After a year of thinking about the eyeless Oberyn, cheering at Joffery’s death and watching Tyrion kill his lover and his dad within minutes of each other, Game of Thrones is finally back in action. Even though episodes one through four somehow leaked on the Internet, I tuned in at the same time as everyone else (and I’ll be keeping it that way for the remainder of the season). As with previous season premieres, not a whole lot happened in The Wars to Come but enough happened to see how everyone has been doing since we last saw them.
The episode started off with a flashback- a first-time use in the whole series. It was quite a risk given that there is so much backstory within this series. We are shown a young Cersei with a friend trying to find a psychic that resides somewhere in the wood. After some threats (I guess some things really don’t change), the psychic gives Cersei a very grim look into her future. She will be wed to be the king and become queen, but then a much younger queen will step in and take her spot- much like what is happening with her and Margery Tyrell. And with her father now gone, her whole world seems to be crumbling. She finds out that Jaime freed Tyrion before he could be executed and Margery is stopping at nothing to kick her off the throne. We’re still not supposed to feel sorry for her, right?
Speaking of Lannisters, we see a brand new, fully-bearded Tyrion at one of Varys’ colleague’s residence in Pentos. It’s beautiful, tropical, and full of alcohol to fuel Tyrion’s alcoholism. He doesn’t give a damn about anything anymore. His world is destroyed and his sister has put a huge bounty on his head. What else is there to live for? This gives Varys an opportunity to swoop in with his proposal: to help put a Targaryen back on the throne- something that he and other colleagues had been planning to do for a while. He wants to take Tyrion to Meereen and meet Daenerys to get her ready for the Iron Throne. Because he couldn’t care less about anything, he agrees.
On the other side of the globe, there is some sort of rebellion happening under Dany’s rule. A group called “The Sons of The Harpy” are killing the Unsullied and waging some sort of war against her. We’re seeing a different character inside Dany because for the first time, she doesn’t know what to do. She is refusing to follow the advice of her new “post-Jorah” council, but as soon as Dario suggests the same idea (while they’re both naked, mind you), she decides to change her mind. With this sort of serious conflict, is she fully equipped to handle it? Would she be fully equipped to handle the throne? She better be, since Tyrion is on his way!
At the Wall, Jon meets with Stannis and finds out that he wanted to recruit the wildlings to take the North from the Boltons. He is tasked with making Mance Rayder bend the knee to Stannis or face a gruesome burning death. While we didn’t spend a lot of time with Mance, the scene between him and Jon was great. It showed what a true leader he was and how much he actually cared about his people. Hell, he might have even made a good candidate for the Iron Throne. However, his stubbornness has caused him to refuse Stannis’ offer and had him burned at the stake. Watching him try so hard not to scream at the pain was surprisingly emotional given that we barely saw him, but the stares between him and his people made it so hard not to feel anything ourselves. After watching him wince in a pain, Jon took it upon himself and shot him in the chest with an arrow so he didn’t have to feel it anymore. Not the greatest ending for an episode, but one that definitely had me wonder what a true leader/king would do for his people.
Overall, this was a solid first episode. It’s always hard to make a great first episode of Game of Thrones because everyone is still looming about what happened last season and obsessing over what everyone is up to. While we didn’t get to everyone yet, (Arya, we’re waiting for you), we got a great idea of what’s in store for this season. Who are the Sons of The Harpy? Is Tyrion actually going to make it to Meereen? And most importantly, are we going to get any more hot scenes with Loras?
Thoughts of the week:
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- Who else is so bitter and angry that the Bolton crest is over Winterfell?!
- So has Varys been a Targaryen supporter all along? This would be incredibly interesting especially since he was all for assassinating Daenerys in season one.
- Did anyone else think that Grey Worm got re-casted and was the one that died in the beginning?
- I don’t care about what anyone else says. I love Stannis and think he would be a great king. Sure he’s not popular but right now, he’s the best pick.
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