Review: Game of Thrones ‘Second Sons’ – And So My Watch Begins

Coming into the third season of Game of Thrones – and knowing the sheer girth of A Storm of Swords, a book that currently sits unread on my bookshelf – I wondered how the show would inevitably handle a cast of characters and story lines that refuse to stop growing in both amount and complexity. A few episodes this season have suffered from this continuous expansion, none more so than ‘Second Sons’, a very female-centric episode that is entertaining, but lacks thematic cohesion (a growing trend for GoT) and at times, feels like it’s more than dragging its feet.

That’s not to say ‘Second Sons’ is without its own events; things certainly happen, but there isn’t a lot of impactful moments within those advancements of plot. The biggest of these events is the marriage of Tyrion and Sansa, which goes over about as well as one might expect. Tyrion gets wasted and threatens the King, who himself was threatening Sansa of pregnancy by rape. If anything, the wedding sequences showed us what a farce the wedding was: the party was thinly veiled by the obnoxious outbursts of Joffrey (who at one point, removes Tyrion’s step stool so he perform a wedding ritual properly) and the rude grunts of Cersei, who isn’t looking for any new sisters or husbands (threatening Margaery and dismissing Loras when he makes an attempt at friendly conversation). All very entertaining, but not a story that is going to bear much fruit in the short-term: the Tyrell/Lannister game of chess only appears to be beginning, and there’s still two more weddings people need to make it through without bloodshed. Unfortunately, the first wedding doesn’t appear to bode well for what may happen in the future.

Another story line still appearing to be in its infancy stages is Dany building an army – a considerable task to take up, but for the second season in a row, her adventures stick out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of the show. Separated from the rest of the world, Dany’s gone on the same journey two or three times now since her husband died; the only difference with the Second Sons is that it brings the first man she’s truly been attracted to since the death of Drogo (being another person who “does what he wants”, Dany can’t help but swoon a little, even if she doesn’t quite show it). From the moment he appears on screen, Daario commands attention from the writers – a clear sign he’s got a part to play in what is to become. His introduction is certainly convincing – killing his two comrades in order to prove himself to Dany – but it remains to be seen what his purpose is beyond a love interest for Dany, and her newest comrade to join her latest conquest to save all the enslaved people as she travels to the Seven Kingdoms.

The Sansa and Dany story lines are easily the most forgettable, despite taking up much of episode’s attention. There just isn’t a whole lot to parse out of what’s happening there: Sansa’s still under Joffrey’s thumb, and Tyrion’s frustration with his family seal grows and grows, while Tywin tries to keep all his spinning plates balanced in the air. To speculate as to what parallels may be drawn here, it does appear that both Tywin and Dany are biting off more than they can chew in different ways: Twyin’s trying to orchestrate the perfect prism of power for the Lannister family and Dany is trying to conquer the Seven Kingdoms her own way. They both might have the right intentions, but it’s clear they’re both struggling to maintain their personal missions (be it Tywin’s children or the Tyrell family proving to be difficult, or Dany’s under-sized army and over-sized ambitions).

For me, the most interesting scenes were spent with Stannis, who is still struggling with his decision to trust Melisandre, something we’ve seen him wrestle with since meeting him last season. Stannis is a man of extreme personal ambition, being led by religious ferver (fed to him through the Red Lady’s visions) to kill members of his own family, a list that now appears to include Gendry, his bastard nephew, whom Melisandre has big plans for. “There’s power in a kingsblood” she tells Stannis, but he still seeks out Davos for council, freeing him from his cell and allowing him to speak the words Stannis believes but doesn’t want to hear. He wants that crown so bad, driven by jealousy and hatred for the families that pushed his rightful claim to the throne aside, that he’s willing to burn everything to the ground, sacrificing his honor and self-respect to get what he deserves. But he’s struggling to commit to the cause, even believing that his Lord of Light’s visions are true: he’s not a person who murders innocents, Davos tells him, but when the entire power of the realm is at stake, it’s pretty damn easy to question one’s morality.

We see a few other characters in ‘Second Sons’ (Arya and the Hound have replaced Jamie & Brienne as our sarcastic pairing this week, and Sam kills a White Walker to save Gilly beyond the Wall), but we mostly spend our time at Dragonstone and King’s Landing, as those in power (and those seeking it) wrangle internally with the duties they’re told are needed to secure and/or protect the realm.

Grade: B

Other thoughts/observations:

– with the Sansa/Tyrion wedding going so peacefully, is it wrong to assume the one everybody’s been talking about all season (the wedding about to occur at the Twins) isn’t going to go as smoothly?

– ‘The Rains of Castamere’ continues to show up, reminding us that it will be very important one day in the future: this time, we got its history from Cersei, who shares it with Margaery as she tries to keep a smiling face while Cersei talks about slaughtering her entire family. Great little scene between those two (though I do feel the show’s lost Cersei a bit over the past season and a half – her presence has been greatly reduced, which stinks: she was so great in the first season).

– the Titan’s Bastard was such a thin character, it was clear he wasn’t going to last long. Characters in Game of Thrones get rich, layered introductions, or they get brash, one-noted ones… guess which ones usually die quickly?

– watching Davos read a kid’s book was my favorite moment of the episode… just seeing him get excited at reading ‘enough’ correctly was enough to redeem most of this episode’s shortcomings.

– Samwell’s blade kills White Walkers: what a surprise.

– Stannis throws the leeches containing Gendry’s blood into the fire, speaking the names of Baelon Greyjoy, Joffrey Baratheon, and others. Man’s got some enemies, in case we forget.

– fuck you, Joffrey. Seriously: what an asshole, amirite?