‘Mercy, Fair Trial, These Mean Nothing to Them. All They Understand is Blood.’
Our spoiler-heavy recap of Game of Thrones season 5 episode 2, “The House of Black and White.’’
This is an episode recap, so spoilers abound—you’ve been warned.
Not caught up? Read last week’s recap.
Finally, we catch up with Arya (Maisie Williams). She’s sailing into the free city of Braavos with the captain she hitched a ride from last season. Her ship passes under the Titan, the huge statue that straddles the entrance to the city’s harbor.
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The captain gives her a ride through the canals of Braavos, dropping her off at the secluded and creepy-looking House of Black and White. When she thanks him, he says that “any man of Braavos would have done the same.’’ Remember, he didn’t want to help her last season until she showed him that strange coin she got way, way back in season 2 from face-changin’ murder ninja Jaqen H’ghar (Tom Wlaschiha)—what’s the significance of that coin, and this place? The old man who answers the door tells her there’s no Jaqen H’ghar here, though, and sends her away.
Later, Arya’s trying to chow down on a pigeon when some local punks start hassling her. That same old man who turned Arya away earlier shows up and they run away, terrified. Who is this guy? After he walks Arya back to the House of Black and White, he reveals himself:
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Jaqen’s back! Or is this just some rando wearing Jaqen’s face? He says he was telling the truth when he said Jaqen wasn’t there. When Arya asks who he is, he answers that he is “no one,’’ and that’s what Arya’s going to have to become, too. She follows him into the House of Black and White, presumably to learn badass face-changing murder ninja skills.
Meanwhile, somewhere back in Westeros, Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) and Podrick (Daniel Portman) stop at an inn. It happens to be the same inn where Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) and Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) are taking a load off, and Pod spots them, despite Sansa’s dyed hair.
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Remember, Brienne’s on a mission to find the Stark girls, having sworn to their mother Catelyn back in season two that she would bring them to safety. She walks right over to Sansa and Littlefinger, introducing herself and pledging her life to Sansa. Of course, Littlefinger doesn’t want anyone around poking into his plans. He points out that she’s suspected of killing Renly, and that he doesn’t remember Catelyn Stark ever mentioning her. The kicker, though, is that Sansa remembers Brienne bowing to Joffrey at his wedding, and Sansa doesn’t want anything to do with anyone loyal to the Lannisters. Things get tense, and Littlefinger’s guards are about to jump off on Brienne and Pod.
The duo rushes out of there, stealing an extra horse and galloping away. They are chased by some of Littlefinger’s men, and Brienne saves Pod after an awesome fight on horseback in the forest.
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Pod asks her what the plan is now, after both Stark girls told her they didn’t want her help. Brienne isn’t ready to give up, and they head after Sansa—wherever it is that Littlefinger’s taking her. He mentioned something about a wedding proposal being accepted…what’s that about?
In King’s Landing, Cersei (Lana Headey) calls her brother Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in to check out a package they recieved from Dorne.
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We still don’t know too much about Dorne yet, but apparently they’re really into taxidermy and anonymous threats there, because the box holds a stuffed viper with Cersei and Jaime’s daughter Myrcella (Nell Tiger-Free)’s necklace in it (She was sent there back in season two to marry the Dornish prince, remember).
Cersei and Jaime get in an argument about parenthood. “You’ve never been a father to her,’’ accuses Cersei, to which Jaime says, “If I was a father to any of my children, they’d be stoned in the streets.’’ It’s like they’re finally realizing the ramifications of the whole incest thing many, many years too late.
Jaime decides he’s going to steal Myrcella back from the Dornish, and he’s not going alone. He’s bringing along everyone’s favorite sellsword, Bronn (Jerome Flynn), who is busy formulating a plan to kill his newly betrothed’s sister in order to inherit a bigger castle—classic Bronn.
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Jaime drops by Bronn’s future digs to tell him he’ll find him a prettier girl and an even bigger castle, if he helps him with a secret mission to Dorne.
“There’s no way this little visit could possibly mean anything good for me,’’ Bronn tells Jaime. On a show where favorite characters are killed off left and right, here’s hoping he’s wrong.
We make our first visit of the show’s history to Dorne, where Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma) is watching Trystane Martell (Toby Sebastian) flirt with Myrcella.
