“The lowest among us are no different from the highest if you give them a chance and approach them with an open heart.”

Jon Snow is escorted through the wildling camp.

Writer(s): David Benioff & D.B. Weiss

Director: Daniel Minahan

Events: Sam finds his Night’s Watch brothers after the attack at the Fist of the First Men; Jon is brought before Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall; Tywin Lannister meets with Tyrion, insults him, and threatens to hang Shae; Littlefinger informs Sansa Stark that he can escort her from the capital; Margaery Tyrell visits an orphanage in Flea Bottom and proves to be a match for Cersei; Davos attempts to murder Melisandre upon his return to Dragonstone, and is imprisoned by Stannis; Robb Stark reaches an abandoned Harrenhal, finding its prisoners slaughtered; Daenerys arrives in Astapor and negotiates to buy the Unsullied army.

IF YOU’RE NOT CAUGHT UP, DON’T CARRY ON.

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In recent Game of Thrones episodes, there’s been a tendency to revisit themes previously established and explored in the first season, and analyse them from the perspectives we’ve now been provided with. For example, ‘The Prince of Winterfell’ (2x08) had us take a second look at the notions of honour and duty now that it was no longer Ned whose eyes we gazed out of. Instead it was Theon, whose reputation and life were both on the line following his brief invasion of Winterfell that quickly lost control. The season three premiere, ‘Valar Dohaeris’, takes us back to one of the very earliest outings, ‘Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things’ (1x04), if only to scrutinise the true nature of the characters properly introduced by the events of season two.



Appearing at such an early stage, ‘Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things’ drew a line in the sand by using the vulnerability of certain characters — the “grotesques” — to draw out the true nature of the main cast. It quickly separated Tyrion Lannister from Cersei, Daenerys from her brother Viserys, Sam Tarly and Jon Snow from the other Night’s Watch brothers, and the royal family from the common people. Now three Tyrells have arrived on the scene, Tywin Lannister has entered the show’s central core of characters as Hand of the King, and Daenerys has begun to understand the meaning of being the Mother of Dragons. Despite the box-ticking exercises this episode performs, ‘Valar Dohaeris’ is a sensible place to pause for thought. As the show’s roster deepens, it’s only fair to give the audience a detailed look at unfamiliar faces.



The theme of this episode resides mainly inside in the walls of King’s Landing, as new dynamics are afforded the space to be explored. Since arriving heroically to save his family and city from certain defeat in ‘Blackwater’ (2x09), Tywin Lannister is yet to visit Tyrion, his gravely wounded son. Tyrion, paranoid that Cersei tried to have him killed on the battlefield, has become something of a recluse. He only leaves his new, significantly smaller chambers once he grows impatient of his father’s absence and decides to force a meeting himself, in a scene which drives and defines the episode. What begins as a frank and hostile exchange somehow descends even further, as Tywin brings out the big guns to lay into Tyrion’s character, as the show once again puts him up against another member of his family on a purely ideological basis. How the two of them respond to the mere notion of interacting common people divides them both.



Tywin complains that even with “real power”, Tyrion has spent his time as he apparently always has: “bedding harlots and drinking with thieves.” There’s a serious disdain in Tywin’s voice — not just in relation to his son’s actions, but for his constant interaction with people that the crown would rather distance themselves from. Tyrion sees something in the “grotesques” of this world because of the way he’s been made to feel about his own experiences with dwarfism, and how his family have chastised him for circumstances beyond his control. Tywin’s wife, Tyrion’s mother, died whilst giving birth to him, and it’s something that’s dragged up even now, more than thirty years on: “You, who killed your mother to come into the world? You are an ill-made, spiteful little creature full of envy, lust, and low cunning,” Tywin scolds him, with Charles Dance at his menacing best, providing all the intensity and gravitas needed to carry the Lannister patriarch’s stubborn cruelty onto the screen. Tyrion’s heard it all before, though, and he storms out before his father can finish ranting. He’s continually punished not only for being a “grotesque”, but for daring to share his experiences with them as well.



