Welcome back to another episode of Game of Thrones.
After last week’s heart-pounding conclusion, I figured “Blood Of My Blood” would keep the momentum going. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, but there were some pretty awesome moments in this episode nonetheless. Let’s explore…
The dead don’t rest…
Picking up right where “The Door” ended, poor Meera struggled to drag Bran through the woods with the Army of the Dead on their heels. Meanwhile, Bran had a slew of flashbacks to events from his time before launching into memories the Three-Eyed Raven had probably given him, most notably the Tower of Joy and images of the Mad King talking amidst flashes of green wildfire. As the dead closed in on them, Bran awoke to find Meera apologizing for not being able to save him. That’s when a hooded figure on horseback arrived to kick some zombie butt and carry Meera and Bran off to safety.
Home, not-so-sweet home…
A very nervous Sam and awestruck Gilly arrived in Horn Hill to meet with Sam’s family. (How gorgeous was that castle, by the way?) Sam stressed the importance of not telling his father that Gilly was a wildling and that baby Sam was Sam’s son. Lady Tarly was so kind when they arrived, as was Sam’s sister, but Lord Tarly? Not so much. He stared at Sam during the entire dinner and made snide comments until Gilly tried to defend Sam. She definitely showed her fearlessness when speaking up against Lord Tarly, but she also let it slip that she was a wildling, and that didn’t go over well with Lord Tarly. After all he’s seen and been through, I really expected Sam to speak up against his father, yet I wasn’t surprised when it didn’t happen (Although I admit I’d also be intimidated by such a man).
Later that night, Sam said goodbye to Gilly because he would leave for Oldtown the next day. However, he rushed back into the room and told her they’d be leaving together. Before they did though, Sam took Heartsbane, the ancestral Valyrian steel sword of House Tarly. Lord Tarly made a big deal at dinner that it was supposed to go to his firstborn son, but because Sam wasn’t a man by his standards, it would go to Sam’s younger brother, Dickon. What Sam plans to do with the sword, I haven’t the slightest clue, but you can bet that Lord Tarly is not going to take this insult lightly. Sam, you better run while you still can!
A girl has a name after all…
After all this time in Braavos learning to be a Faceless Man, it looks like Arya might head home soon. For yet another week, we had to endure more of that nonsense play that the actress Arya’s supposed to kill is starring in. Arya succeeded in slipping the poison into the woman’s drink, but before the actress could take a sip, Arya knocked it out of her hand and told her to be careful of her understudy who wanted her dead.
The Waif, who had been spying, slipped out of the room to tell Jaqen the news. Jaqen was pretty disappointed to hear that Arya couldn’t carry out her mission, but The Waif was only concerned about was killing Arya. Apparently, Jaqen had promised The Waif that if Arya blew this chance, the Waif could do as she pleased with her. As he cut the face off of a dead man to add to the Hall of Faces, he only asked her not to let Arya suffer. Something tells me though that if it comes to that, he will stop The Waif from destroying her.
All for nothing…
Tommen was finally allowed to visit Margaery, but we didn’t find the same cunning woman we’ve come to know and love. I definitely didn’t fall for the whole humble and pious act she put on for Tommen. She’s not the type to give up so easily, so clearly she has something up her sleeve.
But talk about anticlimactic! The Tyrell army arrived in King’s Landing with Jaime leading them to the steps where Margaery was about to begin her walk of atonement. It looked like things were about to go down, but then that little fool Tommen announced that there would now be a holy alliance between The Crown and The Faith. Damn that Sparrow! I was really looking forward to some bloodshed (my apologies for being so bloodthirsty).
Did you miss me?
No. Tonight marked the return of Walder Frey, the sick and twisted man behind the Red Wedding massacre. For this, he was awarded Riverrun by Tywin Lannister. However, his sons lost Riverrun to Brynden Tully, who’s back in action with an army, having escaped being killed with the others that night. Frey told his sons to reclaim the castle, but when they argued that Tully wouldn’t yield, Frey reminded them that they had Tully’s nephew, Edmure Tully. The poor guy’s probably been in chains since his wedding night when he was locked in the dungeons.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it…
After Tommen stripped Jaime of his Kingsguard armor for threatening The Faith earlier, he ordered his uncle/father to ride for Riverrun and settle the above dispute between the Freys and the Tullys. While he ranted and raved, Cersei stood by calmly and instructed him to take command of the Lannister army and show the world what the Lannisters do to their enemies. That should be interesting since we all know from last week that Brienne is also going to Riverrun to ask Tully to join his army to the one headed for Winterfell.
Guess who’s back?
The biggest surprise of the night was the return of Benjen Stark, the hooded rider who saved Meera and Bran! (Hooray! I always knew he’d come back!) What I didn’t know was that he’d return in a different form. Not showing signs of anything out of the ordinary except a pale face, he told them that he had been stabbed by a White Walker with a sword of ice and the Children of the Forest saved him the way they had made the White Walkers in last week’s flashback. (Which kind of makes you wonder what went wrong with the first White Walkers that had been created.) Benjen advised Bran to learn to control his powers because he was now The Three-Eyed Raven.
Yay or nay?
Daenerys led her khalasar out of Vaes Dothrak, but along the way she stopped, somehow found Drogon and rode him for a bit before landing in front of everyone. As the crowd looked on, she gave a kick-ass speech saying that she would forego the tradition of choosing three Bloodriders and that she chose everyone to sail with her across the sea to Westeros and help her reclaim the Iron Throne just as Khal Drogo had promised her would do for her. I thought that was kind of implied based on everyone following her out of Vaes Dothrak last week, but I guess she wanted to be extra sure in order to plan properly.
So while “Blood Of My Blood” wasn’t all about adrenaline rushes, there were some moments that made it a worthwhile watch.
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Leave a comment and let us know!