Game of Thrones – “Breaker of Chains”: Daario unchained

“Breaker of Chains” is the name of this episode, and from the very beginning we realize that because of Joffrey’s death, Sansa is free, Margery is free and everyone around him is free from his cruelty. Except Tyrion, of course, who does not gain freedom in the wake of Joffrey’s death, but rather ends up in the chains. My, how quickly this game changes!

Of course, Daenerys Targaryen is the literal breaker of chains, but this is the thread that ties these scenes together, and this episode seems a bit tighter than last week’s episode, which surprises me because last week’s episode was written by George R.R. Martin, but this episode was written by the show creators, who have a mastery of this medium.

The Little Bird Flies Free

Sansa’s escape was thrilling, wasn’t it? They are closing down the entire capital to find her, because Sansa Stark has the most reason out of anyone to want Joffrey dead. It’s clear she didn’t kill the prick, but when Ser Dontos told her to get in the boat or she would die, she glances back. What is in that glance? A consideration of who she can trust; this drunken fool or the Lannisters? A thought about Tyrion, her lord husband and her duty as his wife? Or is that glance the equivalent of a disrespectful spit? So long to the Red Keep and the royal daydreams of a little girl. So long to the family that destroyed her own, tortured her, kept her prisoner and married her to an Imp. Yeah. I’m thinking that Sansa didn’t look back with a fond farewell, but she did look back. She knows she is in this game up to her neck and for all anyone wants to say about Sansa – the girl possesses the will to survive.

And who is revealed in the fog as the breaker of her chains, but creepy whispers himself: Lord Baelish. That Littlefinger. I tell ya, he’s like the great dark orchestrator of chaos. He has to be in on the main plot to kill Joffrey or he wouldn’t have had Ser Dontos at the ready with the necklace. He wouldn’t have had the ship ready in the mysterious fog, awaiting Catelyn Stark’s beautiful daughter. Sansa may be out of the hands of the Lannisters, but she has simply become a pawn in another man’s scheme. A scheme that may brush up against some wish fulfillment from his childhood affection for a young Catelyn Stark.

So now, Littlefinger has acquired a very valuable player, one he can use and wield as he pleases to gain more power in the realm. Young and gullible she may be, but Sansa remembers what Lord Baelish told her about everyone being liars, and she’s just witnessed him murder the man she saved from Joffrey, the man that sprung her from the hell that was breaking loose that the wedding feast. I don’t believe Sansa is as obtuse to the power of her position as some may think. She is the only Stark known to be alive.

The Queen to Be

Margery Tyrell wonders if she is cursed. Renly was gay, Joffrey was psychotic – but really, she stands in a much better position now than had she been married to Joffrey. Unfortunately, they didn’t consummate their marriage, so there is still political maneuvering to be done. Margery is nothing if not civic minded and politically savvy and she has the Queen of Thorns as her advisor. If Margery is wise, her freedom from an intolerable marriage with Joffrey will still keep her in a powerful playing position.

A Wise King and Incest Rape

Yes, that’s a real heading. A lot of things are just horrible about this scene. There is Joffrey’s body, freshly dead, lying on a slab in the Sept and Cersei, Tommen and Tywin stand over him.

The conversation that takes place between Tommen and Tywin has to hurt Cersei in many ways, 1) Her father shows no remorse for Joffrey’s death and immediately begins grooming Tommen as King, 2) He insults her ability to advise a King and make him good and wise, which was something Joffrey never learned under her warped tutelage and 3) Tywin manipulates Tommen as he manipulated her, as he manipulates all of them, as he manipulates the realm, not unlike Littlefinger.

Cersei is emotionally fragile, and when Jamie comes in, all her angst is against Tyrion. She is convinced that his threat to turn her happiness into ashes has played out in Joffrey’s death. She asks Jamie to kill Tyrion. Asking a man to kill his own brother is no small thing. And here, yet another disturbing thing happens in the wake of Cersei’s grief. Her brother, the father of the demented child she mourns, rapes her right on the steps leading up to Joffrey’s body. (And just when we were starting to like the maimed man.)

Why does he do it? He says that he is cursed to love such a hateful woman, and so he asserts his power over her in her fragile state. She clearly does not want him, but she is wrapped up in her grief and Jamie doesn’t care. She is all he has ever wanted and he sees that now is his chance to have her again. She tells him it isn’t right (well, on like several levels it isn’t right, but we’re left to discern what Cersei means by this since her ethics are a bit warped) and the fact that Jamie is the father of her dead son and the brother of the man she wants dead makes their bond even more painful to watch as Jamie forces himself on her. Nothing makes this scene okay. But the Lannisters prove more and more how awful they are, especially to each other.

The Lovers of Dorne

Mostly what we have learned of Dorne is that they are kinky as fuck. And that’s okay and all; Oberyn Martell is a man who doesn’t want to limit himself by choosing one sexual preference. Oberyn is a warrior and a lover and apparently, a blossoming politician? Tywin interrupts the love fest to snap his political whip. Just as he manipulates everyone else, Tywin leaves Oberyn, hungry for the revenge of his sister’s brutal rape and murder by The Mountain, with a compelling offer to serve as a judge along with himself and Mace Tyrell at Tyrion’s trial, and to give him a seat on the small council.

