Episode 26 – The Climb – Newbie Recap

See the episode through fresh eyes by reading Oz of Thrones’ take on last night’s episode of Game of Thrones. If you yourself are a newbie, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Spoiler note: The discussion in this post is primarily for non-book readers (book fans can discuss the show here). We ask all the series veterans to refrain from posting spoilers in the comments here, veiled or otherwise. This show is best viewed without knowing all the surprises beforehand, so please be respectful of your fellow fans. Thank you!

Oz of Thrones: Hello to all Sullied and Unsullied, and welcome to the non-book reader recap for Episode 26, brought to you by the self-proclaimed leader of the Un’s. This post is sponsored by Claw-Boot: Don’t Climb a Wall Without It. We are now embarking on the second half of Season 3, and wow, it seems to be flying by. By the way, thanks to all the cool feedback and song ideas that you Lords and Ladies sent me on the Halftime Show from last week. If you missed it, check it out here. Now, we have a good amount to cover, discuss, and speculate about. So let’s get on with it!

Remember: We are the Unsullied, non-book readers. Our motto: We ask questions we do NOT want answers to. Our Mission: To discuss and enjoy arguably the best show on television, without being spoiled on what may be coming next. To the Sullied: Join us in the comments, but please be respectful of our request. The vast majority of you are, and Oz appreciates you.

Sam and Gilly kick things off with a romantic fire and a sleeping newborn, and Gilly suggests that Sam might do well to purchase a copy of “Starting a Fire for Dummies.” We get to hear Sam sing a lullaby that was successful in putting the smallest Ozling to sleep after showing Gilly his dragon glass. I assume the glass will come into play at some point? Not much more going on with this scene other than they are obviously headed to the Wall. I kept waiting for Rast or a White Walker to jump out from behind a tree.

Osha and Meera have a rabbit skinning contest while Bran attempts to moderate the arguing between the two. Some will say he succeeded, while I believe it was Hodor who did the job when he said “Hodor.” Having sight apparently has side effects as Jojen appears to have some type of seizure. He tells the others he has seen Jon Snow, but he was on the wrong side of the wall.

The Wall: As Jon Snow and the Wildling prepare to climb the wall, Jon and Ygritte have a pivotal conversation about betrayal. Kit and Rose do these scenes beautifully, and I find myself wanting their scenes to just go on and on. The climb on the wall scene was absolutely awesome, and looked equally terrifying on screen just from the height alone. But when the damn thing broke apart and Orell cut the rope to save his own ass, I found myself on the edge of the couch. I had no expectation that Jon and Ygritte might die this episode, but the realism of the scene I thought was outstanding. It could have looked fake. It didn’t. At all.

Arya and the Red Woman: It seems the Red Woman does, in fact, know of Gendry as she shows up in the Riverlands to take him with her. As a non-book reader, I can’t explain how she knew, other than the fact that magic and sorcery are present. It doesn’t look coincidental now that Gendry ended up being with the Brotherhood, and they also coincidentally worship the Lord of Light. Melisandre looks into Arya’s eyes and sees her killing many and tells her that they will meet again. Why does Arya seem to lose everyone that she gets close to? And sadly, ArGenPie is officially dead.

Boy, or Karstark Boy, or Sadistic Liar? I wish I knew. After Boy makes Theon play the Pinky Poking game, Theon seemingly guesses where he is and who the Boy is. The boy admits that he is a Karstark. Now, here is where Sullieds will make fun of us, the Unsullied….. If Boy is a Karstark, then it would make sense that James Bond Bolton’s bastard had Theon to begin with, then Boy helped him escape so he could then turn around and kill the Bolton men in the woods. This would allow Boy to have control of the Theon situation as he does now without having to follow the rules of Bolton’s bastard. But then, Boy claims that he is lying about the whole thing, and resumes the Pinky game. So now, we appear to be back at square one. Ozzette then says this to me: “I am about over the Robb Thomas torturing Theon thing.” I agree. (I don’t want to be lonely no more, I don’t wanna have to pay for this….whoooaaaa). Oh, sorry. I can only hope that it is leading up to some sort of big reveal in the near future. A respectable amount of time has been given to this storyline, and we seem no further along now than we were at Episode 2.

