Check out Josh’s recap of Son of the Harpy, the fourth episode of Game of Thrones this season. As usual, there is death, debauchery, and some downright scumbags seemingly getting their way all the time. Also, check out our thoughts as well!
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Episode Recap of Game of Thrones Season 5 Episode 4: Sons of the Harpy
Somewhere on the Way to Meereen – Jorah and Tyrion
As usual, there is a lot going on in this week’s episode of Game of Thrones, so let’s get into it! The episode begins with Jorah stealing a boat to take his new captive Tyrion on. Jorah grabs Tyrion and throws him aboard his new boat.
On their voyage, Tyrion decides to annoy his captor by humming through his gag. Jorah finally un-gags Tyrion, and Jorah tells him that Tyrion is being taken to Daenerys. Tyrion seems to enjoy the coincidence, they are heading right where he planned to go anyway! Tyrion questions why Jorah seems so down, and figures out who Jorah is quite easily. Tyrion then puts the pieces together that Jorah was found out about how he was supposed to spy on Daenerys. Jorah isn’t happy with the conversation and decides to watch Tyrion.
Meereen – Daenerys, Sir Barristan, Grey Worm
Speaking of the Dragon Queen, she is meeting with Sir Barristan about her brother, and they reminisce about her brother. Turns out he enjoyed being a minstrel. Unfortunately, they are interrupted by queenly duties, men wanting the fighting pits to reopen. Daenerys is bent on these not happening. Meanwhile, the Sons of the Harpy are mobile again, and begin killing again. The Unsullied move in, but they are ambushed. Unfortunately, it is a slaughter for the Unsullied, and only Grey Worm is left standing. Barristan happens to be going down the street and comes across the fight. He joins Grey Worm in the fight, and they take on the remaining Harpies. While they are able to take down the men, both Barristan and Grey Worm are severely wounded. Both collapse to the ground, and it is unclear if either of them survived.
Dorne – Jaime Lannister, Bronn, Ellaria
Meanwhile, also on a boat, Jaime Lannister is heading to Dorne. Bronn is asking why they are on some cheesy merchant ship, and he is concerned about going into Dorne, because they are all about fighting and having sex apparently. Bronn seems confused as to why Jamie is on this mission in the first place, but Jamie just insists, “it has to be me.” Bronn then realizes he must have set Tyrion free. Jaime seems to be set on killing Tyrion now though, if they cross paths, given he killed his dad, Tywin.
In the night, Jaime and Bronn reach shore, and camp for the night. They enjoy some nice snake for breakfast, and discuss how they want to die. They head out, and hear some horses. Turns out some men are on patrol, and they surrender. They try to play themselves off as castaways that shipwrecked off the coast. The men demand them to disarm, and Bronn decides to take action. He takes out most of the men, but leaves one for Jaime to fight. Jaime fumbles through the fight, and wins, only from the miracle of catching the sword blade in his metal hand. The two now have new horses and swords.
Meanwhile, Ellaria Sand, Oberyn’s lover, seems bent on revenge for his death. She has a rag-tag group of women soldiers, and they decide to join her. Their mission seems to be to stop Jaime Lannister, and seems bent on starting a war.
King’s Landing – Cersei, Tommen, and Margaery
Back in King’s Landing, Cersei is having another Small Council meeting, and decides to send the Master of Coin, Lord Tyrell, to the Iron Bank. When the Small Council is done meeting, Maester Pycelle remains, and comments to Cersei, “The Small Council keeps getting smaller,” to which Cersei replies, “Not small enough.” Cersei is definitely making moves.
Cersei meets then with the High Sparrow, leader of the Sparrows, a religious sect that seems bent on eliminating debauchery. Cersei decides to give this High Sparrow a militia. The High Sparrow finds this unexpected prize great, and we see this new army begin its mission–destroying booze, breaking up orgies, all the while these men are getting a symbol carved into their head. Included in the mission is the shutting down of Littlefinger’s brothel.
The final “criminal” collected is Loras, Margaery’s brother. Margaery then angrily confronts Tommen, demanding to know why Loras is locked up. Tommen has no idea, but Margaery then blames Cersei. Apparently Tommen has believed that Margaery and Cersei have been getting along marvelously. Such a naive child. But in order to try to keep Tommen on her side, she composes herself, and tries to manipulate Tommen into confronting the High Sparrow to free Loras.
Tommen confronts Cersei, demanding Loras’s freedom. She says she hadn’t arrested him. Cersei tells Tommen to speak to the High Sparrow, so he heads out to his church. The Sparrows say he is praying, and one of Tommen’s guards seems eager to break this apparent defiance. Tommen decides it is best to not have some bloodshed yet. Instead, he crawls back to Margaery and tells her that he wasn’t able to get Loras out yet. Margaery, clearly annoyed, decides it is best to be with “family” at the moment. Poor Tommen will be sleeping alone for a while it looks like.
Castle Black – Jon Snow, Stannis and Melisandre
Moving over to Castle Black, Stannis eyes Jon Snow training his men. Stannis’s wife seems to be mourning her inability to provide a son for Stannis. Melisandre walks up, and they discuss strategy, which will be marching to Winterfell before winter.
