Game of Thrones: The High Sparrow – Analysis

Littlefinger: Every ambitious move is a gamble. You gambled when you drove a dagger into Robb Stark’s heart. It appears that your gamble paid off.

In Westeros, the rich and the powerful play the game of thrones, and as we learned early on, in this game, you win or you die. The question is how you play. The pawns were rearranged when Tyrion upended the board at the end of last season, but the game hasn’t stopped.

Littlefinger got the lynchpin speech this week when he confronted Roose Bolton in Winterfell. Roose may play the game bluntly, but his forthrightness has served him well enough. He’s aware that the man in front of him is a master player, one who turns wheels within wheels, and who never says what he really means.

But although Littlefinger is once again attempting to play everyone against each other with the goal of amassing more power, his choice to engage Sansa to the newly jumped-up Ramsey Bolton is one that he’s badly underestimated, to Sansa’s detriment. (He knows little of Ramsay, including that Roose had to hastily have the flayed decorations removed before Sansa’s arrival.) We have seen him go after those who hurt Sansa before—including breaking his direct involvement rule with Lysa last season. We assume that his words to Bolton about the Eyrie and the North joining together are false insofar as the Boltons are involved. But we also know (as does Sansa) that being engaged to a monster means, as a woman, having to submit to being the monster’s plaything. With Littlefinger clearly being summoned by Cersei to King’s Landing, any protection his presence may have afforded her will go with it. One can only hope that having Team Servants on her side will be the thing that saves her. Either that, or Brienne’s gamble to keep following her will pay off.

Margaery: Exhausted, to be honest, but what can I expect? He is half Lion, half Stag.

We go from one character who is badly underestimating his foe to one who seems to have it all in hand. Margaery owned her role this week, and chose to finally gamble and commit to the King she married. (Third time’s the charm! Though to be fair, it’s not her fault Renly wouldn’t sleep with her on the first go, and on the second, Olenna made sure to time Joffrey’s death so that wouldn’t be an option.) Still, let’s hear it for the first happy wedding in Westeros since King Robb and Talisa. Let’s hope this marriage lasts a little longer than theirs.

I found Margaery’s gambling this week to be fascinating, because we never saw behind the façade to what she was really thinking—much like in the books. But we’ve gotten to know Margaery over the past two seasons. And all of her choices here—like the deliberate choice to wear Lannister gold head-to-toe at the wedding and the immediate adoption of the “southern style” outfits and hairdos, instead of the Highgarden gowns she sported the last two years—are all obvious cues that she’s playing Tommen like a fiddle. And he—as any 14 year old who just discovered sex on demand all the time—falls for it to the point of all but telling his mother she needs to leave for Casterly Rock tomorrow. Still, Margaery shouldn’t overdo it. It might have been delicious to watch the Queen Mother (or is that Dowager Queen?) shut up and take that 1-2-3 punch Margaery delivered in front of her attendants (it’s a bit early in the day for us indeed!), but Cersei’s an erratic foe who can’t be predicted. And, as we know from both Littlefinger and Olenna, the best way to deal with that sort of foe is to have them removed.

But there’s no removing Cersei, not yet anyway. There is only asking what the hell she’s up to, since we know perfectly well that her act with the High Sparrow is as much of an act as the one Margaery was putting on for Tommen. But then again, how much of the man she’s up against is also an act? “I tell them no one’s special, and they think I’m special for telling them so.” Clearly she does not buy the High Sparrow’s claims of humility. And yet, by believing that he, like the High Septon before him, is full of shit, she does not hear the warnings contained within his speech. He truly believes that no one is special, and that will include her, Tommen, Margaery, and all the rest when push comes to shove. One should not make deals with fanatical devils. This is a gamble she will regret.

Tyrion: I need to speak to someone with hair.

Although Tyrion is probably regretting his gamble more. On the one hand, he was going insane, stuck in a box with a man who wouldn’t stop philosophizing. And his first taste of freedom once he got out of the box seemed to confirm his view of things. Among the crowds and slaves and slavers in Volantis, most people aren’t going to notice a random dwarf. But it probably would have been wise to head back to the box after he was noticed by a Red Priest heralding the coming of the One True Queen. But no. Instead he keeps gambling until, of all the brothels in all of Volantis, he had to walk into the one with Ser Jorah Mormont, still heartbroken and desperate to get back into the good graces of his Khaleesi. I suppose the good news is that the Queen Tyrion is being kidnapped and taken to isn’t Cersei. But Varys should still get “I told you so” rights.

But the biggest gamble of them all this week happened up at The Wall. Jon is Lord Commander now. That doesn’t preclude being Jon Stark, nor does it preclude him heading to Winterfell, at least not as Stannis sees it. But Jon Snow made up his mind before Sam ever even nominated him. He has power, and he plans to be loyal to those who elected him as much as he wants to do right by them. He could easily have taken Stannis’ offer. He could have handed control of the Wall to Thorne, and taken the same gamble on vengeance that Sansa has. Or if he must stay, he could have at least listened when Stannis told him to send Thorne, who is his greatest threat, far away to Eastwatch by the Sea.

Stannis:”You’re as stubborn as your father. And as honorable.”
Jon: I can imagine no higher praise.
Stannis: I didn’t mean it as praise. Honor got your father killed.

And yet, Jon is Ned’s son, no matter what we book readers suspect, or what hints producers drop about his true parentage. Ned Stark raised Jon, and Jon will be the man that would make Ned Stark proud. He will not send Thorne away. He will keep his enemy close, and raise him to First Ranger. On the other hand, Jon’s not a fool, and he knows that the real trouble lies in allowing Ser Janos to remain close enough to Thorne to keep pouring poison in her ear. His plan, if it had worked, is to send Janos as far away as possible. When Janos refuses, it’s time to roll the dice again. The man who passes the sentence swings the sword. (By the way, I thought the choice to have Jon call for his sword instead of the headsman’s block in this scene was pretty effective.) And though Janos begs for mercy from Jon Snow, there will be none. Ser Alliser once said to him that if you second guess yourself to every little twat with a mouth, that’s the end. And that was the end of Ser Janos, the biggest twat with the biggest mouth. The gamble now is if the rest of the Night’s Watch will understand, as Stannis did, and respect it.

• Published on 04/27/2015 at 11:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:05 PM CDT