Supernatural: Do you Believe in Miracles? But. . .Dean?!

Wow.  Just wow.  They didn’t pull any punches in this episode. I’ve drug my feet a bit writing this just because I know this episode is going to be hard to watch again. I’m not going to have this post be a blow by blow of what happened in the episode, but rather talk about the big stuff, then throw out theories and mostly wallow in some emotion.

We start out with Angry Dean being pulled off of Gadreel and then Sam and Cas lock him up in the dungeon to go help Gadreel. I think even Dean at this moment realizes that something is up (after all he’s not really the type to vomit in the corner).

One very serious thing before we move on: Can you read the above GIF set and not sing “Let it Go” in your head at the end of it? If you can– consider yourself lucky– and probably childless.

Back to the episode let me just say that the raw emotion that Jensen Ackles’ conveys in this episode is heartbreaking. From the beginning when he is enlisting Crowley’s help to kill Metatron to the end when he’s, well. . .let’s not talk about that yet.

I’ve expressed my love for Gadreel before and I’m really glad that he had an ending as a character that redeemed his actions against the boys and Kevin. I’ve never thought that Gadreel would have acted as he had if he had known the whole situation. I also bought that the panic he felt being caged again in prison would have pushed him to sacrifice himself to save Castiel. Oh, and I still think Hannah is messed up.

Now to focus on the worst thing ever in the history of anything. Dean is dead. Dead and the Winchesters have run through their “Get out of Jail Free” cards pretty quickly. Oh and Sam? You wouldn’t save Dean if he died? How many times did you say that?

Yeah I don’t think that any of us bought that Sam would sit back and let Dean die if he was hurt. And this? This was when I started crying:

I’m proud of you boys too Dean. At this moment there was no throwing things in each other’s faces, no frustration, just the love that all us fans want to see between the boys. Just. Perfection.

After all of Sam’s declarations that when they die they should just die I found it interesting that he didn’t even hesitate before saying that they would find a spell and then after Dean had died he went straight away to summon Crowley. Does he plan on making a deal? Or does he think he can just demand that Crowley saves him since Dean killed Abaddon for him? I do know that he isn’t expecting what is actually happening.

So yeah. Dean is dead and Cas finds out about it from the douchiest douche ever.  Out of all the evil angels I’ve hated Metatron the worst. Zachariah and the others KNEW they were messed up, but did what they did anyway. Even when Cas was evil Cas I still loved him. Metatron should have known better, but was horrible in the Yellow King way, or that husband that beats his wife to teach her a lesson. I can only imagine what Cas is going through sitting there, thinking Dean is dead and having Metatron brag about killing him.

That’s why it made me so happy to see Castiel outwit Metatron. Metatron, who this whole story arc has thought he was smarter, more conniving and better prepared then everyone else, got screwed by his magic Angel CB, a device that he had made to control the Angels even more than he was. The fact that Cas was able to do this was a testament to everything he’s picked up from the boys over the years. Sometimes when you can’t overpower your enemy it’s best to outsmart them. I really wish that Cas had shoved that angel blade into his throat. OK maybe not. Maybe Cas doing the right thing will show all the other angels that he really is the best little angel ever. He definitely showed more control than I would have expected. After all this is Dean we are talking about. Yes, Metatron took his Grace away, but now he’s taken Dean away from him too.  All Destiel-ness aside Dean really is special to Cas.  He’s the human  thing that has been there for Cas no matter what.

Now back to the whole Dean issue.  He’s definitely dead.  I was hoping for a last minute Angel healing or some other type of miracle, but no dice on that front.  Well and then Crowley shows up. Crowley who has never been evil for the sake of being evil, but just manipulative for his own gain. We now see how long of a game he’s been playing with Dean. This bromance just got serious.  Cause this is what happened:

Evidently after you die after you get the Mark you become a demon.  Yeah that would have been an important detail to find out Dean before taking on this thing. Cause don’t you remember that turning into a demon is kinda your worst nightmare?

I wonder how Sam is going to react to this new development. After all Sam has been in a similar– if not quite so extreme position when he was addicted to demon blood and Dean reacted like this:

I hope that Sam handles this better. I hope that Sam has learned his lesson about helping Dean instead of fighting with him. Sam does like to pick fights and whine about Dean’s decisions though. I guess we’ll find out in October.

We also have another big thing that needs to be solved quickly. Cas is dying too. He needs to get his Grace back ASAP so he doesn’t burn out and die.

