Episode 6 – A Golden Crown – Recap

While some of you may already be onto episode seven, the rest of us would like to digest and discuss episode six first (or in some cases, aren’t lucky enough to have HBO Go). And what an episode it was. Things are really starting to pick up now. Read our full recap after the jump.

Spoiler Note: This post is for those who have read the first book. As such the post itself and the comments will contain spoilers. The new viewer recap and discussion thread can be found here.

The episode opens with Ned slowly regaining consciousness only to find the king and queen are there waiting to speak with him. King Robert has found out about Catelyn taking Tyrion and is not happy. He doesn’t seem to show much sympathy for Ned almost getting killed. Of course, Cersei is furious and urges the king to take action immediately. SLAP! “I shall wear this as a badge of honor.” “Wear it in silence or I’ll honor you again.” The queen leaves and the king calms down a bit. He tells Ned that he is more of a brother to him than his actual brothers. He reinstates him as Hand and tells him to make his peace with the Lannisters, for the good of the realm. And then he goes on a hunt. “Killing things clears my head.”

After being absent last episode, we check in with Dany, where she is obsessing over her dragon eggs some more. She has an idea. She places one of the eggs on the hot coals of the brazier. Nothing happens. Dany picks it up just as Irri walks in, rushes to take the hot egg from her khaleesi before she burns herself but she ends up burning her hands in the process. Dany of course has no burns. And in the background I’m pretty sure you can see a big flashing neon light: FORESHADOWING – FORESHADOWING – FORESHADOWING. I remember the dragon egg on the brazier being in the book, but not the hand burning part. It seems they are really foreshadowing the whole “fire cannot kill a dragon” thing in the show.

Back to Winterfell, where Bran is dreaming once again. This time the three-eyed crow takes him all the way down into the crypts, then he wakes up. Hodor has brought his finished saddle. And for the first time since the episode one, we see Bran smile. He goes out riding with his brother and Theon. Theon tries to convince Robb that they need to avenge Jory’s death and pay back the Lannisters for attacking his father. Robb says they must stay in Winterfell. As they are talking Bran has gone missing; Robb and Theon go look for him.

Unfortunately some wildlings have found him first. They attempt to steal his horse but Bran can’t get out of his saddle. Robb arrives in time to stop them and gets his first kill. The camera work here is different than in the other fights. More frenetic. It makes the fight seem more visceral and exciting. Robb is stopped from any further violence by one of the wildlings who has Bran at knifepoint. Theon ends that standoff with an arrow through the wildlings’ back. Osha, a near unrecognizable Natalia Tena, begs for her life and is allowed to live.

Tyrion asleep in the Sky Cell. He rolls perilously close to edge. How does one fall asleep that deeply in a Sky Cell? He calls for Mord (played to perfection by Ciaran Bermingham) hoping to bribe him but Mord will have none of it.

Back at King’s Landing, Arya continues her training with Syrio. This time she’s not in the mood though. Jory has been killed, her father wounded. Syrio tells her when you are troubled is the time for fighting, not when you are playing in the field with dogs and kittens. Syrio asks if she has been praying; to the old and new gods, Arya responds. “There is only one god and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death… not today.”

Cut to Daenerys, her face and hands covered in blood. She’s eating the horse heart. Gross. The dothraki crone and the rest of the khalasar surround her. With one last, determined gulp she finishes the heart. The crone prophesies that her son will be “the Stallion that Mounts the World.” Dany announces that his name will be Rhaego. Which unfortunately has no meaning to the millions of TV viewers since Rhaegar has barely even been mentioned in the TV show. Drogo lifts Dany up and carries her around the tent as the assembled crowd chants and cheers. Viserys, who had been watching with an equal amount of disbelief, disgust and envy, leaves. He heads to Dany’s tent where he grabs some dragon eggs and tries to make like a baby. But Jorah stops him. Some verbal sparring ensues. Which Viserys kind of, sort of wins. Calling Jorah out for perving on Dany and breaking his oath. But Jorah realizes when oaths are meant to be broken, and like Jaime before him, it’s usually about the time the Targaryen king has completely lost it. “And yet here I stand.” Badass. Viserys drops the eggs and storms out of the tent.

Back to the Sky Cell, Tyrion decides to try again with Mord. He offers him a deal. If he can deliver a message to Lysa, Tyrion will be in his debt. And a Lannister always pays his debts. This time it works and Tyrion is brought before Lysa, Robin and Catelyn to “confess his crimes.” And in probably the best scene in the whole show, he does just that. “If I close my eyes I can still see her tits bouncing.” “I made the bald man cry. Into the turtle soup! And my sister ate it. At least, I hope she did.” Although Robin finds the whole thing hilarious (“And then what happened?”), Lysa does not. Tyrion demands a trial, but not just any trial, a trial by combat. His first choice of champion, Jaime Lannister, is rejected as being too far away. He asks if anyone will fight for him. Silence. Any one? And then, Bronn steps forward, “I’ll stand for the dwarf.”

