stark. This episode provided a lot of quality Arya time, as she gets taken to Harrenhal along with her fellow recently captured friends, sure to be tortured and killed sooner rather than later. How perfect was it that, as she recited the (growing) list of names of all those she will claim revenge on, the patriarch of the clan who generated so many of her problems both a) saved her life and b) immediately recognized her as a girl, and a clever one at that? It was a great turn, and I can only imagine how fascinating of a pair Tywin Lannister and Arya Stark will be together.
5. The Little Things
I want to highlight a little scene from the open of this episode. It featured two Lannister soldiers on watch, discussing who the toughest soldier in all the land was. Names like The Mountain, Jaime Lannister and Loras, the Knight of Flowers were bandied about, but in my head, I couldn’t help but think that Robb Stark’s Direwolf, Grey Wind was tougher than all of them. Not even really sure why it popped up, but man, I bet those Lannister’s would agree with me after the animal dispatched them shortly thereafter with the greatest of ease.
In my mind, great fiction can be predicted in action in such a way because it means that the story is being told in the strongest, most logic based fashion. That discussion preceding the arrival of Robb’s ambush was just perfect storytelling, and an exemplary example of how to open an episode.
And then you have a smoke monster rolling out of Melisandre’s business to close it. Man, this show is crazy awesome.
