Game of Thrones - Episode 5 - The Wolf and the Lion

In these writeups I'm not recapping or reviewing the episode as much as offering my impressions as a big fan of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. With that in mind, these discussions will include spoilers aplenty for all published A Song of Ice and Fire books.

Click through to read my thoughts on "The Wolf and the Lion."



I'm not sure if I have said this every week or not, but I think this is my new favorite episode. I'm coming to really enjoy all the conversations that have been added just for the show. This week we were treated to the verbal dueling of Varys and Littlefinger, and even better a conversation between Robert and Cersei (and they laughed together! It blew my mind!).  But to begin at the beginning, I love the opening credits, and this time it's slightly different as a little mechanical Eyrie was added to the map.

It seems my fears were unfounded, and we did get a little more of the tourney. After Littlefinger stole the Hound's story last week, I was happy for the Hound to get his moment in battle against his brother. I'm not sure if Loras impressed me as much as I hoped he would, but I'll give him time to win me over. So far the casting has been great, and even some of the characters I was worried about early on (Catelyn and Cersei mostly) have totally won me over. There is one exception though, I just can't reconcile the actress playing Sansa with the Sansa I read about. She looks like she could be 16 (this is where I could look up the age of the actress I suppose), and Sansa's whole ideology is so married to the fact that she's only 12. I think I actually dislike her more on the show than I do in the book!

I can't decide if I'm impressed or not with the Eyrie. I was looking forward to seeing how it would be portrayed, and I haven't made up my mind about how it looks yet. I was hoping we'd see more of the trip up to the Eyrie, because (as anyone following along with my reread knows) I could never reconcile exactly how it looked. But that said, the sky cells were great. I enjoyed that shot a lot, but I would like more long shots to show up just how high up the Eyrie is. But enough about the aesthetics, what about Lysa??  Breastfeeding her seven year old in front of her knights, her sister, and her enemy? Yikes... just yikes. That was one scene I thought for sure would be cut for the broadcast, but I was wrong. (I just hope the breast was a prosthetic, for the child actor's sake at least).

The highlight of the episode for me was the conversation between Robert and Cersei. A lot was revealed in that conversation, and it all felt true to me. We know Cersei hated Robert, and that Robert would have much rather been rid of his wife, but surely they must have spent time alone together. And this was an honest exchange between the two. Them laughing together, and looking at each other thinking how it could have turned out differently between them - if they were different people. But Robert can't move past Lyanna (even though he can't remember what she looks like) and Cersei's pride will not allow her to move past the insult. Great performances, and a great scene.

I know it was different from the book, but I really enjoyed seeing Ned spar with Jaime. At least got this one moment of badass-ness before... well we all know what's coming. And it felt incredibly true to Jaime to knock out one of his own men for stepping into the duel. It would have felt more true if Jaime killed that man, but I enjoyed it all the same. And for him to kill Jory like that, stabbing him through the eye, after they bonded over their war stories last week... well nobody ever said that Jaime was a kind person.

A few more thoughts:

• I enjoyed the sparring between Littlefinger and Varys, each one trying to prove he knows more than the other. At this point in the read of the books I'm still not sure which is the more dangerous of the two. We've seen more results from Littlefinger's plans, but Varys is still playing the game.
• We got to see a little of Bronn, and hopefully we get a lot more. Bronn is one of my favorite side characters.
• The conversation between Varys and Illyrio which Arya overhears is almost word for word from the book, I thought that was cool. And I was impressed by the dragon skull.
• No Jon or Daenerys this week. I suppose that's expected, as the individual storylines speed up we will need to narrow our focus some weeks.
• I'm not sure why we needed to see the Theon/Ros scene, other than to up the nudity factor for the week. I guess they need to get Theon's back story across. But now Robb's decision to send Theon back home will seem even more foolish now that we know Theon better.
• Lastly, if anyone doubted that Renly and Loras were lovers, this episode will quash that thought. A lesson in medieval manscaping, while Loras preps Renly for his part in the War of the Five Kings.

That's all I got for this week. What did everyone else think?