Ep 4.6 The Laws of Gods and Men

QUICKLOOK:  Stannis gets a loan, Theon Greyjoy is lost forever and Tyrion chooses trial by combat over his farce of a trial.

King Stannis and Ser Davos had arrived in Braavos.  They will meet with the Iron Bank to see if they will fund his war.  Stannis is made to wait and grows impatient.  Finally three men enter and sit to treat with him.  They ask Stannis to sit, which he does hesitantly.  Ser Davos introduces him as King of the Seven Kingdoms, but one of the men says that Tommen Baratheon, Stannis’s nephew, also holds that title as well as the Iron Throne.  Stannis says he shares no blood with Tommen who is a bastard born of incest.  The bank is already giving money to Lord Tywin who calls Stannis a jealous an envious uncle.  They ask how many men he has as well as how many ships and they decline to help him.  Stannis gives Ser Davos a dirty look and gets up to leave, but Ser Davos asks the men to give them a chance.  The same man (who seems to speak for all three) seems insulted by “Lord” Davos and says that in Braavos, they do not reward thieves.  Ser Davos corrects the man by saying that the pirates did the thieving, he just moved their goods from one place to another.  He shows them his hand with the tips of his fingers cut off.  He has paid his debt for his crimes.  The man says the war is over, but Ser Davos says that as long as Stannis is alive it won’t be.  He points out that Lord Tywin, not Tommen (or even Joffrey for that matter) rules the Seven Kingdoms and he is a man of sixty-seven.  Who will rule when he dies?  A bashful boy king and Cersei Lannister, whom the people hate.  Ser Davos asks who the bank will back then.  They say they will worry about that when the time comes, but Ser Davos says they cannot afford to wait.  Lord Stannis is in his prime and the rightful heir to the throne who makes good on his promises.  Afterwards, Davos goes to some sort of brothel/bathhouse to see his old pirate friend Salladhor Saan who is wooing the whores with his usual stories.  Ser Davos lays a batch of gold by the bath and tells him they sail at first light.

Yara is still on the war path to get Theon from the Bolton’s.  They sneak into the Dreadfort during the night while Ramsay is busy with his girl.  Yara puts a knife to one of the guard’s necks and asks him to take her to her brother in the dungeons, but he tells her Theon is not in the dungeons.  He takes her to Theon’s cage with all of Ramsay’s dogs.  Theon hears the dogs barking and freaks out.  He sees Yara get to his cage, but he doesn’t seem to recognize her.  She says she is there to take him home, but he thinks it is a trick that Ramsay is playing on him.  He tells her his name is Reek.  They struggle to get him out of the cage so they can escape, but just as they do Ramsay enters with his men.  His chest is covered in blood and he and his men attack.  Looks like Ramsay’s dogs are going to get to eat some more ironborn tonight.  Theon bites Yara’s arm and goes back into his cage.  Probably a good move since it looks like Yara and her men are going to lose.  Only she and two of her men are left standing.  She tells Ramsay to give her back her brother.  Ramsay tells her she has bigger balls than Theon ever did.  He asks how fast she can run before he releases his dogs.  She gets back to her small boat and tells them to row to the ship quickly.  Then men ask about her brother and she tells them her brother is dead.

The next day Ramsay tells Reek he has a reward for him because he remained loyal to Ramsay.  Theon automatically starts defending himself by telling Ramsay he didn’t want them to take him.  Ramsay says a bath is his reward, but Theon fears it for a trick.  He quivers at every movement Ramsay makes.  Ramsay washes his back for him.  He asks if Theon loves him.  He says he does.  Ramsay tells him he needs his help to take back a castle from some bad men (ironborn, most likely) and that he wants Reek to pretend to be someone he’s not, Theon Greyjoy. 

