Game of Thrones A-Z (21 page)

Explaining his thoughts on knowing the fate of his character, Cunningham explained to
SFX
, ‘I’m no fool. I want to know that I’m not going to get killed in episode two and stuff like that, but I don’t really want to pursue his journey so much through the books. He’s a great character, and I’m enjoying what he does. Sometimes, naivety is a good thing. Davos is a point-of-view character, so unless I’m standing there brooding with a narration in the background, which would reflect the book, then they have to formulate this guy where he’s in the scene and interacting with these other characters. So that’s a fresh view, in a sense, of the character. I’m acting the script, not the books. I’m eagerly awaiting reading them when I’m finally laid to rest, whenever that may be.’

Working on season two, did Emilia Clarke miss working with Harry Lloyd and Jason Momoa, who played Viserys and Khal respectively? ‘Yeah, hugely,’ she said. ‘Harry came to the screenings of episodes one and two of season two the other night, and I hang out with Jason all the time. It’s very sad being on set without them, but in that sense it fuels the character because it’s sad for the character as well. Everything you feel as an actor, you can put into your work so in that sense it was helpful, but at the same time it was a quieter set.’

Gemma Whelan, who plays Theon’s warrior sister, said about her audition, ‘I had been to a different audition, but I was told I would be good for this other thing called 
Game
 
of Thrones
. So I said, “That sounds interesting,” but I didn’t know anything about it. And then I went the following week to my first audition, but I had watched a bit of it, and seen little bits of Alfie [Allen, who plays Theon] and whatnot. But I didn’t know what I was getting myself into until I went to my first audition and could see just how exciting this could be. I had to pretend I was pleasuring a man on a chair.’

POST-ANALYSIS

Game of Thrones
 was still attracting big numbers, pulling in 3.8 million. The success certainly pleased HBO bosses – who renewed the show for a third season shortly after the second episode debuted.

The controversy about the show’s sexual content would rear its head again, with many critics asking whether the amount of nudity was really needed. 
SFX
 wrote, ‘This week, we’re treated to the seedy reality behind the scenes at a King’s Landing brothel and a brother and sister horse ride that is several different shades of wrong. It’d be enough to make you sick in your mouth if it wasn’t so bloody entertaining, and true to form 
Game of Thrones
 continues to intrigue and titillate in equal measure.’

What Is Dead May Never Die

Season two, episode three

Written by Bryan Cogman

Directed by Alik Sakharov

Jon Snow is rebuked by Lord Commander Jeor

Mormont after he is caught spying on Craster. When Jon tells him that Craster is giving his young sons as sacrifices to the White Walkers, Mormont admits that he has known all along.

Renly’s worries about consummating his marriage to Queen Margaery go unfounded, after she tells him that she knows that he’s in love with her brother, and she doesn’t care. She just wants to be Queen and produce an heir, and doesn’t care that he is gay.

Theon continues to be mocked by his father and sister Yara. He is stunned when he is told he can take a sole ship for small raids, while his sister is put in command of thirty boats.

Summoning up newfound courage, Theon blasts back at his father for abandoning him, but by the end he has sworn his allegiance to his family, burning a note that he had originally planned to send to Robb warning him of his father’s plans.

Tyrion shows that he has what it takes to survive among the high powers at King’s Landing, with some canny manipulation of his own, telling Pycelle, Littlefinger and Varys conflicting stories in the hope that one of the stories will work its way into Cersei’s ear. It turns out Pycelle is the mole, and Tyrion has Bronn arrest him.

Yoren is killed by Lannister’s soldiers for not giving up Gendry as he takes the group of men (and Arya) to the Night’s Watch. Arya tricks them into thinking that they’ve killed Gendry, but they are all captured and taken to a nearby castle.

TRIVIA

The episode’s title comes from an Iron Islands phrase.

Renly and Loras were never actually confirmed as being lovers in the book, with Martin only implying that the two men were boyfriends. However, he has since confirmed in the TV series that they were in fact in a relationship.

Story editor Bryan Cogman revealed how Ros, who is not mentioned in the books, came to be a part of the 
Game of
 
Thrones
 world.

