We got introduced to a few more characters this week, but a good majority of the time was spent dealing with those we are already familiar with.
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House Greyjoy is one of the most interesting, and most brutal, of all the Houses in the series. Wow. Already, things are picking up for Game of Thrones. We got introduced to a few more characters this week, but a good majority of the time was spent dealing with those we are already familiar with. I can't think of many missteps in this week's episode, so let's jump right in and talk about all of the things that went swimmingly.
After not seeing much of Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) in both the season one finale and last week's premiere, it was refreshing to see her get a bit more screen time this week. Of course, the Gold Cloaks need to finish their brutal murder of any of Robert's bastards, so they show up at the Night Watch's caravan. It could be a little bit of an eye-rolling moment to see Arya pretty much give herself away to Gendry (Joe Dempsie) right off the bat, but I think it makes sense. If Arya isn't alert to the fact that Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) wants her dead, then she could be easily taken by surprise. Her situation is made even better considering that we know Gendry is who the Kingsguard were really after here.
The shining moment for Arya's story this week, though, came from the later scene. The quiet moment where all of those bound for the Wall were washing dishes and just chatting, as children would chat, was a great bit of downtime for the episode. It helped to give a little more dimension to the characters that are surrounding Arya right now, and I'm already enjoying watching her and Gendry interact with each other, which should make future episodes a blast to watch. We should also take note that we have now been officially introduced to Jaqen H'ghar (Tom Wlaschiha), as the man in the cage who didn't threaten to kill Arya.
After we caught up with Arya, the show jumped right back into the thick of things with Tyrion (Peter Dinklage). One of the best plots of the second book, and now of the second season, is watching Tyrion navigate the same waters we watched Ned Stark work through last season. The difference, as Tyrion puts it, is that Tyrion is not an honorable man. The fact that he clearly understands why Varys (Conleth Hill) would want to visit Shae (Sibel Kekilli) shows that this is a man who is actually ready to play the titular Game of Thrones.
Of course, actually being the Hand of the King is proving to be another matter entirely, as the entirety of Joffrey's court seems to be working against him. The scene in which Tyrion dismissed Janos Slynt (Dominic Carter) from his duties as leader of the Kingsgaurd was one of the best of the episode. Tyrion can't be making any friends with the moves he is making, but at least he is making decisions that seem to be both for the good of the realm, and the good of his family.
Trying to decide which is more important to him will be a turning point for Tyrion, though, as we have seen in every scene he has shared with another Lannister so far. Cersei (Lena Headey) was positively brutal to her brother this week, showing how much she truly despises him. How much will Tyrion be able to accomplish in a court that is so corrupt and against him? Only future episodes will tell, but this fan-favorite character certainly has his work cut out for him.
We very briefly touched base with Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) this week, as we learned one of her bloodriders was sent back to her with his head in a bag. True to the novel, not much happened with Dany this week. The challenge the writers face here is trying to make Dany's story interesting without diverting too far from the source material. The second half of the season should be much better for her, but there needs to be more for her to do early on.
A good portion of this week's episode was spent with Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen), and I absolutely loved every one of these scenes. His moments on the ship before landing at the Pyke reinforced what a slimeball Theon is, which made the later revelation that he was making advances on his sister all that much more satisfying for those wanting to see him taken down a few pegs. Combine this with the fact that no one was waiting for him on the docks, and his father, Balon (Patrick Malahide), scolds him from the moment he walks into the throne room, and we've got ourselves a very uncomfortable Theon. As I mentioned a few sentences ago, we were also introduced to Yara (Gemma Whelan), as Theon's more than capable and smart sister. We've only scratched the surface of the issues facing this family, but we can already see there's a major disconnect from what's expected of them to what their actual goals are.
Before I talk about the end of the episode, it should be noted that we were introduced to Salador Saan (Lucian Msamati), as the pirate Davos was making a deal with. Davos is a character to watch, as his backstory is extremely interesting, starting with the reveal this week that Stannis (Stephen Dillane) cut off some of his fingers. Much like Tyrion, Davos is an unlikely choice for Hand of the King, but he has some connections and talents that no other man can exploit. As for Stannis himself, we only got that brief scene between he and Melisandre (Carice van Houten), and we'll just have to wait and see what comes of that.
And of course there is Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen), who is continuing to show how manipulative he can be. Considering the fact that he is never a point-of-view character in the books, and isn't even in this novel all that much, I consider a good portion of his scenes to simply be small moments that will inform his later decisions. They are, naturally, very well-acted and sick, but don't expect them to develop into anything anytime soon.
The scenes with the Night's Watch were some of the few that I felt weren't quite up to snuff this week. It all started with Ghost terrorizing poor Gilly (Hannah Murray). The CG is just not at the level it needs to be at for the direwolves. I'm hoping that the directors and creators realized this for future episodes, and perhaps developed some tricks to help them look a little more believable. Even without Ghost, though, these scenes just fell a little flat. Some of the issue falls on the fact that Sam (John Bradley) is one of the least-interesting characters at the moment. Even when Jon (Kit Harington) was brought into the mix, though, things didn't really pick up. I think it's a matter of the writers not wanting to dive right into the Night's Watch story yet, but in exchanged we get a few small scenes here and there that do nothing to help the plot.
Except the end. Jon Snow finding out exactly what happens to Craster's (Robert Pugh) sons was a good way to end the episode, although a cliffhanger ending is slightly out of character for the series. We got to see our first White Walker of the season, and it was a good reminder of the types of things the Night's Watch is truly dealing with. Of course, having Craster discover Jon at the end won't bode well for that group, but we'll have to wait until next week to find out.
What did you think of this week's episode? Do you have any non-spoiler theories on where the series is headed? Sound off in the comments below. As always, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next week.