Game of Thrones: “Two Swords”

One can only imagine the temptation, in making a series like Game of Thrones, to instill symbolism in every little scene. The characters literally wear metaphors on their chests, and the background is crowded with portentous prophecies and foreshadowing; in the long run, I’m less inclined to criticize the show’s creators for overloading it with symbolism than to applaud them for their restraint. And sometimes, well, they just absolutely nail it.

oh god he’s experiencing happiness everyone run

Season 4, episode ” Two Swords ” begins with Tywin Lannister disposing of the last remnants of poor dead Ned by having the Starks’ treasured Valyrian sword, Ice, reforged into a pair of Lannister blades. In the books, this is done offscreen and introduced by way of the new swords’ presentation, with Sansa (naturally) standing in for the audience in slowly dawning horror. Here, though, it’s a drawn-out, silent funeral for the Starks, scored by (also naturally) “The Rains of Castamere” and ending with Tywin’s third allegorical animal-disposal. It’s not as brutal as the Red Wedding, but there’s an elegiac finality to the scene that’s just as bad. Welcome to Season Four: The Good Guys Lost, And This Motherfucker Won.

“Two Swords” introduces a brave new Westeros, struggling to align itself to Tywin’s desires before he is forced to write another letter. Jaime’s come back to him having traded a hand for a certain amount of moral fiber, Cersei’s loss of temporal power is reducing her to a drunken sideshow, and Tyrion is finding himself the Responsible Adult of King’s Landing, as much to his own frustration as his father’s. Lannister dysfunction is replacing Stark togetherness, and the propulsive plotting and Wars of the Roses narrative of the first three books is slowly giving way to the sprawling middle section of A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. In a large part, this season is about what you do after you’ve won or lost, and early returns do not indicate a neat victory parade for the Lannisters and their erstwhile allies.

For instance, before they can finalize anything, they’ve got Oberyn Martell to contend with. If your book-reading friends have been constantly talking about this guy for four years, well, now you see why. Pedro Pascal inhabits the Red Viper of Dorne with snaky charm, and honestly, I thought his introduction would have been better served without his Declaration-of-Motivations speech to Tyrion. Besides its unavoidable “As you know” nature (something this episode fell into a few too many times), Oberyn is at his best when he’s unpredictable; in his first few minutes onscreen, you don’t know anything about this charming foreign prince except that he likes to fuck people, and fuck things up for people, and is very good at both. Pascal plays that quick-witted impulsiveness perfectly, and while the backstory about his sister Elia is important, it might’ve been better served in another character’s mouth.

Still, he’s here, he’s queer, he’s set to be a source of equal-opportunity eye candy and badassery (with his paramour Ellaria Sand hopefully getting to do more than just assist in the former), and the Lannister Victory March has a spanner in the works. The show has a bit of timeline overlap to contend with – in the books, Jaime and Brienne aren’t back in King’s Landing until well after the royal wedding slated for next episode – but that could be a good opportunity for the kind of “But what if these characters did have a conversation?” scenes that the show excels at.

“This is a private moment, get out. Or, you know, join in.”

Besides Oberyn & Ellaria, the other significant introduction happens at the far end of Westeros, and it’s, uh…well, put it this way, after spending enough time with Ygritte and Tormund (HAR!), a viewer could be forgiven for wondering “What’s so bad about the wildlings getting past the Wall, anyway?” Styr. Styr is so bad. The Book-Thenns are just another distant tribe, albeit a grim and warlike one; here, they’re assigned the cannibalism rumored of certain far-north clans and display it in a spectacularly dickish manner. It’s early yet, but Styr seems set to join the ranks of the show’s best villains in being not only a complete monster, but kind of a prick about it. Ygritte adds a welcome side of grim determination to her punk-rock ferocity but uh, sorry buddy, I’m rooting for the side containing zero instances of straight-up eating people.

Of course, if that side’s going to win they’re going to need an all-star performance from the previously gormless Jon Snow. I didn’t really think about it, but in previous seasons Kit Harrington has been the quietest of the show’s leads, both in amount of dialogue and in delivery. In his brief scenes in “Two Swords” he gets to show off more range than he has in a long time, and the dialogue mercifully leaves his grief and turmoil to bubble under the surface of his defiant, unapologetic defense. A little exposition regarding the returns of Janos Slynt and Alliser Thorne (Shitty City Watch Guy and Crazy Night’s Watch Drill Sergeant) would’ve been nice, but it’s understandable compression, and we’re going to be spending a lot of time on the Wall anyway. Harrington is now the show’s de facto Young Male Lead, and based on this episode he’s up to the task.

