tv: Last night Game Of Thrones returned to HBO for the beginning of its third season. The fantasy epic picked up right where it left off last summer. With the screen black we here the screams of what I have now found out George R.R. Martin calls the others, but because that just makes me think of Lost I have to call ice zombies, and the clang of swords in battle. And then Sam appears running across the frozen north. He looks like he has just been face to face for to long with the terror he was bracing for as he hid behind that rock. He is frozen and tired and carries a look that says he has seen hell. And through it all he is still Sam, forgetting send out ravens to tell of what they have seen to warn those south of the wall. And with that scream into the winter that all those we love will not survive, we are welcomed back to Westeros.
From there the episode finds its way, like most others, trekking across the map to check in on how the characters are faring in their various stories. John Snow is taken by Ygritte, his crush above the wall, to see the King Of The North. Shortly after the reveal of the existence of giants, yet another thing said to be lost to the world that we are finding out actually isn't, Snow meets the king and gets the chance to show his worth. After he makes a transparently cheesy plea that the reason he is there for freedom, his admission of the corruption he witnessed among his own men who know of the white walkers earns him the trust of this new king. But for all the honesty on Snow's face and the empathy we can all feel for wanting to fight a pure fight, one can only wonder at Snow's own sincerity towards the wildlings. Not to mention the fact that we all know, after having spent two years in Westeros, that the honorable and honest fight is probably not the one that wins.
From there the story moves on to King's Landing to check in on everyone's favorite first family of incest, the Lannisters. With Tywin now the Hand of the King and Margaery Tyrell set to merry King Joffery, things have certainly continued to press forward. And the Lannisters do in a flurry of the episodes most compelling scenes. It begins when Tyrion is paid a visit by Cersei. As he opens the door, ax in hand, for his sister who is flanked by bodyguards, viewers are braced for a brutal standoff. Instead the scene is a wonderful banter that combines their political and familial struggles. The shows writers, and maybe most importantly Lena Headley, even have a little bit of fun with the tension of these rival siblings when Tyrion asks Cersei how she was aware of a meeting he had requested with their father the hand. Cersei launches into a speech about spies and knowledge and power only to smirk and final admit "Father told me." Oh those playful Lannisters.
From there the Lannister highlight hour of acting heads to that very meeting between Tywin and Tyrion. I spent most of last season praising Charles Dance, who plays Tywin, for his wonderful relationship with Arya Stark that balanced respect with a sly threat in what was some of the second seasons best work. But here we see him in a different light as he slashes his son with words that will scar Tyrion worse than that sword at Blackwater. And Peter Dinklage responds perfectly by saying nothing and simply choking back his words and emotions because, well, its his father.
Robb Stark is rediscovered in what has become the shows typical fashion with him, briefly. But what we get is certainly important as we see the division between he and his mother continue to grow as he chooses to lock her in a cell for releasing Jamie Lannister.
The episode came down the home stretch swimmingly (no pun intended for all those stranded on a rock somewhere) when we found out that not only was Davos still alive after going overboard at Blackwater, but that he would be rescued by none other than Salladhor Saan, whose "I will fuck the queen" speech was one of the more light-hearted and enjoyable moments last year. Despite the welcomed sight of our favorite sex-over-gold pirate, Davos is taken back to Stannis who now seems thoroughly under the control of The Red Lady.
Daenerys was our final stop on the map in the first episode back. We find her training dragons at sea as she figures out how to acquire an army so she can enter the fray. And where she finds that army is, in typical Thrones fashion, a very odd and exciting place. She ends up being pitched on the purchase of an army called the Unsullied. The Unsullied themselves are an odd group, trained with baby slaughtering and having to stand in place for days on end. Oh, and did I forget they are all eunuchs who also don't mind getting their nipples cut off(seriously, only in Westeros). As the wonderful exchange between Daenerys and her non-English speaking used car salesman/army trainer and his very liberal translator (who confirms all of our suspicions that when someone says 33 words it doesn't translate to "yes") we begin to feel the continuing slow burn of her plot line. Time spent in yet another exotic town where strange magic still exists while that war Dany so desperately wants to be a part of and that throne she wants to sit on are still so far off. And then a hood gets removed. Our favorite exiled knight is brought back into the fold. And he likely won't want to wait for his own revenge against the king.
I would have loved to see how Arya and Bran are doing in their parts of the world, as well as getting back to that most wonderful twosome of Lady Brienne and Jamie. But there will always be more time for that. And that is the wonderful thing about this show. We are into the third season and yet can feel that there is still tons of time to go as our characters continue to search Westeros for a way to be brought together for whatever end this story could eventually bring.
But in this one episode it was just a great moment of re-establishment as almost everyone was checked in on so that we knew where things were picking up at. And it was Sansa who at least got the heart of the episode half right. While sitting on the docks of Kings Landing fantasizing about far off lands she says "The truth is either boring or terrible." Well, in Westeros I don't think anything is boring. But the truths faced by all of the characters, whether in the presence of friends, allies, family, enemies, strangers, or those that fall into multiple categories, about what they are facing moving forward was almost entirely, like most things that happen in Westeros, pretty damn horrible when you get down to the truth of it.
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