Later, Jon and Sam are looking for more recruits for the Night’s Watch, and it looks like slim pickings. Sam seems to be indicating they need more men, and the best option is Roose Bolton, he thinks. Jon refuses to deal with the man who killed Rob though. Melisandre comes in for a visit, and asks Jon to come to Winterfell. Jon refuses to go, keeping his oath to the Night’s Watch. Then Melisandre gets a little freaky, getting naked and trying to seduce Jon. Jon seems interested, but in the end, he resists. After turning her down, she leaves and says, “You know nothing Jon Snow”….Huh? How did she hear the line from Ygritte?
Later Stannis is in his “office” when his daughter comes in. She asks him if he is ashamed of her because of her disease that marred her face. He tells her the story about her survival of the disease, and the story really shows that he loves her, and is not ashamed of her at all. She embraces him, realizing this as well.
Winterfell – Sansa and Littlefinger
Littlefinger tells Sansa that he is heading back to King’s Landing because Cersei beckoned him. Sansa is worried about being alone. Littlefinger is confident that Sansa will be fine and seems to think Stannis will win Winterfell, conquer the Boltons, name Sansa Wardenness of the North, and then eventually take the Iron Throne, which is good news for Sansa. Sansa asks what happens if this plan fails, and Littlefinger says that she should figure out how to manipulate Ramsay Bolton. Littlefinger then gives Sansa a smooch, and heads for King’s Landing. Sansa laments she will be a married woman when Littlefinger returns.
Josh’s Thoughts: Game of Thrones, Season 5 Episode 4: Sons of the Harpy
So there is a lot going on this episode. I think my favorite scene this episode was the fight with Grey Worm and Barristan versus the Sons of the Harpy. It was a suspenseful scene, and those are two characters I really like. Of course, anytime I begin to identify with a character, they seem to be killed off, so that is a bit annoying, but I am hoping at least Grey Worm makes it out of this alive. Sadly, if I were to guess, they are probably both dead. As far as Daenerys is concerned, she is sure running out of men quickly. I am wondering how long she can hold this city with how quickly her army is being slaughtered. The good news for Jorah though–some leadership positions have opened up for Daenerys!
Moving to Cersei, Margaery and Tommen, I have to say, while I detest Cersei to my very core, she is excellent at finding ways to mess with people. She is very creative at it. Eventually Tommen will grow up hopefully, and if he isn’t dead yet, he might actually stand up to his mother and her subterfuge. Maybe it will happen quicker than I think considering he is now sleeping alone. Man, it’s tough being a king!
Littlefinger seems to have everything figured out though, at least for what will happen to Sansa. As for him going to King’s Landing, I am curious to know what will happen there. The Sparrows shut down his brothel, so this could be a bad trip for Littlefinger…
As for the rest of the episode, Stannis seems to be heading to Winterfell next, with or without Jon Snow. Snow got pretty close to breaking his vow, but he managed to turn away the naked Melisandre, which was surprising. I am curious to know how and what significance Melisandre’s knowing Ygritte’s phrase to Jon Snow will mean, if there is any. As usual, this episode had a lot going on. We’ll see what progresses on the next episode!
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 5 Episode 4 of Game of Thrones: Sons of the Harpy
Okay good, Jorah is taking Tyrion to Daenerys, which was what my first instinct was. Then I started second guessing myself thinking, oh no, what if he is bringing Tyrion to Cersei? That would have been tragic and frustrating. But nope, he is bringing Tyrion to Daenerys after all, yay! How is their reunion going to go, though? I can’t imagine she would be very welcoming to him, considering how things left off the last time they were together. But if Ser Barristan has died, maybe she’ll be in such a vulnerable position that she’ll be happy to see a familiar face and have some guidance.
Are Grey Worm and Ser Barristan both dead? In the preview for the next episode, it looks like at least one of them has died. I was actually quite surprised at how easily the Sons of the Harpy brought down the Unsullied. These are supposed to be some of the best, if not the best, trained warriors in the world, so it was odd to see them being bested by the Sons of the Harpy.
Tommen sure has his hands full in King’s Landing, mainly with women trying to manipulate him. The poor kid doesn’t even suspect it’s happening. It seems that his reign will mostly be his wife, Margaery, and his mother, Cersei, pulling the strings from behind the scenes. He seems too young at this point to realize what is going on. Will he wisen up soon? Only time will tell.
So in the scene with Jon Snow and Melisandre, when Melisandre says to him, “You know nothing, Jon Snow” it was like WHAAAAT?? That was pretty crazy. I’m glad Jon Snow didn’t give in to her attempted seduction. Would we have gotten another shadow baby thing?
Lastly, we find out that Littlefinger’s end game is for Stannis to conquer Winterfell, putting Sansa in charge as Wardeness of the North, and eventually taking the Iron Throne. But what is Littlefinger’s business with Cersei? We know they’ve been passing correspondence back and forth to each other, but we don’t exactly know about what. And ew, please stop kissing Sansa, Littlefinger.
In the next episode, I’m looking forward to Tyrion and Jorah arriving in Meereen, if that even happens next episode. We see that Tyrion sees Dany’s dragon, Drogon, flying around, though that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re in Meereen yet.
Scenes from Game of Thrones, Season 5 Episode 5: Kill the Boy
Here are scenes from the next Game of Thrones episode, titled Kill the Boy:
