Book-reader’s recap—Game of Thrones, Episode 503—High Sparrow

Spoiler Note: This post is intended for those who have read the books in the Song of Ice and Fire series. As such, the post itself and the comments will contain spoilers. If you haven’t read the books yet, you can discuss this episode in our non-book reader (Unsullied) recap. Thanks!

We begin at the House of Black and White, where Arya has been doing menial chores since earning her way inside at the end of the previous episode. Immediately, I am gobsmacked by the beauty of the set. The towering statues, the ominous pool, the way the blue lighting in the main room contrasts with the orange light from the fireplaces along the wall—the whole place drips with atmosphere. Arya, however, is over it, and whines to Jaqen H’ghar about when she can become a Faceless Men. Jaqen is cryptic. Best get used to that, Arya.

Some time later, Arya is resting in a really shoddy-looking bunk somewhere in the bowls of the House. Really, that pillow is about as thick as my fingernail. A young girl walks in (Hey, everyone! It’s the waif!) and asks Arya who she is. “No one,” Arya replies. Right answer, wrong delivery. The waif smacks Arya with a reed, Arya yells “Cunt!” and I laugh, because I am easily amused. The comedy routine continues until Jaqen comes in and breaks the two up. Arya wants to become “no one,” really she does, but Jaqen implies that she can’t do that while she’s still holding onto all of Arya Stark’s stuff.

To prove she’s committed to shedding her old identity, Arya tosses what few possessions she brought with her into the still waters surrounding the House. However, she just can’t bring herself to throw away Needle. Arya tears up as she struggles with the decision, and my weak little heart—damaged as it is by fast food and lack of exercise—breaks for her. She hides Needle under a few loose rocks, and I reflect again on what a terrific actress Maisie Williams is.

Even though she didn’t discard Needle, Arya must have become no one enough, because Jaqen leads her down into a previously inaccessible area of the House where she washes a copse with the waif. I hope this was worth throwing away everything you owned, Arya. At least you got your first new outfit in three years out of it.

In King’s Landing, Cersei rides her litter to the Great Sept of Baelor, where she’ll be attending the wedding of her son King Tommen to Margaery “Smirking Whore from Highgarden” Tyrell. The smallfolk cheer Margaery’s name, and Cersei, not for the last time, really wishes she had a drink. The kids get married, and we promptly skip to their post-wedding night pillow talk. Tommen is obviously infatuated with Margaery, but it’s not clear whether she reciprocates or just sees him as another rung to climb on her way to power. Either way, she quickly gets down to manipulatin’, subtly suggesting to Tommen that his mother is a possessive cock-block who would be happier away from the city, even though she technically only says nice things about Cersei. She’s very good, our Margaery.

Tommen receives the message loud and clear. In the next scene, he talks to Cersei about maybe, I dunno, possibly going back to Casterly Rock? I mean, she grew up there and would be comfortable. Just something to think about. Forget Tommen even mentioned it.

Cersei intuits that Margaery has been putting ideas in her son’s head and goes to confront the little Queen. But once there, all Cersei can do is stand still and get silently infuriated while Margaery makes veiled cracks about her age, her drinking, and the fact that she’s boinking her son. As subtle as Margaery was with Tommen, she’s being dangerously blunt here to a woman who once threatened to have her strangled in her sleep. Maybe Margaery figures that she can afford to be a little reckless now that she’s married Tommen, but this seems at odds with how careful she’s been in the past.

Up north, the Boltons make their Season 5 debut as the new lords of Winterfell. They’ve hung some flayed men above the entranceway—you gotta make the place your own—but otherwise it looks about how I remember it. At dinner, poppa Roose and sonny boy Ramsay talk about the best way to keep the citizens of the North loyal—Ramsay prefers to terrify them, while Roose recommends that Ramsay just marry someone they like. As it happens, he’s found the perfect girl. But who?

It’s Sansa, of course, for whom life as a nun must be looking pretty good right now. She’s understandably upset about the prospect of marrying into yet another family that’s fond of killing her close relations, but Littlefinger gives her a pep talk about making lemonade out of lemons, and she calms down. It’s tempting to read this new marriage as a repeat of the disaster that was the Sansa-Joffrey courtship, but I see it more as a chance for Sansa to get right something she seriously bungled the first time around. She’s going into this with her eyes wide open, and I have a feeling she’s going to make a lot of lemonade before everything’s over.

