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Spoiler alert: Lannisters and Tyrells scheme, Jon Snow and Bran have a near miss and we learn just how devious Littlefinger is
Spoiler alert: This recap contains spoilers for every episode of Game of Thrones up to and including Season 4, episode 5.
Power is a precarious thing in Westeros. Those who have it can never get too comfortable because someone else always wants it . . . and is usually willing to do whatever it takes to get it.
The fifth episode of Game of Thrones’ fourth season is all about this uneasy balance: those in power trying to find their footing, those without sharpening their knives and waiting for the ideal moment to strike.
The newly crowned King Tommen, Joffrey Lannister’s younger brother, is coronated in the opening scene. Though he’s now nominally the most powerful man in the land, the boy is a novice ruler. It’s a tough gig, not the least because his predecessor died in agony on his wedding day. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine a worse king than Joffrey.
The battles for Tommen’s favour have already begun. Margaery Tyrell makes eyes at him from across the throne room, but Cersei Lannister, his mother, is having none of it. In an exchange of wits between the two, Cersei admits Joffrey was a terror and appeals to Margaery’s better nature to put Tommen’s interests first. Margaery plays dumb, pretending she hasn’t even thought about marrying Tommen. Neither woman lets on her true motivations as they jostle for control of the boy king.
Regardless of their plans, Tywin Lannister still intends to go ahead with Tommen’s marriage
to Margaery, purely in the interest of allying the Lannisters with the Tyrells. The Lannisters are more desperate for the match than we thought: it turns out their famous gold mines have run dry.
The Lannisters have maxxed out their lines of credit and owe a great deal to the Iron Bank of Bravos. Apparently, as Tywin explains, Westeros isn’t as different from modern day as we thought: the banking industry still runs the show. Though they hold the throne, the indebted Lannisters don’t hold nearly as much power as they’d like.
Across the Narrow Sea, news of Joffrey’s death has only just reached Daenerys Targaryen. Her advisers debate whether it’s an opportune moment to launch her long-awaited invasion of Westeros.
The timing seems right. Daenerys has amassed a respectable army and at last has the ships to carry it to King’s Landing, where an untested boy king sits on the throne. But as Daenerys points out, while she’s starting to get the hang of conquering cities she has yet to prove she can rule them. So she will remain for now, hoping to cement her power and earn a bit more credibility as a monarch worthy of wearing the crown.
As all those holding the power try to solidify their standing, those who aspire to take it from them are staying busy. Littlefinger arrives at the Eyrie, Sansa Stark in tow. The heavily guarded mountain fortress is still ruled by Lysa Tully, Sansa’s aunt and the widow of Jon Arryn, the noble whose death was the inciting incident for this entire show.
The whodunnit of Jon’s death, which drove the plot of the first season before being eclipsed and forgotten, is unexpectedly revealed by a lovesick Lysa: she was the one who poisoned her husband, under Littlefinger’s orders, and then misdirected the Starks.
Littlefinger has always been a schemer, but this revelation shows the lengths he’s willing to go to get ahead: murdering a noble, sparking a war and destabilizing the entire kingdom. Littlefinger is playing the long game and won’t stop until he wins it all.
For all his planning, though, he’s caught off guard by Lysa’s ambush wedding. Lysa is a schemer in her own right and is also intensely jealous of Sansa, whom she plans to marry to her son Robert.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the wilderness of Westeros, Arya and the Hound bond over their respective desire to kill all the people who have wronged them. They disagree, however, on the best way to do it. The Hound, in his usual blunt fashion, tells Arya that her graceful swordplay won’t mean anything against a foe willing to win at all costs.
The show’s other wacky road-tripping pair, Brienne of Tarth and her squire Podrick Payne, are hitting a few bumps on the start of their journey to find Sansa. Pod can’t ride a horse or skin a rabbit, but he refuses to leave Brienne’s service. Like Brienne, he’s stubborn about keeping his promises and intent on proving himself.
In the show’s final sequence, the storyline of the mutineers at Craster’s Keep reaches a bloody conclusion. The Night’s Watch raiding party arrives at the compound, where Brandon Stark and his companions are being held captive by the mutineers. Locke, a henchman of Roose Bolton who has been hunting Bran, gets to the younger Stark before Jon does.
Unfortunately for Locke, Bran uses his warg powers to control Hodor and uses him to snap Locke’s neck.
Though Bran has a chance to reunite with Jon, he decides not to, choosing instead to continue north. Jon doesn’t even realize how close he’s come to finding Bran. He’s too occupied crossing swords with the leader of the mutineers, a bruising showdown that ends when the mutineer is literally stabbed in the back by one of the abused women. It’s a final reminder that in Westeros, power is never as absolute as it seems and the powerless are always waiting for their moment to strike back against their oppressors.
