Violet recaps Season 4 Episode 5 of Game of Thrones, titled First of His Name, where the new King is crowned in King’s Landing, Dany contemplates her next move, Arya faces off with the Hound, Littlefinger and Sansa make it to the Eyrie, and Jon Snow and his men reach Craster’s Keep! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of Game of Thrones, Season 4 Episode 5: First of His Name
King’s Landing
- Tommen is crowned King. Cersei approaches Margaery about becoming Queen again. Tywin agrees to hold Tommen and Margaery’s wedding in a fortnight, with Cersei’s wedding to Loras to follow a fortnight later. Tywin confesses that the crown is very in debt to the Iron Bank of Braavos, and marrying the Tyrells will help the family out.
- Cersei goes for a walk with Prince Oberyn. She asks him to bring her daugher, Myrcella, a gift – a ship.
Daenerys
- Daenerys learns of Joffrey’s death. When it is reported that her men have taken 93 navy ships, she wonders if it would be enough to take Westeros. Jorah also reports that the masters have retaken Yunkai, and the council she appointed in Astapor has been overthrown. Dany decides against sailing to Westeros.
The Eyrie
- Littlefinger and Sansa reach the Eyrie, where Sansa is portrayed as Littlefinger’s niece. Sansa meets her Aunt Lysa and cousin Robin, who know her true identity. We learn that Littlefinger is the one who gave Lysa poison which she used to murder her husband, Jon Arryn, and told her to write to her sister, Catelyn Stark, telling her it was a Lannister that did it. Lysa insists on her and Littlefinger getting married right away.
- Lysa gets Sansa alone and accuses her of being pregnant with Littlefinger’s child, but Sansa cries and insists that she is a virgin. Lysa finally seems to believe her, and tells her that soon she’ll be free to marry Robin.
Arya and the Hound
- Arya recites her kill list aloud, and the Hound hears that he is on it. The next day, she practices water dancing with her sword. The Hound makes fun of her and challenges her to go after him, but her sword doesn’t penetrate his armor, and he easily slaps her to the ground.
Podrick and Brienne
- On the road, Podrick has trouble riding a horse, and later, cooking a rabbit. When he offers to help Brienne remove her armor, she refuses. He confesses that while in Tyrion’s service he killed a Kingsguard. Brienne finally gives up and allows Pod to help her with her armor.
Craster’s Keep
- Jojen has a vision of a weirwood tree that they have to find. Locke is sent ahead to scout Craster’s Keep, and figures out where Bran is. He reports back to the others to avoid that area, saying hounds are chained up there.
- Karl starts to go after Meera, but Jojen tells Karl that he can help him because he has the Sight, and that he saw Karl die tonight. Just then, Jon Snow and his men raid Craster’s Keep. Locke secretly goes after Bran, but Bran possesses Hodor and strangles Locke, then snaps his neck. Hodor frees him and the others. Bran tries to call for Jon, but Jojen tells him that if Jon sees him, he won’t let him go North to find the three eyed raven. Bran decides to continue on their journey.
- It comes down to a swordfight between Jon Snow and Karl Tanner. It seems Karl has gotten the better of Jon, when one of Craster’s wives stabs Karl from behind. Karl starts to go after her, but Jon Snow shoves his sword through the back of Karl’s neck, with the point coming out of his mouth. Jon Snow is reunited with Ghost.
- Jon Snow offers to take Craster’s wives back to Castle Black, but they refuse. They also don’t want to stay at Craster’s Keep, and instead demand that it be burned to the ground.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 4 Episode 5 of Game of Thrones: First of His Name
This wasn’t a very exciting episode until the end when Jon Snow and his men showed up at Craster’s Keep. That was pretty awesome how Bran took over Hodor’s body and saved himself from Locke. This was probably a surprise for most viewers, who may have thought Bran could only go into his wolf. Now that this random Locke/Karl Tanner storyline is over, and Bran has decided against alerting Jon Snow to his presence, it looks like we can return to the book’s storyline of Bran and the others continuing north, and the impending Wildling attack.
As a reader, I know that Jon Snow isn’t even supposed to know that Bran is still alive, so when Bran called out to Jon, I really did not know what was going to happen. Part of me wanted to Bran and Jon to reunite, even though I had no idea how that would play out, but seeing as how the show seems like it’s doing its own thing lately, I wouldn’t have put it past them to actually allow that to happen. But as I said, it looks like we’re back to our regularly scheduled program. Definitely a cool way for Karl Tanner to go out, with a sword through the mouth. However, it is very reminiscent of a scene from the books where someone died that same exact way during an altercation with Brienne. So I guess we won’t see that type death happen again later on with Brienne.
Looks like we’re not going to see Dany making a play for King’s Landing anytime soon, considering that two kingdoms she just conquered are not staying that way. Seems like she’s going to concentrate her efforts on ruling that side of the world before moving on to Westeros.
The big revelation in this episode that some may have missed if they weren’t listening very closely was that Littlefinger set in motion pretty much everything that has happened in this show. He was the one who gave Lysa the poison to kill her husband, Jon Arryn, the former King’s Hand, and it wasn’t the Lannisters as we thought. The only reason we thought that was because Littlefinger told Lysa to write a letter to Catelyn telling her that it was the Lannisters. Because of Jon Arryn’s death, Ned Stark then became the King’s Hand, which is where this entire series of events began. We also already know that Littlefinger was part of the conspiracy to kill Joffrey. And now he is married to Lysa. Just what exactly is Littlefinger up to in the long run?
One interesting suggestion that came from this episode is that Arya’s teacher, Syrio Forel, might still be alive. I don’t think we ever actually saw him get killed, it was always just assumed that because he was outnumbered, he was killed after Arya ran off. True, he didn’t have a sword, he only had a practice stick that he had been using to spar with Arya. However, if he was that good, he could have easily taken a sword from one of his attackers and slayed them all. Or he may have managed to run away himself. I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of Syrio.
For the most part, other than the fight at Craster’s Keep, things were just kind of dragging on. It looks like we finally get to Tyrion’s trial in the next episode though! We didn’t even see Tyrion this episode…
Josh’s Thoughts: Game of Thrones, Season 4 Episode 5: First of His Name
Tommen genuinely sounds like he might be a good king. He seems kind, but I have a feeling his naivety being so young will be taken advantage of by people such as Tywin, and other players in The Game of Thrones. The big question mark is Margaery though. So far she has seemed relatively “good”, but her subterfuge with Cersei and Tommen, to attempt to woo the king while at the same time trying to appear hesitant about the marriage certainly makes her seem conniving to some extent. Perhaps she is doing a bad thing for good reasons? Or is she simply wanting to be queen? Hard to say so far.
Daernerys’ story this episode was a double edged sword for me. On the one hand, I had been thinking about what happens after Daenerys leaves the towns she liberates. Wouldn’t they just succumb to some else’s rule? Or the same rulers would come back and take power if they lived? I am glad that this episode answered that question, which is yes. On the other hand, now that she has made her decision to stay behind for a while and rule these lands, we will not be seeing her make a play for the Iron Throne for a while I have a feeling. This is disappointing, as I feel her story is just lingering around as an afterthought, kind of like the White Walkers to seem to just be chilling in the North.
So Sansa has made it back to family! She is finally safe! Or not, it would seem. Her crazy aunt seems like she could kill her in a heartbeat if her crazy thoughts went too far off the deep end. Hopefully Brienne and her clumsy squire can figure out where she went. Although I am not sure where Sansa has left to go.
Arya had a brief scene this episode with Hound, but there was a fairly interesting reveal, which I am curious to see how plays out. Will Arya kill the Hound? I guess he isn’t too worried about it since he would kill her if there was any chance of that happening. I almost thought that the Hound may try to kill her this episode, but I guess he is still hoping for a big pay day.
And finally Craster’s Keep. Karl Tanner had a very brief rule over the place. I am glad to see him go, he was not a pleasant chap. What I thought was a little disappointing about this scene was how quickly Locke died. He seemed like a interesting plot device as a spy within Castle Black, but he died, and little was really accomplished with his character. Then Bran decides to not say hello to his brother, who would probably help him find the Black Crow once Bran showed Jon his abilities. That was frustrating.
Overall, I was pretty apathetic about this episode. I didn’t really have strong feelings of hate or joy over it. The Craster’s battle scene was good, and I am curious to see how Margaery plays her hand, but I am learning to accept these episodes. It seems the formula for Game of Thrones is a slow burn until the explosion hits, and then there are several casualties…
Scenes from Game of Thrones, Season 4 Episode 6, The Laws of Gods and Men
Here are scenes from the next Game of Thrones episode, titled The Laws of Gods and Men:
This was kind of an intermediary episode I suppose. You can only have so many deaths and shocks. Too many and they wouldn’t be as shocking, I guess.
I am really liking Podrick and Brienne together. They are just so awkward with each other. Podrick is sweet and tries so hard. Whereas Arya and the Hound are great together because they are more alike.