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Game of Thrones – Review of Season 3 Episode 4: And Now His Watch Is Ended

“Influence grows like a weed…I tended mine patiently” ~ Varys

This week’s episode of Game of Thrones was packed full of plot twists, interesting dialogue and focused on revenge. Here are some of this week’s pivotal moments.

Game of Thrones - Review of Season 3 Episode 4: And Now His Watch Is Ended

Jaime and Brienne

Jaime is being badly mistreated after having his hand lopped off. Brienne, comes to his rescue and tries to prevent their captors from injuring him further. Jaime has just about given up when Brienne encourages him to fight and live so he can take revenge. Brienne also and she thanks him for lying about Tarth being full of sapphires to prevent the men from raping her. She doesn’t quite understand why he helped her, and Jamie doesn’t offer up his reasons but she appreciates it. This grudging respectful friendship blossoming between the two enemies is great to watch. In spite of the fact that Jaime is a nasty character (remember, he tossed Bran Stark out a window for spying on him and Cersei in the opening of season one) Brienne manages to have pity on Jaime. For all his cruelty, it would seem he has developed a sense of honour and a nice side if given half the chance.

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North of the Wall

Sam is asked by the girl who gave birth to save her baby’s life. Craster, the nasty, wretched man who sleeps with his daughters and has fathered ninety-nine sons, and will expose the baby to the cold and leave it to die. Lord Commander Mormont’s men want to kill Craster for holding out on food and supplies. Craster is attacked and is killed and Mormont’s men turn against him in revenge as Sam sneaks out amid the chaos to save the girl and her baby.

“Sometimes severity is the price we pay for greatness” ~ Margery Tyrell

Game of Thrones - Review of Season 3 Episode 4: And Now His Watch Is Ended

King’s Landing

King’s Landing provided some of the best snippets of conversation this episode. Varys finally explains why he hates magic and how he ended up being castrated. The most awesome and disturbing moment of the scene is when he reveals he’s been keeping the man who castrated him locked in a box all these years as revenge. Littlefinger has hired another bed for the voyage to the Eyrie and Varys intercepts this information. Varys wants badly to undermine Littlefinger’s ability to marry Sansa and gain titles.

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Meanwhile, Margery is still playing her cards right and has Joffrey wrapped around her fingers much to Cersei’s dismay. She really knows how to play to Joffrey – that girl is a one man PR show and she is damn good at it. She’s not just another pretty face. She is leaps and bounds above Sansa in terms of political manoeuvring.

Cersei has an interesting talk with Tywin by telling him she believes the Tyrells are a problem. She sees how Margery manipulates Joffrey and wants to step in. Tywin chides Cersei and wishes she had more control over Joffrey. He tells her she thinks more highly of herself than he does. OUCH, but well deserved. Lastly, there is a plot to marry rode-coloured-glasses-Sansa to Ser Loras. Sansa, instead of being mortified, once again looks quite pleased at the idea of marrying well in spite of the inherent danger.

Game of Thrones - Review of Season 3 Episode 4

Daenerys

In one of the best scenes and twists of the season, Daenerys hands over her dragon in exchange for 8,000 Unsullied warriors. As soon as she hands over the dragon, Dany reveals she can understand Valyrian and has her Unsullied kill their slave masters. All this time, she knew exactly what the Good Master was saying to his translator behind her back. He said some horrible things and Dany kept playing dumb only to get this great reveal out at the best possible moment. The look on his face was priceless. After she’s killed the Good Masters, she frees the Unsullied and asks them to fight for her as free men. It was an amazing scene. She’s a smart, strong woman and she keeps getting better with each episode. Although she looks timid and delicate – she is anything but, and she consistently makes other female characters in this series look daft and weak. She’s a thousand times smarter and more interesting than Cersei – who prides herself on her cunning and intellect yet can’t control her teenaged son to save her life. Dany has once again shown us she’s a definite contender and a force to be reckoned with in the days to come.

Join us next week when we tune in on Sunday, at 9pm ET on HBO for another exciting episode of Game of Thrones.

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