Book-Reader’s Recap—Game of Thrones, Episode 603—”Oathbreaker”

Spoiler Note: This post is intended for those who have read the books in the Song of Ice and Fire series. As such, the post itself and the comments will contain spoilers. If you haven’t read the books yet, you can discuss this episode in our non-book reader (Unsullied) recap. Thanks!

After a couple of incredibly eventful episodes, Game of Thrones takes something of a breather with “Oathbreaker.” Of course, one person’s breather is another person’s furious vault up several flights of stairs, which is to say that a lot still happened. Let’s jump in.

We start with the immediate aftermath of Jon Snow’s miraculous return from the dead. Davos, who apparently heard Jon’s heavy breathing and doubled back, is the first to see him alive. He is gobsmacked. Liam Cunnginham’s eyes bug out alarmingly.

The scene is played mostly with no dialogue. It’s very effective—too much talking would have gotten in the way, and the bewildered looks say everything that needs to be said. Jon, especially, seems on the verge of a cardiac event, as he stares down at his multiple stab wounds and stumbles off the table into Davos’ arms. Davos, thinking quickly, wraps Jon in a cloak.

Melisandre comes into the room and immediately enters the who-can-bug-their-eyes-out-the-furthest contest. After some prodding, Jon starts to recall his own murder. “They stabbed me. Olly. He put a knife in my heart. I shouldn’t be here.” There are a lot of emotions happening on Kit Harington’s face: fear, horror, despair, confusion…man, he’s grown since Season 1. He’s really selling an impossible situation here.

And then things get philosophical.

"Melisandre: “Afterwards, after they stabbed you, after you died, where did you go? What did you see?”Jon: “Nothing. There was nothing at all.”"

In the future, I see this line as the cornerstone of some book about Game of Thrones’ relationship with theology. Melisandre doesn’t seem overly concerned, though. Hell, she seems downright fervent, and calls Jon “the prince who was promised,” which I think is the first time we’ve heard that phrase mentioned on the show. The producers really are gearing up for a splashy ending.

Davos asks that Melisandre leave the room, and somewhat surprisingly, she does. Doesn’t the miracle worker get to stay and talk to her miracle? Davos then gives Jon one of the pep talks he’s getting so good at, basically telling him to get back on that horse and ride this crazy thing called life to the finish line. Harington steals the scene. “I did what I thought was right, and I got murdered for it. Now I’m back. Why?” Emmy?

An indefinite amount of time later, Jon emerges from the Lord Commander’s office, decked out in his blacks. Everyone in the yard seems to know what’s up, so I imagine Melisandre went from person to person squealing in delight about how she’d raised the dead, and what had they ever done?

As Jon walks through the crowd, the people sort of part for him, a la the Red Sea for Moses. Tormund is also thinking in biblical terms. “They think you’re some kind of god,” he tells Jon. He doesn’t buy it, though. “I saw your pecker. What kind of god would have a pecker that small?” Even after death, Jon remembers how to laugh.

Jon’s next reunion is with Dolorous Edd, and even though this character is little to nothing like his book counterpart, and even though he hasn’t had much screentime, I still get unreasonably emotional when they hug. Ben Crompton just looks so happy!

We’ll return to the future sight of the Jon Snow resurrection memorial later. For now, let’s head out to sea, where Sam is puking his guts into a bucket while Gilly skips around the cabin, happy as a clam. They make ’em tough beyond the Wall.

The two talk, and the writers set up the coming conflicts in Sam’s story. Sam intends to become a maester, “so I can help Jon when the time comes,” but women aren’t admitted to the Citadel, so Sam plans to drop Gilly and Little Sam off at Horn Hill, the ancestral seat of House Tarly. All of this is leading to Sam’s doubtlessly awkward encounter with his father, Randyll Tarly, who in the books is in King’s Landing by this point, helping to protect the interests of House Tyrell. Given the show’s fondness for streamlining, I suppose it makes sense to have Olenna Tyrell fulfill that role instead. Let’s just hope the Tarly family reunion is memorable enough to justify the deviation. With Bradley’s comic chops, I have hope.