Spoiler alert: This recap contains spoilers for every episode of Game of Thrones up to and including Season 4, episode 5.
Power is a precarious thing in Westeros. Those who have it can never get too comfortable because someone else always wants it . . . and is usually willing to do whatever it takes to get it.
The fifth episode of Game of Thrones’ fourth season is all about this uneasy balance: those in power trying to find their footing, those without sharpening their knives and waiting for the ideal moment to strike.
The newly crowned King Tommen, Joffrey Lannister’s younger brother, is coronated in the opening scene. Though he’s now nominally the most powerful man in the land, the boy is a novice ruler. It’s a tough gig, not the least because his predecessor died in agony on his wedding day. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine a worse king than Joffrey.
The battles for Tommen’s favour have already begun. Margaery Tyrell makes eyes at him from across the throne room, but Cersei Lannister, his mother, is having none of it. In an exchange of wits between the two, Cersei admits Joffrey was a terror and appeals to Margaery’s better nature to put Tommen’s interests first. Margaery plays dumb, pretending she hasn’t even thought about marrying Tommen. Neither woman lets on her true motivations as they jostle for control of the boy king.
Regardless of their plans, Tywin Lannister still intends to go ahead with Tommen’s marriage
to Margaery, purely in the interest of allying the Lannisters with the Tyrells. The Lannisters are more desperate for the match than we thought: it turns out their famous gold mines have run dry.
The Lannisters have maxxed out their lines of credit and owe a great deal to the Iron Bank of Bravos. Apparently, as Tywin explains, Westeros isn’t as different from modern day as we thought: the banking industry still runs the show. Though they hold the throne, the indebted Lannisters don’t hold nearly as much power as they’d like.
Across the Narrow Sea, news of Joffrey’s death has only just reached Daenerys Targaryen. Her advisers debate whether it’s an opportune moment to launch her long-awaited invasion of Westeros.
The timing seems right. Daenerys has amassed a respectable army and at last has the ships to carry it to King’s Landing, where an untested boy king sits on the throne. But as Daenerys points out, while she’s starting to get the hang of conquering cities she has yet to prove she can rule them. So she will remain for now, hoping to cement her power and earn a bit more credibility as a monarch worthy of wearing the crown.
As all those holding the power try to solidify their standing, those who aspire to take it from them are staying busy. Littlefinger arrives at the Eyrie, Sansa Stark in tow. The heavily guarded mountain fortress is still ruled by Lysa Tully, Sansa’s aunt and the widow of Jon Arryn, the noble whose death was the inciting incident for this entire show.
The whodunnit of Jon’s death, which drove the plot of the first season before being eclipsed and forgotten, is unexpectedly revealed by a lovesick Lysa: she was the one who poisoned her husband, under Littlefinger’s orders, and then misdirected the Starks.
Littlefinger has always been a schemer, but this revelation shows the lengths he’s willing to go to get ahead: murdering a noble, sparking a war and destabilizing the entire kingdom. Littlefinger is playing the long game and won’t stop until he wins it all.
For all his planning, though, he’s caught off guard by Lysa’s ambush wedding. Lysa is a schemer in her own right and is also intensely jealous of Sansa, whom she plans to marry to her son Robert.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the wilderness of Westeros, Arya and the Hound bond over their respective desire to kill all the people who have wronged them. They disagree, however, on the best way to do it. The Hound, in his usual blunt fashion, tells Arya that her graceful swordplay won’t mean anything against a foe willing to win at all costs.
The show’s other wacky road-tripping pair, Brienne of Tarth and her squire Podrick Payne, are hitting a few bumps on the start of their journey to find Sansa. Pod can’t ride a horse or skin a rabbit, but he refuses to leave Brienne’s service. Like Brienne, he’s stubborn about keeping his promises and intent on proving himself.
In the show’s final sequence, the storyline of the mutineers at Craster’s Keep reaches a bloody conclusion. The Night’s Watch raiding party arrives at the compound, where Brandon Stark and his companions are being held captive by the mutineers. Locke, a henchman of Roose Bolton who has been hunting Bran, gets to the younger Stark before Jon does.
Unfortunately for Locke, Bran uses his warg powers to control Hodor and uses him to snap Locke’s neck.
Though Bran has a chance to reunite with Jon, he decides not to, choosing instead to continue north. Jon doesn’t even realize how close he’s come to finding Bran. He’s too occupied crossing swords with the leader of the mutineers, a bruising showdown that ends when the mutineer is literally stabbed in the back by one of the abused women. It’s a final reminder that in Westeros, power is never as absolute as it seems and the powerless are always waiting for their moment to strike back against their oppressors.
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