“We go forward, only forward.” – Stannis Baratheon
Way back in Season 2’s “What Is Dead May Never Die,” then-Master of Whispers Lord Varys presented then-Hand of the King Tyrion Lannister a riddle involving a king, a rich man, and a priest, with a common sell-sword standing between them.
All three men bid that the sell-sword kill the other two, but who lives and who dies? Tyrion suggests that it depends on the sell-sword, who with his sword possesses the power to determine who lives and dies.
“But if it’s swordsmen who rule,” Varys replies, “why do we pretend kings hold all the power? Power resides where men believe it resides. It’s a trick, a shadow on the wall.”
The riddle’s lesson is that titles and gold alone cannot give one dominion over others, but rather at the heart of true power and influence is the sheer will of those who wish to exert it.
It illustrates how a Queen Mother like Cersei Baratheon can essentially rule the Seven Kingdoms despite having no actual authority, as well as how a dirty, barefooted septon can render a king of Westeros a helpless, impotent boy.
After seeing his queen, Margaery, and her brother Loras thrown in cells by the Faith Militant for breaking the “sacred laws” of the Seven-Pointed Star, the holy text of the Faith of the Seven, King Tommen laments in temper tantrum form to his mother, “I am the king! The queen is in prison and there’s nothing I can do!”
Well there is plenty that a stronger, more feared king could do, but we know Tommen is very far from that. Instead of using his army to crush the Faith, he ends up crying in his mother’s arms and ultimately does nothing.
Just as his grandfather Tywin was the real power in King’s Landing during Joffrey’s brief rule, his mother is now the true power behind the throne.
But Cersei is no Tywin, no matter how hard she tries to play the part, and her scheme to ruin House Tyrell leaves her vulnerable in ways she hadn’t the foresight to imagine when she set the plan in motion.
Cersei certain has her father’s cunning and lack of moral regard, but less than a fraction of his skill at royal politics.
Instead of being cold and calculating like Tywin, she is petty, thin-skinned, and vindictive, waging wars that are personal as opposed to political.
Only the most near-sighted (or dumb, if we’re being blunt) person in Cersei’s position could think it a good idea to arm and empower a band of religious fanatics given her history of brother-banging and producing bastard monarchs.
The Faith did her “dirty work” by imprisoning Loras and Margaery Tyrell for breaking the laws of their god, but Cersei is utterly stunned to find herself suffering the same fate.
Fresh off of her visit to Margaery’s cell to taunt her younger rival, Cersei struts away with a satisfied smirk on her face before being greeted by the High Septon in a chapel that he says is “one of the oldest structures in King’s Landing.”
Before bringing out the Artist Formerly Known As Lancel Lannister to confront Cersei about her own sins, the High Septon gives her a history lesson about the modest chapel which sits inside the more lavishly constructed Great Sept of Baelor, built by former Targaryen king Baelor the Blessed.
It was a haven for members of the Faith long before Baelor built his sept, and the altar at which they worshipped was carved by people who “didn’t inflict their vanity on those who came after them the way Baelor did with that great gilded monstrosity out there.”
Of the Tyrell’s he says, “their finery will be stripped away, their lies knocked down, their true hearts laid bare for all to see, and so it will be for all of us, high and low alike.”
That of course pleases Cersei, though what the High Septon says next erases the smile from her face: “What will we find when we strip away your finery? A young man came to us not long ago, broken in body and spirit. He had so much to strip away, so much weighing him down. But piece by piece he unburdened himself, let go of vanity, pride, sin. Now his soul is so light he will float through the seven heavens like a bird. And he has much to say about you.”
Cersei is then taken away and placed in a cell of her own, as she screams without a hint of irony, “I am the queen! I am the queen! Have you lost your mind!?!?”
This is what is lost on both Cersei and Olenna Tyrell, who tries unsuccessfully to bribe the High Septon to release Margaery and Loras.
The Faith isn’t for sale, nor is it a party to the political maneuvering and underhanded deal-making so commonplace in King’s Landing.
They seem to have a purpose greater than simply power itself, which is why Cersei and Olenna seem so befuddled by their dealings with the High Septon.
He isn’t playing their games by their rules. There is no amount of gold that will sway him, nor wiill any perceived political alliance deter him from following his path.
