Photo from HBO.
**SPOILER ALERT** This article contains spoilers for “Game of Thrones” up to episode 4×03.
“Game of Thrones” season 4’s third installment, “Breaker of Chains,” was a breather episode, but a well-placed one. After the Purple Wedding we needed to rest and gather our bearings. Not much actually happened, but we did get important setup and revealing character moments.
Sansa Stark was spirited away from the wedding by Ser Dontos, except it turned out Petyr Baelish was behind the spiriting. And Joffrey’s poisoning. He starts schooling Sansa in ruthless scheming immediately with the catchy line, “Money buys silence for a time, but a bolt in the heart buys it forever.” Looks like Sansa’s found a mentor, and a bad one at that.
There was a fascinating scene between Tywin and Tommen at the sept. It was the first time Tommen had said more than two words as well as some beautiful manipulation on Tywin’s part. He gave Tommen a talk about the important traits of kings. What a king needs, Tywin said, is wisdom, which comes from listening to his advisors. Tywin was telling Tommen that if he didn’t do everything Grandpa said he’d end up dead like so many before him.
It was clever writing, it was Tommen that made the scene good. Where Joffrey was always snide, selfish, arrogant and disrespectful, Tommen was sharp, well-meaning, polite and above all thoughtful. He wants to be a good king and he’s willing to learn how. It will be interesting to see how his integrity holds up under the pressure of his family and advisors.
Now to check in with Arya and the Hound. Their sequence progressed the development of Arya’s moral code. She’s become an easy and masterful liar, but when the Hound robs their host she’s outraged. Sandor delivers a cold but practical lesson: the family would be dead soon anyway and this is just how the world works. Arya wasn’t happy about it, but she’s been on the wrong side of “how the world works” too often to disagree.
To finish off the young’un/mentor series, Tyrion and Podrick shared a nice scene in Tyrion’s jail cell. It demonstrated the depth of Pod’s loyalty to and admiration of Tyrion, who’s not used to either and has no reason to expect them now. Tyrion’s protectiveness shows; he orders Pod to flee the city rather than stick around to help him and get hurt. He’s sharp with the boy, but only because he knows what’s at risk. Just like he was for Shae. Tyrion will go to any lengths to protect those he cares about, even it hurts him more than anyone.
Speaking of sacrifice, the scenes between Sam and Gilly were both adorable and heartbreaking. His protectiveness over her isn’t just endearing; it shows how far he’s come. In the past Sam was too cowardly to think of much but himself. Now all he cares about are Gilly and Little Sam. The moment where he holds the baby’s hand was particularly poignant. It was then that Sam saw what sort of life he could have had if he wasn’t wearing black. He swore a vow, though, and has to let them go.
But then came Jaime and Cersei’s love scene. It was rape, and needlessly so. In the books Cersei initially has misgivings about doing it in front of their son’s corpse, but she doesn’t take long to get enthusiastic. No such shift in the show. Why? They spent all last season developing Jaime into an anti-hero and now they do this? I can’t think of a reason, unless they’re setting him up to do something terrible and unanticipated.
Finally, Daario Naharis. He was recast in this season, with Michiel Huisman replacing Ed Skrein. I reserved judgment before because I wanted to really see him in action first. Now that he’s had more than five minutes onscreen, I can say that while Huisman brings more manliness and an undeniably badassery to the character, he’s not as charming as Skrein. He has none of the latter’s flamboyance or attitude. Even Huisman’s sass doesn’t feel genuine.
Still, I know that the recast happened for a reason and there’s nothing for us to do but accept it and move on. Maybe Huisman will end up surprising me.