The things that I will stew on between now and October:

1. How will Dean behave now that he’s a Demon? Will he fight it or is all his humanity automatically gone? Will he be a crazy bad demon since he was a hunter for so long and so will know all the tricks?
2. Will Sam and Cas work together to try to cure Dean? After all they’ve established that you can cure a demon.
3. How close is Cas to death? Where is his Grace now?
4. Will Crowley regret pushing Dean into demonhood? What if Dean takes control of Hell? He is an overachiever after all.
5. Will God ever step back in to take control of Heaven? After all they are once again without a leader which means yet another war for power.

October can’t come quick enough.

Game of Thrones: Mockingbird. You are the Wind Beneath My Wings.

This episode contained a ton of set up.  This is one of those episodes that I have trouble judging how Watchlings would receive it.  As I am watching I’m getting super excited about all that is about to happen which makes me wonder if all the Watchlings out there are bored or confused.

Jamie and Tyrion

We start out with Jamie and Tyrion arguing about Tyrion’s speech at the end of his trial.  Jamie sees it as idiotic and Tyrion sees it as his only option to fight back.  For all Jamie’s desire to have Tyrion shipped off to the Night’s Watch I wonder what his actions would have been in a similar situation.  Tyrion makes very valid points to Jamie.  Jamie was playing right into Tywin’s hands.  He would have gotten rid of his embarrassment of son and gained his heir back to the place he wanted.

Tyrion’s pleas to get Jamie to fight for him are heartbreaking.  Tyrion loves his brother and I do believe Jamie loves Tyrion, but Jamie also knows that he can’t beat the Mountain and I think Jamie feels powerless against his father and sister.

 

What the Watchlings don’t know:

Jamie knows all to well about Tyrion falling in love with a whore. Tyrion married a girl when he was very young that he loved very much and said that she loved him.  They lived together for a time and then Tywin told Tyrion that Jamie had hired the girl to have sex with Tyrion and then it had gotten out of control. Tywin took the girl and gave her to all his soldiers and then had Tyrion “service” her in front of everyone else.  This has haunted Tyrion since that time and if the show follows the books Jamie is about to drop a revelation about this young girl very soon.

Cersei and The Mountain:

Cut to a huge guy disemboweling some people evidently for fun and Cersei watching.  I’m not real sure where these people have come from.  Do they keep people around just for him to slice up?  That seems like a healthy past time.  This scene mostly is just to set up that The Mountain is The Wu Tang Clan, Dr. Dre and Tupac all rolled into one huge scary person.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

Are you aware that Cersei is a heartless conniving bitch? OK good.  How about that The Mountain is a psychopath and has killed more people than I can count?  OK good.  So you got this.

The Hound and Arya:

Ahhh, my favorite homicidal travelers.  Arya and The Hound have left quite a bit of death and destruction in their wake and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. The scene opens up with them riding up to a scene of mayhem and death.  There is one person left, slowly dying from a wound to the stomach.  The three of them talk about life, death and the everafter for a while. Then the conversation comes to an abrupt end when The Hound shoves a knife under the mans ribs into his heart.  This was a mercy kill so the man didn’t have to slowly die a painful death there on the road.  The Hound looks meaningfully at Arya and says “That’s where the heart is. That’s how you kill a man.” Then suddenly there is someone biting into The Hound’s neck and trying to kill him to which the Hound responds by quickly snapping the neck of his attacker. I would like to say that is also how you kill a man.

Since the one dude bit a chunk out of The Hound’s neck I’m assuming he’s Rorge’s counterpart Biter.  Biter was supposed to be killed by Gendry, but I’ll take the change.  It’s an acceptable alteration.  Rorge likewise was killed in a different manner (Brienne killed him), but this was an awesome scene with Arya and stayed true to character.  It does ask the question though, that if they are already dead now, will Brienne and Pod run into any action on the Kingsroad now?

What the Watchlings don’t know:

Arya did know who Rorge and Biter were.  They joined the Bloody Mummers aka The Brave Companions with Jaqen H’ghar and helped Arya free the Northman that were captured at Harrenhall.  Also they were scarier in the book then they are in the show.  Also The Hound should have already been seriously injured so I’m wondering if this bite will turn into something serious since he wouldn’t let Arya cleanse it with fire.  Oh we haven’t gotten to that part yet? OK sorry, continue.

Meanwhile on the Wall:

We see Janos Slynt singling out Jon Snow and trying to make him look like a coward, an idiot and a traitor.  This break it mostly just to remind you that there is stuff going on at the Wall that will be important later.  So yeah.  Janos is a douche. Jon knows what he’s talking about. Let’s continue.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

Winter is coming. Oh yeah, I think you’ve picked up on that.