Cersei and Olenna, two of the most powerful women in Westeros, have both cut a swath through their political rivals over the years, but dealing with a true believer? That must seem truly a foreign enemy to each.
The most powerful woman on the other side of the Narrow Sea has had her own troubles with violent fanatics, but Daenerys Targaryen appears to have, at least briefly, solved her issue with the Sons of the Harpy by agreeing to marry Meereenese native Hizdahr zo Loraq and re-opening the fighting pits where slaves and now free men (but mostly slaves) battle to the death for the amusement of Meereen’s many fight fans.
Dany reluctantly attends what is apparently one of the preliminary rounds leading up to the “Great Games” and before storming off in disgust spots a new combatant who breaks through the horde of fighters and incapacitates each of them without killing any.
The fighter approaches Dany and takes off his helmet, revealing himself as her scorned former advisor and current stalker, Jorah Mormont, who made his way to Meereen by convincing a pirate that he was a great warrior who could earn him a tidy profit by selling him to a Meereenese slaver.
Tyrion joined him on the auction block, selling to the same slaver at a much smaller price thanks to his captor’s apparent inability to find a good cock merchant in Slaver’s Bay, and introduces himself to Dany in a moment that was brief but pretty exciting, and set the stage for what could be the most fascinating partnership yet.
In far less exciting news, we return to Winterfell, site of last week’s disturbing events in which Sansa was raped by the sadistic Ramsay Bolton on their wedding night while Reek/Theon was forced to watch.
Lest you think that monstrous consummation of her unholy union to the son of the man who murdered her brother and mother was the apex of her suffering, we return to “The Gift” to find Sansa being forced to relive that terrible experience on a nightly basis.
Sansa remains locked in her chambers during the day only to be visited at night by Ramsay, who has clearly continued to brutalize her as evidenced by cuts and bruises on her arms.
She is visited by Reek, her father’s former ward turned castrated man-pet to Ramsay, who brings her dinner and responds to Sansa’s pleas for help with a warning to “do as he says, or he’ll hurt you.”
Given the nightly hell she is experiencing at her husband’s hand, it’s understandable that Sansa would think the depth of her misery could not extend beyond its present state, but Reek knows otherwise more than anyone else.
“It can always be worse,” he says.
We know this to be true, and Sansa witnesses it first-hand as her plan to have Reek light a candle and put it in the top of the broken tower to signal for help to her northern allies backfires.
The result is the woman who would rescue her from the grip of the Bolton’s instead being flayed to death by Ramsay and put on display for Sansa to see.
While one of her potential liberators has been killed, another has been significantly weakened, as Stannis Baratheon and his army has been bogged down by the snow, losing 40 horses to the cold and 500 sell-swords to desertion.
Ser Davos Seaworth urges Stannis to return to Castle Black and wait for the weather to clear, but Stannis refuses and pledges to “march to victory, or we march to defeat.”
Defeat appears the most likely outcome, unless he takes the always solid advice of his red priestess Melisandre.
While Stannis weights whether or not to sacrifice his sickly young daughter to the Lord of Light, it seems Sansa’s best bet for freedom is Brienne of Tarth, who is still staring wistfully at Winterfell apparently waiting for exactly the right moment to do, well, something.
Meanwhile at Castle Black, there is a great deal of movement, with Maester Aemon Targaryen dying and Jon Snow heading off on his wildly unpopular mission of bringing the wildlings to the other side of The Wall to help in the inevitable war against the White Walkers.
As First Ranger, acting Lord Commander, and perpetual a**hole Ser Alliser Thorne notes to Samwell Tarly, the departures leave him sorely short of friends and allies, and his fellow brothers quickly try to take advantage by looking to have their way with Gilly.
Sam tries to stop them of course and takes the beating of his life for his troubles, with Jon’s direwolf Ghost eventually scaring the attackers off.
He’s not much of a fighter, but he impresses Gilly with his willingness to fight for her, which leads to quite possibly the least erotic love scene in television history.
We also make a brief trip back to Dorne where we get to see Jaime’s daughter/niece Myrcella giving him the classic “you don’t know me” followed by storming out in a huff teenager move, we get to hear Bronn beautifully singing about tasting a Dornishman’s wife, and we get to see one of the Sand Snakes slowly undressing while Bronn nearly dies of poison she put on her dagger.
Which reminds me: why aren’t we spending more time in Dorne?
