Episode 5 has come and gone, and we’re already halfway through season 5 of Game of Thrones. Despite being a little slower, I still feel like it’s going to fast.
So, lets do a quick recap of this past episode and see whats going on. As always… SPOILERS!
To start off, Grey Work survived last weeks massacre. And by his bed is Missandei, in which they finally get to reveal their feelings for themselves.
Dani is at a loss for the death of her Kingsguard, Barristan Selmy. Furious, she has all the heads of each family brought to her, and she reveals she will have them all killed… fed actually, to her dragons. She starts with the first, and the dragons in her dungeon go at it. But when she’s about to give the next in line, Hizdahr, she stops and says she will continue tomorrow. Deep in thought, she realizes that ruling with an iron fist might not be the best way. She needs to take Hizdahr’s advice and appease the people a little. And so, to the surprise of many she decides to approach things differently. She agrees to re-open the arena, and to seal herself into the city’s bloodlines, she reveals she will mary one of the family leaders, hinting at Hizdahr zo Laraq himself. This is a big change of course for her, so lets see where things lead.
Speaking of change of course, Jon Snow takes some pretty risky actions as Lord Commander. He realizes that the Wildlings need to be on this side of the wall. Not only because they’re technically not the main enemy (the White Walkers are), but also because for every one of them that dies, you get another White Walker. But not everyone would be happy with this, most watchers of the wall against it (their hatred for the wildlings runs deep). But master Aemon advices the new Lord Commander that he needs to go with his gut… he needs to stop doubting the child in him. He needs to ‘Kill the Boy’ and become a man. Guess nobody told him ‘All Men Must Die’. Jon gets the courage he needs and departs with Tormund to get all the Wildlings to head this way.
As he returns from that trip (the Wildlings presumably not there yet but on their way), Stannis departs for Winterfell and take the north back from the Boltons. I have to admit, I’m liking Stannis a lot lately (more so than from the books). With scenes like the conversation he has with Sam about the White Walkers and Dragonglass, you see that he is level headed, and he actually recognizes the real threat (versus everyone else who is just playing pointless games with each other). He takes Shireen with him, afraid to leave her alone at the well. Melisandre leaves with them, which I believe is different from the book (where she stays behind at the wall). This is pretty significant in my eyes because certain events at the end of book 5 have readers theorize outcomes for book 6 that would involve her. With her gone though… lets just say season 5 will have a pretty intense finale.
Meanwhile at Winterfell, Sansa seems to have gotten into another situation where her “husband to be” likes to treat her like shit and torture her about her past, as Ramsey parades Theon in front of her bringing back all the hurtful memories. The only bright side to it all the the message Brienne sends her, with the notice to light a fire on the top floor of the tower, if she ever needs help. This is all new for the show (Breinne or Sansa not being here in the books), so we’ll see where it all leads.
Lastly, Tyrion and Jorah continue their travel, and decide to go through the destroyed lands of Valyria. A note on this place, as it has not been mentioned since season 1 and most non-readers may be confused. Valyria is the land where the Targerians and dragons all came from. But hundreds of years ago, the land was destroyed, broken apart, and abandoned. That is when the first Targerians travelled to Westoros and started ruling there. And in these ruins, it seems that people have been sending off all those infected by Grey Scale (the same disease Shireen has). But where she was able to have her disease stop spreading (miraculously), here the men get completely infected and turn into wild people, more beasts than human – now called the Stone Men. And as Tyrion and Jorah travel, they get distracted by a giant dragon, Drogon, flying by, only to look back down and be attacked by dozens of Stone Men. Fearing even their touch (which is infectious) the fight is intense, and ends with Tyrion falling into the water and sinking to his drowning death. Or so we thought… The scene (and episode) ends with jorah having pulled him off and everything being ok now. Or so it seems… while Tyrion escaped unscathed, Jorah hides from him the fact that he was touched, and the skin on his arm is already starting to change.
First off, the chapter in the book ended with Tyrion sinking… they should have let the episode end there. Let the people sweat it a little. Whatever, all good. But this whole scene is different, as Tyrion is with some other people at this point (not included in the show as of now), and one of those characters (who is actually a pretty interesting character in my opinion) gets Greyscale. So when Tyrion finally ends up with Jorah, Jorah has nothing to do with this infection. Does this mean Jorah will be another one to eventually die now? Different from the books? Or was he going to die in the books anyway (i.e. in book 6) and they just changed the “how”.
I guess we’ll see. Until next week!
~mozeus
