“I’m not afraid.”
There is a reason Arya Stark is a fan favorite, and that
couldn’t be distilled more than in this second episode of our fifth season of
Game of Thrones, “The House of Black and White.” Arya only has two scenes in
this episode, which jumps around quite a bit and FINALLY takes us into Dorne (I
HAVE BEEN WAITING SO LONG, YOU GUYS), but her path forward could not be more
clear: Arya is going into the House of Black and White in Braavos, and she is
going to train to be a faceless man. As Jaqen H’ghar (YES HE IS BACK YES YES)
notes, he is “no one – and that is what a girl must become.”
Aside from that revelation for Arya’s story arc, what else
happens in “The House of Black and White”? Quite a bit, actually, and some of
it is … surprising. Coming at it from a book reader’s point of view, there are
some narratives that are simultaneously introduced and resolved in this episode
that took chapters, and almost hundreds of pages, for George R.R. Martin to
develop and conclude in the novels. And here we have them wrapped up by Benioff
and Weiss in only minutes … which, I think you can sense how I feel about that.
Let’s go over the most important things that happened in
last night’s Game of Thrones, shall we? Yes!
+ “Cersei, Walder
Frey, The Mountain, Meryn Trant.” In this episode we see both Stark girls
(and for this entire season, I think the only Starks we’ll see, because Bran is
sitting the entire season out and we haven’t seen Rickon in years), but in
terms of book continuity, Arya’s story is far more aligned with G.R.R.M.’s
original version. She arrives in Braavos, she’s taken to the House of Black and
White, and is at first rejected, turned away by a white-robed man who tells her
“You have everywhere else to go.” For hours, days, maybe weeks? Arya sits
outside the House of Black and White, murmuring the list of the people she
wants to kill, and then finally throws away the coin Jaqen gave her, perhaps
giving up on her plans – but she clearly hasn’t lost those skills Syrio taught
her all that time ago. She sneaks up on birds. She doesn’t back down from a
fight with a bravo, one of the roaming duelists prowling Braavos’s streets. And
it’s that gall that has her noticed by the white-robed man again, who then
transforms into Jaqen – demonstrating the ability Arya hopes to gain – and
gives her back the coin that gains her entry into the House of Black and White,
which Arya then enters at the end of the episode.
What’s at play here for Arya, though, is a consideration of
her identity: to be a faceless man is to be anonymous, to have no personal
life, to have no memories, to be no one. But for Arya, her Starkness has driven
her forward this whole time – what else is her list of people to kill but an
affirmation of her Stark identity? So it will be interesting to see how that
identity crisis plays out onscreen, especially given how much we’ve all come to
love Arya for her desire for vengeance.
+ “You’ve never made
anything better.” Like last week’s premiere episode, we spend a solid
amount of time this week with Cersei as she tries to flex her power both within
her relationship with Jaime (who, we know, has pretty much always done what she
wanted) and as the mother of the king, a role that she’s trying to expand. The
former goes far better than the latter, I’d say, as Jaime agrees to travel to
Dorne to protect their daughter, Myrcella, and bring her home, enlisting Bronn
for the journey. (Of course Cersei’s only reaction to that would be the
doubtful “You’re going to Dorne, a one-handed man, alone?” Damn, Cersei, can’t
you cut the beautiful golden fool ANY SLACK?)
But Cersei’s attempt to restructure the Small Council –
naming Margaery’s father, Mance Tyrell, as Master of Coin, a hugely responsible
and practically cursed position; the disgraced Maester Qyburn as Master of
Whisperers, angering her family’s old advisor, Maester Pycelle; her uncle Kevan
Master of War; and herself the King’s Hand – doesn’t go as successfully, and
it’s mainly because of Kevan, who was Tywin’s brother and who sees through
Cersei’s grasps for power. “I would like to hear it from the king himself,” he
says of his appointment, and he’s disgusted by Cersei’s motivations – sure,
she’s clearly rabid about protecting Tommen, but it’s a discredit to him to
keep him from important decisions and educational opportunities just because she
wants him all to herself. That’s how another Joffrey gets made, and it’s clear
that Kevan, who is leaving for Casterly Rock, is thinking along the same lines
and worried about what Tommen doesn’t know: “He should be here, learning what
it means to rule.”
And has anyone ever dressed Cersei down this succinctly?
It’s a thing of beauty: “I do not recognize your authority to dictate what is
or is not my concern. You are the queen mother. Nothing more.” (SPOILER ALERT:
In the books, Kevin is aware of Cersei and Jaime’s relationship and kind of
suspicious of whether Cersei did anything with his son Lancel, and that’s part
of what inspires his dismissiveness and disgust toward his niece and nephew.)
+ “This woman swore
to protect Renly. She failed. She swore to protect your mother. She failed.”
