Renly homosexuality is further displayed with his wife Margaery’s brother, Loras Tyrell, the lover from season 1. The two have a lovers quarrel and Loras leaves to send his sister in. She tries to seduce him, be she eventually sees through him. Renly tries to deny it, but Margaery comforts him and reasons how there are more important things than trying to hide his sexuality from her, like the fate of the kingdom and the importance of impregnating her for an heir, even going as far as allowing Loras back in the room to ‘help him out’. I find this most interesting because we don’t actually see or hear from Margaery a lot in the second book, and I was fairly oblivious if she knew or not and what her reaction and personality she had.
We make our way back to the Greyjoys who are following up the cliff hanger of who exactly they’re going to attack, when Theon’s father rejected Robb Stark’s offer. We soon learn that the attack will be against Winterfell and the north and we see a bit of conflict between Theon and his father for the lack of love he’s been given since returning and some conflict between Theon and himself as he chooses which alliance he wants to honor, his house or his ‘brother’ Robb. My favorite scene here is probably the expression in Balon Greyjoy’s face when Theon finds a contradiction in his father’s ‘take what he wants’ principle. He accuses his father of breaking his only rule when he allowed his last son to be hauled off for 9 years and how come he didn’t ‘take what he wanted’ then. The expression on his father’s face wasn’t in the book and I was genuinely touched by this moment.
The last we see the Greyjoy’s is when they’re praying to their God before the battle. This is more of homage to the vast amount of Iron Island culture we’re exposed to in the book. This scene could be over analyzed to represent a number of things, the baptism of Jesus, the representation of Theon turning his cloak, or other things, but what I got out of it was sheerly Iron Island culture. Their religion revolves around a drowned God and the overwhelming power of the seas. “What is Dead May Never Die” is their religion’s words and is among my favorite words in the series, right behind the Baratheon’s, “Ours in the Fury”.
Tyrion Lannister probably had the starring role this season as he further demonstrates his newfound power. Tyrion played two major roles this episode. The first being finding a spot for Shae to hide before his sister finds out he’s keeping a whore in the Red Keep. He eventually ends up sending her to be Sansa’s handmaid, where Sansa doesn’t know what to do with the whore disguised as a maid. Shae is rebellious, uncourteous and doesn’t know a thing about cleaning or being subjected to someone that doesn’t want sex. This makes a nice transition to how Sansa’s been doing after her father’s death. She continued to maintain a pretty face for the Queen, but it’s easy to see the pain she hides, especially when she orders Shae around.
Tyrion’s second role provided a much more interesting ploy. In order to find out who’s to be trusted and who’s not to be trusted, he gave three different stories to three different people and explicitly told them to not tell the Queen. When the Queen confronted him with one of the three stories, he immediately knew who the informant was. A clever ploy. So when Tyrion confronts his traitor and sends him to the dungeons while he confides his trust in the other 2. Interesting conversations come between Littlefinger and Varys, including the very memorable monologue about the feud between the king, the priest, and the rich man, and where power truly resides.
Once again there is a very noticeable lack of dragons, but we wrap up the episode with Arya and Yoren talking about how they deal with the hate and images they’ve incurred over the years. A very touching scene that ends in bloodshed when the guards from before return with a vengeance. Yoren tries to hold them off, but he fails as several spears are thrust into him. Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie [the fat kid] are taken hostage, but not before Ayra helped saved the man who introduced himself as Jaqen H’Ghar. Oh dear Ayra, what hell have you unleashed.
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Great review. How long does it take you to write them? Last season the Wall/Jon Snow storyline was really captivating. I agree this season it seems to be moving a bit slow but still enjoyable. I was expecting some major consequences for Jon this episode, but apparently Craster’s “secret” is known by the Night’s Watch or at least by Lord Mormont. Jon Snow is learning that sometimes he must sacrifice his moral beliefs. I expect the episodes to follow will really put him to the test. My full thoughts on this episode are on my Game of Thrones blog.
They take a particularly long time, as I essentially go through each scene and tabulate what I read in the book vs. what I saw on the screen. And I try to publish the article a day after the show airs, so it’s particularly difficult to crunch it in before the 11:00 am deadline, a mere 12 or so hours after it aired.
As for what’s to come, based on the way you talk about certain scenes, I assume that you’re a book reader. I’m surprised at your grasp on the names and places, like Lommy or Harrenhal, when they were merely mentioned once or twice. A feat only accomplished either from a person who’s paid very close attention to the series, or a book reader.