The Frey Brothers: This meeting between the unknown sons of Walder Frey and Robb went a hell of a lot smoother than I had envisioned. Basically, the Frey’s will help Robb if they can have Harrenhall and Edmure will wed the 19 year old daughter of Walder. Take one for the team, Edmure! This deal seems to be done.

Bolton serves Jaime and Brienne a meal and discusses what will become of them. Bolton looks to be sending Jaime to King’s Landing after all in exchange for Jaime telling Tywin that he had nothing to do with the loss of his hand. And Brienne will not be accompanying him. I found it odd that the word treason came up a couple of times in this conversation, yet Bolton is contemplating sending Jaime back to King’s Landing to avoid being hunted down by the Lannisters later on for the maiming of Jaime. Wouldn’t that be treason in the eyes of Robb Stark? And what is to become of Brienne?

Classic conversation between Tywin and Grandma Lemon Cakes regarding the marriage of Loras and Cersei. Thorns stands her ground for a bit, but Tywin looks to be victorious in the end, as he usually is. I found the homosexual content in the conversation to be quite fitting considering the gay marriage issue going on right now in the United States (no political or moral arguments in the comments please, and thank you.)

Tyrion shows up to talk to Sansa about the arrangements as she and Shae discuss the Loras wedding. He tries to entice Shae to leave, but Sansa insists she stays, and then he drops the news. Later, we see Sansa crying and staring out at Littlefinger’s ship. Is it too late?

Speaking of Littlefinger, we are treated to another epic dialogue between he and Varys. This alone is worth the price of HBO for a month. At first, it escaped me that Littlefinger was referring to Ros. But then it hit me, right before the screen went to Joffrey. Ros gone. Sansa trapped. “The climb is all there is.”

Episode 306 Personal Awards
Favorite Scene: The entire sequence of wall scenes. But the last few scenes where Littlefinger’s voice was spoken over the footage of Joffrey and Ros and then Sansa was powerful as well.
Favorite Quote #1: “It’s you and me that matters to me and you. Don’t ever betray me, because I’ll cut your pretty cock off and wear it round me neck.” –Ygritte to Jon Snow (and Ozzette to Oz right after they got hitched).
Favorite Quote #2: “A sword swallower through and through.” -Olenna to Tywin in regards to Loras’ preferences.
Favorite Quote #3: “Jamie or not, I’m truly fucked.” -Tyrion to Cersei about his marriage predicament
Favorite Quote #4: The Littlefinger Climb series of quotes
Ow, That Shit Hurts Award: The peeling of Theon’s pinky like a banana….. “Cut it off! Cut it off!” Damn.

Overall Thoughts: I really enjoyed the pacing of this episode. To me, it didn’t feel like the scenes were as rushed as some of the earlier episodes when we sometimes seemed to jump from story to story only a minute or two in. The Ros scene with Joffrey was a shock, but did not give as much closure to the character of Ros as I would have liked to have seen. I am not saying I wanted to see Joffrey pull the trigger by any means. But as a viewer, we did have quite a bit of time invested in her character, and some type of buildup to her demise would have been a little more appropriate. Instead, Ros is all of a sudden, gone. Other than that, the episode was moving in a number of ways, most of which are mentioned above. The question of Jon’s loyalty to the Crows seems to be answered, as he and Ygritte conquered a dangerous climb together as they almost fell to their death. For that reason, and for the safety of his cock, I don’t see Jon betraying her.

What were your thoughts on this episode? Send me some feedback, as I could be way off base with some of my assumptions. AND no spoilers from the good Sullied! Have a great week, and I will see you Friday with Looking Forward Ep. 27. Until then, be nice to each other, and may there be peace in your realm. -Oz

• Published on 05/06/2013 at 10:53 AM CST
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 12:02 PM CST