Across the Narrow Sea we see a man and his son herding some goats.  The boy is throwing rocks into the river when suddenly Daenerys’s black dragon, Drogon, appears before him.  He thinks the dragon is going to attack him, but Drogon flies over the boy, breathes fire and carries off a burning goat.  Later as Daenerys holds court in a pyramid in Mereeen, the goar herder brings forth bones wrapped in canvas.  It is the body of one of the goats that was burned by Drogon.  He says he doesn’t want to offend her, but now is herd is gone and he has nothing.  She says she cannot give him back his goats, but will pay him their value three times over.  Next she meets a man named Hizdahr Zo Loraq whose father was a great citizen of Mereen who helped restore the pyramid she now resides in.  She says she should like to meet him, but Hizdahr says he was one of the men she crucified.  She says he deserved it for crucifying innocent children.  Hizdahr says his father was against crucifying the children and spoke out about it openly, but was overruled.  She says that what she did to the masters was just.  He tells her what’s done is done, but he would like give his father a proper burial as befits Mereneese custom.  She says the crucified children were left in the sun to rot.  He says he can only speak as a son who loves his father.  She gives him leave to bury his father.  Once he leaves she asks how many more supplicants are waiting for an audience with her.  Missandei informs her there are 212 people waiting.  She exchanges a look with Ser Jorah and he shrugs his shoulders as if to say “this is what ruling is” and she tells them to send the next one in.

In Kings Landing, Prince Oberyn is not happy that the small council meetings are held so early in the morning.  Grand Maester Pycelle is there, as well as another new council member, Mace Tyrell.  As Tywin Lannister enters they stumble to get to their feet, all except for Oberyn.  Varys tells of news that the Hound killed some men in the Riverlands and that Daenerys has conquered Mereen.  Cersei asks how she could have conquered Mereen and Varys informs her that Dany has 8,000 Unsullied, the sellswords of the Second Sons, two knights (Ser Jorah and Ser Barristan) and three dragons.  Cersei comments they are baby dragons, but Varys tells her they grow larger every year.  Lord Tywin comments that it was insulting and stupid to let go of Ser Barristan the way Cersei did, but she says he was an old man unfit to defend her child.  Tywin reminds her that Joffrey wasn’t killed on Ser Barristan’s watch.  Prince Oberyn agrees with Lord Varys as he has seen the Unsullied first hand and knows they are good in battle.  Lord Tywin says Dany must be dealt with at some point.  He wants Varys to have his “little birds”  find some way into Mereen and then asks Mace Tyrell to “be a good man and fetch my quill and paper”.

After the council meeting Prince Oberyn and Varys have a chat in the throne room.  Oberyn guesses that Varys is from Lys and asks how he got to Kings Landing.  He wants Varys to come and meet Ellaria.  He also tells Varys that he has both men and women should he want pleasure and guesses that Varys must’ve liked men before he became a eunuch.  Varys replies that he doesn’t care for men or women for that matter and the he finds that a man without desires has time for more important things and then looks at the Iron Throne.

Jaime has come to escort Tyrion to his trial.  He is shackled like a common outlaw.  As he walks into the throne room people call out “kingslayer”.  Tommen recuses himself from the trial and leaves.  Then the three appointed judges, Lord Tywin, Mace Tyrell and Prince Oberyn take their seats.  Lord Tywin asks Tyrion directly if he killed Joffrey and Tyrion says he did not.  He asks if his wife Sansa did it and Tyrion says he doesn’t think so.  Then Lord Tywin asks him how does he think the king died to which Tyrion says, “he choked on his pigeon pie.  They call witnesses.  The first is Meryn Trant who says he saw Tyrion slap the king on one occasion and on another he compared Joffrey to the Mad King Aerys and said that Joffrey should be careful not to die the same way the Mad King did.  Then Tyrion said he would have Ser Meryn killed if he raised his hand again.  Tyrion speaks out saying Ser Meryn was beating Sansa Stark and ripping her clothes off while Joffrey had a crossbow aimed at her head, but Lord Tywin tells him he is not to speak until called upon.  Grand Maester Pycelle says that Joffrey was poisoned without a doubt and that after Tyrion had thrown Pycelle in the black cells, before Lord Tywin came to Kings Landing, Pycelle’s stock of potions and poisons was plundered.  Maester Pycelle also has the necklace that Sansa was wearing the day of the wedding.  It was found on Ser Dontos’s dead body.  One of the gems is missing and has traces of a poison they call the strangler.  He says the poison was used to kill the “most noble child the gods ever put on this good earth”.   (….excuse me… I almost choked to death just listening to those words being used to describe Joffrey.)  Cersei takes the stand and repeats the same story she’s been spreading and Varys mentions a time in the room of the small council where Tyrion didn’t seem to happy about Robb Stark’s death.  Varys suggested that maybe since his marriage to Sansa Stark he had come to sympathize with the northern cause.  Tyrion asks his father if he can ask Varys something.  He agrees, so Tyrion tells Varys that he once told him that while it wouldn’t be written in books and he would be given no great honors by King Joffrey, Varys would never forget that Tyrion was the reason they won the battle.  Tyrion wonders if Lord Varys has forgotten this.  Varys says that unfortunately he has not.  They adjourn for a bit.

