Game of Thrones S4 E33: Breaker of Chains, or Setting the Table for Next Week

Our latest episode of Game of Thrones begins with a lingering shot of Joff being dead.

Ahhhhhhh…

And Sansa and Fatso the Unlikely Hero running for their lives, a lovely sunset, and a long row out to the Flying Dutchman. Apparently Sansa’s savior is Davy Jones. Nope, no such luck.

Getting double-crossed and murdered is not sufficient punishment for delivering Sansa into the arms of the vicious pimp Baelish and his dreary exposition, greying temples, and spasmodic dysphonia. (Freeze-frame of the night: count the jewels as Baelish wrecks the necklace.)

Also: Crossbows = Dishonor and betrayal. This theme will clearly continue to develop.

And in the sunny morning, Lady O and Marge do a debrief. Marge’s status is unclear, but Lady O is philosophical and optimistic, and enjoying the Westerosi equivalent of a martini.

In the great sept, Joff is still dead, with his petechial hemorrhaging hidden behind some sort of eye cookies, and the stench of his corruption masked by a cigar in a standing ashtray. (Probably incense, of course, but I like the cigar notion better.) And Tywin, in splendid dress, is working through a teachable moment with Tommen while Cersei sits back and lets her grief burn her alive from the inside.

And in a touching private moment, alone with the corpse of their first-born son, Jaime and Cersei plot the murder of their brother and have sex under circumstances that could be called dubious consent. Or violently raping your sister. Didn’t we like Jaime last week? Wasn’t Jaime showing sparks of being a decent human being?

And in the most appropriate scene change ever, we get Arya griping and eating radishes, and the Hound grousing and blowing snot rockets. And we get an endless scene that starts with Arya being clever and culminates in the Hound being a dishonorable, opportunistic asshole. Didn’t we like the Hound last week, too?

Meanwhile at the wall, Sam is trying to be a nice guy and there’s no nice way to say you don’t trust your sworn brethren not to rape any woman under their protection. Sam’s in a pickle here, since he loves Gilly in his fat, cowardly, sworn-an-oath way. It ends with Gilly as a charwoman in a hostile whorehouse… Whoreshanty, really. Whorehovel? Really crappy building with whores in it. I don’t know what this is leading up to, but it doesn’t look like anything good.

Stannis remains a world-class shitty friend and boss. And Princess Shireen doesn’t seem any the worse for her encounter with Mel last week. And she’s a way better sounding board for ideas then her dad. Appealing to the Iron Bank of Braavos, however…

And what did I say about gratuitous and Dornish? It’s nice being right when it means quality skin languidly displayed. Until Tywin shows up all Clarence Boddicker.

We get a bit of police procedural here, complete with CSI lighting, and then we get Tywin at his best, co-opting a sworn, impassioned enemy.

In the dungeons, poor towering Pod brings Tyrion some sausages and a lot of bad news. It’s hard to say Tyrion hasn’t given up here, as he orders his last ally to flee the city in tears.

Back in the north, we get to see Ginger get her wildling on, feathering peasants with the same precision that she used to not kill Jon Snow. And the charming Thenns are traumatizing children for purposes of drawing out the defenders of Castle Black.

Which those who command the defenders of Castle Black aren’t fooled by for a fucking second, including Jon Snow. Of course, the tune changes pretty fast when some escapees from Craster’s Frozen Manson Camp (under new management) make their way home. So somebody gets to lead a team north through Ice Zombie territory to take out a bunch of well-fed, well-defended renegades with a mass of women and children to use as human shields. I wonder who gets that job.

(Special shout out to Dolorous Edd, whose dry wit was missed. Good work surviving the trip home.)

Far to the east, Dany is looking a bit saddle-sore after riding past 163 dead kids set up as Burma Shave signs. But we’ve reached the Vegas pyramids of Meereen, or at least we’ve reached the massive walls surrounding them. Dany and the Unsullied get set up in the vast staging area considerately provided for visiting armies, and wait for the shit-talking to start.

And some mouthy asshole rides forth, whips out his nozzle, and formulates some crude sexual insults. Dany’s brain trust all take their turns volunteering for the honor, but it falls to Second Daario to send the message.

Second Daario may be a sleaze, but facing down a heavy horse charge and being able to produce a forceful stream of urine right after is pretty stylish.

Which leaves it to Dany to deliver her pitch, along with a quick demo of her siege engines. A glance around the battlements would lead one to believe that the masters of Meereen are not liking the odds as they stand. And they haven’t even seen her air support.

This was a set-up episode, which is appropriate after the bold decision to waste Joff in ep 2. We got a whole lot of one-on-one conversation this week, which serves a purpose, mainly setting the table for something actually happening. Which I hope isn’t another camping trip for Jon Snow. We shall see.

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Posted by Will Judy on April 20, 2014. Filed under Headline, Popcorn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry