Episode 5 – The Wolf and the Lion – New Viewer Recap

Episode 5 of Game of Thrones has aired and I have to imagine you new viewers are pretty well sucked in by now. So how about that for an episode? Pretty exciting, eh? We Do Not Sow has the full recap from a new viewer’s perspective after the break.

Spoiler note: This post is intended for new viewers only (book fans can discuss the show here). We ask all the series veterans to refrain from posting spoilers in the comments here, veiled or otherwise. This show is best viewed without knowing all the surprises beforehand, so please be respectful of your new, fellow fans. Thank you!

We Do Not Sow: Well, we’ve known since the episode ended last week, this was going to be the official start of Stark vs. Lannister, and I think this fight is going to go all 12 rounds.

We start off tonight finishing up with the tournament, and without dwelling on it too much, the Mountain chops off his horse’s head! Seriously in one swoop, that’s crazy.  If I was the Knight of the Flowers I would have been thanking the Hound too for saving his ass.  We do get to see a little more character out of the Hound, whether it be to save the knight or to just throw down with his older brother, it was cool to see him step in.
So Cat decides to take Tyrion to her sister who has fled King’s Landing since Jon Arryn was “murdered”.  Tyrion mentions to Cat that she isn’t the same since the last time they saw each other.  Well, I’m not sure what she was like before but he’s right, Lysa is crazy!  Apparently, in television an easy way to make someone look crazy without having her saying too much is to have her 8 or 9 year old boy still breast feeding. They end up throwing Tyrion in a prison cell  which is pretty unique and clever looking hole out of the castle wall. The whole castle of Eyrie is a neat concept and like they said almost impossible to attack.

I will throw this in as well, the longer this “attack on Bran” goes the more I find myself thinking maybe it wasn’t a Lannister at all.  It was a great time to “stage” an attack from the Lannisters, but I’m not sure who else was in Winterfell besides the Lannisters and the Stark household at that time. We do get a little more information about Jon Arryn’s death, Varys tells us it was a poison but to be honest as far as King’s Landing goes I’m not sure who to trust and who not to trust.
I guess the big developments in this episode is the unraveling of Ned Stark and King Robert’s relationship.  You could tell that they have grown apart but I didn’t see Ned leaving the king so soon.  The main issue was King Robert finding out about Daenerys being pregnant with Drogo’s child but maybe it was all the spies watching him, the “murder” of the last Hand and even what Arya heard that has Ned uneasy about being there even before he heard the news of King Robert wanting Daenerys and the baby dead.

As Ned and his crew gear up to leave, Littlefinger has another of Robert’s bastards to show Ned. Now, I know Littlefinger seems to be helping Ned, but it seems to me he was kind of staling him so Jaime could arrive.  This is what we have waited for since we first saw Jaime, Ned mono e mono with Jaime.  Ned’s experience against Jaime’s youth.  They really both held their own until a guard comes a spears Ned in the thigh.  Dang! What a cop out, even Jaime Lannister thought that was a cheap shot!  And that’s where they leave us, with Ned’s best swordsmen and Jory dead and Ned on the ground with a spear through his thigh.  They really know how to end an episode.
There wasn’t any Jon Snow at the Wall or Targaryen scenes tonight, but there is so much going on in King’s Landing this week, but we got to see some more jousting, sword fighting, and more amazing locations.
So new viewers I know Jon Snow and Daenerys are some of your favorite characters but what did you think of the episode tonight and your extra credit question: Besides the Lannisters who else do you distrust the most?
For me I really liked the episode; it wasn’t until it was over I realized what storyline they didn’t touch on.  I don’t trust either Varys or Littlefinger at all, and I’m not sure if this is an act of treason for me but right now I don’t trust Theon Greyjoy to much either. So if you don’t have an opinion on the episode, or even what character you don’t trust, is it a violation to have these feelings on Greyjoy considering I have taken their words as my own?

• Published on 05/15/2011 at 11:42 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/20/2016 at 6:04 PM CDT