Episode 24 – And Now His Watch Is Ended – Recap

Have you fully recovered from that face-melting episode of Game of Thrones? Then read my thoughts on “And Now His Watch Is Ended” after the break.

Spoiler Note: This post is for those who have read A Storm of Swords. As such the post itself and the comments will contain spoilers. If you haven’t read ASoS yet, you can discuss this episode in our non-book reader recap. Thanks!

Summary time! The episode opens on Jaime and his hand. He collapses off of his horse, but comes up ready to fight. Unfortunately for him, being tired, hungry, out-maned AND missing a hand means he isn’t able to do much. Later, he and Brienne talk where we see the beginning of a sort of “mutual appreciation” for each other.

In King’s Landing, Tyrion visits Varys with revenge on his mind. Varys shows him that revenge is a dish best served cold. Later, Varys learns from Ros that Littlefinger may be attempting to spirit Sansa away from King’s Landing. So Varys proposes a match to Olenna Tyrell. Elsewhere, Margaery and Joffrey visit the sept of Baelor where Marg finally gets Joffrey to come out of his horribly twisted and warped shell. Cersei takes notice of this and runs to tell daddy, only to get a verbal smackdown a la Tyrion.

Somewhere in the Riverlands, Arya is taken to meet the leader of the Brotherhood, Beric Dondarrion. There Arya names the Hound a murderer and Beric charges him to a trial by combat.

More parts unknown, Theon and his rescuer are making their way through the woods and then into the sewers. Theon is confessing everything. And oh, look at that, Theon got played like a fool. His “rescuer” has brought him back to the torturer’s chamber.

Far to the North, the Night’s Watch is still at Craster’s, nursing their wounded. Rast and some of the others are getting restless. Burn Gorman, apparently playing a Night’s Watchmen named Karl, thinks Craster is withholding food from them. Things escalate quickly when he calls Craster a bastard one too many times. Karl kills Craster, Sam runs to rescue Gilly, Rast takes the opportunity to literally stab Mormont in the back. And now his watch is ended…

In the epic final scene, Daenerys goes to trade a dragon for an army. Only, surprise! Dragons don’t easily switch owners. Kraznys gets his face melted. The rest of the masters get killed by the slave soldiers they trained. After the slaughter, Dany frees all of the Unsullied and then says they can go free if they wish. Every soldier remains and the Khaleesi has her army.

What I Liked
‘Valyrian is my mother tongue’ – Yesssss! Dany kicking some ass and taking some names. I like it. The moment when she revealed she could speak Valyrian was the best, for me. The look in her eyes. The look in Jorah’s eyes. The look in Kraznys’ eyes. The whole scene was perfectly staged and executed. The CGI visuals were icing on the cake, really.
Backstory! – I liked getting Varys backstory and then finally, finally hearing about the Targaryen babies. I suspect the latter will be talked about even more next season, but I’m glad they finally brought up this hugely important piece of history.
Margaery – Natalie Dormer continues to kill it as Margaery. She is the Alfie Allen of this season, the breakout performance you never quite saw coming.
The Lightning Lord – Look out, Jorah Mormont, there is a new contender for most awesome voice in the show. Richard Dormer as Beric looks and sounds so awesome. I’m just bummed that we have to wait another week to see the fight that they’ve been teasing in the trailers for months.
Ramsay– Despite appearing in a few episodes before this, tonight we actually got to meet the Bastard of Bolton. The look on Rheon’s eyes say it all…. this dude is fucking nuts.
And Now His Watch Is Ended – Poor Old Bear. A tense scene. Burn Gorman did well in his extended cameo appearance. I loved that Mormont was badass enough to turn on Rast before dying. I only wish he would have had time to kill the treacherous bastard.

What I Didn’t Like

Varys the Ruthless – This new scene was cool, but I wish that they would have saved the reveal on exactly how cold-blooded Varys can be for later. No spoilers, but that was quite a shocking moment in the books.

Overall, another very strong episode. What did everyone else think? Share your thoughts in the comments and rate the episode in the poll!

• Published on 04/21/2013 at 9:57 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 12:02 PM CDT