This is a sweet scene overall, especially when Gilly calls Sam “the father of my son.” However, I keep getting nervous that he’s going to try and kiss her and barf in her face, but then he just retches into another bucket. Disaster averted.

Meanwhile, in the past, young Ned Stark and a bunch of knights ride up to the Tower of Joy, where Ser Arthur Dayne and another member of Aerys Targaryen’s Kingsguard (either Ser Gerold Hightower of Ser Oswald Whent was cut) sit. Bran and the Three-Eyed Raven watch, looking kind of awkward.

I was a little surprised how quickly the show started in on this sequence. I would have figured that they’d set it up by showing Bran in the Cave of Solitude, but no matter. The two parties meet, and young Ned (a well-cast Robert Aramayo) deploys some, but not all, of his dialogue from A Game of Thrones. Basically, there’s a standoff between the Kingsguard, who are protecting whoever’s in the tower, and Ned, who wants in. Aaaaaannnnnd fight!

The fight is very entertaining. Dayne shanks a guy right at the top without even thinking about it, which is great.

Dayne’s duel-wielding is odd. Considering that the character is famous for carrying a legendary sword, I don’t know why the producers would want to dilute that by giving him another. Then again, he doesn’t look as silly wielding them as I feared he would, and once it’s just him and Ned left on the battlefield, he looks downright awesome. There are a lot of wide shots and long takes in the fight, which makes the quality of the choreography stand out. These guys honestly look dangerous.

Eventually, Dayne knocks Ned’s sword out of his hands, but Howland Reed sidles up behind the Kingsguard knight and stabs him in the throat. This shocks Bran, who always heard that Ned won the fight fair and square. I guess Ned was trying to make himself look good, or at least less bad, in his son’s eyes.

We hear a scream from inside the Tower of Joy, and Ned goes off to investigate. “What’s in the tower?” Bran and a legion of fans ask. We’ll have to wait for another day to find out, as the Three-Eyed Raven whisks Bran back to the Cave of Solitude. There’s also an interesting moment where Bran calls out and Ned seems to hear him, but as the Three-Eyed Raven points out, he could have heard the wind, or a low-flying plane or something.

Back at the cave, Bran is being a little mutinous. He’d rather not take after the Three-Eyed Raven and be stuck inside a tree for all eternity, thank you very much. The Three-Eyed Raven tells him that won’t be his fate, and I can’t tell if he’s placating him or being honest.

Far across the sea in Essos, Daenerys arrives in Vaes Dothrak, looking none too pleased. Also, I know people have said that she’s arriving in the city at a different entrance than the one she used back in Season 1, but I think the producers just sprung for a cooler-looking gate.

Daenerys is ushered inside a large hut, where an older member of the Dosh Khaleen, apparently the ring-leader, breaks the ice by having the younger Dothraki widows tear Dany’s clothes off. Daenerys protests that they’ve made a mistake and starts rattling off all her titles again, apparently still not getting that they won’t do her any good here. The older Doth Khaleen lady, who I am going to call…Dosha…points out that she doesn’t have a leg to stand on. She was married to a khal, the khal died, and now she’s here forever. Get used to it, wig-girl.

In fact, not coming to Vaes Dothrak immediately after Drogo’s death may cost Daenerys. Lingering in the world is forbidden, and the assembled khals (they’re all gathering for something called the “Khalar Vezhven,” which I’m pretty sure is something made up for the show) may punish her for it.

And now, an interesting scene with Varys. He’s meeting with Vala, the whore who was leading Unsullied soldiers to their deaths back in Season 5. He’s pumping her for information about the Sons of the Harpy, and uses information about her asthmatic son, Dom, to gain leverage.

In the end, he gets what he wants, and reports it to Tyrion, but not before we sit through an odd scene where Tyrion, bored, tries to engage Missandei and Grey Worm first in conversation, and then a game. He tries to reenact the scene from “Baelor,” where he, Bronn, and Shae sat around making guesses about each other’s pasts, but Missandei and Grey Worm aren’t nearly as playful as his old companions. A pity—I’d have liked to see what Grey Worm would have made of Tyrion’s past. Where would he start?

