Welcome once again to Out of Lives review/recap of Game of Thrones.
This weeks episode played out a little slower than the previous two episodes, but what it lacked it shock value it made up for in story. Episode 3 also reintroduced us to some old characters and treated us to a vision of the past, a vision that many have waited a long time to see. So without further ado, let’s get into the breakdown of Oathbreaker.
Castle Black
We opened up where we left the last episode off, in castle black. Jon is sat up breathing heavily and Davos is looking over him shocked and dumbfounded. Jon notices the stab wounds still in his chest and starts to panic, Davos quickly covers him up. Melisandre enters the room looking just as shocked as everyone else. Davos tries to find out what Jon remembers, Jon recalls being stabbed but more specifically Olly putting a knife through his heart. You can tell that thought hurts Jon a lot. Melisandre immediately questions Jon to find out where he went and what he saw during death. “Nothing” Jon replies, “there was nothing at all”. Melisandre doesn’t even flinch at that answer but instead hints to Jon that he may be the prince that was promised by the Lord of Light, Azur Ahai. Melisandre leaves the room and Jon confesses to Davos that he thought he did what was right and got murdered for his troubles, he had failed. Davos reassures him and tells Jon “good, now go fail again”. As Jon steps outside everyone gathered stares at him as though they were looking at a ghost, oh yeah. Tormund Giantsbane and Edd welcome back Jon and all appears well in the world again.
It’s good to see Jon reclaiming his old life back. He knows what he did was right in the long run and I think most of the people at Castle Black can see that now. I just hope we still have the Jon Snow of old and something hasn’t broke inside of him. Melisandre seemed pleased with herself too, I think she has found her faith again, although she is still yet to tell Davos about Shireen. I’m expecting his reaction to be quite violent.
Sam & Gilly
We finally get to see Sam and Gilly again, they’re on a boat and on their way to Oldtown, home of the Maesters. Gilly is enjoying the stormy ship ride across the sea, Sam however is throwing up chicken soup. During a pause in his vomiting Sam finds the moment to tell Gilly the Citadel in Oldtown doesn’t allow women and she’s going to stay in Horn Hill, home of the Tarly’s, with his family. Gilly isn’t happy with this as Sam promised her ‘wherever he goes, she’ll go to’. Sam explains he just wants to protect her and the baby. She eventually understands and in a tender moment calls Sam the father of her son causing me to say ‘awww’ out loud but Sam saves the moment by throwing up more chicken soup.
It’ll be interesting to see if Sam does make his way to Oldtown when he drops off Gilly or whether he decides to stay with his family. Jon could use an army more than a Maester at the moment and the Tarlys surely have an army. Could Sam be the one to lead it?
Bran & Three-eyed Raven
We join Bran on another vision quest and this time it’s the one we’ve all been waiting for. We see Ned, Howland Reed and a few disposable men of the North reach the Tower of Joy on a mission to get Lyanna Stark back. Standing watch at the tower are two Targaryen Kings Guards, one being the deadly Arthur Dayne, aka The Sword of the Morning. Bran tells the Three-eyed Raven “he was one of the best swordsman my father ever saw”.
Ned reaches the tower and demands his sister back but Ser Arthur Dayne isn’t playing ball. “And now it begins” Ser Dayne declares as he draws his swords. “No!” Ned replies, “now it ends”. Then comes the moment we’ve all been waiting for, a piece of history coming to life, the sword fight between two Targaryen King’s Guards and five North men in the shadow of the Tower of Joy. Howland Reed goes down first followed quickly by the unnamed Targaryen Guard at the hands of Ned, leaving Ser Arthur Dayne versus four men. With precision and skill he swiftly kills 3 of them, leaving only Ned alive. Ned shows remarkable skill going toe to toe with Arthur until he is eventually disarmed. As Ser Dayne goes to finish Ned, Howland Reed stabs him in the back of the throat. In that moment Bran realises his father lied about beating the great Arthur Dayne. Ned finishes him off with one last slice to the chest. Suddenly Ned hears a scream coming from the tower, he heads up the stairs. The three eyed Raven tells Bran it’s time to go but he doesn’t want to. As Bran follows Ned he yells “father!” and Ned appears to hear him. He pauses for a second and then carries on up the stairs. Bran is taken out of the vision and back to the tree. Bran declares that his father heard him but the Three-Eyed Raven tells Bran “The past is already written, the ink is dry”. Bran pleads to go back to the vision but the Three-Eyed Raven tells him that if he stays too long he’ll never return.
