Review: Game of Thrones ‘The Rains of Castamere’ – Show Them How It Feels

In the beginning of ‘The Rains of Castamere’, Walder Frey mentions how the “wine will flow red” at the wedding of Edmure to one of his many, many daughters and granddaughters. Sounds like a great time, right? But there’s something that doesn’t feel right behind the typically arrogant masquerading of Frey – and when later in the episode, Rickon mentions a wildling tale about drinking blood, the ‘red wine’ Walder mentioned immediately suggested that things were not well at The Twins.

Isn’t that just the understatement of the fucking year?

Robb Stark’s been a frustrating character over the past few seasons: a man who was unable to look beyond his victories on the battlefield and see that he was losing a war from within. As much as he felt like an adult and a leader, he wasn’t – he couldn’t even keep his mother from releasing his most valuable prisoner, and lost the respect of many men when he broke his vow to Walder and married Talisa. One mistake begat another, and by the time Robb arrived at The Twins at the start of the episode, he was in desperate straits. And in desperation, he put the final nail in his coffin when he returned to Walder to help him take Casterly Rock from the Lannisters.

But a Lannister always pays his debts: and for a son, the lion decided to eat the entire wolf from head to tie, orchestrating a plan with Roose Bolton (who has been torturing Theon on the side for pleasure all season) to engineer what is known to readers of the book as the Red Wedding. And boy is it a disturbing plan: after lulling the entire wedding party (which includes a beautiful wife for Edmure, another disturbing sign that something is amiss) and Robb’s army into a drunken stupor, the bride and groom are whisked away (yay mideval sexual assault!), and the band above starts playing ‘The Rains of Castamere’ , a song we learned tells the story of the Lannister family obliterating an enemy of theirs.

The writers have done a great job to warn us that something is coming (Bran’s dream earlier in the season for example, which I thought might foreshadow Catelyn’s death), but there’s nothing that prepares one to watch a pregnant woman get repeatedly stabbed in the stomach… and that’s how the massacre BEGINS, for fuck’s sake. It’s the most painful reminder of what is always the most important thing in Westeros (family)… and it’s just disgusting how much joy Frey takes in it all, as his sniveling ass helps the Lannister “send his regards” to the Stark family.

And as Catelyn stands there in the end, willing to commit the murder of a young woman even when she knows its fruitless, Martin’s cynical worldview comes brightly shining into focus: there’s no nobility in a completely corrupt world. None – and trying to maintain the facade will only get one killed. Upon their arrival to The Twins, Frey serves bread and salt – an old, sacred Westeros tradition that signifies the host will not harm the visitor, no matter what their dispute might be. But it’s all part of his plan – there’s a reason the Lannister family is the most powerful in the entire world, and they didn’t get there by following the honor system, a point that gets driven home when four men walk up to Grey Wind in his cage and shoot him. For his betrayals (which were at their core, a man following his family and his heart) his entire army pays the ultimate price, the latest in a line of brutal devastation handed to the Stark family by the Lannisters (who essentially just ordered the murder of their in-laws, thanks to the marriage of Sansa and Tywin).

What amazes me is how quick and devastating that final scene is, showing us the shift in tone from happy to unsettling from Catelyn’s perspective (which I’ve been told, is how it plays out in the book) – and then finishing that brutal scene with her, as she realizes neither the Tully nor Stark name will save her. She screams and kills Walder’s wife, as the guy looks on drinking wine. It’s deeply disturbing stuff, but it speaks to how violently the rug is yanked out from under the audience. There’s no safety or loyalty in this world: only money and power, which Tywin is in power of both, having seemingly won the war.

I have a few thoughts about the other happenings of the episode, but I’ll keep those to the observations below. This episode was about arguably the biggest event of the entire book series to date – and at that, it does a devastating job at executing it, draining every moment of uncomfortable, ominous second out of those scenes until it drops the hammer, leaving our mouths agape as the credits rolled in silence. What an episode.

Grade: A

Other thoughts/observations:

– so I guess this explains all the letters we’ve seen Tywin writing this season?

– Bran’s bit is probably the most confusing: he worgs out on Hodor and the wolves while Jon and Raider’s crew fight, and then sends Rickon off with Osha so he can find the three-eyed raven with Jojen and his sister (whose name I always forget). Apparently he’s the only worg who can control humans (if only the dumbest of them, currently), whatever that means. We do get a tender moment when Osha says “he means the world to me”, a much-needed bit of happiness before all the horror to follow.

-Dany takes Yunkaii off-screen, something to be expected. She’s getting quite moist over Daario, who won’t make love to property and always goes for the grandoise (and touchy) gesture around his new queen. Predictably, Jorah’s not a fan.

– Sam’s girlfriend calls him a wizard… is this some sort of foreshadowing, or are we supposed to laugh because she’s kind of really dumb?

– HOW THE FUCK did they manage to kill Ned Stark twice… it speaks to how Martin views the value of nobility in a corrupt world when the watermark for honorable men (who had his own blemishes, having bedded a peasant woman while married and all) can be murdered multiple times, even if it’s only in name.

– Arya threatens the Hound – and then has to be saved by him, again not able to reach her family in time to save them. – Robb, talking about marrying Talisa instead of the young girl Edmure marries: “perhaps I’ve made a terrible mistake.” Unfortunately, he can’t take a Forget-Me-Now for this mistake.

– Jon Snow’s unable to keep his undercover plans a secret anymore after they force him to kill the horse breeder at the Wall. He shoves Ygritte down in order for her not to be called a traitor with him, kills Orell (who transfers to a bird while he dies… insane), and then bounces. – the fighting scene with Grey Worm, Jorah and Daario was terrific in how it highlighted their different fighting styles.

– the last shot of Catelyn tore me apart. She knows she’s broken and doomed, and has nothing but an empty gesture of murder to end her life with, the most desperate and hollow final acts she could possibly have. It also speaks to just how cruel Frey is – even Tywin wouldn’t show up and do it himself, so he handed it off to the sickest fuck in the kingdom.