After what seems like an eternity, Varys enters and reports what he’s learned: the Sons of the Harpy are being bankrolled by the Good Masters and Astapor, the Wise Masters of Yunkai, and slavers from Volantis. Grey Worm and Missandei are all for taking the fight to Astapor and Yunkai, but Tyrion wants to send them a message using Varys’ little birds.

Speaking of the little birds, the ones in King’s Landing are still on the royal payroll, but are taking orders from Qyburn rather than Varys. Sucks for them, because under Varys they stood far less chance of being turned into horrifying nightmare creatures.

Jaime, Cersei, and the horrifying nightmare creature de jour walk into Qyburn’s lab, and the mad doctor sends the kiddies off to spy on people in exchange for candy and favors. It’s not your normal after-school job, but it’ll do. The three get to scheming, the subject of Cersei’s inevitable trial by combat comes up, and the Dowager Queen orders Qyburn to place little birds in every corner of the North, in part because she wants to be well-informed, and in part because she wants to visit brutal justice on anyone who sniggers about her Walk of Shame. Considering how unhinged Cersei’s becoming, how long until Jaime, now officially the more reasonable of the two, decides to stop helping her?

For the moment, he’s on board, and he, Jaime, and FrankenGregor crash a Small Council meeting that sports a couple of new faces: Kevan Lannister is now Hand of the King, and Olenna Tyrell is assisting him. They’re both capable and smart, so they’ll probably be toast in a couple episodes’ time. That goes double for Olenna if she keeps lying down knowledge like this on Cersei: “Margaery is the queen. You are not the queen because you are not married to the queen. I do appreciate that these things can get a bit confusing in your family.” Rock on, Olenna.

Kevan is none too pleased to see the Lannister twins, and after a bit of back-and-forth about whether they’re allowed to be on the Small Council, he decides to just move the meeting elsewhere. That might make him seem weak, but it plays more like a mic drop moment, especially after he calls Cersei out on the implicit threat of having FrankenGregor present in the room. In the end, Jaime and Cersei are left alone with their thoughts, their monster, and the lingering stench of Pycelle’s little fear-fart.

Elsewhere in the city, Tommen has decided to follow through on his mini-awakening from last week and confront the High Sparrow, accompanied by a bunch of armed guards. That’s good. But then the High Sparrow makes like a kindly old man and convinces Tommen to engage in a one-on-one talk. That’s bad. Tommen can only ride his anger for so long—once he’s alone with the High Sparrow, the older man talks circles around him, and by the end of it, I’m afraid he has the makings of a new convert.

It’s neat work, really. The High Sparrow parrots back Cersei’s claim from last season that the Crown and the Faith are the twin pillars of the world, begs the king’s permission to sit down (his knees hurt him so), praises Cersei’s virtues, disparages himself for being envious, and calmly explains how everything he’s done has been in service to the gods. Tommen never stood a chance.

And now we go to Braavos for a well-edited montage. Arya and the Waif and fighting with heavy-looking quarterstaffs in the House of Black and White. At first, Arya is getting her ass handed to her, as per usual, but she starts to pick things up, and by the end actually returns one of the Waif’s blows.

By itself, that wouldn’t separate this montage from any number of similar ones in other movies. What makes it interesting is the conversation. The Waif asks questions about Arya’s family, her list, and the Hound. On top of fighting and learning about poisons, it seems Arya is getting better at lying. Is she really sinking into her new role as No One, or is she just getting better at faking it? I’m not sure, but I wanna see more.

Jaqan H’ghar (who may also be the Waif—it’s hard to tell with these Faceless folk) is impressed with Arya’s progress, and gives her one final challenge: drink the water from the pool in the House of Black and White lobby—the water they use to kill people. If she is truly No One, Jaqen tells her, she has nothing to fear. She drinks it down, and voila! Her sight is restored.

I love how moody everything is in the House of Black and White, and I love the continued ambiguity of Arya’s scenes. And Maisie Williams continues to kill it, especially during that final “No One.” I know Arya has to be reintegrated into the main story at some point, but honestly, I could spend a lot more time with her in Braavos.

And now, Lord Jon “Smalljon” Umber hands over Rickon and Osha to Ramsay. I know I’m leading with the big surprise, but I feel like the challenge the writers had with this scene was justifying such a huge departure from the books. Overall, I think they succeeded. I mean, this would never happen in the novels for a number of reasons, most obviously because the Smalljon is dead and because Rickon is nowhere near the Last Hearth. However, show-Smalljon is not book-Smalljon.