Robert is out hunting, accompanied by Renly, Barristan and Lancel. He is bitter, as usual. And filled with longing for the good ole days. Back when young lads were attempting to “make the eight.” Not something from the book, and more proof that the Seven Kingdoms of the show are quite literally seven kingdoms and not just a hold-over term from prior to Aegon’s Conquest. Renly has had enough of the king’s blustering and decides to call him a fool and storm off. Lancel keeps the wine flowing. What a good Lannister.

Back in King’s Landing, Ned is seated on the Iron Throne holding court. He is listening to a tale of a huge knights who is ravaging the Riverlands. A man so large he can chop off a horse’s head with a single blow. “Sound like someone we know?” Before the whole court, Ned attaints Gregor of his knighthood and all his land and titles and wealth. He names him an outlaw and summons Beric Dondarrion to hunt him down and bring him to justice. Littlefinger and Pycelle are quite aghast at Ned’s boldness. But ever-honorable Ned seems to have reached a point where he doesn’t give a horse’s ass about the politics and just wants to see justice done.

To the Vale, where Bronn and Ser Vardis Egan, Lysa’s chosen champion, are getting ready to do battle. Right in the High Hall no less, with the Moon (trap) Door wide open. The fight plays similarly to the one from the books, with Egan in full plate going after Bronn aggressively and Bronn just playing defense. It’s a good fight scene, I think. As Egan tires, Bronn is able to find a gap in his armor and cut him. Another missed attack and this time Bronn hamstrings Egan, who falls to the floor. He finishes him with a stab through the gap between his neck and breastplate, fulfilling this episode’s blood quotient, and then shoves him out the Moon Door. “You didn’t fight with honor,” complains Lysa. “No. He did.” As Tyrion and Bronn leave the Eyrie, Tyrion tosses a positively giddy Mord his pouch of gold. “A Lannister always pays his debts.”

Back at King’s Landing, Sansa is with Septa Mordane and she is acting like a total B. Like seriously, I don’t remember the Sansa from the books being this surly and mean-spirited. It’s not Sophie Turner’s fault, for some reason this is the way they wrote her character. Anyway, Joffrey arrives to finally apologize for all the shit that went down on the Kingsroad. He promises he will never do anything to hurt her again. Don’t believe him, Sansa! Too late, they just kissed.

To Winterfell now, where Ros is leaving the North and heading to King’s Landing. Theon is sad to see her go. Not sure what the point of this scene is. In a preview for episode seven, it looks like we see Ros in King’s Landing, so I guess this scene is just to show her heading there. But unless Ros has some big role to play once she gets to the capital, why does it even matter she is going there? As much as I’m loving Esme Bianco as Ros, and she looks particularly beautiful here, I can’t help but think this scene could have been left on the cutting room floor.

To King’s Landing again, where Ned is informing the girls that he is sending them back to Winterfell. Sansa protests, she is supposed to stay in the capital and marry Prince Joffrey and have all his babies. “Seven hells!” Gotta love Arya! But something Sansa says gives Ned pause. Sansa is going to give Joff blonde kids. You can almost see the light bulb go on over his head. He dismisses the girls and references the lineage book. All the Baratheons are listed: black of hair, black of hair, black of hair, Prince Joffrey… golden head. Dun dun dun duh!

Back to Dany, where she is having a celebratory feast with Drogo and the rest of the Dothraki. Viserys stumbles into the tent, drunk as a sailor. He draws a sword on Dany and demands his crown. He gave Dany to Drogo as payment and now he wants his payment in return. Drogo utters something menacing in Dothraki. (Props to David J. Peterson on the language. It sounds so badass, especially coming from Momoa.) “He says yes.” Viserys, the poor guy, thinks he finally has earned some respect around here. Until Qhotho breaks his arm and throws him to the ground. Drogo melts his belt (that must be one hot pot). Viserys screams in pure terror as he realizes what is about to transpire. “Crown for king!” Molten gold, all over your face. Love the final shot of Visery’s face frozen in pure pain and horror. Farewell, Harry Lloyd, we will miss you and your crazy eyes. Back to Dany, “He was no dragon. Fire cannot kill a dragon.”

And that wraps it up for this week’s episode. What did everyone think? A great episode, in my opinion. Maybe not quite as many “Holy shit!” moments as last week, but still many great moments. And that final scene was SO GOOD.

And now I get to look forward to a week’s worth of anticipation just like you all have been doing since the beginning. I’m actually really excited about that! Of course, this means that the recaps won’t be up immediately after the episode airs. I will put up a temporary post, for discussion purposes, and then add my recap and thoughts later. I’m so looking forward to checking in with Jon Snow again, been missing him. And also getting to see the epic confrontation between Ned and Cersei. And hopefully some more with Tyrion and Bronn, those two are awesome together. I can’t wait!

• Published on 05/22/2011 at 10:00 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/20/2016 at 6:04 PM CDT