Game of Thrones: Season 4/ Episode 7 “Mockingbird” – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

Overview

New alliances are formed, others strengthened, but being this is Game of Thrones there is always someone willing, and ready, to backstab.

Review (with Spoilers)

As we creep further and further toward the finale, you are left wondering if The Purple Wedding will be the sole big event of the season. Well, from what it seems, this may not be so. For with a few major events in this episode, we are assured some good combat, as well as uneasy alliances. But, will any of it cumulate into something epic? Well, only time will tell.

Topic 1: The Situation at the Wall – Jon Snow

With Jon Snow returning triumphantly, Ser Alliser has failed his first attempt to rid himself of Jon Snow. To make things worse though, with Jon’s return comes the recommendation to seal off the tunnel which leads to the north. Sealing off this tunnel would make it harder for the Wildlings, but destroy a major pathway. So, Alliser naturally is against this and is quick to note Jon is a steward and not a builder, so he decides to ask the builder commander his opinion, and the builder replies that his isn’t a good idea.

So, to add insult to rejection, Jon is forced to keep watch during the night for Wildlings, as it seems Castle Black remains vulnerable.

Topic 2: The Queen’s Orders – Daenerys

As usual, Daario Naharis flirts with Daenerys, but this time is different. In what can be seen as a slightly odd move, Daenerys takes to Daario’s loyalty and words, and asks him to strip. And seemingly, the next morning when Daario leaves, and informs Ser Jorah the queen is in a good move, we can only assume they slept together. Be it so he would shut up, her needing sex, or simply because she realizes he would be far more loyal, and perhaps powerful, if he believed he had something, or rather someone, to fight for.

Either way, Ser Jorah isn’t the fondest of the relationship, but Daenerys reassures him that she doesn’t fully trust Daario, but seemingly recognizes his worth. Enough so that he is to go to Yunkai to reclaim the city, and kill the masters. Leading to Ser Jorah to repeat Ser Barristan warning that perhaps Daenerys need try mercy. For, after all, if Lord Stark didn’t show him mercy, he wouldn’t be standing where he is today. And with this, Ser Jorah breaks through to Daenerys and convinces her to give an ultimatum to the masters who can either accept her rule, or die.

Topic 3: Odd Alliances – Arya/ The Hound; Sansa/ Lord Baelish; Tyrion/ Oberyn

With Arya and The Hound, there is this weird relationship which goes from Arya wanting to kill The Hound, to her acting like his mentee. In this episode, that mentee/ mentor relationship is seen with The Hound teaching her where to pierce Needle to stab someone in the heart, helping her get a new kill. But, the cute part of their interaction comes with The Hound opening himself up to her on why he fears fire, much less how bad his relationship is with his brother. With this, while there isn’t a Tyrion level performance, you do see The Hound develop just the slightest bit.

As for sister Sansa, the Vale has allowed her peace, and some form of happiness, for she can roam as she pleases and is surrounded by extended family. Issue is though, with Lysa’s jealousy and Robin being a Joffrey in the making, things seemingly could only be perfect for a limited time basis. Of which, seemingly Petyr decides to be the one which sets the bomb off for he decides to kiss Sansa. The reason? Well, being that he loved Catelyn, and now only has Sansa, I guess having her daughter beats not having her at all. But what makes the whole situation weird is that before the kiss he talks about how if things were different, Sansa would have been his daughter.

But that situation isn’t the only one which makes Lysa fuming mad. The 2^nd sign that the happy moments are to be over is when Sansa realizes how immature Robin is. You see, Sansa decides to rebuild Winterfell out of snow to remind herself of home, and while Robin first seems sweet in his own way by talking about how life will be when they are married and how he will kill her enemies upon a word, with his lack of understanding on how Winterfell doesn’t have a moon door comes him showing his age. He tries to fix Sansa’s snow creation and ends up upsetting her, and he takes enough offense to this for them to have a verbal altercation which ends in her slapping him. Something Lysa doesn’t take note of when she confronts Sansa, for Peytr kissing her is far more important. Unfortunately for Lysa though, Petyr’s loyalty is more to the Catelyn and Sansa than her, so she is thrown down into the moon door and dies.

Leaving us with Tyrion. With two prospective champions, both Bron and his brother saying they can’t help, it seems Tyrion is to fight a man known as “The Mountain” himself. But then Oberyn steps in and speaks on how he first met Tyrion when he was a baby. He speaks on the rumors of this monstrous looking creature that Cersei hyped up, and upon realizing Tyrion was just a big headed baby, not only was he disappointed, but seemingly took pity on Tyrion. And be it that Tyrion isn’t considered to be like the rest of the Lannisters, or Oberyn just wants to make a scene, he proclaims he will be Tyrion’s champion, and the scene between them, having someone show kindness to Tyrion with nothing to gain and all to lose, is quite a tear jerker. Further proving that Peter Dinklage is truly the highlight of the show, and anyone who gets to have a scene with him is extremely lucky.

Things To Note

Brienne finds out Arya is alive.