It’s a shame the vision ended where it did but I expect we’ll carry on with that story later on in the series, at least I hope so. We may even be able to finally put to bed the R+L=J and R+L=J&M theories. One may be true or both could be false, that’s the beauty of the show. I’m also curious to find out if Ned hearing Bran’s call to him will have repercussions later on. Can Bran interact with the past? I can’t wait to go on more journeys with the pair. I also loved the casting of the young Ned Stark, he had enough of a resemblance to Sean Bean to keep me happy. Also I’m hoping we get to see more Ser Arthur Dayne. The two-handed sword fighting was truly a treat to watch.
Daenerys
We’re on the move with Daenerys again and this time she arrives in Vaes Dothrak. She is stripped and made to wear the same animal skin clothing as the rest of the Khal widows. Once again Daenerys goes all high and mighty announcing who she is by listing off her many titles. The wife of another Khal, Khal Savo, tells Daenerys she should have come straight to Vaes Dothrak after Drogo’s death, as she went out into the world her fate will now be decided by all the Khalasars who have all gathered for the Khalar Vezhven.
Not much movement for Daenerys again, I still expect a rescue by Jorah or Drogon at some point but we’ll have to wait and see. I’m interested to see all the Dothraki Khals together though. I’m wondering if at this gathering they’ll decide to sack Meereen together. That’ll be an interesting development.
Meereen
Back in Meereen, Varys manages to use his way with words to turn a collaborator of the Sons of Harpy onto the side of the so called ‘foreign rulers’. He promises the traitor silver and a ship ride to a new life with her son for information, it works. Tyrion meanwhile is trying to play games and get drunk (are we sure he isn’t Robert Baratheons son?). Varys arrives just in time to save Tyrion from boredom to inform him that he’s found out who funds the Sons of Harpy. Surprise surprise it’s the other slave cities of Astapor, Yunkai and Volantis. Greyworm and Missandei plead with Tyrion to go fight the Masters, however Tyrion likes to play things smart. He asks Varys to get a message to the Masters of the rebelling cities. What this message is, we do not know.
Again, while we didn’t have much movement it was good to see Tyrion and Varys doing what they do best. Varys using his intelligence and silver tongue to get information and Tyrion getting drunk and coming out with quotes for T-shirts. It’s probably for the best that he gets all his drinking done now because by the sounds of it they may have a war on their hands in the very near future.
Kings Landing
Next up we have Qyburn giving sweets to kids (I knew there was something dodgy about him). It turns out Varys’ Little Birds are the children of the streets. Qyburn tells them that they can now work for him and receive the same payment they got from Varys, ‘Candied Plums’. Qyburn then introduces the kids to ‘Ser Gregor’ saying “my friends are his friends”. The children seem rightfully scared and leave hurriedly when Jaime and Cersei join the party. Jaime tells Qyburn to send Ser Gregor after the High Sparrow, Cersei argues that he wouldn’t be able to get past the hundreds of Faith Militant protecting him. Instead he only needs to fight one person, that one person would be in a trial by combat. Cersei goes on to tells Qyburn she wants birds (spies) in Dorne, High garden and the North. She wants to know who is talking smack against her.
Cersei and Jaime make their way to the small council meeting and try to force themselves into matters of the crown, but a shut down by Granny Tyrell about Cersei not being a queen shuts her up. Stubborn as ever the pair sit at the table despite Kevan Lannister telling them they’re not welcome. Jaime informs the small council that the Sand Snakes have taken over Dorne, but no one seems concerned. Instead Kevan gets up and leaves, the rest of the small council follow suit.
With Cersei mentioning a ‘trial by combat’ I wonder if we’re getting the beginnings of ‘Cleganebowl’. If you’re unaware of what ‘Cleganebowl’ is, google those words and treat yourself. Cersei is trying her hardest to get herself out of the hole she dug by supporting the High Sparrow, but time will tell if it works out for her. What is clear however is that Cersei seems to be losing all her power. Even Maester Pycelle seems to have turned against her. Speaking of Maester Pycelle, did anyone notice the out-of-place fart noise when he turned to see Ser Gregor standing in the room? It would’ve been funny in a Monty Python skit but in Game of Thrones it just seemed out of place. I hope they don’t start resorting to cheap laughs.
Tommen
King Tommen meets with the high sparrow and it seems for a second that he has grown some balls. He demands that his mother should be allowed to see Myrcella’s resting place. Tensions get a bit high when Tommen steps up to the High Sparrow but the situation is defused when the Faith militant get waved away, Tommen follows suit and waves off his Kings Guard. The High Sparrow tells Tommen he feels envy for how much his mother loves him and that the only reason Cersei took the walk of shame was to get back to him. He also explains that it’s not him making Cersei go through these trials, its the gods and people have to either accept it or reject it. “If we’re to be just and good, then we have to accept it, all of us, even kings” he tells Tommen. This speech reminds Tommen of what Tywin once said to him. The high Sparrow then tells Tommen the gods are working through Cersei and with this it seems Tommen has failed to get what he wants again.
