“Game of Thrones” Season 3, Episode 6: Pinky swear

This
week’s episode closed the second act and prepared us for the third, and in
doing so made some fairly significant departures from the book. First, the
stuff that stayed largely consistent with the books:

*SamwellTarly and Gilly continued their run back to the Wall after the
implosion of the Night’s Watch at Craster’s Keep.
This scene existed for only one reason, to remind us that Sam found dragon
glass (or obsidian; can’t remember if the show has explained that) in that hole
at the Fist of the First Men. That is the figurative gun in the first arc that
will go off in the third. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Wall, Jon Snow, Ygritte, and a pack of Wildlings scaled the massive ice
structure and ultimately made it to the top, but not before losing a good chunk
of men to a harrowing ice break. The effects in that section were again
surprisingly strong for a TV show.

*In
Riverrun, the waning King Robb met with two emissaries
from Lord Frey, the man whose bridge he needs to attack Casterly
Rock – and the man Robb seriously pissed off by jilting his daughter. The two
Frey messengers said that their alliance can be preserved on two conditions:
that after the fighting is finished Lord Frey gets Harrenhal,
the village bicycle of Westerosi castles, and that
Robb’s uncle Edmure must marry a daughter of Frey’s
choosing. Edmure continued to be a whiny ass.

*Speaking
of Harrenhal, Lord Bolton found Brienne
a dilapidated Mrs. Peacock-esque gown and had a
lovely dinner with the Beauty and Jaime Lannister.
There Bolton informed Jamie that, despite Bolton being one of Robb’s bannermen, he was sending Jaime along to King’s Landing because it’s the smart political (and financial)
move. But not Brienne – she’ll be staying there and
tried for treason. But can she keep the fur-trimmed gown?!

*In
King’s Landing, the marital chess game going on between the Tyrells
and the Lannisters heated up, and most of the scenes
regarding it were exclusive to the show – they never happened in the books.
First, the Queen of Thorns and Tywin shared a searing
scene in which each one used the indiscretions of the other’s children as
leverage for their goals, with Tywin seeming to come
out on top. Second, Sansa and Loras
had a poolside chat that featured countless gay-stereotype jokes that would
have been offensive if they hadn’t been so funny (although Olenna’s
“a sword swallower through and through” takes the cake). Third, Cersei and Tyrion had a great
scene in which Tyrion discovered that it wasn’t his
sister who tried to have him killed on the Blackwater,
it was Joffrey. And fourth, Tyrion
delivered the news of their betrothal to Sansa with Shae in the room. We didn’t get to actually see the
discussion, just the aftermath. Two things bothered me about that brief scene
at the end: Shae didn’t seem to particularly care
about the fact that her man was marrying the woman she serves (I was thinking
jealousy would be the motivating factor for actions Shae
is supposed to take later on), and I was unclear whether Sansa
was watching Littlefinger’s boat sail away to the
Vale, or if she was looking at it as her last chance of escaping King’s
Landing. It looked like it was leaving to me, and that makes absolutely no
sense.

Just
about every other plot line featured last night featured some fairly major departures
from the source material. Let’s break them down:

*Bran,
Hodor, Osha,
Rickon, and Meera and Jojen Reed continue to journey toward the Wall so that Bran
can meet the Three-Eyed Crow. The brief scene primarily served to remind
viewers that the plotline still exists, and also to better establish Jojen’s seizure-inducing “green visions” (he sees Jon Snow
on the wrong side of the Wall). The serious change in this story arc is that Osha and Rickon
are still there. At the end of Book 2 the two of them split off and head to a
deserted island so that Rickon can be kept safe. I’m honestly
not sure why they’re keeping them all together here. It doesn’t make any sense
for Osha’s character to head
back toward the Wall, when her entire reason for entering the story was to flee
the White Walkers. And taking a 3-year-old on an extremely dangerous trip like
this can’t be anyone’s concept of a good idea. I’m wondering if she’ll bail at
the end of the season, because right now my gut tells me the show is simply fulfilling
the contract of a somewhat prominent actor (Natalia Tena
was Tonks in the “Harry Potter” flicks).

