The King in the North received the titular dark words when two ravens arrived, notifying him of the death of his grandfather, as well as the sacking of Winterfell.
Jaime and Brienne got to let out some frustration on each other before their inevitable capture.
The second episode of this season of Game of Thrones spent a lot of time reintroducing the characters we didn't see last week, as well as continuing to set the scene for a season that's sure to pick up very soon. It was a fairly inactive episode, but it was still good to see all of the characters many viewers have been waiting to see. Let's go ahead and take a look at what, exactly, happened this week.
We first caught up with a significantly older Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright), who is almost as tall as his fellow Stark brothers. Crazy. Anyways, he was having yet another crazy dream; this time, he was walking, and he still saw the three-eyed crow that has haunted him since the pilot. We also got our first official look at Jojen Reed (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), who became much more important later in the episode. When he finally appeared with his sister, Meera (Ellie Kendrick), he revealed that Bran was a "warg," which is a person who can inhabit an animal, such as Bran's direwolf, Summer, or a crow, like we saw in the lone scene in the North this week. This clearly has big implications on Bran going forward, and what he might be able to do, even without the use of his legs. We didn't get any more information on what the three-eyed crow meant, but that's more of a long-term storyline.
We also met up with another Stark child this week, Arya (Maisie Williams), who doesn't look quite as old as her show brother, though that's right around the corner. This was easily my favorite plot of the episode, if for no other reason than due to my bias towards the Brotherhood Without Banners. We finally met them, through Thoros (Paul Kaye) and Anguy (Philip McGinley). We didn't see too much of The Brotherhood, but we learned Thoros is a cocky and quick-witted man, and Anguy is fairly serious. Things took a turn when someone rushed in with none other than The Hound (Rory McCann), who almost instantly recognized Arya and revealed her identity to the group. We'll soon learn if these men are as true to their word as they claim to be.
To round out the Stark reuinion this week, Robb (Richard Madden), and Sansa (Sophie Turner) had some smaller scenes. Sansa looked like she was actually happy for the majority of the episode, before she sat down with Margaery (Natalie Dormer) and Kady Olenna (Diana Rigg), her mother. They wanted her to state, quite plainly, what type of person Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) is. They accepted the eventual reveal of his terribleness in stride, with Rigg shining as the spunky Olenna for the entirety of the scene. I can't wait to see more of her. I also enjoy watching Margaery subtly manipulate Joffrey. It's an interesting new dynamic for who was once a one-sided, terrible character. At the same time, the King in the North received the titular dark words when two ravens arrived, notifying him of the death of his grandfather, as well as the sacking of Winterfell. This led to him taking half of his army to the Tully funeral, churning more ire amongst his generals. It certainly cannot be good that so many people are expressing their displeasure towards Robb's leadership. He seems to be losing control of his army.
Speaking of Winterfell, we learned of Theon's (Alfie Allen) fate in this episode, and boy was it gruesome. When we met up with him, he was undergoing some truly terrible torture, complete with finger-nail abuse. It's unclear exactly what's going on here right now, but there does seem to be some hope for the young Greyjoy, as a mysterious stranger claims he can help him escape. We didn't see the escape this week, though the preview suggests that will come soon next week.
Finally, we reunited with the greatest couple on television: Jaime and Brienne (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Gwendoline Christie). Watching these two bicker back and forth throughout the episode was thoroughly entertaining, with Jaime naturally claiming a good deal of the one-liners. It was all leading up to their eventual fight, which was amusing, but never truly dangerous, which may have been the intent. In the end, though, Jaime was proven right when the farmer Brienne refused to kill returned with some Bolton men, which cannot bode well for the Lannister, as we know they are aligned to Robb through their Lord, Roose (Michael McElhatton). It's nice to finally have Jaime back in the mix, rather than chained in a cage, and I can't wait to see where this goes.