We find out that Oberyn has expert knowledge of poison. A master of poison, a dead king from poison and a lingering House grudge does not look good for Oberyn. But Tywin, a man who knows how to play the game better than most, knows he needs Dorne as part of the seven kingdoms. The Greyjoys are in rebellion and a wildling army marches on The Wall, and across the world is a Targaryen conqueror with three dragons. Dorne stands as the only House that was successful in resisting Aegon Targaryen’s attempt at conquest. Tywin needs Dorne if he stands a chance for when the Mother of Dragons turns her eyes to Westeros. Plus, he’ll arrange a date between The Mountain and Oberyn for some good old fashioned revenge killing. Looks like Oberyn has much to consider.

Daenerys and Daario 4 Ever

Daenerys has reached Meereen, which appears very Eqyptian with its grand pyramids. Meereen sends out a warrior on horseback and she much choose a warrior as her own to stand for her cause. The warrior proceeds to piss on the ground to mock the eunuch army at her back. She chooses Daario, who gives the Khaleesi a flirty wink before chucking his dagger into the Meereen rider’s horse and then slicing him with an Arakh. Like, whoa. And then he appropriately whips it out and pisses on the ground. Marking territory seemed to be an underlining theme in the episode which was much more directly portrayed in this scene in particular.

And then Dany does her thing. She speaks directly to all the slaves of Meereen of their liberation. She tells them the enemy is there beside them, the enemy has controlled their lives and broken their families and enslaved them. She offers them a choice and then launches crates of severed slave collars against the high walls in Meereen. The slaves of Meereen are showered with the symbolic relics of their possible freedom.

Dany is the true breaker of chains, but I am ready to see her in Westeros. I’ve read the books and know what happens, and I am still ready for her to just get over there and get Westeros together before Winter comes, dammit!

Rapists at The Wall, Cannibals at the Back Door

Sam is incredibly worried for Gilly’s virtue; the girl who just gave birth to the son of her own father. But never mind that. Rape is a very evident theme in this episode. There are a lot of rapists at the wall, and Sam arranges to have Gilly move into Molesville to be a scullery maid at a whore house. He wants to protect her, but it’s obvious that Gilly would rather be at The Wall with Sam then in the dirty slums of a whore house.

When a couple men make it back from the horror at Craster’s Keep, Jon Snow wants to go out and kill the Nights Watch men who rebelled. Obviously, Jon is hardened, and obviously he is thinking strategically. He told Mance Rayder there were 1,000 men at Castle Black when in truth there are only 100. The only people north of the wall who also know this are the men of Night’s Watch who killed the Lord Commander. They better do it quick because Ygritte’s crew and those nasty Thenn’s are headed for Castle Black from the south. Nothing about any of this is encouraging, except the development of Sam as a character and Jon’s cold calculations of necessity for holding The Wall.

Other awesome stuff I will mention from this episode …

• Podrick and Tyrion’s scene together. Tyrion breaks the chains of Podrick’s loyalty and service to him and urges him to leave the city. Tyrion doesn’t want him to come to harm on his behalf. Of course he asks after Shae, and then he learns of Sansa’s disappearance. You can see the wheels turning in Tyrion’s mind. He knows his sister would never sacrifice her own son just to see him imprisoned, but he wonders if his own father would play that hand. And I think from what we’ve seen so far it’s pretty safe to say Tywin is capable of anything.

• Arya and The Hound. I feel like these two could have their own show. I felt like this scene in tonight’s episode echoes something I noted in first episode of the season when Arya kills Polliver with Needle. She is learning The Hound’s way. Arya has always had a male warrior mentor through her journey. Only The Hound is not a very good person as demonstrated by his actions in the episode. However, he tells Arya that he is a man that sees the world the way it is, and then he asks her how many Starks have to have their heads cut off before she’ll see it too. This is very important. He is shaping Arya’s perspective, which has been in a constant state of flux since her father’s beheading. The Stark way may be the moral way, but it is not the way of the world. It is the way of a time that they no longer live in.

• Did everyone catch all the references to Braavos? Everything in this show is done for a purpose. However, it is The Iron Bank of Braavos that catches Ser Davos’ attention in his daily reading sessions with Princess Shireen. You can see the light bulb flash on above his head. He’s a resourceful guy, that Davos Seaworth, some might even say handy (oh, it’s a bad pun, but that’s why I love it). We have more to look forward to with what will happen with Stannis now that all his leech kings have died.

• There was quite a bit of penis in this episode. I mean, the breasts will always outnumber the penis shots, but if they had a quota to fill, this episode helped them along quite nicely.

Amanda Lowery lives, writes and studies in Baltimore where she is held hostage by potholes, stray cats and rats that make her watch way too much t.v. and rhyme unnecessarily. You can find her book reviews and pop culture thoughts at amandasthinkingoutloud.blogspot.com.