Warning: The following review contains spoilers.
Calling this the second half the season premiere would not be far from stretching the truth. I eluded in my previous review that season 3 would likely have to play around a bit with the story telling. Certain story arcs would be skipped over completely with others would be cast into the limelight on occasion. This is a side effect of the sheer size of the cast and how distant the parallel stories are from one another. In this case "Dark Wings, Dark Words" deals with all the characters that were ignored in the first episode of this season, while touching upon a few stories here and there to remind us that they still exist. For the most part, this episode was concerned on building up these other story lines, and while this episode moved at a slower pace, it accomplished a lot more.
"Dark Wings, Dark Words" was not as action packed, lacking the flair of dragons, assassination attempts, and zombie attacks. Also, no nipples were sliced off. But what we did get was captivating dialogue exchanges and a lot of plot points finally being explained that non-book readers may have cocked their head at in confusion.
Much of this was accomplished by the Tyrells , who are quickly becoming the most interesting group of characters in the entire series because they are almost too clever. This is all because of the Queen of Thorns, Olenna Tyrell, played by veteran actress Diana Rigg. Olenna may develop into a fan favorite, just because of the fiery demeanor of her character. Never have I fell in love with a character as quickly as I did with Olenna. Her exchange with Sansa and Margaery was probably the most pivotal scene this week, having a great deal of consequence on the rest of the episode and potentially the season. Sansa finally broke down, revealing the truth about Joffrey (who reverts back to his old ways later in the episode) and trusting into the exceedingly calm Tyrells who seemed not too surprised that Joffrey is well…a psychopath. Sansa reveals a mixture of strength and weakness here, finally speaking the truth but once again trusting someone she barely knows. We have to believe that Tyrells will protect Sansa, if only because the former fiancé of Joffrey is hardly a threat to the ambitious House Tyrell.
She's awesome. Nuff said.
What is more intriguing is how Margaery uses this new information about the King. It was brilliant. I was truly surprised. Instead of cowering in fear like meek little Sansa, Margaery feigns interest in the psychopathic tendencies of Joffrey. Margaery is playing the Game of Thrones with the big dogs now and so far has been nothing short of amazing. Dare I say that she may be as good as Tyrion? I am probably jumping to conclusions, but it is fun to speculate.
But this episode was not all about the Tyrells, as we were able to witness the triumphant returns of Bran, Arya and Jaime this week. I'm going to start with Bran, because he opened this episode with another one of his dream sequences. Bran's story, at least to me, was always one of the hardest ones to watch, despite always having been told that his dreams were important. Even as a slow book reader, I never felt that it was that important. Enter the Reed siblings, Jojen and Meera. Jojen is a character that actually appears in the second book and reveals some information about the abilities of Bran, but the show does a much better job of making sense of everything. We learn that Bran is a "warg" which seems to be the Westeros version of a druid and that Bran has been entering the mind of Summer (a fact that was eluded to in the previous season) and that the three eyed raven is a new sense of some sort. Or another aspect of Bran himself. It's a interesting concept and the brief scene of Jon Snow reveals the potential of the Wargs as we see a wilding possess a bird. Bran has got some potential here to finally show why he is so damn important. Meanwhile, I will take more scenes of Stark Family reunions in the dream world.
Speaking of Jon, the stories beyond the wall got mere cameos this week and were rather lackluster. We learned that Mance Rayder basically rules by fear and doesn't really trust Jon and that Sam can't walk very well, needing people to pick him up while he is called piggy by his sworn brothers. Mormont basically saves Sam's ass here too. Hopefully Sam will grow a backbone, or otherwise he will lose a fan.
