Ep 3.10 "Mhysa"

After last weeks shocker this episode felt like the outline for season 4.  Of course “The Red Wedding” would be hard for any act to follow.  At first viewing I thought it would have been much more suspenseful for them to end on last weeks betrayal and surprise of Robb’s death and Daenerys’s victory over the Yunkai.  Then I realized I would’ve been mad if they had left on that note.  You just can’t please some people.  There were a lot of great moments of dialogue that will hopefully stick in our memories until next season.

Up North:

Bran and company arrives at the Nightfort, an abandoned castle belonging to the Night’s Watch.  Bran isn’t too keen on staying there because there are lots of horrible stories about the place.  He tells Jojen and Meera the story of the Rat Cook.  He was a cook at the castle who got angry at the King for some reason or another.  To get back at the King he killed his son and cooked him in a pie and fed it to the King.  The King liked the pie so much he asked for seconds, not realizing he was eating his own son.  The gods were angry so they turned the cook into a giant white rat doomed to forever roam the castle devouring his own children.  No matter how much he eats he is always hungry.  Jojen and Meera think the god’s punishment was a little severe for killing a kings son, but Bran says they didn’t exact vengeance for that.  It was because the King was a guest in the castle and you never kill a guest.  The gods will not forgive that.  (Hmm, does this mean Walder Frey has some great punishment in store?  He does kind of resemble a rat.)  Bran wakes later in the night hearing some noise in the castle.  He is scared it could be the Rat King or some other enemy.  He wakes Meera and Jojen as the sounds get louder and closer.  Meera arms herself in preparation.  Someone comes up from the well and she attacks.  It’s Sam and Gilly.  Sam tells them he is a man of the Night’s Watch on their way back to Castle Black.  Bran mentions that his brother is in the Night’s Watch, but Jojen tells him to be quiet.  He’s not sure if Sam is friend or foe so he doesn’t want much information about them to come out.  Summer appears and growls at Sam who then looks and sees that Bran can’t use his legs.  He figures out that Bran is Jon’s brother.  He says he’s been around Ghost long enough to know what a direwolf looks like and he recognized Hodor from Jon’s stories.  He explains that Jon saved his life once and he would do anything for Jon or his family.  Bran asks if he will take them past the Wall.  Sam says they should come with him and Gilly to Castle Black.  That’s where Jon should be.  Bran says they have to go North of the Wall on a mission.  Sam warns them of the wildling raiders and the White Walkers.  He shows them the secret path through the castle and gives them the dragonglass dagger and arrowhead, explaining how to kill the White Walkers.  He tries one more time to change their minds and Bran says he wishes he could, but he must go do this.  Bran, Jojen and Meera continue to the other side of the Wall.

Sam makes it to Castle Black.  He goes to see Maester Aemon about Gilly and her baby.  Maester Aemon asks what the child’s name is and Gilly says “Sam”.  Maester Aemon assumes the baby is Sam’s biological son and reminds him of the vow he took for the Night’s Watch.  Sam reassures him that the baby is not his and is actually one of Craster’s sons.  He reminds the Maester that in his vow he declared to protect the realms and that is what he was doing by rescuing Gilly and her son.  Maester Aemon invites her to stay with them for the time being.  He then listens while Sam tells him of the White Walkers he saw at the Fist and the one he killed in the woods.  Maester Aemon commands him to grab a quill.  He wants to write a letter to the different castles across Westeros and tells Sam they will be sending all forty-four of their ravens.

Jon stopped to get a drink of water when Ygritte catches up to him with her bow strung.  He tells her she always knew what kind of man he was and what he would do.  He loves her, but he didn’t have a choice.  He has to go home now.  He turns on her and she lets go of one arrow and then two more, hitting him with each.  He makes it to his horse and gets away as she stands there crying.  (As I said last week, why is she so surprised?  He never lied to her, he was always straight with her about which side he was on and the obligation he had.  Don’t get me wrong, I like Ygritte and feel very bad for her sadness.  I feel like she thought his love for her would trump his commitment to the Watch, but Jon is a Stark and they are honorable above all else.)  Jon makes it to Castle Black but is unconscious on his horse.  Pyp and Sam are there and he wakes up for a moment to see his friends.  Sam has some men take him to see Maester Aemon for his wounds.

