Melisandre Monday: He’s BA-ACK!
Now let’s talk about the most important part of this episode. And beware, if you don’t like to hear about theories, you should stop reading now.
Now.
I mean it, now.
The Tower of Joy
Let’s make sure we’re on the same page. When Ned is fighting the Sword of the Morning outside the tower, that’s the Tower of Joy, right? And he says Rhaegar Targaryen is already dead. And then you hear the screaming inside the tower. Please tell me you agree: Ned will race inside the Tower of Joy and find Lyanna Stark dying, giving birth to Jon Snow (who should be Jon…Targaryen?!)!
They set it up quite nicely. “Why weren’t you protecting your prince?” Ned asks the Targaryen men. “Because our prince wanted us here.” Ummm…yeah! Because tiny baby Jon is being born in there!
This episode might not have been the most exciting, but the scene with Ned outside the tower totally tided me over till the next time.
Now that Jon is leaving the Night’s Watch (I had wondered about this – he died once, so does he really have to uphold his oath? I vote no), I think he’ll head to the only place that matters to him. Winterfell. It’s not like he knows anything about Bran, Rickon, Sansa or Arya.
Sort of a dry crowd
I love Messandei, and I love Greyworm, but this scene certainly did capture their single-mindedness! Their utter lack of a sense of humor (completely understandable, given the whole slave childhood thing) and their blank, stoic faces cracked me up. It was nice to see some comic relief before watching Arya get beat upside the head with a big stick. And also nice to see Tyrion so out of his element and desperate to make friends.
The Little Birds
At the end of Vary’s speech to Tyrion, he talks about his ‘little birds’. I turned to my friend and said, “I really want to know how it works with his ‘little birds’!” And then we turn to Qybern, who’s literally feeding the little birds candy. I guess I should’ve seen this coming. Did you? Or were you as clueless as me?
It took me a minute to remember that Khyber is the master of whispers now. Still having a hard time with that appointment. So when Cersei said, “Varys’ little birds,” did you take it to mean that she had always known that the little birds were children? It surprises me that she knew anything that she didn’t already leak. She’s kind of transparent. I feel like, if she knew, she’d already have let it slip when she was threatening someone through her teeth.
Poor Tommen
Partway through this scene, it occurred to me that Tommen might be a convert! He’s a mess, really. His voice hasn’t even gone through the change yet. Poor little guy. He’s always on the verge of tears. His dad would’ve been pretty disgusted.
BTW, how is it that, even with all of those layers on, you can still tell that Jon Snow is a hotpants?