Game of Thrones. S04 E05 The First of his Name
by Nikole Gunn
Episode 5. Half way through the season and still so many questions to be answered, yet so many questions HAVE been answered.
One important question was how was the show going to resolve a scenario that didn’t appear in the book? In the novels, Brand and co were never taken captive by the rogue Black Watch and weren’t rescued by the show-invented character of Locke.
To meet up with his half brother Jon Snow at this point of the story would have been a huge deviation that not even HBO could have got away with. Butwe’ll get back to that.
We start with a recap of important moments past. But NOT just of the previous episodes, but of previous seasons. (Hello, Ned and Catelyn Stark, you have been missed). And there were enough clues in those opening minutes, to set the scene for the rest of the season.
The ripple effects of Joffrey’s death are still being felt. Tommen now sits on the Iron Throne – the First of his Name. At his crowning comes a confession from Cersei to Margaery. She may have loved Joffrey as her first-born, but she knew what he was. And he would have been a nightmare of a king. Too right!!
Cersei also seems to have overcome her objection to Margaery marrying into the family. King Tommenwill be walking down the aisle to marry a woman, who’s already been through two Kings. She goes through them like tissue.
Joffrey’s death is also a hot topic in Mereen, where Dany is urged to invade the Seven Kingdoms. The time is ripe and she’s told the old families will flock to her banners.
But she recognises that she can’t rule the Seven Kingdoms, if she can’t control the cities of Slaver’s Bay, where they’re already returning to the Old Ways. So, rather than set sail for Kings Landing, she decides to stay and rule.
That will drag the story out for a bit. And given we don’t see her in every episode, that could be a couple of seasons on the other side of the GoT world as she battles to regain control.
Now to poor Sansa, who manages to go from one disastrous situation to another. Littlefinger takes her to the Eyrie and her Aunt Lyssa and her decidedly odd cousin, Robin.
And it’s there that it’s revealed that Lyssa isresponsible for the whole mess that we’re in now.She’s been hot for Littlefinger for years and at his bidding, poisons her husband and writes to tell Catelyn.
Let’s stop for a moment to consider that. She and Littlefinger killed John Arryn. His death brings the Starks to King’s Landing. Robert Baratheon dies. Ned is executed. The war of the five kings breaks out. The Starks are destroyed. WOW.
But Lyssa is not right in her mind. Mad even. She marries Littlefinger, but turns on Sansa, thinking she’s after Petry. Sansa realises she’s dealing with another twisted character like Joffrey. She will have to be careful.
And a quick catch up with Arya and The Hound, who appear to be on the road to nowhere at the moment. She’s reciting her list of names before sleeping and takes the Hound by surprise by adding him to the list of those she’s vowed to kill, the little minx.
A shout out, too, to Brienne and Podrick who could develop into a ‘Laurel and Hardy’ duo as they head for The Wall in the search for Sansa. They’re going in the wrong direction.
Which brings us back to Craster’s Keep, where potentially the Book World could collide with the Show World. Brand, Hodor and the Reeds were captured by the rogue members of the Night’s Watch (didn’t happen in the books, but let’s move on).
It set the scene for an early re-union with Jon Snow, but instead the show-invented Locke takes them away. Until Brand wargs into Hodor and kills Locke (thanks for playing the Game of Thrones Noah Taylor. You were good in Red Dog too).
This brings us back to the original storyline and takes Brand closer to the God’s Wood tree as “seen” by Jojen Reed. And brings the episode to a close.
But where were the Wight Walkers?
Oh, GoT produces, you are such teasers. You ended episode 4 with a show-invented sceneinvolving the Walking Dead of Westeros. And then give us nothing in episode 5
? That’s not playing nice with the fans.
Maybe next week?