Brienne and Podrick are right on Sansa’s tail. While making a pit stop, they chat about their pasts. Pod tells Brienne how he came to squire for Tyrion (Tywin thought it would be humiliating, basically) while Brienne tells Pod how she developed her abiding loyalty to Renly Baratheon (he was kind to her, basically). It’s satisfying to see these two get along and to hear about the experiences that shaped them. The show has moved more slowly this season, but taking the time to develop characters like this makes the slackening pace worth it.

Shortly thereafter, Sansa and Littlefinger arrive at Winterfell and say their hellos to the family Bolton. There’s a moment where Sansa looks like she’s considering just head-butting Roose right then and there, but she quickly recovers and folds into a polite curtsy. Game on. Elsewhere at Winterfell, Theon Reek hides his face from Sansa while Ramsay and Littlefinger talk about her. It’s hard to tell if Ramsay is just putting Littlefinger on, but he seems to be genuinely sweet on Sansa. That’s unexpected, but I guess the guy’s allowed to have layers.

After Ramsay excuses himself, Littlefinger and Roose Bolton have one of those conversations that has “Game of Thrones” written all over it. Roose asks Littlefinger why he’d risk angering the Lannisters by marrying Sansa to Ramsay. Littlefinger explains that the Lannisters are are on the wane now that Tywin’s dead and that he’s backing a new pony. Littlefinger implies that he and Roose could take over Westeros together, Roose reveals that he’s been reading Littlefinger’s correspondence, and bing bang boom—you’ve got the show in a nutshell.

Still further North, Jon Snow is settling into his new role as Lord Commander. He politely refuses’ Stannis offer to dub him Jon Stark. Stannis is disappointed but respects the decision. They’re really playing up the Stannis-as-father-figure angle here, something I’ll admit didn’t jump out at me when reading the books.

Worst father figure ever: Janos Slynt, who grumbles petulantly when Jon assigns him to take command of Greyguard, one of the many crumbling castles built along the Wall. Jon asks Slynt if he’s refusing to obey a direct order. “You can stick your order up your bastard ass,” Slynt answers. Well, that wasn’t a very smart things to say.

Although there’s a moment of tension, none of the Night’s Watchmen question Jon when he orders them to drag Janos Slynt outside, a indication that he has the castle pretty well in hand. They force Slynt’s head down onto a block, and Jon gives him a chance to blubber pathetically about how he’s ready to be an ass-kissing sycophant before chopping off his head. Stannis, who was watching from the rafters, approves.

This was a memorable scene from A Dance with Dragons, and while the show did a competent job with it, it didn’t stand out as one of the best scenes in the episode. Maybe it’s because we haven’t learned to dislike Janos quite the way we did in the books, or because the show rushed through the build-up much in the way it rushed through Jon’s election as Lord Commander last week. I still enjoyed it, but I was hoping the moment would pop more.

Way back south, the High Septon is visiting the best Littlefinger whorehouse in King’s Landing. He’s choosing his bedmates from among a group of sparingly dressed women who are taking part in some sort of religious roleplay fantasy, and I note that, after sitting last week out, full frontal nudity has made a rollicking return to Game of Thrones. Anyway, the High Septon’s impending three-way is cut short when a group of Sparrows, members of the ascetic religious order Lancel Lannister debuted back in the premiere, storm the place and parade the Septon naked through the streets, smacking him with sticks and yelling out, “sinner!”

Cersei goes to meet with the the High Sparrow, the leader of this order, after the High Septon complains about all the whipping and the walking and the name-calling. The High Sparrow’s followers are filthy, and although Cersei has to hold a cloth up to her nose as she walks among them, she handles it better than you might expect, which is to say she doesn’t order the lot of them killed for stinking up the place. The High Sparrow himself (Jonathan Pryce) is an unassuming old man who matches Cersei maddeningly calm half-smile for maddeningly calm half-smile. The two discuss what should be done with a man whose followers assault the Westerosi equivalent to the Pope. Cersei reveals that not only will she not punish the High Sparrow for the attack, but that she’s had the High Septon locked up in the Red Keep dungeons for being a hypocrite. It’s a line, of course, but apparently Cersei thinks the High Sparrow will make a better ally than the High Sparrow did. Can’t wait to see how well that turns out.