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She’s seething with rage over the bloody murder of her lover, Oberyn Martell (featured in the amazing “The Mountain and The Viper’’ episode last season), and blames the Lannisters for it; Now she’s thinking about taking it out on their daughter.
She’s also pissed at Prince Doran Martell (Alexander Siddig), Dorne’s leader, over his supposed inaction. He wants to avoid war, and Ellaria (and, she says, the rest of Dorne) want war.
“Let me send her to Cersei one finger at a time,’’ Ellaria says of Myrcella.
“We do not mutilate little girls for vengeance,’’ answers Doran. Finally, someone on this show who isn’t a sadist.
At The Wall, Stannis (Stephen Dillane) reprimands Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) for putting Mance Rayder out of his misery last episode.
“Show too much kindness,’’ he tells Jon, “people won’t fear you. They don’t fear you, they won’t follow you.’’
That perfectly represents Stan’s philosophy on this show. But Stannis is having problems getting people to follow him—the wildlings don’t respect him after he’s killed their king, and even a 10-year-old Northerner he’s demanded fealty from shot him down, writing that “Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North, whose name is Stark.’’ The North remembers, even if show viewers can’t remember a time when a Stark was actually winning the game of thrones.
Stannis needs Jon’s help, so he offers to legitimize him as Jon Stark and name him Lord of Winterfell. It’s what Jon’s always wanted, but he doesn’t want to break his Night’s Watch vows. And those vows are ultimately what he chooses—after a rousing speech by Samwell Tarly (John Bradley), Jon is elected as the new Lord Commander of the Watch. It’s clear, however, that a large portion of the Watch sees him as too friendly to the wildlings.
Across the Narrow Sea In Meereen, Daario Naharis (Michiel Huisman) is helping Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) root out the guerilla group called the Sons of the Harpy, one of whom is hiding in a wall:
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Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) asks her council what should be done with the captured Harpy. Barristan Selmy (Ian McElhinney) advises restraint, and tells her that a trial is the best way to go. But Mossador, a former slave, tells her that “Mercy, fair trial, these mean nothing’’ to the Harpies, who want the old days of slaving in Meereen to return. “All they understand is blood.’’
After Mossador kills the Harpy while the criminal is awaiting trial, Dany vows to teach her people justice; she demands the man be executed as a lesson to her people that laws must be upheld. She has him beheaded in a public square, in front of her divided populace—former slaves on one side, former masters on the other. Her former slaves, who once called her “mother,’’ don’t take it so well. She’s forced to hide under the shields of her Unsullied soldiers as her subjects throw rocks at her.
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On her terrace later, she is surprised by Drogon, the one dragon that she couldn’t get into captivity. He’s been AWOL for a while, but he seems to recognize her for a moment before flying away. He’s a reminder of the power she once had—but just as he flies away into the night, the unstoppable power she once wielded is slipping away.
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Stray Arrows:
—Arya’s current kill list, which she recites to herself each night: Cersei, Walder Frey, the Mountain, and Ser Meryn Trant. Cersei helped kill her father; Frey helped put together the Red Wedding, where her brother and mother were killed; she witnessed the Mountain torturing prisoners at Harrenhall in season two; Ser Meryn Trant was the knight who killed Syrio Forel, her sensei-like swordfighting teacher, in season one.
—Brienne’s now been told off by both of the Stark girls. Who did it better? My vote goes for Sansa, mainly because the force with which she told Brienne to go screw would have been totally out of character for the shy, scared Sansa of just one season ago. Also, we as viewers might have found the bond between Brienne and Jaime Lannister funny and sweet, but it turns out Brienne’s association with the Lannisters is what made both Sansa and Arya wary of her.
—Pod’s got a point. If both the Stark girls refused her service, does that mean she’s released from her vow to Catelyn Stark? More interesting, though, is what the show has in store for Brienne now that her plans of rescuing the Stark daughters have gone awry.
—Also, Pod can’t throw.
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—The Dornish aren’t psyched about having a Lannister in their midst. Will the fact that the king’s own son seems to be really into her serve to further complicate things later this season?
—During the election for the new Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, someone briefly speaks for a character named Denys Mallister. He was played by veteran actor J.J. Murphy, who died four days into filming his role. And now his watch is ended.
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