Jaime tells Lord Tyrion that the trial is a farce.  Cersei has manipulated everyone over to her side and Tyrion did not kill Joffrey.  Tywin isn’t moved.  He says he has to do his job and dole out the kings justice.  Jaime reminds his father that he actually killed a king and he did it because the last order the Mad King gave him was to cut off his father’s (Lord Tywin’s) head.  Jaime saved his father’s life.  All Lord Tywin talks about is the family name and dynasty, but if Tyrion is killed, who will carry that on?  Jaime cannot marry as he is the commander of the kingsguard, so will it be Tywin’s nieces and nephews?  Then Jaime offers to leave the kingsguard and go rule Casterly Rock if he will let Tyrion live.  Tywin agrees.  He says when Tyrion is found guilty and asks for mercy they will send him to the Night’s Watch.  Then Jaime will take off his white cloak, go home to Casterly Rock and have a wife and children with the Lannister name.  As the trial resumes, Jaime tells Tyrion to beg to be sent to the Night’s Watch, their father has promised.  Tyrion points out that same offer was given to Ned Stark.  Jaime reminds him that their father is not like Joffrey, he will keep his word.  They call the next witness.  We hear a woman walk in and it’s Shae in a more modest dress.  Shae says that Tyrion and Sansa are guilty and that she heard them plan it.  They wonder why a maidservant would be privy to such information so she tells them she was his whore.  That he stole her away from a knight in his father’s camp and told her she was his now.  She says he made her call him “my Lion of Lannister” and she did and said whatever he wanted or made her do. She says after Tyrion married Sansa he only wanted her, but Sansa wouldn’t sleep with him so he promised to kill Joffrey for her.  Suddenly,  Tyrion says he wants to confess, but not to killing Joffrey, but for being a dwarf.  Tywin tells him he is not on trial for being a dwarf, but Tyrion says he has been ever since he was born.  He did not kill Joffrey, but he wishes he had.  He wishes he was the monster they all thought he was and that he had enough poison for all of them.  He demands a trial by combat.

End credits…

So who will be Tyrion’s champion?  Is Jaime a good enough swordsman with his left hand yet?  Could he even be picked, as he is head of the kingsguard?  We definitely know now (and I never believed otherwise) that Tyrion did not kill Joffrey and that the son of the person who did, now sits as a judge on Tyrions trial.  They always say beware of a woman scorned, but seriously, Shae is just plain childish.  She should be well aware of Tyrion’s feelings for her and not wanting to get her involved in his family, but she chooses instead to get mad at him and get even in a cruel way.

What will Yara do now that Theon seems beyond helping?  And how confused will Reek be by being allowed to “pretend” to be Theon for a while?

Will Dany ever make it to Westeros?  The time is ripe since King’s Landing has so much drama going on.  And what about the impending doom coming towards the Wall?  At the end of last season Ser Davos told King Stannis of the trouble the Night’s Watch was in and made it sound like they would come and help, but nothing has been mentioned on that front so far this season.  Will the Night’s Watch be left to defend the wall with the few hundred men they have against the thousands that Mance Rayder has?

Until next week!

#gameofthrones