He said, ‘That’s a David and Dan special. She doesn’t even exist in the books. Ros was originally “Red Headed Whore Number 1” in the pilot. In the very original [draft], Tyrion was in a brothel in King’s Landing as a way to introduce him and get a little download of information about Jon Arryn. For various budgetary reasons in the pilot, we couldn’t shoot King’s Landing at all or have any King’s Landing sets, so what you ended up seeing is where Tyrion has skipped out on the royal procession and tries to find Winterfell’s brothel... Ros the whore kind of emerged from that.

‘With season two, there’s a character in the book named Alayaya, who we didn’t end up keeping. We knew that Ros would serve that function in the latter part of the season, where Cersei thinks she’s caught Tyrion’s girlfriend but actually has caught Ros and doesn’t know who she is. We had that in place, it’s funny, it’s one of those things that kind of happened by accident. You’re finding different ways as you’re plotting the season to examine different traits and characters.

‘There’s a throwaway line in the second book where Tyrion says, “Oh, we should hire some whores for Joffrey, maybe that would let him calm down a bit”, and we thought, we have to see that scene. What ended up emerging was that horrific – as horrific as anything in the show – scene where Ros and Daisy are made to abuse each other for Joffrey’s sick jollies. And then, the other thing that we sort of built into the show was the rivalry between Littlefinger and Varys. Ros seemed to be the perfect person for Varys to have an insider in Littlefinger’s company; she came to Littlefinger, trusted him, thought she had a rapport, and sort of had a rude awakening about who she is, and who she is in Littlefinger’s eyes.’

POST-ANALYSIS

The episode matched the previous week’s figures of 3.8 million viewers, cementing its status as one of television’s biggest shows. 
Hitfix.com
 reviewed the episode: ‘This is a season of many kings, and many gods, all in a struggle for supremacy, and with it a lot of debate over what truly defines power. As a non-reader of the books, I have no idea where this is all going, but I have a feeling we’re going to get evidence of what kind of power truly reigns supreme in Westeros. And in “What Is Dead May Never Die” we get practical demonstrations of many different kinds.’

Garden of Bones

Season two, episode four

Written by Vanessa Taylor

Directed by David Petrarca

With so much infighting and back-stabbing, 
Game of
 
Thrones
 makes an attempt at peace and friendship in this episode. Of course, these attempts ultimately fail.

Catelyn hopes to persuade warring brothers Renly and Stannis to come to a truce and fight the Lannisters together, but they both refuse, and vow to battle each other for their right to overthrow the King.

Daenerys attempts to find shelter for her people and leads them to the extravagant and luxurious city of Qarth.

Behind its lavishly clothed leaders and glorious architecture lies danger, as the city is famed for its Warlocks who reside there. But she’s desperate and pleads to be let in.

Tyrion, fearing that his cruel nephew is getting worse after he is forced to stop him attacking Sansa, decides to surprise him with two prostitutes. However, Joffrey shows his sadistic streak by making one of the girls, Ros, viciously beat up the other one.

Arya and Gendry are taken to Harrenhal, where they are imprisoned and wait their turn to be tortured by having a rat burrow through their chests, as punishment and as a way of extracting answers from them. However, Tywin comes just as it’s Gendry’s turn and rebukes his men for wasting lives, when they could be put to better use. He also quickly points out that Arya is a girl posing as a boy, but he doesn’t recognise her as a Stark. When she is asked why, she tells him it’s less dangerous if you look like a boy while travelling the roads.

Tywin is impressed with her smartness and makes her his new cupbearer. What Tywin doesn’t know is that Arya now has unique access to Tywin’s plans on and off the battlefield.

It also allows the viewer a sneak peek into Tywin’s world, through the eyes of someone else.

The episode ends with Melisandre and Davos rowing into some caves located near Renly’s camp, all on Stannis’ command. It is here that Melisandre reveals that she is heavily pregnant and promptly gives birth to a creature made entirely of shadow, as Davos looks on in horror 

TRIVIA

Author Martin himself has said about the series, ‘I like the fact that David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] are doing a faithful adaptation so, when the scenes are the scenes from the books, I like those. And I like almost all of the new scenes, not from the books, that David and Dan and the other writers have added. The only thing that I miss is the scenes that are left out, scenes from the books that are not included in the TV show that I wish they would have included.

The Joffrey scene led to a huge Twitter debate about whether Ros was forced to sodomise Daisy with a stag’s head sceptre or beat her up with it.

