Swords were forged and loyalties shattered in Game of Thrones season 4, episode 1. Read our recap, and share your thoughts on the exciting season premiere!
Here’s what happened on Game of Thrones season 4, episode 1, titled “Two Swords.”
Ice into fire
Tywin Lannister brings Ned Stark’s Valyrian steel greatsword, Ice, to be reforged into two blades. As “The Rains of Castamere” plays in the background, Tywin throws Ice’s wolfskin scabbard into the fire and smiles into the flames. His destruction of House Stark is symbolically complete.
Later, Tywin gives Jaime the larger of the two swords, and then tries to convince him to leave the Kingsguard and rule Casterly Rock. Jaime refuses; “The Kingsgard oath is for life,” he says, and the king is never safe. He won’t break his oath, even though his honor is tarnished beyond repair.
Tywin is furious, but lets Jaime keep his new sword. “A one-handed man with no family needs all the help he can get,” he says.
Ouch.
An unexpected guest
Tyrion, Bronn, and Podrick Payne wait on the road for the arrival of Doran Martell, the Prince of Dorne, for Joffery’s wedding. The Dornish party is late, but eventually ride up – without Prince Doran, who is too ill to travel to King’s Landing. Instead, his brother Oberyn will attend the royal wedding.
On top of that, Prince Oberyn arrived early, and has snuck into the city unnoticed. But Tyrion has an idea of where to find him.
Meet the Martells
In Littlefinger’s brothel, Oberyn Martell and his paramour Ellaria – a bastard – select whores. Ellaria settles down with a lithe girl, and Oberyn hangs on to Littlefinger’s male agent. “I’m a prince, boy,” he says, when the agent protests. “Have you ever been with a prince?”
But their afternoon of passion is interrupted when Oberyn hears men singing “The Rains of Castamere” from another room. He storms out to confront the Lannister men singing the song, who insult the Dornishman and Ellaria. Oberyn stabs one man in the wrist, only removing the blade when Tyrion arrives with Bronn. Tyrion asks for a word in private.
Tyrion asks Oberyn why he came to King’s Landing. Oberyn recounts the story of his sister Elia; how she married Rhaegar Targaryen, how she loved him and bore his daughter and son. But Rhaegar betrayed her for another woman, and a war began – a war that ended with Lannister soldiers brutally murdering Elia’s children, and Gregor Clegane raping and murdering Elia.
“If the Mountain killed my sister, your father gave the order,” Oberyn says. “Tell your father I am here. Tell him the Lannisters are not the only ones who pay their debts.”
Flirting with danger
After a tender moment with her dragons turns terrifying, Daenerys Targaryen reprimands Daario Noharis and Grey Worm for keeping her waiting. Later, Daario comes to Dany to talk “strategy,” in the form of a sad bouquet of flowers. But the sellsword scores a point when he teaches Dany what the flowers are used for in the area – “You have to know a land to rule it,” he says. Dany takes the bouquet, smiling thoughtfully.
The train of marching Unsullied comes to halt when they find a grim signpost to Meereen – a dead slave girl, murdered and mounted on a pole, with one arm pointing the way. There is a child posted for each of the 163 miles left to the city. Dany insists on seeing the children with her own eyes.
Sweet and sour
In King’s Landing, Shae tries to encourage a grieving Sansa to eat. Sansa won’t even have a bite of lemon cakes. Tyrion arrives and asks to talk to Sansa alone, which upsets Shae.
Sansa is tormented by the story of Robb and Catelyn’s murder. Tyrion tries to comfort her, saying that Catelyn would want her to move on, but Sansa leaves for the godswood. “It’s the only place I can go where people don’t talk to me,” she says, pointedly.
Tyrion finds Shae in his room and rejects her attempts to seduce him. Furious, Shae asks him if he wants her to stay; Tyrion has no answer, and Shae storms out… watched by one of Cersei’s maids.