Brienne of Tarth seems to have the best of luck and the worst of luck, no? In a
brief span of time, she runs into both Arya and Sansa, and both of them reject
her help. I must admit, though, that I found her belief that Sansa would just
run over to her side extremely irritating – why underestimate Littlefinger in
this situation? OF COURSE he was going to talk circles around Brienne and make
her look like a fool, and OF COURSE she didn’t have any actual arguments to
present to Sansa to prove her case. I don’t know, that whole exchange just
infuriated the hell out of me. But I guess Brienne and Pod are going to follow
Sansa and Littlefinger (who are “family now, and you are an outsider,” ugh,
gross), and that will be how Brienne remains relevant to this story. Shrug.
Yawn. Whatever.
+ “He was the
commander we turned to when the night was darkest.” So yeah, the Jon Snow
storyline – guess what, he’s Commander of the Night’s Watch now! This
storyline, which was a big deal for Sam in G.R.R.M.’s original novels, with him
scheming and plotting and maneuvering to get Jon elected without his best
friend’s knowledge, is distilled down to one two- or three-sentence speech
here, and I really thought it lacked impact and power. Yes, we have seen Jon
rise to the occasion among the Night’s Watch for a while now, but usually
incrementally, and never seemingly with the entirety of the Night’s Watch’s
approval. And especially with the wildlings and Stannis entering the picture,
would a vote have gone this smoothly and this rapidly? Doubtful.
Overall, I thought this storyline could have and should have
stretched for at least two episodes, because not only does it entail Jon
suddenly becoming Lord Commander, but it also includes an offer that he
seemingly can’t refuse: legitimization from Stannis so that he is properly
recognized as a Stark and would be heir to Winterfell; in return, Jon would
help Stannis fight the Boltons, who are currently holding Winterfell. This is
essentially the same identity crisis Arya, Jon’s closest relative, is having
all the way in Braavos, right? To be accepted into the House of Black and
White, she has to forget being a Stark; for Jon to really be a member of the
Night’s Watch, he has to forget being a Stark, too. He can’t hold any lands, he
can’t have a wife, he can’t have a family – his loyalty is to the Night’s Watch
now. And being named Commander will certainly throw a wrench in Stannis’s
plans, I would think – and now, for two weeks, Jon has subverted something
Stannis wanted to do. How much longer will this uneasy alliance last?
+ “She doesn’t belong
here. She will never be your mother.” Dany’s problems just keep on
continuing this week, as her men find a Son of the Harpy who theoretically was
responsible for the murder of her Unsullied White Rat in last week’s episode,
but after Dany agrees to give him a fair trial, he then is killed by one of
Dany’s native, former-slave advisors, Mossador. The series of events confuses
and flusters Dany, who says “There are no more slaves; there are no more
masters,” but Mossador, who killed, he says, for her, points out if not the
masters, “Who wears the gold masks and murders your children?” Too bad for him
that Dany kills him in front of a crowd to make a point about “freedom and
justice … one cannot exist without the other,” and too bad for Dany that the
crowd riots, former slaves against former masters, with her in the middle. Once
again, Dany is forgetting who she is and what she should be fighting her –
exemplified again in another interaction with her dragons, this time with
Drogon, who is HUGE. He approaches her while perched on top of the pyramid, he
sniffs her and almost lets her touch him, and then he flies away, without a
second look back. Everything seems within Dany’s grasp, but just as rapidly it
leaves her behind – and Drogon might be just the beginning.
+ “You don’t have to
remind me. He was my brother long before he was anything to you.” WELCOME
TO DORNE, PEOPLE. WELCOME. TO. DORNE. In a moment that made my heart swell, we
finally get a glimpse at Dorne and the Martells, specifically Doran Martell,
played by Alexander Siddig, a.k.a. Dr. Julian Bashir from “Star Trek: Deep
Space Nine,” a.k.a. my crush since middle school who could always get it.
Doran is Oberyn/the Red Viper’s older brother and the leader
of Dorne, in his 50s or so and relegated to a wheelchair because of health issues,
with a sturdy, loyal bodyguard in the form of Areo Hotah, and he is the goddamn
shit. Over the years, Doran has seen his sister Elia and her children get
killed after her husband, Prince Rhaegar, was killed by Robert, and they were
murdered on Tywin Lannister’s orders by the Mountain. They saw their closest
allies, the Targaryens, forced out of power, and their greatest enemies, the
Lannisters, ascend into it. And most recently, of course, the Red Viper was
killed in a trial by combat by the Mountain, who is just stacking up the
Martell body count. So to understand that is to understand Doran’s grief.
