Book-reader’s recap—Episode 504—Sons of the Harpy

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!

The show picks up right where we left off last week, when Jorah Mormont closed the show by shoving a gag in Tyrion’s mouth while the little man was urinating, as is traditional on Bear Island. In the first scene of this episode, Jorah continues his reign of terror by knocking an unsuspecting fisherman unconscious. He gives the guy a few coins to cover any brain damage—classy move, Jorah—before loading a bound-and-gagged Tyrion into the fisherman’s boat, and the two are off to have the most harrowing spring break of their lives.

Once on their way, Jorah gets sick of hearing Tyrion’s muffled rendition of “The Rains of Castamere” and removes his gag. What follows is a terrific scene in which Tryion, after about thirty seconds of looking around the boat, guesses who Jorah is, what he’s doing, and what his deepest fears are. Jorah clocks him for it, but that was still a dazzling display of mental acuity. In the space of one scene, Jorah and Tyrion have taken up the mantle of Game of Thrones’  most charming odd couple since Arya and the Hound gave it up at the end of last season.

On another, less stolen ship, Ser Jaime Lannister and Ser Bronn of the Blackwater make their way south to Dorne. Jaime gazes meaningfully at the island of Tarth as they pass it by, possibly thinking that he could really use that bitching armor he gave Brienne right about now. Below decks, Bronn asks Jaime why he volunteered to go on this very dangerous mission to rescue his “niece” rather than sending, say, a bunch of professional kidnappers with working right hands. I can’t help but hear the voice of the producers here, wondering aloud whether this drastic departure from the books will be worth it. Jaime, however, only says, “It has to be me,” over and over.

Later, Bronn, Jaime, and Jaime’s big clunking golden hand row ashore at night. In the morning, the knights dine on roasted snake and discuss how they want to die. Cheery, these two. Their plan is to travel to the Water Gardens to retrieve Princess Myrcella, but they don’t get two steps off the beach before they’re accosted by a quartet on horseback…I’m sorry, on Dornish stallions. The pair flirt with the idea of bluffing their way past the soldiers for a hot second before Bronn takes the path of least resistance (comparatively speaking) and just whips a knife into one of the guy’s throats. Then it’s fight, fight, fight! Horses are felled, people are thrown down the sides of sand dunes, and Jaime catches a blade in his golden hand and guts the guy who’s holding it. Jaime and Bronn win, but we are robbed of the sight of Bronn digging four graves while Jaime watches, pointing to his prosthetic hand and shrugging.

Elsewhere in Dorne, there is more sand. Ellaria Sand, who was ticked off at Doran Martell back in “The House of Black and White” for failing to do anything about Oberyn Martell’s death, meets up with the Sand Snakes, Oberyn’s bastard daughters. They all want revenge against the Lannisters for killing Oberyn, and agree that they have to get to Mrycella before Jaime does, since she represents their best opportunity to incite a war with the Crown. The Sand Snakes have been teased for a while, but it’s difficult to get an idea of how successfully they’ve been adapted from this one short scene. Obara (Keisha Castle-Hughes) makes the strongest impression: she’s stout, grim, and handy with a spear. Hopefully these characters will be worth the time it takes to establish them, rather than the curious distraction they were in A Feast for Crows.

Meanwhile, in King’s Landing, Mace Tyrell blabbers to the Small Council about the Iron Bank of Braavos calling in part of the Crown’s debt. Cersei, seeing another opportunity to get rid of everyone who isn’t her, dispatches Mace to Braavos to negotiate better repayment terms. Meryn Trant will go as his bodyguard. Whether or not  we see Mace again, and I hope we do, Roger Ashton-Griffiths has done a terrific job with the character. Mace’s facial hair is ludicrous and he sounds a bit like Santa Claus after a lobotomy, but somehow Ashton-Griffiths never pushes the performance into the realm of parody. Mace Tyrell just suffers from a supreme lack of self-awareness.

Cersei is also afflicted with that problem, as we see when she sits down to chat with the High Sparrow, her new best bud. I wonder how this plays for people who haven’t read the books, but for the rest of us, watching Cersei raise this fanatic to the rank of High Septon and grant him power over the Faith Militant, his very own private army, has a wicked comic edge to it. “You and I both know how the world works,” Cersei says to him. “Too often, the wicked are the wealthiest beyond the reach of justice.” Even after the High Sparrow tells her that “all sinners are equal before the gods,” Cersei never considers that he might be talking about her. All the same, I think this is one of those stories that suffers because we don’t have access to Cersei’s thoughts. For the black comedy to really land, it helps to know just how incredibly smart Cersei thinks she’s being here, when in reality she’s stepping into a trap of her own making.