Show-Smalljon, despite his refusal to bend the knee to the Boltons and his willingness to insult Roose Bolton right to his crazy son’s face, seems much more bitter and conniving than his book counterpart. “You father was a c**t and that’s why you killed him. I might have done the same to my father if he hadn’t have done me the favor of dying on his own.” I can believe that this Smalljon might hand over the heir to Winterfell in exchange for help fighting the wildlings now south of the Wall, even if I never would have believed it of the other.

It sucks that another direwolf had to die, though. Poor Shaggydog’s head. I don’t like Rickon and Osha’s chances at all.

Finally, we return to Castle Black to visit with our favorite resurrectee, who’s fondling the clothes he was stabbed in when Edd knocks on his door. “It’s time.”

Jon Snow walks into the courtyard, where Bowen Marsh, Othell Yarwyck, Alliser Thorne, and Olly have nooses around their necks. Jon grants each of them some last words. Alliser’s are pretty memorable. I didn’t like how the show simplified the mutiny so that almost all of the blame lay with the mutineers, but when Thorne justifies himself, strong in the face of death, I almost agree with him. Good on the show for not turning him into a mustache-twirling villain.

It’s a little surprising to see Olly up there among the others. Surely there were other, older mutineers who were more involved with the planning? In any case, he doesn’t say anything, but his final look is one of loathing.

The Night’s Watch carpenter or whoever has rigged the gallows so all four mutineers will swing if one rope is cut. It’s hard to read exactly what Jon’s feeling, but it’s strong. Also, Melisandre, watching from the rafters, appears to be back to her old confident self.

Jon cuts the rope and the mutineers hang. The shots of their dead, bloated faces are well and truly disturbing, and that may well be what inspires Jon to do what he does next: he hands the Lord Commander’s cloak to Dolorous Edd, walks through the crowd, and through the front gate. “My watch is ended.” So is the episode.

Odds and Ends

An unexpected callback. Before the fight at the Tower of Joy begins, Arthur Dayne says, “I wish you good fortune in the wars to come.” That’s the same thing Mance Rayder said to Stannis before he was burned alive. I guess that’s a popular phrase in Westeros, for it to span time and space like that.

You better give Max von Sydow the good lines. The Three-Eyed Raven is getting some nicely portentous lines. Last episode: “It is beautiful beneath the sea, but if you stay too long, you’ll drown.” And tonight: “The past is already written. The ink is dry.” Also, the Three-Eyed Raven mentions that he’s been sitting there “for a 1000 years.” That makes it sound as though, on the show, the Three-Eyed Raven is not Brynden “Bloodraven” Rivers, as the latter is not that old. Then again, maybe the Three-Eyed Raven just said “1000 years” to make a point about how damn long he’s been in that tree.

Meereen life. I thought both scenes in Meereen were strange this week. I enjoyed the scene where Varys wheedled information out of Vara—it’s nice to see him ply his trade—but apart from giving Conleth Hill something meaty to do, I didn’t see the point of it. Why not just have Varys come into Tyrion’s conference and report what he’d found? We would have accepted it. And I assume he had more sources than just Vara, or else she is an extremely well-informed killer prostitute.

The scene between Tyrion, Missandei, and Grey Worm was even stranger. I know the writers like to give Tyrion comedic scenes, but none of the jokes landed for me. And…I dunno, now that we’ve heard so much about how the show is barreling toward an endgame, I wondered why they didn’t devote this time to something more substantial.

Or maybe I should just be quiet and enjoy the laughs.

Still Arya after all these years. Arya is doing a great job of becoming No One, but in the scene between her and Jaqen H’ghar, she’s kneeling in front of a wierwood face. In her heart, I think she’s still Arya.

Whither Jon Snow? So all the fan theories were right, and Jon Snow has renounced the Night’s Watch. He died, so leaving is within the terms of his oath. Where does he go? I’m sure fans have guesses, but at the moment, it sounds like he needs to do some soul-searching. He came back from the dead, after all—I’d wanna take some vacation time.