The hour bounces around Westeros and parts beyond, checking in with Dany (huge dragons, squabbling man-child lieutenants), Sansa (Everything Is Terrible Forever), and Maergary (still the only person in Westeros who understands the value of being nice to people). There’s the requisite amount of callbacks and exposition, but it’s mostly just setup, as is standard with GoT’s season premieres. Still, “Two Swords” is probably the best of those since the show’s debut, and it’s the last ten minutes or so that push it over the top – one long coherent scene full of action, humor, and horror.

Sandor Clegane is a long-time fan favorite among book readers, with his ability to fill out a Brooding Anti-Hero Checklist with aplomb balanced against George RR Martin’s capable deconstruction of same. For whatever reason, the show has reined the Hound in a little, with his role in King’s Landing downplayed and Rory McCann playing the character with more of a sullen menace than the mocking viciousness on the page. (I’m still irritated they gave his backstory confession in the first season to Littlefinger, who’s had ample opportunity to monologue about how much he knows about other people.) But road-tripping with Arya Stark, the script finally gives McCann a chance to cut loose, channeling the character’s vast reserves of internal anger and playing off of the always-brilliant Maisie Williams.

True Detective Season 2 spoilers.

And he’s given one hell of a target for his anger. I fall prey here to a certain level of book fandom; no matter how well the show handled this, it would never have matched the equivalent in Storm of Swords where Arya’s victim is The Tickler (the torturer disposed of in season two) and she recites his own endless inquisition to him – “Is there gold hidden in the village? Is there silver? Gems?” – punctuating each question with another messy stab. It’s one of the signature moments in Arya’s arc, a well-deserved death pumped full of enough dramatic irony to make you briefly forget Oh my god this little girl just straight-up murdered a guy.

The show’s written itself out of that particular moment, but what we get instead is just as delicious in its own way. What’s surprising is how funny the scene is early on, with Clegane’s exasperated caretaking giving way to the most menacing declaration of intent to eat chicken the small screen has ever seen. And composite goon Polliver ably reminds the audience what an utter piece of shit he is, ingratiating himself so insincerely that even Sandor, a man of few words, has the opportunity to have some fun as his expense. The scene pinwheels through the obligatory action sequence, a reminder of how murderously good at his job the Hound really is, and then, well…

I can’t lie; I fist-pumped a little when Arya got Needle back and coldly did for Polliver (a scene probably inspired by the preview chapter from The Winds of Winter.) And the final shot – Sandor with his chicken, Arya on her horse – is a black joke as good as any in the episode. But the look on Maisie Williams’ doe-eyed face, staring at the expiring Lannister thug with nothing more than the satisfaction of a job well done, dovetails nicely with the theme running through the King’s Landing sections of this episode. You Win or You Die, certainly – but when you win, that takes its own toll.

Random Thoughts:

-”Two Swords” had a few other funny moments besides the closing sequence, offsetting the underlying grimness. Jerome Flynn as Bronn was a reliable comic presence as always, but the crowner had to be Jaime waving Qyburn goodbye with his gold hand. Even when he’s not saying anything, he’s a smartass.

-Speaking of things unsaid, John Bradley-West had a great moment when Sam listened to Jon monologuing about his dead brother. “Oh, the person you were closest to was better than you at everything and it made you feel bad about yourself? Tell me more.”

-Not much yet to say about the recast Daario Naharis (who was, apparently, replaced when Ed Skrein decided to pursue big-screen opportunities). HBO veteran Michael Huisman was appropriately cocky and obnoxious, and still doesn’t have blue hair or gold teeth. That’s one book detail I’m okay with leaving out.

-DEM DRAGONS, though. That’s gonna be fun.

-”Rains of Castamere” was used appropriately in both moments this season, but I hope we get another song (“The Dornishman’s Wife” maybe?) soon. There are other songs in Westeros, right?

-For all the “As-you-know”-ing done by Oberyn, Jon and others, “Two Swords” also tossed in some more subtle backstory reinforcement. Gregor Clegane’s name came up a few significant times, and that’s going to matter.

C’mon, guy. C’mon, just…just stop. Stop everything you are doing.

–Introducing weekly POWER RANKINGS:

5) Styr of Thenn, Gourmet Chef

4) Oberyn Martell, with a bonus for the assorted sex workers of King’s Landing

3) BIGASS DRAGONS

2) Tywin Lannister. He almost smiled. It was terrifying.

1) Arya Stark. And Needle. And her fucking pony.