The ground fell out from underneath everyone on Game of Thrones season 4, episode 7! Check out our recap, and share your thoughts on “Mockingbird.”
Here’s what happened on Game of Thrones season 4, episode 7:
Hopes and dreams
Tyrion and Jaime argue about Tyrion’s decision to demand trial by combat. Tyrion admits that it felt good to take Tywin’s dreams away from him.
Jaime tells Tyrion he can’t fight in his defense – his swordsmanship is much too poor with his left hand. He asks Jaime to find Bronn for him, and asks whom Cersei has appointed as her champion.
It turns out it’s Ser Gregor Clegane, who has returned to King’s Landing, and is slaughtering men outside the walls – apparently for fun. Cersei is thrilled to see him.
Killers
Sandor Clegane and Arya find a burned house and a man dying of a gut wound. Clegane suggests that the man find an easier way to die. He tells Arya that he fears nothingness; Arya gets philosophical.
Clegane gives the man water, and then stabs him. “That’s where the heart is,” he tells Arya. “That’s how you kill a man.”
Two men attack the Hound, one biting his neck. The other tells them of the price on Clegane’s head; Arya recognizes him from her travels with Yoren, and kills him after the man tells her his name – Rorge.
Closing in
Jon and the black brothers return from Craster’s Keep. Jon reports that Mance Rayder’s army is nearing, and suggests they close the tunnel below Castle Black to the lands beyond.
Allister Thorne is enraged by the suggestion, saying that the gate will stop giants and wildlings. Jon insists it will not, but Thorne refuses to block the tunnel.
A little help from my friends
A shockingly well-dressed Bronn finally visits Tyrion. He has had a marriage arranged with the dim-witted Lollys Stokeworth, courtesy of Cersei. Bronn has come to see if Tyrion can top Cersei’s price. Tyrion says that his gratitude might be valuable, and offers him a chunk of the North.
Bronn is straight with Tyrion: He’s not going to risk fighting the Mountain. The life-risking part of their friendship has been a one-way street.
“I like you… I just like myself more,” he says. Tyrion offers a hand – no hard feelings. It wasn’t like he didn’t know that Bronn was a nasty selfish bastard anyway.
Considering her options
Dany finds Daario Naharis in her chambers. He asks permission to pursue his talent of war; he can’t pursue his love of women, since he only wants Dany. Daario says he will follow her orders, but begs her to be ordered to do what he does best.
“Very well, do what you do best,” says Dany, and tells him to undress.
The next morning Jorah is irritated that Dany slept with Daario, whom he considers untrustworthy. Dany agrees! She has sent Daario and the Second Sons to retake Yunkai. Her plan is to execute every single Master.
But Jorah convinces Dany to introduce the concept of mercy to Slaver’s Bay – after all, if Ned Stark had killed him for selling slaves, he would not be there now.
Dany sends Jorah and Hizdhar zo Loraq to offer the Yunkaii a choice – “They can live in my new world,” she says, “Or die in their old one.”
Honesty
A super-uncomfortable Selyse speaks with Melisandre while the latter is bathing. Melisandre admits that most of her powders and potions are trickery which lead men to the Lord of Light. Selyse, however, needs no trickery, jokes, or lies.
Selyse presents her problem: she does not want Shireen to come on their journey with Stannis. Melisandre offers Selyse a chance to look into the fire to see the truth. “When we set sail, your daughter must be with us,” she says.
Pain
Sandor Clegane tries to clean out his bite wound, but will not let Arya sterilize it with fire. He takes out his rage on Arya, and tells her that while Arya’s brother gave her Needle, Sandor’s brother gave him his horrendous burn scar.
The worst part was not the terrible pain or the awful smell. “The worst thing was that it was my brother who did it,” he says, “And my father who protected him.”
Quietly, Arya offers to wash out the bite. Clegane reluctantly agrees.
Ins-pie-ering
Brienne and Pod take a short holiday at an inn. Their meal is delicious, because it’s cooked by Hot Pie, who cannot stop talking about pie. Brienne says they are looking for Sansa Stark; Hot Pie says the Starks are all traitors.
As they leave the inn, Podrick nervously suggests to Brienne that they shouldn’t go blathering that they are looking for Sansa. (Thank you, Podrick.) Hot Pie comes out and tells them that he knows Arya, and he says she is traveling with the Brotherhood and the Hound to the Wall.
Brienne and Podrick continue on, and Brienne agrees to follow Pod’s hunch that Arya will be taken to Lysa Arryn in the Vale.
A miraculous disappointment
In the darkness of his cell, Tyrion receives another visitor – Oberyn Martell. He tells Tyrion of his recent conversation with Cersei, and one that took place years ago, when Oberyn’s father took him and Elia to visit the Rock. The biggest disappointment of the trip was Tyrion, who had been rumored to be a monster.
Upon seeing Tyrion, Oberyn told Cersei that her brother was just a baby. “He killed my mother,” he recounts Cersei as saying. “Everyone says he will die soon. I hope they are right.”
“Sooner or later, Cersei always gets what she wants,” Tyrion observes. Oberyn asks about what he wants – justice for his sister and her children.
“If you want justice, you’ve come to the wrong place,” Tyrion says. Oberyn says he has come to the perfect place. All the people he wants to kill are right here – and he will start with Gregor Clegane.
“I will be your champion,” he says.
The castle
Sansa builds a little Winterfell in the fresh snowfall at the Eyrie. Robin Arryn interrupts; he thinks everything is dangerous, and is excessively excited at throwing people out the Moon Door. He knocks over Winterfell’s tower, and then kicks down the entire snow castle when Sansa gets upset.
Sansa slaps the boy, and he runs off, sniveling.
Petyr Baelish slinks out of the shadows; he is pleased that Sansa slapped Robin. “Why did you really kill Joffrey?” Sansa asks, suddenly.
Littlefinger says that he loved Catelyn Stark more than anything – in a better world, Sansa might have been his daughter.
“You’re more beautiful than she ever was,” he says, and leans in to kiss a shocked Sansa as Lysa Arryn watches from the balcony.
Fallin’ in and out of love
Later, Lysa calls Sansa to the open Moon Door. Sansa apologizes for hitting Robin, but Lysa is all about the kiss. She accuses Sansa of kissing Petyr, and drags Sansa to the edge of the Door.
Sansa is terrified, and Lysa is insane with grief and jealousy; she tells Sansa that everyone who has come between her and Baelish is dead. Littlefinger comes in on the crazy scene, and tries to talk Lysa down from tossing her innocent niece out the Door. “Why do you love her?” Lysa demands, but finally releases Sansa and collapses, weeping.
Littlefinger soothes Lysa, guiding her to her feet. “I have only loved one woman my entire life,” he promises.
“Your sister.”
And Petyr Baelish pushes Lysa Arryn out of her own Moon Door.