Someone who might be a little more sympathetic when it comes to treating “the lowest among us” is Margaery Tyrell, who has now entered the game. You can’t forget that she wants to be the queen, and that her outward demeanour of impossibly wide smiles and composed serenity are something of a front, but events in ‘Valar Dohaeris’ convey that her heart — however cynically guided it could be — still has something of a pure centre to direct it. During a modest parade through Flea Bottom, she stops the royal cavalcade to visit a group of recently orphaned children, whose mothers presumably died in childbirth and whose fathers were killed during Stannis’ invasion. While Joffrey sits in his carriage with the shutters up, only briefly pulling them down to peer nervously at the poor people in his streets, and with flowers pressed to his nose to hide the smell, Margaery strides through the neighbourhood with a beaming smile. This is all part of her plan to be beloved, to be the peoples’ queen, to give the Tyrells real power, but her affection for the “grotesques” at least seems sincere and separates her from the other members of the royal family. Later at dinner, her understanding perspective of the common people causes Joffrey to question Cersei’s recollection of the riot during ‘The Old Gods and the New’ (2x06) and becomes the first sign of Margaery wedging herself between mother and son.



Across the Narrow Sea, and thankfully speeding away from Qarth and towards Slaver’s Bay, Daenerys has arrived in Astapor to purchase an army, the Unsullied. They’re introduced alongside a translator, a certain Missandei of Narth, and their master, Kraznys. It’s Daenerys’ first encounter with an entire group of humans defined as “slaves”, and they’re positioned — just as the vulnerable characters were all the way back in season one — between herself and Master Kraznys once again as a litmus test. Kraznys is deplorable, gleefully describing how the Unsullied are essentially tortured into obedient numbness before slicing the nipple of one soldier clean off, while Missandei operates as a cruelly treated translator. Daenerys has something of an awakening in the preliminary stages of season three, as her gaze switches from ruling in Westeros to ending slavery in Essos and informs our sympathy towards her character as far as season seven. We don’t want Daenerys to take the Iron Throne from Cersei because she’s “born to rule the Seven Kingdoms”, we want her to take the Iron Throne because she’d finally give the “lowest” a sense of purpose and benevolent leadership.



8.5



Lost ravens:

— The Night’s Watch have abandoned their march beyond the Wall. I suppose the White Walker attack at the Fist of the First Men answers their question once and for all, that White Walkers are the reasons for the wildlings fleeing south. Elsewhere, Jon is brought before Mance Rayder and Tormund Giantsbane, who inform him that they do not kneel north of the Wall. There’s a lot to be learned from the way the wildlings live.



— Ros is keeping an eye out for Sansa as Littlefinger gets closer and closer to her. He’s offered her an out, a ship leaving the city on an assignment. It’s not the first time Baelish has appeared behind Sansa’s shoulder to whisper advice into her ear, but this is the first time the show doesn’t let their relationship take a backseat.



— Davos is alive after all! But now he’s in prison. Melisandre has twisted events at Blackwater to somehow suit her own ends, blaming Davos for not letting her take part in the battle. Davos tries to murder her, as he quite rightly believes that Stannis is falling under her spell. He cares about Stannis, even declaring for him in a life or death situation, but Stannis reciprocates no such loyalty. This is Davos’ emergence as a main sympathetic character now firmly under way.



— Robb and his army have arrived at Harrenhal to find it destroyed. Qyburn is one of the survivors at least, so hello to him!



— Ending the episode is Ser Barristan Selmy, who’s appeared for the first time since season one to pledge himself to Daenerys. His appearance comes after he saves Daenerys from one of the warlocks of Qarth, who are apparently still after her. They’re never brought up again in the show, so it’s safe to presume they were just used to introduce Selmy back into the show in a heroic manner — that’s forgivable, I suppose.