Banana Scoop

Dany at Qarth

It seems the cry for more dragons was not answered, as in Dany’s story arc, we again did not get dragons.  However, we do find ourselves at the city of Qarth [apparently pronounced Cauth], where Dany stands outside on the ‘Garden of Bones’, asking to be let into the beautiful city.  The merchants who run the city only receive her to see her dragons, but when she refuses to be let in for only that reason, they turn their backs.  After a frightening threat to burn their city first when her dragons are grown, one lone merchant, Xaro Xhoan Daxos, employs some responsibility bearing mandate that allows them to enter.  As I stated before, while not much happened, this episode is finally getting all of the characters to their most interesting points where all of the crazy stuff begins to happen.

Baratheon Family Reunion

Three story arcs seemingly come together at this point, where Catelyn, Renly Baratheon, and Stannis Baratheon all meet together to do a bit of negociating.  I wanted more than ever for Robert to be here, seeing as he’s my favorite character I’d love to see him interact with his brothers, but the chemistry between the two surviving brothers is delicious enough.  They debate their sigils, question each other’s religion and claim to the throne, and essentially offer each other amnesty if they join them.  Catelyn makes a quip about how she’d smash these twos’ heads together if they were her children, but they just shrug her off to deny their sibling’s claim.  Melisandre steals her lines as always, and her red is an amazing contrast to the bleak and misty atmosphere of the ‘Stormlands’.  It will be interesting how these two play each other out is all I can say.

Tyrion Plays his Cousin

No episode is complete without Tyrion completely turning the table on a confident and arrogant character.  Last week it was Grand Maester Pycelle, two weeks ago it was Commander of the Gold Cloaks Janos Slynt, and this week it was his own cousin Lancel Lannister.  The knight comes to Tyrion’s chamber commanding that his actions be undone with a condescending tone.  Tyrion turns the tables by accusing the proud knight of receiving his knighthood only because he’s currently bedding Lancel’s cousin and his sister, Cersei.  The boy almost breaks down immediately begging forgiveness and requesting that he be cast away instead of beheaded.  Tyrion makes more use of him by making him his own spy via blackmail.  A victory for the Hand.  May many more come in the future episodes.

The Night is Dark and Full of Terrors

We wrap up this week’s episode with what might be the most controversial moment in the series so far.  We’ve seen beheading of main characters, incest of major characters, and a full blown borderline porno scene.  But what we witnessed last night will likely be the most memorable scene of the season.  We’re taken back to Stannis Baratheon’s ship after the parlay with his brother and Catelyn Stark.  After some banter between Davos and Stannis regarding his honor and past trades, he asks his smuggler to do his king a favor.  Stannis requires Davos to smuggle in ‘The Red Woman’ Melisandre ashore.  Where is not exactly stated: Storm’s End? King’s Landing? Renly Baratheon’s camp?

I would imagine it’s Storm’s End simply because I’ve read the novels and know the context of how Davos talks.  He mentions ‘these bars weren’t here before’ in context to he’s smuggled into Storm’s End before.  The Red Woman begins to talk in riddles and metaphors that sets the traditional Davos uneasy.  Next thing you know, she unrobes herself to be fully pregnant.  One can only imagine how she got pregnant as we saw her make ‘love’ to Stannis a couple of episodes ago.  She gives birth right on the spot, but not to a child.  We see some sort of shade crawl out from her.  The pregnancy itself is very graphic, showing most of what might be seen during an actual pregnancy.  Now I’ve read this part in the book and fully knew what was going to happen, but I was still holding my hand across my mouth in awe from the sheer explicitness of the scene.  I would imagine it would take a while of settling in before the audience could possibly think what the purpose of the shadow was.  I’ll let you all speculate down below in the comments.

Keep your hands off of book spoilers or I’ll have your torso strapped to heated rat bucket.

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