Calling "The Climb" a slow episode would not be necessarily incorrect. Perhaps it simply suffered from being that episode that followed two great back to back episodes. Or maybe it simply was uneventful. Regardless, "The Climb" did do some great things, but it truly felt as it was simply prodding along, hyping up future events that we may or may not see later this season.
The funny story about this week's episode was that I had actually missed the first 15 minutes of the episode due to going out and watching Iron Man 3. Despite that, I felt like I had missed absolutely nothing. I watched the episode a second time to be safe and so little had actually happened that my initial impression was true. The episode began with Sam trying to make a fire while talking to Gilly about their journey to the Wall. Couple that filler scene with an even greater filler scene of Bran cooling down a fight over the proper skinning of rabbits, and you have yourself the slowest 15 minutes of Game of Thrones ever filmed. The only good thing is that each scene establishes at least a few facts: the Wall is over 700 feet tall and entirely made of ice and Jojen Reed's animal vision powers cause him to bite down on a strap because of the intense seizures and he saw Jon Snow.
I have no idea how they climbed the wall.
Which is a perfect transition to talk about Jon (and this marks the first time I am writing a review in almost perfect chronological order). Jon and Ygritte had an eventful week on a couple of layers. Ygritte reveals that she knows Jon's true allegiances are still to the Night's Watch, but she doesn't happen to really care. Instead she wants Jon to be loyal to her. It is an interesting development and Ygritte is showing herself to not be as dumb as "those girls in silk dresses." She has a practical kind of intelligence and has a good understanding of people. She is aware that the Night's Watch and Mance don't care about their people, but are more about the end goals. Ygritte is basically putting their relationship on another level, and is using that bond to keep them alive. This newfound loyalty to each other passes its first test as Jon emerges as "Jon the Wall Destroyer" (Eat that Dany!). Ygritte and Jon nearly found themselves becoming human pancakes, but they pull themselves together and make the climb successfully. It was a great shot to end the episode too as the two gazed out to the world from the top of the Wall.
Arya also had a fairly eventful week as she met the Red Witch, Melisandre. Melisandre's return was mostly focused on the magical powers of Thoros of Myr and Beric Dondarrion. We learned a bit about Thoros and his "worship" of the Lord of Light. Apparently Thoros only restored his faith because of the miracle in Beric's revival. Melisandre is also dumbfounded in this, magically forgetting that Thoros quit in his mission to convert King Robert to the Lord of Light. What was most shocking was the selling of Gendry (who last week was a big supporter of the Brotherhood) to Melisandre for two heavy bags of gold. Arya, of course, hated this exchange and confronted Melisandre about it, only for Melisandre to observe darkness in Arya and the eyes of many victims in her spirit or something. This is of course alludes to Arya's exhaustive list of people she wants to kill and may or may not be a dose of epic foreshadowing. Sadly this is a plot line that will not reach its climax until much later, if it even does. The more immediate result of this week will be Gendry's fate with Melisandre. Obviously Gendry will get involved in Stannis' plot line, but in a way we will probably not necessarily enjoy.
Speaking of not enjoying something, let's talk about Theon's misadventures in torture. This week was not very pleasant as Theon played a game and ended up losing…a finger. What is with this season and dismemberment of characters? Theon failed to guess his captor's identity and ended up paying a grave price. Based on the preview for next week, it will only get worse for Theon as the season goes on.
But the biggest theme this week was arranged marriages. Robb had to arrange one for his uncle, Edmure with the Freys in order to acquire more support for his attack on the Lannisters. Edmure was obviously not a fan of the entire situation, but eventually caved in putting the need of his family above his personal desires. This obviously sets up the Frey Wedding event that will occur sooner rather than later. I am still not fond of Robb's stubborn stupidity and less than honorable decision to make his uncle suffer for Robb's choices. Robb is like a less respectful edition of Ned, which is making lose my enjoyment of Robb's character. I am not a huge fan of his story this season and can't wait for it to end. Hopefully we will not have any Robb scenes next week. Robb's situation is not further helped by the very subtle reference from Lord Bolton in his scene with Jaime that the North will lose. Bolton is trying to save his ass in releasing Jaime and keeping him free from Tywin's wrath when the civil war is over. Robb's support is shrinking by the week.
Meanwhile, Olenna and Tywin dueled with their favorite weapon: words. Olenna was not too fond of the marriage arrangement of Cersei to Loras, citing Cersei is too old, a fact that Olenna is very much an authority on. Of course, the conversation broke down into Game of Thrones style social commentary with Tywin looking down on Loras' "nocturnal activities" while Olenna did not enjoy the rumors circulating around Cersei and Jaime. Tywin appears to be in complete denial of this fact, or may be just denying it to save face. Either way, Tywin won this engagement by threatening to make Loras a member of the Kingsguard, forcing Olenna to back down and seemingly accept the deal. The only problem with this subplot is that the issue surrounding Loras and the marriage is that this debate would never take place in the books. In the novels, Loras has two older brothers who, by right, have stronger claims to Highgarden. So as interesting as this subplot is, I can't help but remember they are omitting some interesting characters that play relatively big roles in later plot lines, especially concerning the Martells who have been mentioned several times and play a huge role in the later books.
The arranged marriages have their way on the victims. Tyrion and Cersei are wallowing about their dismal futures with their new significant others. Tyrion confronts Cersei about the attempt on his life back in Season 2, directing the blame towards Joffrey (who reminds us he is still a psycho this week). Cersei and Tyrion seem to be on the same page for the first time in a while, which may be the beginning of rebuilding a relationship between the two. Probably not, but one can dream as that would make Cersei far more bearable. Sansa and Loras, the other side of the spectrum, had an awkward exchange in which the only thing they had in common was the mutual dislike of King's Landing. Tyrion finally broke the news of the arranged marriage to Sansa and Shae at the same time. Awkward.
Stealing scenes left and right.
The closing sequence with Littlefinger and Varys stole the show and almost this episode amazing. Littlefinger had an epic speech about chaos, further revealing the dark ambition of the character that Varys fears. Littlefinger is proving to be among the most dangerous characters in the entire show and the ending montage and speech further solidifies this as we witness the consequences of his actions: Sansa's breakdown, Joffrey's return to being a cruel monster and growing one step closer to his dreams.
Overall, this episode was good, but far from great. The slow first half was helped out by a much stronger second half and the ending scene with Littlefinger was great. Sadly, it was relatively uneventful with plenty of "filler" scenes that did little to stir up excitement. It certainly makes the later episodes more exciting though.
The Rundown
+ Littlefinger's speech
+ Arranged marriage drama
+ The epic climb
- Robb's story
- The first half was really slow.
Overall: 7.7
What redeemed this episode took place in the throne room and on the wall in the last 3 minutes.
ReplyDeleteVarious characters have been had scenes when suddenly they feel dangerous. For Jaime Lannister I have the specific scene of when he stabbed Jory Cassel in the eye with a dagger. For Dany it was when she sacked the city last episode. For Littlefinger it was this scene. Sure he was always around causing mischief or working in the shadows. Sure we always knew he was ambitious. Here though we see his path to reach those ambitions through chaos. Few people do well in chaos, but Littlefinger thrives in it, and if there is anything we can be certain of, it is that there will only be more and more chaos from here out. THIS was the scene that made Littlefinger seem like the most dangerous man in the show.
Finally the scenery on the wall is just absolutely gorgeous. To spend you entire life dreaming for that sight and man is it breathtaking.
Nice review :)