For the moment, though, things are going her way. She tells the High Septon about Loras Tyrell’s homosexuality, and we’re treated to a montage of the newly organized Faith Militant walking around King’s Landing dispensing holy justice, which in this case means spilling wine in the streets, wrecking false idols, and brutally abusing homosexuals in one of Littlefinger’s brothels. Also, Lancel Lannister gets a seven-pointed star carved into his forehead, so you know these guys mean business.

Finally, the Faith Militant arrest Loras for breaking “the laws of gods and men.” Margaery is displeased, and demands that Tommen secure her brother’s release. Tommen, who is not equipped to deal with any of this, first confronts his mother about the problem, but Cersei claims plausible deniability. That’ll learn Margaery not to make fun of my day drinking,” she thinks as she downs some of the good stuff. Next, he stops by to see the High Sparrow and is told that the man is busy praying. And then Tommen leaves, because lords forbid he upset anyone. Well, Tommen, I’m glad you enjoyed the marital sex part of being a king, because it looks like you’re having some trouble with the strong ruler bit.

Margaery is upset and sends word to Lady Olenna, who we know will show up this season from the trailers. Olenna isn’t around for these events in the books, but summoning her makes sense, and having Diana Rigg back on my TV can only be a good thing.

Ah, the Wall, where men are men and women are only whispered about in hushed tones lest everyone forget what they look like. Selyse and Stannis Baratheon observe Jon Snow from a platform above Castle Black’s training yard, and Selyse takes the opportunity to reflect on how much she dislikes their daughter Shireen. Melisandre, who flaunts the fact that she’s warmed by the lord’s fire by wearing a dress with a plunging neckline even though it’s freezing out, glides up and talks to Stannis about his upcoming march on Castle Black. Unlike Stannis’ attack on King’s Landing, Melisandre will be going with him for this assault.

In the Lord Commander’s office, Sam hands Jon letters to sign. They’re trying to get various Northern lords to send recruits their way, and Sam is enjoying it way too much. “Ooh, Lord Smallwood!” he says, his eyes alive with glee. Sam likes handing Jon letters—you heard it here first.

After they’re done, Melisandre saunters in and asks Jon to join her and Stannis when they march on Winterfell. He resists, so naturally she gets naked and lays the moves down on the Lord Commander but good. “In our joining, there’s power—power to make life, power to make light, power to cast shadows.” She wants him to get her pregnant with evil, basically.

Jon declines, of course, and says that he’s still in love with Ygritte. Before leaving his office, Melisandre turns back and says, “You know nothing, Jon Snow.” That is one mysterious lady.

Stannis’ daughter Shireen, jealous that everyone else at the Wall gets to act out two-man stage plays this week, vows to have her own, and it makes for one of the best scenes in the episode. Shireen walks into whatever room Stannis is using to brood and starts fiddling with his things. Father and daughter get to talking about how, as already mentioned, Shireen’s mother sort of hates her, and Stannis tells a beautiful story about how he refused to send the greyscale-infected Shireen away when she was a baby, and instead called in every healer he could find until the spread of the disease was stopped. “You did not belong across the world with the bloody stone men. You are the princess Shireen of House Baratheon, and you are my daughter.” And then they hug. Yay, Stannis! Do it for Shireen!

Meanwhile, in Winterfell, Sansa is hanging out in the crypts, as befits a teenager with her dark clothing. Littlefinger slithers up, and the two talk about Sansa’s Aunt Lyanna, who hasn’t been mentioned much since Season 1. To make up for lost time, Littlefinger describes in detail Lord Whent’s tourney at Harrenhal, the one where Rheagar Targaryen declared Lyanna the Queen of Love and Beauty and kickstarted Robert’s Rebellion.

After the history lesson, Littlefinger tells Sansa that he’s headed back to King’s Landing on orders from the Queen (so he might be around for Cersei’s imprisonment as well—that could be fun). Sansa’s nervous about being left alone with Evil Elijah Wood Ramsay Bolton, but Littlefinger assures her that she’s got the skills to pay the bills, and also to maneuver her way around whatever the Boltons throw at her. Plus, Littlefinger is expecting Stannis to take Winterfell back from the Boltons and install Sansa as “Wardeness of the North” as a way to win over the Stark-crazy populace. That’s our Littlefinger—he was wheeling and dealing with Roose Bolton just last episode and is already betting against the man. Littlefinger could have made so much money as an investment banker in our world.

Finally, we visit Meereen, where Daenerys and Barristan Selmy are chatting about, coincidentally enough, Rheagar Targaryen. Barristan regales Dany with stories about how Rheagar used to hang out on the streets of King’s Landing and serenade the smallfolk, and of course they’re reminding us how warm and charming Barristan is before sending him to the grave. Damn you, producers! Also, between this scene, Barristan’s story about the Mad King in “The House of Black and White,” and Littlefinger’s description of Lord Whent’s tourney, the show seems to be making an effort to dig into Westeros’ storied past. It makes me hopeful that we’ll get some revelations about that past before too long.

