Monday, April 6, 2015

Discussing Game of Thrones: Garden of Bones

* Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen “Garden of Bones.”

The Wolf Has Arrived

Two Lannister men are joking around until Grey Wind, followed by Robb and the Northmen, are in their faces. Ugh, it's Roose Bolton. Bolton suggests that flaying the prisoners might yield some useful information. Robb is repulsed and says the Lannisters will retaliate by punishing his sisters. Robb meets Talisa, a field medic with no interest in anything but helping the injured. In King's Landing, word of Robb's victory has reached Joffrey, who has his crossbow pointed at Sansa. Since he's still to marry her, he doesn't kill her, but he has Meryn Trant beat her until Tyrion walks in and puts an end to it. Bronn suggests that Tyrion find some other form of "entertainment" to occupy his nephew. So later Joffrey finds Ros and another girl in his chamber, and things just get disturbing from there.

Littlefinger Plots

Littlefinger turns up at Renly's camp and hints he might be able to open the gates to Renly's army when it arrives in King's Landing. Later he tries to mess around with Margaery's head, but she's too clever for that.

Qarth Doesn't Sound All Too Appealing

One of Daenerys's bloodriders returns with news that there's a city called Qarth a few days away, and they will let her in. She asks Jorah what he knows of Qarth, and he replies that the desert around its walls is called the Garden of Bones, full of travelers who've had the gates shut on them.

Harrenhal: Scary on the Outside, Scary on the Inside

Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie have arrived at Harrenhal, of which a shell remains because of dragon fire. The prisoners live in nonstop fear of being the next torture victim. At night, Arya recites the names on her hit list.

Littlefinger's Havoc Tour Continues

Still at Renly's camp, Littlefinger finds Catelyn, who pulls a knife on him (and justifiably so). She doesn't want to listen to anything he has to say, but then he pulls out the trump card: does she want to see her girls again? He lies that he has Arya, too. Of course Jaime would have to be released in exchange for Catelyn's daughters, and Littlefinger has also brought Ned's remains as a show of good faith from Tyrion.

Eeewwwww

The prisoners at Harrenhal are woken up because the Mountain is ready to select someone new to torture. The poor victim has a bucket of rats that's then lit on fire strapped to his chest while he's interrogated for information. Later that night, Arya has a few more names added to her list.

Baratheon vs. Baratheon

Stannis shows up at Renly's camp (lots of visitors in this episode!) and is surprised to find Catelyn there. She scolds both men about their boyish squabbling. Stannis delivers an ultimatum to his younger brother: Renly has one night to ditch his plans to be king and join up with his big brother or he will be destroyed.

The Creepy Welcoming Committee

Daenerys's welcome at Qarth isn't exactly warm. The Thirteen who govern the city are keenly interested in the dragons (a little too keen) and won't open the gates until they see them. Daenerys is desperate to feed her people but wisely wary of this group. She threatens to come back when the dragons are grown and burn the city for spurning her. The confrontation is resolved when Xaro Xhoan Daxos, one of the Thirteen, steps forward and vouches for her.

Lord Tywin Inadvertently Saves the Day

The next torture victim at Harrenhal is Gendry, but he's saved by the arrival of Lord Tywin. He's not too happy with what he sees and wants the prisoners put to work. He sees right through Arya's charade as a boy and appoints her his cup bearer.

Cousinly Conversation

Lancel goes to Tyrion with an order from Cersei to release Pycelle. Robert's former squire acts all pompous now that he's been jumped up to a knight. Tyrion knows what Lancel and Cersei have been up to and threatens to tell Joffrey. Lancel is scared witless, which Tyrion uses as an advantage to turn his cousin into his spy.

One of the Most Disturbing GoT Scenes. Ever.

On a show where disturbing things happen often, describing the next scene as beyond creepy is really saying something. Stannis needs Davos to smuggle Melisandre to shore, and boy, does Davos end up regretting accepting this mission. He has to witness Melisandre giving birth to her and Stannis's demon spawn shadow baby. That thing scared the crap out of me in the second book, and seeing it on TV was a million times worse. *shudder*

5 comments:

  1. Whatever happened to Renley after that chick put worms or slugs on him??

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    1. I think you might be thinking of Gendry? He was the one who got the leeches put all over him by Melisandre. Renly got taken out by Melisandre and Stannis's freaky shadow baby.

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  2. That opening scene where Grey Wind takes out those soldiers was excellent. But I pretty much gag at any scene Robb and Grey Wind show up in! And that torture at Harrenhall..yeesh! I certainly wouldn't want to be one of those prisoners.

    And I cannot even begin to wrap my mind around that creepy ass birth of the demon shadow baby. The Lord of Light is a very interesting yet strange fellow. How all that will play out in the end is going to be interesting.

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    1. That whole question of who Azor Ahai will turn out to be makes my head spin, lol. Despite Melisandre believing that Stannis is the chosen one, I'm not so sure. Personally, I hope it's Jon Snow. :)

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  3. From the clues given in the book I'm inclined to believe Azor Ahai is Jon Snow!

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