Sadly, though, the Martell storyline has been pretty
solidified this season: In the books, Doran had an eldest daughter, Arianne,
who was hungry for vengeance for her uncle, but based on this episode, it looks
like her place on the show will be taken by Ellaria Sand, Oberyn’s paramour and
the mother of his daughters, the Sand Snakes. They’re all hungry to pay the
Lannisters back for Oberyn’s recent death and Elia’s death all those years ago
during Robert’s Rebellion – and it’s clear that they sent the snake’s head with
the Lannister pendant in its jaws to Cersei as a threat against Myrcella, which
drives Jaime to Dorne. But Doran isn’t so willing to act immediately, even
though Ellaria tries to goad him into action with barbs like “Your brother was
murdered and you sit here in the Water Gardens, staring at the sky and doing
nothing” and “How many of your brothers and sisters do they have to kill?”
That’s not Doran’s way; as he says, “We do not mutilate little girls for
vengeance. Not here. Not while I rule.” And hopefully we’ll see more examples
of that ruling style very soon, because goddammit, one scene in Dorne is not nearly enough.
And finally, some odds
and ends:
+ “We only have one horse.” The unintentionally funniest man
in Westeros is Podrick Payne, everybody.
+ “It could prove … useful … to my work.” No one is creepier
than Qyburn, right? Not a damn body.
+ “Everywhere’s already got a ruler.” Damn, I LOVE cynical
Tyrion! I know he’s in a terrible drunken funk, but Peter Dinklage is killing
Tyrion’s unbridled disgust at the world around him. Exemplified by his reaction
when he learned about Cersei promising a major reward for anyone who brings her
his head – “the best part of her for the best part of me,” he says, suggesting
that she would sleep with whoever killed her little brother for her. Which, not
outside the realm of possibility. (Oh yeah, Tyrion and Varys are on the way to
Meereen through Volantis, another one of the Free Cities that still has slaves;
if you recall, Robb Stark’s murdered wife Talisa was from Volantis.)
+ “Who’s that?” “Jaime fucking Lannister.” DAMN RIGHT.
+ Related: Does anyone have a screenshot of Jaime in that
red leather jacket thing he was wearing when he went to persuade Bronn to
travel to Dorne with him? I … need it. For … research purposes.
+ Anyone else annoyed by the continuation of the “Daario
knows everything” method of characterization for Dany’s favorite sellsword?
Last week he tried to convince Dany to reopen the fighting pits; this week he
pulls one over on Grey Worm by being able to determine the Son of the Harpy’s
hiding place when the Unsullied leader couldn’t. I very slightly wonder if the show is trying to hint that Daario
might actually be working against Dany (an idea that Barristan Selmy considers
quite often in the books), but I don’t think the show’s writing staff is that
far-sighted, actually. I think they just like painting Daario as
all-knowledgeable.
+ “They acted like animals.” I was really surprised by this
episode’s lengthy conversation about, and explanation of, gresyscale, but I
suppose it’s a necessary thing to really illuminate the deal with Shireen’s
face and to demonstrate how she got off moderately easy with the affliction,
and also demonstrate how differently she’s treated by friends like Gilly and
Sam vs. her terrible mother Selyse, so obsessed with R’hllor that she couldn’t
care less about her own daughter. “You have no idea what people will do; all
your books, and you still don’t know,” Selyse sneers at Shireen, but the
reality is that Selyse has mistreated her daughter for years, and so I think
Shireen has a pretty good idea of what people will do. Even people who claim to
love you.
+ BOOK READERS ONLY: Did you notice what Barristan said to
Dany about her family’s legacy and her father, the Mad King Aerys? “His efforts
to stamp out descent led to the rebellion that killed every Targaryen but two,”
the two being Dany herself and her great-grand-uncle, Maester Aemon at the Wall
with Jon Snow. No mention of the possible Targaryen pretender, Aegon, who I was
thinking wouldn’t be in the show anyway – and that line felt like a tacit confirmation
that we’re not getting that storyline.
+ BOOK READERS ONLY: Brienne of Tarth has rapidly gone from
one of my favorite characters in G.R.R.M.’s series to one of my least favorite
on the show, and I think that’s because she’s so frustratingly irritating now
that LS has been removed from the show’s equation. Yes, Brienne’s chapters got
repetitive in the books as she searched for Sansa, but her desperation was
palpable, her questioning of her own intrinsic sense of honor was affecting,
and her ultimate meeting of LS and possible later betrayal of Jaime made for
some really fascinating stuff. I’m not going to say “Brienne’s storyline sucks because
I don’t know what’s going to happen,” but I think it’s more that Brienne’s
aimlessness is undeniable now. If she’s not going to face off with LS, where
does she go from here? And ultimately, that whole confrontation with Sansa and
Littlefinger felt so shortsighted to
me, in the same way that the show portrayed Ned Stark – that his strong ethics and
honesty were actually stupidity. Is it really in Brienne’s nature to think that
she can simply ask Sansa to come along with her and that it would be
successful? Didn’t that just fail with Arya? It just all seemed really out of
character to me.