The price of time
Not-Maester Qyburn fits Jaime with the golden hand Cersei commissioned. He asks her about “the other matter,” and she says that all of her symptoms have abated. Cersei refuses to tell Jaime what those symptoms were.
Cersei is a bit stressed out by the events of the past three seasons – and of course, the fact that she is still supposed to marry Loras Tyrell. She wants Jaime to step down from the Kingsguard, and brushes off his kiss.
Jaime is frustrated – he has been back for weeks, and hasn’t gotten to have sex with his sister yet! (That’s rough, buddy.) Cersei says he can’t expect everything to be the same – he left her alone, and he took too long to return.
Before they can really get into a spat, however, Cersei’s maid enters, presumably to rat about Tyrion and Shae.
Thenns
Ygritte and Tormund bicker in a valley south of the Wall. She is frustrated by waiting for Mance’s orders, but Tormund points out they have no choice. He is suspicious when Ygritte refers to Jon in present tense. “If that boy’s still walking,” he says, “It’s because you let him go.”
Their chat is interrupted by the arrival of another crew of wildlings, an artistically scarred and sinister group of Thenns. The Thenns immediately assert their dominance, but have brought a nice supper of human flesh for everyone to eat.
Somebody call the Inn at the Crossroads.
Atonement
Up at Castle Black, Jon is grieving for Robb. But he has no time to wallow, as he is called before a council of Black Brothers to discuss his killing of Qhorin Halfhand and subsequent desertion. Jon tells the council about Mance Raider’s army and plans for attack. Alliser Thorne (acting Lord Commander) and Janos Slynt want him dead, but Maester Aemon keeps a cooler head.
Promises to keep
Back in the south, Brienne tells Margaery Tyrell about how Stannis’s shadow killed Renly, and swears to avenge their king.
“Joffery is our king now,” Margaery says.
Later Brienne harasses Jaime about his oath to return the Stark girls to Lady Catelyn – or at least keep them safe. Jaime says that Arya is safely dead, and Sansa is safe in Kings Landing as his sister-in-law.
When they leave, Sansa is followed to a clearing by a drunken Ser Dontos – the former knight whom Sansa saved from Joffery’s wrath. As a mark of his gratitude, he gives her a last heirloom of his House – a necklace set with purple stones. “I’ll wear it with pride, Ser Dontos,” she promises.
Records
Jaime goes over the security plans for the royal wedding, though Joffery is spectacularly disinterested. Joffery brags about winning the war against Stannis. He flips through the White Book, reading the deeds of previous Kingsguard members, and insults Jaime’s lack of accomplishment and one-handedness.
“How the hell am I this monster’s father?” Jaime thinks, so loudly that we can definitely hear him.
The code
Arya and Sandor Clegane ride through the war-torn Riverlands. Arya wants her own horse, and insists she would not run away – where would she go? The Hound tells her his plans to sell her to her Aunt Lysa in the Vale.
The two come across an inn. The Hound doesn’t want to enter, but Arya recognizes Polliver, one of Gregor Clegane’s men who murdered her friend Lommy with Arya’s sword. He still has the blade, Needle. Clegane resists, but Arya’s loud approach give him no choice but to enter the inn.
Inside, Polliver recognizes the Hound and comes over to chat. He invites the Hound to steal and rape with them all the way to King’s Landing – after all, no one stops men wearing the king’s colors.
“Fuck the king,” Clegane says, abruptly changing the tone of the conversation. After trading insults and threats about chicken, Polliver and the Hound begin to fight. When Polliver is bleeding on the floor, Arya begins to re-enact his final conversation with Lommy.
“Fine little blade,” she recites, hefting Needle. “Maybe I’ll pick my teeth with it.”
And then Arya stabs Polliver in the throat, watching him choke on his own blood with a rapt expression on her face. Later, she and the Hound ride away from the inn – but this time, Arya smiles from on top her very own horse.
“Righteous in Wrath” are the words of House Hornwood, of Hornwood.