Game of Thrones Season 3, Episode 2 - "Dark Wings, Dark Words"

Game of Thrones, Season 3, Episode 2 - "Dark Wings, Dark Words"
Release Date: April 7th, 2013

***Spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 3, Episode 2***

A great episode, and I enjoyed it a lot more than the first episode. Perhaps because I enjoy the POV characters that were featured in this episode. This episode focused on the Bran, Arya, Jaime storylines predominently with some scenes with Margaery, Catelyn, Robb and Sansa. Overall it was a tight well edited episode that flowed well, although some transitions were a bit too obvious. Such as the linear transition from the scene with Cat telling Robb's wife about Jon Snow which then cuts to Jon Snow's storyline North of the Wall. Another obvious transition was from the Warg scene with Jon Snow cutting back to Bran and his talk with Jojen Reed about Bran being a Warg.

Favorite moments of the episode were the return of Jaime and Brienne. Their scenes together were great and the dialogue between them is sharp and witty, but it is Nickolaj Coster-Waldau plays it great. Their scenes together were great and really fun to watch their back and forth, with Jaime teasing Brienne. The culmination in their swordfight was a treat to see on screen and something I'd been looking forward to from the book.

It was also good to see the return of Arya with Gendry and Hot Pie. Arya in the show is less competent than she comes off in the book, and in the show see seems nieve and talks better than she can fight, seeming like a foolish child. The capture scene was pretty close to the book however the change to it being Sandor Clegane being the one to recognise her was interesting. In the book it was one of the men from Riverrun who recognised Arya. It will be interesting to see how the show will incorporate Sandor in following episodes.

Not much happened North of the Wall this episode, although Jon seems to have matured a lot. Unfortunately what was a witty back and forth with Ygritte in Season 2, now when Ygritte pipes up to mock Jon, it seems out of place and juvenile. We also got to see Sam who was looking despondent and there were some slight changes from the book there.

The scene between Sansa, and Margaery and her grandmother was excellent and another great scene lifted nearly straight out of Gerorge R. R. Martin's book. The scene was funny and moving, and it will be interesting to see the game play out with the Tyrell's in future episodes. The seeds are definitely growing in regard to the Tyrell's especially Margaery. Already in these two episodes she has show far more skill at navigating the politics of Kings Landing. The scene between Joffrey and Margaery was excellent as it deponstrated how easily and skillfully Margaery recovered from Joffrey's interrogation, and won him over against Cersei's seeds of doubt in his mind. It was also quite amusing to hear her basically describe anal sex with Renly without stating it clearly. Props to the writing team for skating the line there. Also the interaction with te demonstration of the cross bow was both sexually symbolic and violent. It demonstrated Margaery's attempt to align herself with Joffrey and it will be interesting to see how far she will go for power and how she will go against Cersei in controlling Joffrey's decisions. Some interesting cinematography in that particular scene with a shot of Margaery and Joffrey's reflection in the mirror holding the cross bow, an illusion to both narcissism and perhaps Margaery's temperament in the way her character mirror's the desires of those around her in order to manipulate and gain power.

The cute scene between Shae and Tyrion was nice, although it didn't do anything to further the plot. I think what will be interesting to see this season is the extra time the show is given to sprawl out character scenes and details as the book is being split across season 3 and 4.

The casting of Jojen and Meera was interesting to see, the seem a bit older than described in the book. Although, many characters ages have been altered from book to show.

We also got to see some Theon scenes including a fair bit of torture, but not much development and for show fans only it is unclear who is holding him captive or where.

The scene with Catelyn and Robb was mainly for exposition and the scene between Cat and Robb's wife didn't do much to furrther the plot or character, it just expounded upon some of Cat's history and motivations behind her treatment of Jon Snow, which was interesting, but not much that we hadn't already assumed. The scene neither created a bond between the two women nor did it display any angst.

The episode ends with the capture of Jaime and Brienne and I can't wait to see more scenes with the two of the as the season progresses. Overall it had some great scenes, but the show is really just building up tension and not much action so far.

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Elise Pahlow