*The
TheonGreyjoy Torture Hour
continued, with Theon’s one-time liberator, now full-time
tormentor, revealing his true psychotic colors. What alarmed me about this
scene – aside from the fairly graphic finger skinning – was that the show
seemed to be suggesting that this character is a Karstark,
and that he is torturing Theon for what he did to Winterfell. I will be so disappointed if that’s the case.
But I really don’t think it is – the torturer ended the scene by informing Theon that he is, first and foremost, a liar. And then he cut
off Theon’s finger after Theon
begged him to, due to the pain from the flaying. He’s got to be the Bastard of
Bolton, and the show is mind fucking us just as he is mind fucking Theon. And I love it. A warning to those who found that
scene uncomfortable: if this follows the books, the finger will be the least of
Theon’s worries. So you might want to use those
scenes as sanity-preserving potty breaks.

*But
the plotline that totally blew my mind last night was the Arya/Brotherhood/Melisandre segment. Literally nothing that happened in
those scenes EVER happens in the book. Melisandre
never comes to the River Lands. Melisandre never
meets with Thoros. Melisandre
never interacts with Arya. And Melisandre
certainly doesn’t take Gendry — he is left with the
Brotherhood and eventually pops up smithing and
taking care of a group of orphan kids.

So
why this fairly major change?Looks like they’re combining Gendry and Edric Storm into one
character.Edric is another of Robert Baratheon’s bastards, one that was originally in the care
of Renly. Stannis sent Edric off to Dragonstone after
his demon-smoke-baby snuffed out Renly, and there Melisandre begged Stannis to let
her sacrifice Edric to the Lord of Light (read: she
wanted to burn the kid alive). Melisandre believes the
prophecy that king’s blood will wake dragons from their stone. This is a
defining, terrifying element of Melisandre, and
multiple times throughout he books she keeps trying to burn people she believes
to have “king’s blood” in them in order to produce dragons. (Of course, we have
already seen dragons hatch from stone, spurred by the blood of a king — the fact
that Melisandre’s prophecies are 100 percent right
but she has the totally wrong person is one of the books’ greatest ironies.)
The Edric storyline eventually involves Stannis, Mel, Davos, and Shireen.
I wonder how far they’ll take this with Gendry.

The
other interesting developments from those scenes were that Thoros
confessed that he was essentially a non-believing charlatan until he
miraculously brought Beric back from his first death.
Melisandre is legitimately shocked that Thoros had that kind of power, and again it all connects to
Dany and the dragons hatching bringing magic back to
the world (at least, heat/light magic). And the exchange between Melisandre and Arya provided some
interesting foreshadowing to Arya’s upcoming adventures,
with the mention of different-colored eyes and “darkness within.” She also said
that that the two of them would meet again. Arya’s
plot line has stagnated in the books, off on its own with very little
connection to the larger story arcs. I feel like in that moment the show was
tipping readers off to some things that have yet to be published, which I don’t
think we’ve ever seen it do before.

*Finally,
a sad farewell to beloved whore Roz, who was brutally killed offscreen by Joffrey and his crossbow.
This surprised me, because the show really seemed to be building Roz into a nuanced
character with links to a variety of players — Littlefinger
obviously, but also Varys, Shae,
and even a bit of Sansa. Her murder helped to remind
us that Joffrey really is a sick son of a bitch, and
also demonstrated that Littlefinger is not playing. I
think that was ultimately important, because although he’s always been a
schemer on the show, we haven’t gotten that many scenes that show the
cold-blooded nature that defines Petyr in the books. I
think he is in many ways the most vicious human character in the series. By
dispatching Roz and then bragging about it to Varys
he also made it very clear to the Spider that it is dangerous to get in Littlefinger’s way.

This article appears in May 1-7, 2013.