What has the child pushing, sister-raping, one handed antihero been up to in King’s Landing ever since last episode? In the fourth episode, “Oathkeeper”, it appears that he is trying to redeem himself by trying to find Sansa and Arya- but not for Cersei. He wants to fulfill his promise to late Catelyn Stark and deliver them into safe hands. Now there is the Jaime that we all know and love! He assigns Brienne to the task and gives her a suit of armor, Pod as a companion, and sword not only made from Valyrian steel but made from Ned Stark’s sword as well. She decides to name it “Oathkeeper” , a fitting name for the mission that she is about embark on.
But Catelyn Stark isn’t the only person that Jaime is keeping his oath for. He also visited his younger brother, Tyrion in prison and believes that he is innocent despite all of the accusations around him. This is what I love about Jaime. Despite Cersei wanting his head for allegedly murdering their son, he still is on Tyrion’s side. He has always been there for him and was the only person to ever give him any sort of respect. So what was the point of last week’s puzzling placement of sexual violence? Was it to signify an end to their relationship or possibly to show that there is still some conflicting evil left in Jaime? Either way, it feels awkward to see him perform that act last episode and go back to being a semi-nice guy in this episode especially since that scene was consensual in the books. I hope that the writers continue to develop his character rather than going backwards.
But I’ll save more Jaime rants for future episodes. As for the rest of the episode, everybody else seems to be keeping oaths of their own. In Meereen, Daenerys kept her word and helped the slaves overthrow their brutal child-killing masters. Any of the remaining masters were then nailed to posts, another great sign that Daenerys is a bad-ass and Westeros needs to watch out.
In case they didn’t already get the memo, Westeros also needs to watch out for Littlefinger. Aboard the ship with Sansa, he tells her that he is to be married to Lysa Arryn, Sansa’ aunt, and is taking her with him to the Eyrie. We also get a piece of the murder mystery when Littlefinger admits to Sansa that her necklace contained the poison (though I’m pretty sure everyone knew that one). However, he refused to share who was in on it with him. When naïve little Sansa asks why Littlefinger would want to kill Joffery even though his family made him rich, he simply says, ““A man with no motive is a man no one expects”. That statement makes me fear for what he plans to do with Lysa because I’m sure he would not want to settle down with someone who is still breastfeeding their seven year old child.
The viewers are not completely disappointed however because they soon learn who was actually behind the murder. Lady Olenna and Margaery are taking a stroll and she talks about how she was engaged to an undesirable Targaryen. Her future husband, Luther, was actually engaged to her sister until she snuck into his bedroom and performed her tricks on him. The next morning, Luther “never made it down the stairs because he couldn’t bloody walk,” she tells her grand-daughter. She tells her that she needs to do the same thing to Tommen . Before Margaery leaves, Olenna admits to being behind the murder. ““You don’t think I’d let you marry that beast, do you?” she asks. Margaery seems to be confused but Olenna tells her not to worry and do what needs to be done to secure her place on the throne.
Margaery then sneaks into Tommen’s room and does the incredibly easy task of seducing an adolescent boy. She just stares into his eyes and he sweats and swallows hard between every sentence. It’s every young boy’s wet dream to have a good looking girl in his bed so who can blame him? In the middle of his paradise, his cat comes about and Tommen tells Margaery about a time that Joffery threatened to skin it and put his innards in his food. Margaery them mentions how Tommen doesn’t seem like a cruel person unlike his brother. He may not be cruel but he’s definitely manipulative. Margaery doesn’t go too far and simply kisses him on the head and makes him swear to keep their meetings secret.
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The rest of the episode takes us up to the north. As usual, it’s been pretty slow up at the Wall. Jon has been trying to rally up a crew to fight the wildlings at Craster’s Keep not only to keep Mance Rayder’s army from getting closer but also to avenge the death of Lord Mormont, the previous Lord Commander who was killed off last season by mutinous men of the Night’s Watch . After a touching speech from him, Jon’s peers slowly stand up and agree to go with him, including Locke, Roose Bolton’s hit man who is after the little Stark boys.
Well they certainly have a lot of work to do at Craster’s Keep. While it was a hellish place while Ol’ Craster would rape his daughters and then rape their daughters and inflict so much psychological torture. I’m not sure how but its current state seems a lot worse. The mutinous men have taken over and have taken to raping Craster’s daughters and drinking out of Lord Mormont’s skull. It seems like a very pleasant house that they’re keeping. This scene has disturbed more than last week’s scene and perhaps any other “evil” scene. Cersei and Jaime have a very twisted relationship but they loved each other at one point. These women have never been loved by anybody. When they thought it was done and over with , they have to be abused to a worse extent by these horrible men. I had to look away a few times.
Eventually, Bran, Hodor, and the Reeds find their way to the humble abode and are captured by the mutineers. The leader of the men, Karl, proceeds to torture them until Bran shouts out his true identity. They decide to keep them alive for now but will Jon get there in time to save his brother? What will they keep him alive for?
We then see our favorite zombies come and snatch up one of Crastor’s wife’s babies come and pick it up out of the snow when it was supposed to be “sacrificed to the gods”. Even though this is in the novel, I wished that they didn’t put this in the series. With all of the intense politics and corruption happening in the south, it just seems silly that the north has to deal with these zombie-like creatures. The battle with the wildings is bound to be intense but when that’s over, I don’t want to feel like I’m watching an episode of the Walking Dead. But I’m not completely pessimistic about it. I’m interested to see how it will go.
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