This is a review of Game of Thrones Season 2 Episode 6 entitled The Old Gods and the New.
This was another heck of an episode. Fifty four minutes passed by in the blink of an eye. Lots of action happened all over the seven kingdoms and across the narrow sea. It started out strong and ended strong. The continued adaptation of the story is totally doing the story justice. I really longed for more story because it ended on such a good note. I just really wanted more. Here’s what happened via certain character perspectives.
Theon
Theon’s devious master plan has taken shape. He has taken Winterfell in the name of his father who has now donned the ancient crown of salt and rock and deemed himself King of the Iron Islands. Is he happy now? Not so much. He’s been forced to betray the only family he’s had for the past ten years just so he can prove to the father he doesn’t know that he’s worthy. You can see his struggle. Everybody is ragging on him – Bran, Ser Rodrik, Maester Luemon. Don’t cross Theon though, he’ll do a terrible job cutting your head off (sorry Ser Rodrik). Too bad he’s so easily susceptible to the body of a woman (goes to show you who’s really in charge). He let his guard down when Osha the wildling captive threw herself at him. She had a devious plan of her own and after killing a guard she helped Bran, Rickon, Hodor and the direwolves escape. Poor Theon, if he weren’t suck a prick I’d really feel bad for him. Kudos to Alfie Allen for a character well played. I continue to love how we can see Theon’s inner struggles and character flaws.
Jon Snow
Jon is now getting his real black brother lessons now that he’s out of Castle Black. Qhorin Halfhand is giving him real life lessons and proving to be quite a mentor on their small party journey north. He’s starting to grow up now that he’s outside of Mormont’s shadow. They descend upon a small pack of wildlings and kill all but one. It turns out to be a woman that Jon can’t quite kill. It’s Ygritte! We finnally get to see the wildling woman that turns Jon from a boy into a man. She’s a fiery one, well cast with red hair and embodies everything a wilding is. She’s owned by no one, free, and fierce. Jon is going to start to learn to love these things as he’s been separated form Qhorin and the rest of his band of black brothers. It’s going to get more exciting for him real soon. I’m totally into the scenery north of the wall, it looks awesome.
Arya
Arya is still cupbearing for Lord Tywin in Harrenhal. They talk more and he’s starting to trust her just a little bit. She’s proven herself smart, she let on that she knows how to read. Then guess who show’s up it’s Lord Baelish (Littlefinger). Again, a deviation from the book but not so far out of line. Littlefinger doesn’t get involved with Harrenhal until book three. I am loving how they’re using Littlefinger to weasel his way throughout the seven kindgoms. He’s supposedly on official business but we al know that he has his own agenda. Arya’s cover almost got blown. Not by Littlefinger as you’d expect but one of the Harrenhal guards who caught her stealing one of Tywin’s notes about Robb. She ran away from him and thankfully found Jaqen H’ghar so she could give her second name (we have one more left). Jaqen took care of the guard before he was able to tell Lord Tywin. Literally right before when the guard was hit with an arrow in the neck in the doorway to Lord Tywin’s war room.
The Hound
I thought it would be interesting to talk about the King’s Landing storyline from a different point of view this week and I figured why not Ser Gregor Clegane, the Hound. He’s part of the Kingsguard and is basically there for most of the happenings. The action down there started with a sendoff for Princess Myrcella. Tyrion has brokered a deal to keep her safe with the Dornish folk down south. The Grand Septon gave her a priestly send off and Prince Tommen was very upset, along with Cersei. King Joffrey was his usual a@##@#le self and had no regard for anybody else. When Sansa tried to tell him it’s OK to be upset he just got angry and stormed out, taking his dog, The Hound, with him.
On their parade back through the streets the disgruntled citizens of King’s Landing pleaded for food and in return for giving nothing Joffrey was pelted with a cow pie (feces). He of course flipped out and he demanded that they disgruntled citizens be killed. In the frenzy that transpired Sansa was lost. Tyrion was looking for her and demanded the Ser Meryn look for her. He refused until Joffrey gave an order. Joffrey didn’t understand that if they lost Sansa they couldn’t trade for Jamie. Joffrey still refused and nobody went to look for her. She was cornered by three men and almost raped. The Hound saved her and in very bloody fashion killed the men. He did it not for Tyrion or Joffrey, he just has a soft spot for her. I guess the hound is not as terrible a guy as they say he is, though he’s still downright scary.
There was another amazing scene involving Tyrion this week. He straight up slapped Joffrey for being an imbecile. Tyrion outright blames Joffrey for the war he started. He best teach Joff a lesson, but I doubt it got through. Well done.
Danaerys
She’s refused Xaro Xhoan Daxos marriage proposal and is looking for money and ships elsewhere. She tries to trade with the Spice King (the guy at the gates of Qarth two episodes ago). He berades her and refuses her offer calling it a bad business deal. She makes another fiery Targaryen threat but leaves empty handed. That’s not the only bad thing that happened that day. On their return to Xaro’s palace they find a number of people dead including one of her handmaidens. There’s something missing as well. They stole her dragons!
Who did it? Was it the Spice King in retaliation. I think not. They don’t outright say who it is but they show the dragons being brought up to another building in Qarth. I can only guess that it’s the House of the Undying. Pyat Pree was probably behind this. I think this is another deviation from the book. I don’t remember her dragons being stolen in the book though she does make her way to the House of the Undying and goes on some very strange drug induced trip. I think she’s going to get very angry.
Robb
We can’t forget about Robb Stark. He’s finding it a bit hard to be King today. Yes, he’s good at winning battles, we knew that from Tywin’s perspective already but there are other things he must do. He has to uphold his debts to the Frey’s even if it means he can’t follow his heart. He continues his connection with the Lady Talisa (Jeyne Westerling from the books) and you can tell he’s really into her. He’s betrothed to one of the Frey brood and will suffer grave consequences is he breaks that betrothal. His mother returned just in time to teach him that lesson. I’m sure we’ll soon see how into her he really is.
Word also got back to Robb that Winterfell had been taken by Theon. He feels betrayed and wants to march back up north immediately to take back his home castle. Thankfully he was taught by Lord Bolton that he has men for that and they decided to task the Bastard of Bolton, from the Dreadfort, to take back Winterfell. He demands that they take Theon alive so he can kill him himself. Does anyone else want to see Theon flayed? I know it’s cruel but I’d love to see how they’d actually flay someone on this show.
Another amazing episode. Four more episodes to go until we see the end of the clash of kings. I’m pretty confident they’ll keep it up and my reviews will continue to rave about the show.
Watch Game of Thrones at 9:00PM ET Sundays on HBO. Catch up On Demand or on HBOGo if you’ve got it.