Welcome to our first Game of Thrones weekly recap! Before we get into tonight's episode, let's set some ground rules. Firstly, I haven't read the books, and so I'm coming at this purely from the perspective of someone who has only seen the show. For the sake of spoilers, I also ask to keep the comments similarly focused on the HBO series.
That bit of housekeeping out of the way, let's discuss tonight's premiere. There's lots of change afoot from a production standpoint. For starters, we get our first flashback of the series. We also got a taste of director Michael Slovis' style, having come to Thrones from Breaking Bad, you could feel his flourish on scenes like Tyrion's arrival in Pentos shot through the air holes of his crate.
Even with these changes, there is a lot of the familiar to be found in tonight's episode, “The Wars To Come.” The fifth-season premiere was a strong start, shuffling the board for several characters without too much of a big shake-up.
Let's discuss what went down, AFTER THE JUMP …
We begin in the past. A young Cersei encounters a witch who, while not reading tea leaves, certainly spills some T and reads the young Lannister to absolute filth. The witch tells her she'll be queen, alright, but her husband will have 20 children (all of Robert Baratheon's bastards) while she has three. She also tells her a younger, prettier woman will take away all she holds dear.
Meanwhile, in King's Landing …
Adult Cersei (Lena Headey) is in mourning. Well, mourning with a side of rage. She's furious at Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) for killing their father, and angry at her brother/lover Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) for foolishly freeing Tyrion in the first place. The vultures are already circling, ready to take advantage of Tywin's death. Cersei is mingling with mourners, downing funeral wine and suffering through the awkward condolences from her betrothed, the beautiful (and gay) Ser Loras Tyrell (Finn Jones).
She's also visited by her uncle Kevan (Ian Gelder) and cousin Lancel (Eugene Simon). The last time we saw Lancel, he and Cersei were engaged in a little Les Cousins Dangereux action. Now, he's turned over a new leaf and found religion, something of a Westerosi hare krishna. He wants to repent for their unnatural pairing, and for his role in the death of Robert Baratheon.
Cersei's bigger concern should be Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer). The younger, some might say prettier woman is just waiting to take away all that Cersei holds dear. The Lady Tyrell walks in on her brother having his own sexytimes with Olyvar (Will Tudor). Margaery isn't phased (I'm sure this isn't the first time she's found her brother in flagrante delicto with another man). She's more worried about keeping Loras' wedding to Cersei moving forward so that he can whisk her intended mother-in-law out of King's Landing and out of her perfectly kept hair. Ser Loras doesn't want Margaery to get her hopes up though. Now that Tywin's out of the picture, who's going to force Cersei to go through marrying Westeros' closeted gay knight? Well, Margaery's got a few ideas other ideas how to get her out of the way …
Meanwhile Outside The Eyrie …
Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Lord Baelish (Aiden Gillen) have dumped Robin (Lino Facioli) off someplace where they can hopefully ween him and stop him from being such a stunted weirdo. (Sansa, btw is sporting a new look, serving up some emo princess realness.) They set off in a carriage and go riding right past Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) and Podrick (Daniel Portman).
Meanwhile, In Pentos …
You know those videos where techies delicately unbox the latest tech from its pristine packaging? Well, Tyrion's arrival in Pentos isn't anything like that. Instead, he rolls out of the crate he's been shipped in — having shoveled his own waste through the air holes — and immediately begins drinking Real Housewife-sized glasses of wine. Lord Varys (Conleth Hill) has some better ideas for how Tyrion should be spending his time. He wants them to go to Meereen to meet with Daenerys (Emilia Clarke).
Meanwhile In Meereen …
Daenerys is learning the hard way that it's not easy being queen. After toppling the gold harpy atop the pyramid in Meereen, a street-level resistance, calling themselves The Sons of the Harpy, have formed and their first victim is one of the Unsullied. There's also a growing campaign to bring back the fighting pits, once an arena where slaves fought to the death so that free men may have the same opportunity.
Daario (Michiel Huisman) tells her she should go for it, after the two share some bedroom antics. He shares with her his own story of being sold into slavery by his prostituting mother and learning to fight in the pits.
Daeny needs further consult. This time from her dragons. Well, the two she can find, anyway. They've been chained up and they are none too pleased to see dear ol' mum. They screech and snap and blow fire all in her general direction. Daenerys flees outside to catch her breath. Could she be losing control of her dragon-children as well as her kingdom? Maybe she needs Tyrion more than he needs her.
Meanwhile, At the Wall …
Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) has a great idea. He's going to absorb the Wildlings and all the warriors from the North of the Wall into his arms and then he's going to take the throne. Great plan! One, teeny, tiny problem, Mance Rayder (Ciarán Hinds) would much sooner die than kneel before Stannis. So, Stannis recruits Jon Snow (Kit Harington) to help talk some sense into the leader of the Wildling army. Try as he might, Snow can't convince Mance to join the fight So, Stannis and Melisandre (Carice van Houten) burn Mance at the stake. Instead of letting Mance scream in suffering in front of the Night's Watch and his army, Jon Snow fires an arrow through his chest, sparing him the indignity.
What did you think of tonight's episode?