It was good to see Tommen attempt something ballsy in this episode even if it did fail. He tried to step up but unfortunately, yet again, he was manipulated into going against what he was trying to initially achieve. We have to remember though that he is still a child. I cant imagine having the responsibility he has and I’m a grown ass adult.
Arya
We join Arya for the third week running and yet again watch her get her ass beat. However this time we see her mastering her senses, learning to fight and smelling ingredients all while hearing the same question “Who are you?”. Cue the montage of stick fights. Amidst the montage Arya admits to the Waif that she crossed The Hound off her list and that Cersei Lannister, Gregor Clegane and Walder Frey are on it. The Waif then says “That’s a short list, that can’t be everyone YOU want to kill. Are YOU sure you’re not forgetting someone?”, referring to Arya as Arya and not as a ‘no one’. Arya picks up on this and replies, “which name would you like a girl to speak?”. As the montage comes to an end Arya blocks the Waifs strike with her stick seemingly being more aware of her surroundings.
We then cut to Arya sitting in front of a fire-place in the House of Black and White. Jaqen H’ghar is close by, he’s sitting on the edge of the poison well. “If a girl tells me her name, I will give her her eyes back” Jaqin repeats once again. “A girl has no name” Arya replies and then Jaqin summons her to him. He hands Arya a cup of the water from the well, that seemingly poisoned everyone else, and tells her to drink. Arya drinks the water and suddenly her eyesight returns.
Finally movement with Arya’s character. We got the training out the way with a well put together montage and she now has her eyesight back. Pardon the pun but I didn’t see that coming at all. We also learned The Hound had been taken off her list, but if you’re like me you probably suspected that all along. All we need to see now is whether she finally throws away Needle. If she does I think she’ll fully commit to the faceless god, if not, Arya will be back kicking ass and taking names at some point in the future.
Ramsey
Back at Winterfell we see Lord Umber swearing his loyalty to Ramsey. He says that he needs men to help fight off Wildlings coming from the north. However he wont bend the knee or kiss a hand. Ramsey wants to know how he can guarantee his loyalty if he does neither of those things. Lord Umber sarcastically replies that Roose did both those things to Robb Stark and look where it got him. Instead Lord Umber offers Ramsey a gift, he drags in two people with sacks over their heads. he takes them off and it’s Rickon and Osha. Unsure if it is really them Ramsey asks how he can be sure it’s truly one of the Starks. Lord Umber then brings in the head of Shaggydog, Rickons Dire Wolf. Ramsey grins “Welcome home, Lord Stark”
Rickon got tall. Just a shame he’s now in Ramsey’s custody. I liked Lord Umber at first as well, but he ruined it by bringing in Rickon and Osha as prisoners. Deep down I’m hoping this is some elaborate plan by the Umbers to get to Ramsey, but I won’t hold my breath. Poor Shaggydog too, looks like Ghost, Nymeria and Summer are the only three Dire Wolves left. Sad times.
Castle Black Pt. 2
We return to Castle Black once again and this time it’s to say farewell to some traitorous bastards, including Ser Alliser and Olly. With rope around their necks Jon walks by each of them hearing their last words. Ser Alliser Thorne lives up to his reputation and tells Jon he would do it all over again even knowing where he would end up, because to him ‘it was a choice of betraying the Lord Commander or betraying the Nights Watch’. Olly however just looks at Jon angrily and keeps quiet. With a swipe of his sword Jon finishes what they started and hangs them until dead. With their corpses hanging from the gallows Edd tells Jon he should burn the bodies, “You should” Jon replies and hands him his overcoat. “What do you want me to do with this?” Edd asks. “Wear it, burn it, whatever you want. You have Castle black. My watch has ended.”
What a great ending we had with Jon walking off into the sunset, his watch has indeed ended. Now free of his vow I expect him to head south with Davos and the Wildlings to confront Ramsey at Winterfell. I can’t wait. Bring on the Battle of the Bastards. Jon has literally gone through hell to get to this point and seeing the pain and disappointment in his face as he cut the rope, sending the traitors to their death, was heartfelt and raw. I was expecting him to cut down Olly at the last second but maybe this new Jon Snow is a bit more cold and unforgiving. Ser Alliser went out with dignity though, he stuck to his morals until the end and even though I don’t agree with what he did, I respect him.
Top marks all round for Oathbreaker, plenty of story and enough intrigue and mystery to keep me going until next week. Little Finger and the White Walkers are still absent though but I guess there is so much story and only so many minutes. They’ll both probably turn up when we least expect it. Bring on the next episode but until then,
Valar Morghulis.