Esmé Bianco, who plays Ros, quickly clarified to the 
Daily
 
Beast
, ‘What got cut from the edit was that I was beating her and you see the sceptre coming down [with] blood on the end of it … I’m [actually] hitting a pillow. I had to hit it with all my force, and I broke the sceptre. People were gluing it back together because antlers were coming off.

‘No matter where any of the characters think they’ve gotten to in terms of power, there’s always somebody that’s willing to beat them down. It’s the one time that we see Ros where her sex appeal does nothing for her and doesn’t get her out of that situation. It’s not about her being a prostitute; it’s about her being just another person that Joffrey is going to stomp on.’

POST-ANALYSIS

The ratings dipped slightly but it was still a well-reviewed episode. However, the 
Guardian
had an issue with the violence, saying, ‘This was an exceptionally violent episode. It featured: one death by a Direwolf; one graphic foot amputation; two separate uses of a crossbow as a weapon of intimidation; the continued humiliation of Sansa, stripped and beaten on Joffrey’s orders; the brutal whipping of a whore, again, at Joffrey’s command; two torture scenes (one of which was interrupted); a couple of backhanders; several dead bodies and one (slightly camp) Qartheen blood oath.’

The Ghost of Harrenhal

Season two, episode five

Written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss

Directed by David Petrarca

Episode two ended with Davos taking Melisandre onshore on a secret mission, which saw her bringing a shadow monster into the world.

The start of this episode sees it promptly kill Renly. His new Kingsguard, Brienne, is falsely accused of the crime, and she flees with Catelyn, who happens to see Renly die at the hands of the dark magic, too.

Tyrion, in this episode, continues with his cunning ploys to keep ahead of his sister, and he discovers that she is squirrelling away lots of the powerful and flammable substance known as wildfire. He hatches his own plan with the deadly substance.

Theon hatches a plan to show his father that he can be a true leader by taking over his old home – Winterfell.

Arya Stark meets up with a mysterious man she saved earlier in the series. He is Jaqen H’ghar, who we later learn is a Faceless Man – one of a group of shadowy assassins.

Because Arya saved his life, he grants her something in return: he will kill three people of her choosing, and, as the first name, she targets the torturer.

TRIVIA

Alfie Allen, as Theon, was the brunt of several practical jokes: ‘Oh, yeah, basically this script was given to me that indicates that Bran kills me in Winterfell, and I just die.

People expected me to just say, “Wait a minute, I died?” I didn’t see it that way at all, actually, I thought it was great – it was really well written.

‘I was on holiday in Ibiza, actually, and David and Dan called me after and asked how I felt about it. And I was, “Yeah, yeah, that’s cool.” And I think they were hoping I’d give them more of a reaction, so then they say, “We’ve had this other idea. We want you to be a zombie for the next series. Is that cool? We’d like you to be a zombie with no dialogue whatsoever.” And I said, “Okay, uh, all right, if that’s what you want, guys, let’s do it, let’s go for it.” Because I feel so happy and lucky to be on this amazing show, I’m not going to throw a fit or put my foot down, you know?

Obviously if I think something isn’t right for the character, I’d speak up. But they’re just so on the ball and amazing writers, that everything they write [even the prank script] was so perfect.’

POST-ANALYSIS

HBO bosses were left celebrating after the show gained its best ratings to date – getting over 3.9 million viewers. It had been something of a slow burner, like HBO had predicted – correctly guessing that it would attract an audience through word of mouth.

The 
Telegraph
’s review called it ‘a classic mid-series episode. Aside from Renly’s brisk death, most of the action was expository rather than climactic.’

The Old Gods and the New

Season two, episode six

Written by Vanessa Taylor

Directed by David Nutter

This gripping episode certainly starts off with a bang: Theon Greyjoy has taken over Winterfell, and Maester Luwin – who is a caring figure for the Stark boys and a loyal member of the Starks and Winterfell – desperately sends off a raven messenger to warn Jon Snow about his former friend. Young Bran and Luwin beg Theon to reconsider, and Theon promises no one will die if Bran surrenders. He does so, but Rodrik Cassel spits in Theon’s face, and ironborn raider Dagmer Cleftjaw insists Theon must kill Rodrik if he wants to be respected by his men.