Praise be to the Red God! Game of Thrones is finally back on our screens. And with one seven hells of an opener.
We opened and closed with two Stark swords. The first; Ned’s trusty blade Ice, melted down at Tywin’s request and re-forged into two new steels – seemingly illustrating that the power of the Starks is dead once and for all. By the time the credits rolled, however, we had seen little Arya coolly murder her former antagonist Polliver – a torturer for the Lannisters – with her reclaimed sword Needle.
It was a delightfully clever tying-together of the episode, not to mention a subversion of the opening; though the Starks might be down, the closing sequence seems to tell us that they’re not out just yet. With Robb, Ned and Catelyn dead, and Jon at the Wall, Arya is fast becoming the Starks’ most powerful weapon.
In the best moment of the episode, we witnessed her getting a true taste for violence. Stopping in at a countryside inn for a drink and some casual murder, the Hound and Arya encountered Polliver and his crew of rapey ale-swillers, and after a delectably drawn out and tense exchange, the Hound flipped a table and got to stabbing, with Arya swiftly following suit – and bidding goodbye to her innocence in the process.
But it wasn’t just these two getting their hands dirty. In another nail-bitingly charged conversation that inevitably resulted in violence (we call that the Game of Thrones special) we saw Dornish newbie Oberyn Martell (the excellent Pedro Pascal) clash with some rando Lannisters.
First introduced picking out prostitutes (standard), it wasn’t long before Oberyn was indulging in some eloquent smack talk and hand-stabbing, two things that suggest he’ll do well at King’s Landing. The only problem being, of course, that he loathes the Lannisters for their part in the rape and murder of his sister. We have a feeling that may come up later on.
In the “Lannister Drama of the Day”, Jaime struggled to cope with the loss of his sword hand, and refused his father’s offer to leave the Kingsguard, only to be taunted by Joffrey and brutally rejected by Cersei. Tyrion didn’t fare much better, clashing with Shae (leading to their affair being discovered by his sister) and being shunned by his grieving wife Sansa. So a usual day at the Lannister house, basically.
If there’s one storyline that’s starting to try our patience, it’s Daenerys’ slave-freeing quest. Luckily, this strand got a shot in the arm with the introduction of the new Daario Naharis (Michiel Huisman, replacing Ed Skrein), who since the last series has gained a beard and had a fairly significant Smugectomy. The increasing danger of Dany’s rapidly growing dragons is also promising, and ties in nicely with Tywin’s difficulties taking control of the tempestuous (read: totally mental) King Joffrey.
All in all, this was an excellent opener, setting up a whole host of storylines that will no doubt climax in death and destruction in the coming weeks.
Best of all, the writers left us once again pondering whose side we should really be on…
Aired on Monday 7 April 2014 on Sky Atlantic.
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