The Twins:

It seems we are still in the middle of the slaughter.  Catelyn and Robb are dead, but now Frey soldiers are killing all the Stark men burning everything as they go.  Amidst all this a group of men come out of the castle crying “King in the North” and carrying Robb’s body with Grey Wind’s head attached.  The Hound is on horseback with Arya trying to get through the mob without being noticed.  He grabs a Frey banner to get through the crowd, but before they leave Arya wakes and see’s what they have done to her brother.

The next morning Lord Frey boasts while eating breakfast.  Hoster Tully (Catelyn and Edmure’s father) used to call him the Late Walder Frey because he was always late to battle.  Now most of the Tully’s and Stark’s are dead and he is Lord of Riverrun now that Edmure married his daughter and is being held captive.  That has to be a sucky wedding night, getting tossed into a dungeon.  No pretty lady for him I guess.  Lord Bolton points out that the Blackfish (Catelyn and Edmure’s uncle) escaped, but Lord Frey isn’t worried.  He says he’s got the Lannisters on his side, who does the Blackfish have?  (It would be hilarious if Lord Tywin somehow promised Cersei to Lord Frey as his next wife.  I bet she’d think Ser Loras was okay after all.)  Lord Bolton reveals to Walder Frey that he turned on Robb because Robb was arrogant and would never follow any of his advice.  Seems a little grade school to me…  The deal with Tywin Lannister makes Lord Bolton Warden of the North.

Poor Theon:

Ramsey, the man holding Theon hostage, is Lord Bolton’s bastard son.  A few weeks ago he terrorized Theon by saying he would cut off his penis.  Theon has now been castrated and Ramsey is at a table in the room eating something that looks very penis shaped.  At first he implies that he is in fact eating Theon’s penis, but then says it’s really pork sausage.  He taunts Theon about phantom limbs and how people say they can still feel them.  Theon pleads with Ramsey to kill him, but Ramsey says he is of more use alive than dead.  He remarks that Theon no longer looks like a Greyjoy.  He reeks like dead meat.  He decides Theon needs a new name and declares that name will be Reek.  He asks Theon to say his new name out loud, but Theon keeps telling him his name is Theon Greyjoy until Ramsey hits him so many times that he finally concedes, “My name is Reek”.

Over on the Iron Islands, Balon Greyjoy receives word that Theon is being held captive.  The letter commands the iron born to leave the North and until they do he will send more of Theon’s body parts.  He has enclosed one piece already.  (Give you one guess on that one.)  Asha (or Yara, I think they switched her name on the show) opens the box.  She asks her father what he will do and he basically says he will do nothing.  Theon went against his orders and now that he has been castrated he can no longer carry the Greyjoy line so he’s useless.  (Seriously old man?  He was taken hostage because you started a war with the Seven Kingdoms.  Ned Stark treated him like his own.  When Theon returned to the Iron Islands you basically scolded him for your faults so he betrayed the Starks to please you.  Now he is of no importance to you? Wow!)  Asha declares that she will take their fastest ship with fifty of their best killers and will get her little brother back no matter what her father has decided.

Poor Arya:

She was so close to her mother and brother.  Now she arrives just as they are killed and then she see’s the body of her dead brother.  She and the Hound are riding through the woods when they hear men talking about the slaughter.  Three men are around the fire and joke of the noises Catelyn made while she was dying and how hard it was to sew Grey Wind’s head onto Robb’s body.  Swift as a cat, Arya slips from the horse and approaches the men.  She asks if she can share their fire because she is alone in the woods.  One man tells her to get lost, but she says she has money (the coin J’aqhar gave her last season).  She drops the coin and as the man goes to pick it up she stabs him with a dagger multiple times.  The other two men jump up to stop her and the Hound pops out of the trees to kill them.  They get back on the horse and the Hound asks where she got the knife.  She reveals that she got it off of him.  He tells her the next time she plans on doing something like that she should tell him first.

