Jon returns to Castle Black with the remaining Wildlings from Hardhome; Prince Doran decides Jaime’s fate; Dany presides over the opening ceremony of the fighting games. Get a sneak peek of tonight’s Game of Thrones “The Dance of Dragons” airing at 9:00pm ET|PT on HBO.
On last week’s Game of Thrones episode, “Hardhome“:
Meereen: Dany (Emilia Clarke), Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), and Jorah (Iain Glen) met face to face. Interestingly, it seemed that Dany and Tyrion were auditioning one another. Should she welcome him as an advisor? Would he want to join Team Dany in the first place? While Dany was willing to keep Tyrion around for a little longer, both decided that Jorah (even though he was likely in love with Dany) had to go. He wouldn’t die, yet couldn’t stay by Dany’s side. Jorah was escorted out of the city, but returned to the fighting pits. He was determined to have another audience with Dany, even if that meant he would have to win the Great Games. We also saw that Jorah still had greyscale.
Later, Dany and Tyrion spoke alone, each attempting to figure out the other. “Here we sit, two terrible children of two terrible fathers.” But was Dany the right kind of terrible? Tyrion also suggested that Spymaster Varys (Conleth Hill) was likely the reason why Dany was still alive. In fact, Tyrion was now in front of Dany because of Varys’ faith that she was the one. Dany decided that she would keep Tyrion as her advisor…so he’d have to lay off the wine. His first suggestion was that she give up her quest for the Iron Throne. How would Dany find support among the great Houses of Westeros? Dany’s response: “They’re all just spokes on a wheel…I’m not going to stop the wheel; I’m going to break the wheel.” (*SIDENOTE* I love how Dany is a woman of the common people! And when she says she’s going to break the wheel, I believe her…Tyrion should too.)
Braavos: After Jaqen (Tom Wlaschiha) acknowledged Arya (Maisie Williams) was ready to become someone else, she was given her first mission as Lana, an oyster cart salesgirl. Everyday, Lana made her rounds, selling oysters to her customers. How would she serve the many-faced god? On Arya/Lana’s next trip to the docks, she made a new customer, a old gambler/thin man who defrauded sea captains and their families. If a captain died at sea, the gambler was meant to give his family money…but if he didn’t, what recourse did those wives and children have? Well, they had the many-faced god. And Arya’s first mission would be to collect information about the thin man and then poison him. Unsurprisingly, Arya/Lana’s roomie didn’t believe she was ready for the mission.
Winterfell: Sansa (Sophie Turner), who was still being locked in her rooms during the day, finally had the chance to confront Theon/Reek (Alfie Allen) when he brought her a meal. It seemed he believed he was protecting Sansa by reporting her to Ramsay. Afterall, there was no escape. Theon Greyjoy tried to escape once and Ramsay punished him so severely, all that was left was Reek. “I deserve to be Reek; I did terrible things…” Sansa wasn’t moved and continued to blame Reek for the loss of her family. Except, Reek finally confessed that he hadn’t killed Bran and Rickon.
Elsewhere, Roose (Michael McElhatton) and Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) planned strategy for facing Stannis. While Roose believed they should wait in siege behind Winterfell’s walls until Stannis’ forces starved and mutinied, Ramsay wanted to take a more proactive approach. He would take 20 good men and likely proceed with a raid.
King’s Landing: Cersei (Lena Headey) was being held in prison and interrogated by a nun (one of High Sparrow’s followers). She was repeatedly asked to confess then beaten and denied food/water when she asked to see Tommen (at her lowest point, Cersei was forced to sip water off the dirty floor). Cersei tried bribery and death threats, but the nun wouldn’t be moved.
Eventually Qyburn (Anton Lesser) was allowed to see Cersei and reported that her trial for the charges of fornication, treason, incest, and the murder of King Robert would be forthcoming. Of course, she denied the charges as lies and refused to confess or seek the High Sparrow’s mercy. Qyburn also shared the Uncle Kevan was now in King’s Landing ruling as the Hand of the King. Neither Kevan nor Tommen would come visit Cersei…in fact, Tommen had barricaded himself in his rooms and was refusing food.
Castle Black: After their evening together, Gilly (Hannah Murray) tended to Sam’s (John Bradley) wounds he sustained during the fight with the two members of the Night’s Watch (last week). Olly (Brenock O’Connor), who had heard of the fight, brought Sam food and asked to chat. Olly still didn’t believe Jon’s expedition to save the Wildlings was fair. But Sam argued that in order to fight the White Walkers, all men would need to join together. Sure it was a risk, but there was no other choice in the long run.
Hardhome: Jon (Kit Harington), Tormund (Kristofer Hivju), and other members of the Night’s Watch approached Hardhome on boat. Tormund took the lead and forcefully requested a meeting with all the chieftains (after beating the Lord of Bones—Ross O’Hennessy—to death with his own staff…EEEP!). Jon tried to make a case to convince the Wildlings to come with him south of the Wall and join together to fight the White Walkers. He even brought them gifts of obsidian. None of the Chieftains trusted King Crow, but based on their trust for Tormund, some did decide to go. In particular, Karsi the Chieftainess (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) was eager to gather her family and others to the boats.
Even still, too many were deciding to stay behind. Tormund believed they would come around soon…and he was right: the White Walkers and their army of the dead descended on Hardhome in an epic fight. The gate wasn’t nearly enough to keep them out. Once inside, the Wildlings and remaining Night’s Watch fought the wights valiantly. Jon went toe-to-toe with a White Walker captain/general and discovered that Valyrian steel was as effective as dragon glass in killing them. But there were just too many. Those wights flew right over the wall in an never-ending stream. Karsi also held her own very well until she was attacked by undead children and refused to fight back.
Eventually, Jon and Tormund retreated, and in the final scene, they watched from the boats as the Night’s King (Richard Brake) brought the dead back to life, now blue-eyed members of his wight army (Karsi included).
(*SIDENOTE* How can we even be worrying about the Iron Throne with the very serious threat of the White Walkers?! How might these recent developments influence all these southern conflicts?)
Continue for “The Dance of Dragons” preview…