Game of Thrones “Two Swords” Recap

After ten long months, Game of Thrones has finally graced our television screens again. At the end of the last season, we were all left reeling and wondering what was going to happen next to our favorite characters. Now with the premiere of the episode “Two Swords”, it feels like we’ve barely left the seven kingdoms. WARNING: Full spoilers for “Two Swords” in the recap!

The show starts off by perfectly shifting the story away from the Starks as Ned’s valyrian steel broadsword Ice is melted down and transformed into two swords at the behest of Tywin Lannister. The scene symbolizes how the show really is shifting, just as it did in the books, with the post-Robb era beginning and no adult Stark warring against the Lannisters. None of the remaining Starks have any power to attempt to take on the Lannister army; Arya is on the run with the Hound (and everyone assumes she’s dead), Jon Snow is on trial at the Wall for what they believe was his betrayal of the Night’s Watch, and Sansa is still a virtual prisoner in the capital.

Jaime and Tywin open the episode with a fantastic scene in which they discuss Jaime assuming the rule of Casterly Rock instead of being the captain of the Kingsguard. We see Jaime continuing to grow away from his family and becoming his own man as well as making his own priorities at attempting to regain his honour. Later, Cersei denies Jaime what he wants and he is pushed farther away with little to no comfort for him being home from his capture and loss of his hand. Cersei goes on to say that he abandoned her and that he was not there for her during the siege of King’s Landing, and that his old life before his capture is not something he can just rejoin. Jaime is even treated with disrespect by Joffrey when discussing the Kings protection at his wedding as he looks through the history of the Kingsguard and mocks the lack of stories related to his uncle.

Tyrion gets saddled with the task of welcoming the Martell’s to the capital for the wedding and to his shock, Doran Martell has not made the trip, instead sending his younger brother Prince Oberyn Martell, The Red Viper of Dorne. Tyrion finds Oberyn at one of Littlefingers whorehouses, and luckily manages to save a few Lannister men from Oberyn’s rage. Oberyn and Tyrion have a heart to heart about his real intentions for visiting King’s Landing as he intends to seek justice for his sister Elia who, at the end of Robert’s Rebellion, was killed at the hands of Gregor Clegane, following the orders of Tywin Lannister. This will create a whole new level of intensity in the capital as Prince Oberyn is clearly not in a diplomatic or friendly mood. On top of that, Tyrion has to deal with a depressed Sansa who seemingly has lost every will to go on after her mother and brothers murders. Shae is tired of being pushed away by the man she loves while he attempts to breathe life back into the sad Stark girl and Tyrion begins to experience a different level of stress in his life.

Meanwhile, Daenerys finds herself on the march with her Unsullied and her freed slaves on their way to Meereen. We see that her dragons seem more and more wild as they grow older, especially Viserion and Rhaenys as they fight in the sky in front of her over a goat whereas Drogon lounges beside her. However, he does snap at her when she tries to stop the three of them fighting over the dead goat. Will she be able to maintain control over the wild beasts? There are certainly some doubts, but the Mother of Dragons is much stronger than she was with each passing season. Dany is growing more and more into her leadership role, making strong choices both for herself and for the legions of people that follow her.

Ygritte and Tormund Giantsbane are still on the march with their men towards the south side of Castle Black for the imminent attack by Mance Rayder. They are quarreling over whether Ygritte let Jon go purposely or if she actually killed him; Tormund has his doubts that Ygritte wanted him to die. Before they can finish their debate though, they are interrupted by one of their men signalling that someone is coming. We meet the Thenn’s who are far more wild and bloodthirsty than Tormund and his men. The Thenn leader points out that they’re eating rabbits and has one of his men produce something with a little more meat — a human arm, presumably from a member of the Night’s Watch.

The story then turns to Jon Snow, showing that he is in fact healing from the arrow wounds that Ygritte inflicted. He speaks with Samwell over the news of Robb’s murder and how he was better at nearly everything than Jon and how he wanted to hate him. It is a switch knowing that Sam views Jon as a brother and Jon is better at nearly everything, except reading. Following the discussion, we see that Jon is on trial in front of the remaining Night’s Watch hierarchy to explain his actions with Qhorin Halfhand and why he went with the wildlings. Everyone but Maester Aemon wants to execute Jon for his actions, even as he explains that Mance Rayder has a massive army of 100,000 marching on the Wall and has giants in tow fighting for him. The others would rather not believe Jon, however Maester Aemon takes Jon at his word and explains that Jon will not be losing his head today.

The episode ends with its strongest pairing as Arya rides with the Hound on the road away from the Twins. The Hound is explaining how he did not steal anything before leaving Joffrey and that he is not a thief; that he does have some kind of code, though apparently killing is not part of it. They come across a tavern that contains some of The Hounds brothers men, including Polliver, the man who has Needle, Arya’s small but mighty valyrian steel sword. Arya is certainly growing into a force to be reckoned with as we see her stand up to trained soldiers, killing three of them by herself (albeit with them distracted fighting the Hound). You can see her grow as a person during the fight; at first she backs away from it all, then you can see the rage build inside her seeing Polliver with her sword and she goes right at them, killing them brutally. The Hound is adding to her experience, building her into what she is at this point in the story like a mentor on brutality. The fight in the tavern ends with the Hound and Arya riding out with chicken to eat, Needle in hand, and Arya with her own horse that she was complaining about wanting earlier. She may have gone quite dark during this episode but if you think about all the grief, torment and rage that she must have, it is completely warranted. The last scene that we see though is quite memorable as the Hound and Arya ride over a hill and you see the complete devastation that the Riverlands has suffered at the hands of the War of the Five Kings.

Even though this is just the beginning of the season, there is nowhere to go but upwards. George R.R. Martin’s characters have come to life in ways only our wildest imaginations have been able to achieve so far, and we can’t wait to see where this season goes.