Kings Landing:

Sansa and Tyrion are enjoying a pleasant walk.  Sansa hears Tyrion saying the names of two men who just walked by and laughed at him.  She tells him he should ignore them, but he says people haven’t been laughing at her that long.  They have been laughing at him his whole life.  They decide they may be perfect for each other.  He’s the horrible demon monkey and she is the disgraced daughter of a traitor.  Sansa asks him what he would do to get back at the two men for laughing at him.  She suggests he cut a whole in their mattress and fill it with sheep dung, then put the sheets back on the bed.  It will smell horrible, but they won’t be able to tell where the smell is coming from.  Arya used to do it to Sansa whenever she was mad at her, which Sansa says was all the time.  (This moment is so cute since they are finally forming a bond.  She’s letting down her guard just a bit as she realizes Tyrion is actually a nice guy.)  Pod finds them and tells Tyrion that his father has called a meeting at the small council and he must come immediately.

When Tyrion arrives at the council Joffrey is bouncing around with excitement.  Tyrion jokingly asks him if he’s killed any puppies today.  Joffrey asks Grand Maester Pycelle to hand Tyrion the letter they received.  Pycelle intentionally drops the letter so Tyrion will have to pick it up.  The letter says, “Rosalyn caught a fine fat trout.  Her brother’s gave her a pair of wolf pelts for her wedding”.  Tyrion doesn’t understand the meaning at first until Joffrey bursts telling him Robb Stark and his “bitch” mom are dead.  He asks Pycelle to write back to Lord Frey thanking him for his service and requests he send Robb’s head to Kings Landing so Joffrey can serve it to Sansa at his wedding.  A few people are appalled and Cersei says the King was only kidding.  He says he’s not and he’s going to make Sansa eat it.  Tyrion forbids it and tells Joffrey that Sansa is no longer his to torment.  Joffrey thinks everyone is his to torment and calls Tyrion a monster.  Tyrion replies that Joffrey should watch out for monsters like himself because kings seem to be dropping like flies lately.  (Possible foreshadowing?)  Of course the little piss ant shakes his finger at him and screams “I am the King!”  Lord Tywin declares that anyone who has to say he is king is no true king.  He promises to teach Joffrey that once he’s done winning his war for him.  Joffrey yells back that his father (Robert, not Jaime) won the real war and killed Prince Rhaegar while Lord Tywin hid under Casterly Rock.  (Damn it got really quiet then.)  Lord Tywin stares Joffrey down and then sends him to bed without any supper.  (Oh how I love to hate grandaddy Lannister!)

Tyrion tries to slip out with the rest of the small council, but Lord Tywin stops him.  Tyrion tells his father that to slay your enemies in battle is one thing, but to slaughter them at a wedding is another.  Lord Tywin wonders why it is more honorable for thousands of men to die on the battlefield than a dozen at dinner.  All Lord Tywin cares about is the Lannister legacy.  He tells Tyrion that Roose Bolton will be Warden of the North until Tyrion’s son is of age.  He tells Tyrion to hurry up and get Sansa pregnant.  Tyrion asks how he’s supposed to get Sansa to sleep with him after his family slaughtered hers.  Lord Tywin declares Tyrion get her pregnant one way or another and Tyrion says he will not rape Sansa.  Lord Tywin tells Tyrion that the family name is the only thing that matters and gives him a short lesson on how to make it in the world.  He says, “The house that puts family first will always defeat the house that puts the whims and wishes of its sons and daughter’s first.  A good man does everything in his power to better his family’s position regardless of his own selfish desires.”  Tyrion points out that it’s easy to believe when you are the one making all of the decisions and asks when his father ever did anything that didn’t benefit himself.  Lord Tywin tells him he did the day Tyrion was born.  He wanted to take him and throw him in the sea, but he didn’t.  He let him live and he took care of him because he’s a Lannister.  (Grandaddy is not scoring father of the year points here.  When you keep telling someone how embarrassed you are and how much you hate them it doesn’t really endear them to you.  Tyrion needs to throw these people to the wind and get a new family.  I don’t know what feelings Tywin is trying to incite in his younger son, but I don’t think it will bode well for him in the future.)  Tyrion gets back to Sansa to find her crying.  I’m sure Cersei and Joffrey skipped arm and arm to tell her while Tyrion was with his father.  He leaves her to grieve since he can obviously give her no comfort.

