Photo by Megan Balser
**SPOILER ALERT** This article contains “Game of Thrones” spoilers up to episode 4×05 and mild book spoilers through “A Dance with Dragons.”
With episode five, “First of His Name,” over, we’re halfway through the season. And still not much has happened. Season four has managed to take the most action-packed section of the book series and turn it into a foot-dragging, tangent-taking, frustratingly uneventful several episodes.
Let’s start with the good: Daenerys’ short but monumentally significant scene. Up until now everything she’s done has been with the goal of reclaiming the Iron Throne as soon as possible. Now she’s realized that being a queen isn’t about taking what you want when you want it; it’s about taking care of what you have before reaching for more. She makes the crucial decision to temporarily forgo invading King’s Landing and stabilize her fledgling empire.
This is a big turning point in her character arc. She’s fully realizing the responsibilities that come with being a leader. This means that her goals and story have turned in a completely different direction than before. Who knows what lies ahead for our khaleesi?
Cersei was acting weirdly sweet this episode. It makes me nervous. She almost certainly has an agenda, but even as a book reader I’m not sure what all it entails. She has to be scheming something – why else would she be so nice to Margaery, her nemesis? Why act resigned to her marriage to Loras when we all know she has no intention of going through with it? (My best guess is she thinks it’ll all help get Tyrion sentenced to death.)
And she definitely has something up her sleeve with that ship she asks Oberyn to send to Myrcella. I’m just not sure what.
And then the battle at Craster’s Keep. This was clearly meant to be the main action of the episode, even though the events there meant nothing to the characters or the larger plot. It left more questions than satisfaction. If Bran and company escaped without any harm done or knowledge gained, then what was the point of having them get captured? And why did they put Jon there too? The mutineers being at Craster’s wasn’t a big issue to the Watch in the books; why should it be here?
Of course, if they’ve decided to erase the character of Coldhands from the show, that might be why. He takes care of the deserters in the books.
Now that Locke’s dead without ever posing a serious threat, what was the point of him? Was his death meant to showcase a new ruthlessness in Bran? Why do these writers seem to think that murder and growing as a person are the same thing?
On that topic, using Hodor’s body to kill Locke was not just an unforgivable violation, but also a desecration of the innocence his character represents. I hope the show addresses that later.
There was a redeeming feature to this sequence: Karl’s death. The writers let one of the women he beat and raped have a hand in it. I do appreciate them letting the women take some power back from their abusers, even though I just said violence doesn’t equal character development. It’s different for these ladies. They’ve been abused all their lives.
Oh, and let’s not forget this episode’s huge reveal: Baelish was behind the poisoning of Jon Arryn. You know, the single event that kicked off this entire story way back in season one, episode one? Interesting. Makes you wonder what else he was behind, doesn’t it?
It looks like Tyrion’s trial starts next episode. I’m excited for that because I get the feeling it was meant to be the principle drama of this season. Which is appropriate, but they should’ve paced it so there wasn’t so much empty space between it and the Purple Wedding. Splitting a novel, especially one as complex as “A Storm of Swords,” into more than one narrative arc is always tricky in the pacing department. Here, there was too much material to fit into one season, but when divided it there was too little to sustain two without lagging.
Still, hopefully this means things will start to pick up in the second half of the season. Hopefully. I’m really hoping.