Finally, we cross the Narrow Sea to check in on Tyrion and Varys, who risk a walk around the city of Volantis to prevent Tyrion from catching cabin fever and chewing off Varys’ toes while he sleeps or something. They tour the marketplace and see many a splendid thing: snake handlers, several varieties of slaves, and a bunch of severed hands on hooks.  Who’s going to buy severed hands? Or maybe they’re the hands of thieves who were caught? Whatever—they’re gross. They also stop to hear to a Red Priest talk up the coming of Daenerys Stormborn while a rapt crowd of slaves listens.

The pair find a brothel and Tyrion puts the moves on an insecure prostitute. She’s charmed, but Tyrion finds that he cannot bring himself to have sex with her, which must be a little like a pro basketball player coming off an injury only to find he’s forgotten how to dribble. Alarmed by his newfound handicap, Tyrion takes a bathroom break (he pees over the side of a railing, cause he’s classy) and is approached form behind by none other than Jorah Mormont, who ties him up and vows to take him “to the queen.” Well, it’s not a meeting about Tyrion and Daenerys, but it’ll do for now.

Odds and Ends

Passive-aggressive theater. Between Cersei and Margaery, there were a whole lot of veiled insults being thrown around this week. Some of the best:

• Cersei on Margaery
  • “She’s certainly very pretty, isn’t she? Like a doll. She smiles quite a lot.”
  • “Do you think she’s intelligent? I can’t quite tell.”
• Margaery on Cersei
  • “Can we bring you anything to eat or drink? I wish we had some wine for you. It’s a bit early in the day for us.”
  • “In any event, judging from the king’s enthusiasm, the Queen Mother will be a Queen Grandmother soon.”

Ramsay vs. Ramsay. As much as the show can dumb down stuff from the books, there are a few things it’s explored in more detail. Case in point: Ramsay Snow Bolton is more interesting on TV than he is on the page. In the books, Ramsay is a psychopathic sadist, plain and simple. He keeps those qualities on the show, but also displays others. He’s got daddy issues, for one thing—consider the way he immediately obeys when Roose tells him to stop eating his dinner. I can also believe that the TV show version of Ramsay could be insecure enough to feel awkward when he talks to Littlefinger about his new status as a lord. I still want Ramsay to suffer a horrible death, but the added complexity should make getting there a little more compelling.

This show is so pretty. I don’t know if I just didn’t appreciate how good this show looked before I started to recap it, but this show looks really good. Other than the inside of the House of Black and White, the other things that caught my eye were the gorgeous shots of Sansa and Brienne riding to Moat Cailin. The show really made the most of those verdant mountains and wind-swept plains in the background.

The North shall rise again. Sansa, Littlefinger, Theon, and the Boltons are all crowded in Winterfell. Stannis plans to march on the castle with an army. Brienne, who reminded us this week that she’s still holding a grudge Stannis, is shadowing Sansa. For years, King’s Landing was the most action-packed location on the show, but it’s starting to seem like like the climax of the season will happen up north. Might Episode 9 feature the “battle in the ice” George R.R. Martin has alluded to in interviews?

Walk (naked) this way. It seemed clear to me that the High Septon’s naked walk through the streets was a preview of what’s going to happen to Cersei later this season. This is probably a topic for a separate essay, but I’m already curious about how that scene, in which nudity is treated as something shameful, is going to read on a series that includes a lot of nudity for nudity’s sake—see tonight’s roleplay session in Littlefinger’s brothel. Cersei’s walk is a complicated scene that has a lot to say about the historical misogyny embedded in organized religion. I’m sure the show will pull it off with the proper remove, but I’m not sure how comfortably it’s going to coexist alongside all the “sexposition” the show is known for.

Qyburn von Frankenstein. Although it wasn’t really important to the episode, I would be remiss not to mention the scene in Qyburn’s chambers where a man/corpse hybrid that can only be whatever’s left of Gregor Clegane suddenly spasmed under a sheet. We still don’t know exactly what use the revived Gregor will be in the books, but it must be of some importance if the show is keeping it in. Also, I’ll say this again, because it bears repeating: Qyburn is a very creepy person.

Overall, I think this was my favorite episode of the season so far. I love all the storm clouds gathering above Winterfell, and the way Sansa is being positioned to wreck some serious havoc from the inside. I’m also happy the show is taking the time to flesh out characters like Brienne and Pod. Season 5 is moving more slowly than Season 4 did. But if this slow build-up pays off, it may end up being a richer season overall.

• Published on 04/26/2015 at 10:48 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:05 PM CDT