Varys visits Shae to suggest she leave Kings Landing.  She confesses that she loves Sansa and would kill for her, but that doesn’t make Tyrion’s marriage to her any easier.  He tells her she will never have a future with Tyrion, so she should leave and start a new life while she can.  He gives her a bag of diamonds.  She asks why he wants her to leave so badly.  He says that Tyrion Lannister is one of the few men who can help make the kingdom great because he has the mind, the will and the right last name.  She is a complication.  He knows she loves Tyrion, but she endangers him.  She tells Varys that if Tyrion wants her to leave he should tell her himself and tosses back the diamonds.

Tyrion is getting drunk when Cersei comes to visit.  She claims she will not marry Ser Loras and tells Tyrion he should get Sansa pregnant.  Children can bring her happiness and solace.  She talks of when Joffrey was young and how sweet he was.  She basically calls him terrible and doesn’t understand how he became that way.  Tyrion asks how much longer all of this will go on and Cersei says until they defeat all their enemies.  He points out that for every one they kill two more arise and she says in that case it will never be over.

Jaime and Brienne walk in the gates of Kings Landing.  Jaime is mistaken for a peasant.  He goes to see Cersei who looks surprised and relieved to see him, but then she notices his missing hand.  (I hope he finds out how much she really grieved for him while he was gone while she was sleeping with other men.)

Dragonstone:

Ser Davos visits Gendry and Gendry tells him he should’ve never trusted a highborn.  Because Melisandre called him Lord he believes Ser Davos is highborn.  Ser Davos confesses he was born in Flea Bottom just as Gendry was.  He doesn’t believe him until Ser Davos describes the house that he lived in.  Ser Davos asks why Gendry trusted Melisandre.  He says she threw herself at him, what would he have done?  Ser Davos tells him he didn’t really want to be a lord, but he did it so his son could have a better life.  Gendry asks if he does and Ser Davos says he’s dead.

As the King’s Hand, Ser Davos reads letters for King Stannis.  He comes across Maester Aemon’s warning from the Nights Watch.  He hears bells ringing and finds Melisandre and King Stannis celebrating Robb Stark’s death.  Davos warns Stannis that magic is evil, but Stannis talks of the Targaryen dragons and how they were from magic.  Davos says he doesn’t need to burn Gendry, but Melisandre says a great gift deserves a great sacrifice.  Stannis weighs Gendry’s life against the lives of the kingdom and says Gendry will die.

Ser Davos leads Gendry to the ocean and gives him a row boat and food.  He tells him to go to Kings Landing.  Gendry has never been in a boat and doesn’t know how to swim so Ser Davos tells him not to fall out.  Gendry asks why he is helping him and he says because it’s the right thing.  Ser Davos tells King Stannis that he let Gendry go.  He thinks there must be another way to get the throne.  Stannis sentences him to death.  Ser Davos advises him of the letter from the Nights Watch.  Melisandre reads the letter and burns it.  She decides that this is the chosen path that Stannis must take, the war of five kings means nothing and only Stannis can stop what’s coming.  He needs Ser Davos to convince the soldiers to fight for him.  Stannis tells Ser Davos he was saved by the fire god he likes to mock.

Yunkai:

Daenerys and her army wait outside the gates of Yunkai for the slaves to come out.  Missandei tells them who Dany is and that they owe their freedom to her.  Dany says she cannot give them their freedom and if they want it back they should take it themselves.  They start crying out “Mhysa” which is their word for mother.  Dany goes down to them and basically crowd surfs while her dragons fly above (kind of weird).

So I guess we have a lot to think about for the next 9-10 months.  Hopefully season 4 holds Joffrey and Margaery's wedding.  Will Sansa and Tyrion get through this awkward stage?  Where will Arya go now?  And where are Mance Rayder and the other Wildlings?

Until next time...