Anyway, the delight comes to an end when Dany has to go listen to Hizdahr zo Loraq plead for her to reopen the fighting pits. Dany thinks pit fighting is barbaric, Hizdahr thinks it’s traditional, and will these kids just get on with it and never speak to other again already? Meanwhile, Barristan, Daario’s Second Sons, and several of Dany’s Unsullied soldiers patrol the streets. Well, Barristan and the Unsullied patrol the streets. The Second Sons get drunk and whore around, which leaves them vulnerable when the Sons of the Harpy, still decked out in their Egyptian Mardi Gras masks, burst forth from the shadows and engage in some guerrilla warfare.

The Sons of the Harpy kill several of the Second Sons, and the whore who lured the Unsullied soldier to his death back in “The Wars to Come” points a platoon of Unsullied led by Grey Worm into an ambush. And then we get the second big fight scene of the episode, as the Sons of the Harpy and the Unsullied face off in close-quarters combat. It’s brutal and well-choreographed, but even though the Unsullied are outnumbered, they don’t quite seem to be living up to their lofty reputations.

The exception is Grey Worm, who’s running guys through left and right, but even he sustains a stab wound to his side. Things start looking grim for Grey Worm’s platoon when Barristan the Bold, former Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, bursts onto the scene and just goes to town. He’s a new lawnmower, and the Sons of the Harpy are long-ass pieces of grass—you get the idea. Still, even he can’t overcome their numbers, and eventually one of the Harpies sticks Barristan right in the gut. Grey Worm downs the last Harpy before he can deliver the killing blow, but it looks like Barristan may be a goner. We’ll have to wait until next week to find out for sure.

Odds and Ends

Tyrion vs. Jaime vs. Jaime vs. Tyrion. At this point, the show has made so many changes to the source material that trying to catalog them all is a fool’s game. Still, in some cases, those changes create neat little binary ripples. Case in point: in the books, Jaime reveals to Tyrion that Tysha, his first love and wife, was not, as Tyrion thought, a whore, but was in fact the innocent she seemed to be. Jaime had been lying to Tyrion about this for years, and the revelation gives Tyrion a reason to be angry with Jaime to the point where he mentions wanting to murder his brother upon his return to Westeros.

On the show, none of that happened, so Tyrion has no reason to be wroth with Jaime. Tyrion still killed their father, though, so Jaime has plenty of reason to be pissed at Tyrion, and even threatens to “split him in two” in this episode. If these two ever do meet back up, their encounter could play out the same way on both the screen and the page, but the motivations will be mirror images of each other.

Taking the ‘fun’ out of religious fundamentalism. As much as I was looking forward to seeing Cersei’s misadventures in ruling this year, I think the story with the Sparrows is coming off as thin. Mainly, this is because we lacking context. In the books, it was clear that people became Sparrows because Westeros that had been torn apart by the War of the Five Kings, and they had nowhere else to go. This episode paid lip service to that idea, but it still seems like the entire organization sprung up overnight, out of nowhere. Also, I don’t like how Cersei’s motivations are being narrowed. Sure, she armed the Faith Militant in A Feast for Crows in part to screw over the Tyrells, but she also did it so the Faith would forgive the Crown some of its debt. That extra layer made it easier to buy that Cersei was at least semi-competent at this whole queen thing.

There are still quite a few beats to get through in this story, so I’ll reserve judgment (Get it? Because the gods judge you? Forget I said anything.) until further notice.

Chekhov’s greyscale. I noticed when writing my recap of “The House of Black and White” that Shireen and Gilly spent an inordinate amount of time talking about Shireen’s greyscale. Then, in “High Sparrow,” Tyrion mentioned the disease when listening to Daenerys’ hype woman in Volantis. And now Stannis told that touching story about trying to rid Shireen of the condition. My point being: characters are talking about greyscale way too much for it not to be important. I don’t know exactly what form its importance will take, but something big involving greyscale is coming.

R.I.P. Barristan Selmy? Cruelly, the producers left us in suspense over whether Barristan will pull through (Grey Worm’s wound didn’t look fatal to me), but there are extra-textual clues that this is indeed the end for the stalwart old knight. While nothing’s confirmed, there were rumblings before the season began that a cast member who had been with the show for a long time was surprised to learn that he or she was being killed off. Personally, I thought the signs pointed to Barristan, and this episode would certainly seem to bear them out. Still, we won’t know for sure until we know for sure. And so our watch for next week begins.

Although it’s hard to argue with the potency of that final scene, I thought this episode was a bit of a come-down from last week. There was plenty of action, but not a lot of forward momentum, and the really good scenes—Tyrion and Jorah in the boat, Stannis and Shireen at the Wall—didn’t seem to be in conversation with the rest of the show. Still, it takes all kinds of episodes to build a season, and there’s space for a flashy, relatively shallow episode like “Sons of the Harpy” in Season 5.

• Published on 05/03/2015 at 10:26 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:05 PM CDT