Moving back to the returns, Arya's story is finally back in action, much to everyone's enjoyment. I know Arya has her fair share of fans and for good reason. Her spunk and fire is still there as she met the "Brotherhood without Banners" which appear to be a ragtag group of mercenaries with no real loyalties. Arya attempted to prove her strength again, trying to intimidate them so she can move on with her mission to find her family, but ends up getting captured. Well kind of. Can we say coerced into having dinner with them? Yeah, that works. As is the luck of Arya, any time she seems she may be safe, she ends up in greater danger. The Hound returns, tagging her a "Stark," something she has managed to avoid for an entire season. It remains a mystery what will happen to Arya now, but I suspect she will be surprised. Sure, Arya wants to kill the Hound and he is not exactly in any position to defend himself, being captured by this "Brotherhood". But the Hound is no longer on Joffrey's leash and he has spent much of his time protecting Sansa. I wonder if Arya will spare him because of that.
I know I am jumping around a lot, but I have to touch upon the rush of developments with the Starks (before moving on to other stuff), as finally the whole Winterfall is burning to the ground fact reaches Robb, along with more bad news. Catelyn's father has also died. But then again, why should we care? The Tullys (Catelyn's family) plays a much larger role in the books, making a number of appearances in Book 2 as Robb settles in Riverrun for a time (if I am recollecting correctly). Nevertheless, with all this news being told, Catelyn and Robb have a lot to deal with and no idea how to approach it. It seems they are going to Riverrun for the funeral where we will presumably meet the Tullys finally.
On the way, we get a great scene that develops Catelyn and does wonders for her character. We are told a story of how she prayed for Jon Snow's death, only to feel guilty and then pray for his swift recovery. Jon, obviously, recovered, but Catelyn could never bring herself to "love a motherless child," making Jon a full fledged Stark. Because of her inability to cleanse herself of this mistake, she now blames herself for the tragedy of the Starks. It was a great, revealing scene that tries its best to deal with explaining Catelyn's disdain for Jon, almost making her sympathetic for the first time. It truly redeems her character.
The tragedy of the Starks is symbolized by the destruction of Winterfall, which was of course because of Theon, who is the surprise returnee! Part of me expected Theon to drop off the face of the Westeros. Instead we get him experiencing the worst of kind of torture. What Theon is going through gives him the shivers, and begs the question of: Why? How did Theon find himself in this position? Last we saw him, we got knocked out by his own men. I can only assume they tossed him to the invading army lead by the bastard that Robb sent there and now they are trying to pry information out of him. Theon may have a savior though, but I wouldn't hold your breath for Theon. I fear it will get worse. Somehow.
Jaime is back in action!
Jaime's story is one that I was very much looking forward to. And he did not disappoint. His exchanges with Brienne of Tarth were excellent, showing an interesting dynamic between the witty Jaime and the never smiling Brienne. Jaime's dialogue is so expertly written, blending wit, sarcasm and philosophy into a seamless mix. He knows how to get into people's head so well, while educating them on life ("We don't choose who we love"). Jaime may be the best character in this show, only rivaled by his brother Tyrion (who was regulated to a comedic cameo this week by the way, nothing to write about). Brienne was not a fan of Jaime's wit, but they were able to get out their frustrations with each other in a sword duel. Brienne practically decimated Jaime in this round, using her superior strength and unorthodox skill. Looks like another swordsmen is on his level. They close this episode with a bit of a cliffhanger, when they are surrounded by a group of Northmen.
Cliffhanger ending aside, this was a fat episode with way too much to discuss. Like my previous review, this is a long read and I apologize for that. Hopefully, I can shorten these a fair amount once they stop introducing so many new characters and concepts. This was an episode that accomplished a lot both in character and story development, without sacrificing too much in the way of action. It may have not have the excitement or mysticism of last week, but I actually enjoyed what the episode did a lot more. Who needs violence when you have intrigue?
The Rundown
+ The Tyrells play the game so well.
+ Redemption for Cateyln
+ Jaime and Brienne are priceless
+ Hound + Arya= awesomeness
+ Bran's story is slowly making sense
- Sam is getting disappointing
Overall: 8.8
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