Bronn and Tyrion:

Bronn very succinctly explains why he won’t be Tyrion’s champion.  I think that this rejection hurts a lot worse then Jamie’s. It’s logical. Bronn was always for Bronn (the dwarves are for the dwarves!) and it wouldn’t fit if he suddenly changed.  However, I do think that Bronn wished that he was a better man.  A more loyal man. But at the end of the day he is just Bronn: The Sell Sword.

 

What the Watchlings don’t know:

Nope.  This was pretty much word for word from the books.  And done amazingly well. Look that that last touch that Bronn throws in though.  Yep, he really does care about Tyrion. The only other thing I’d add is that you may have forgotten that Lollys is knocked up with a baby from her gang rape that occurred when they sent Marcella off to Dorne. Bronn later names that baby Tyrion and I think he does that just to let Cersei know that she may have bought his cooperation, but not his loyalty (if he actually had much left).

Dany and Daario Naharis:

So Dany sends Daario to kill the Masters, but not before she exercised her right of first night with Daario. Hmmm or maybe she’s just been alone with guys for a really long time and liked the way Daario massages. . .his knives.  Anyway, insert sex scene– wait scratch that– insert sex scene that isn’t shown.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

Dany has been fantasizing about this for a while so she’s mostly just doing this for herself.  It leads to some sticky situations later, but really as I’ve stated before Dany is just boring right now.  Of course putting her in that dress makes her more interesting.

Melisandre and Selyse:

As if to make up for not showing the sex scene between Daario and Dany we see the Red Woman naked for an uncomfortably long time. Blah, blah, blah, they are both crazy and creepy.  Oh and evidently the Red Woman wants Seylse’s daughter along just in case they need to sacrifice her to the Red God. Totally normal.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

You’ve probably gotten everything you need out of this.  They are both really weird and really creepy.  The Red Woman will become more and more important as time goes on.

Dany and Jorah:

Yeah I’m not even going to address this.  We are reminded once again Dany is a strong female character. We got it.

The Hound and Arya

I mentioned before the whole fire/infection issue.  I am curious as to where this is going to take us.  I doubt that the sketchy water Arya washed it out with is going to fix it.  The Hound is one of those characters (like Jamie Lannister) that I truly hated for so long, but then once I got to see his character develop I love him. I want to hug and protect him as no one ever did for him.  Imagine having to live with someone that you were always afraid they might kill you for the fun of it. Yeah, just not cool.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

The Mountain is the head of the house because his father died under suspicious circumstances as did his sister and his two wives.  The Mountain is also known for killing people on a whim. So yeah his baby brother might have a few issues he needs to work through.  Evidently the Stark girls bring out all the good in him.

Brienne and Pod:

The adventure continues with our daring duo.  Hot Pie offers some comedy relief and Brienne’s expressions are priceless. However Hot Pie does come through in the end and spills the beans on Arya.  Good thing Brienne isn’t one of the bad guys.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

In the books something big is about to go down with these two.  We’ll see if it happens in the show.  My only spoiler/theory/thought that I’d like to add is to the readers out there.  What if the one word Brienne says at a critical moment is Arya? We’ll see.  (EDIT: My brother pointed out to me that GRRM has confirmed that they word she said was sword– so I was wrong). They are now on their way to the Erie which in and of itself is a bit different than the books so maybe we’ll all be surprised.

The Red Viper and Tyrion:

Out of all the people Tyrion didn’t expect to visit him Prince Oberyn was probably very high on that list. This whole conversation is mostly word for word out of the books.  It was more heartbreaking to watch than to read. Cersei has hated Tyrion for so long. Because of his deformity, or the fact that their mother died during childbirth, or because he interrupted what she had with Jamie.  Who knows? All I know is that it was painful to watch Oberyn tell Tyrion about his visit all those years ago.

And the emotion that Tyrion showed when Oberyn made his announcement was perfect.  I know Tywin wasn’t expecting that in response. After all why would Oberyn help a Lannister?

Sansa and Littlefinger:

Back to the Erie and some creepiness. Sansa builds a snow Winterfell and Robyn (aka Robert) acts like a little sh#t and gets slapped for it.  Fearing repercussions Sansa kinda panics to Littlefinger who gives her some speech about how he thinks of her like his daughter and then grabs her and kisses her.  Yeah not weird at all. Lysa sees it all and of course that bodes well for Sansa right? Or maybe not. Lysa freaks out and threatens Sansa by pushing her towards the Moon Door. Littlefinger responded this way:

 

What the Watchlings don’t know:

In the books there was a musician hanging around that this murder was pinned on.  I’m not sure how they are going to play this here. Needless to say Sansa has learned a lot about the kind of person Littlefinger is and I don’t think she’ll make the same mistakes Lysa or Catelyn made. Littlefinger becomes more creepy as does Robert Robyn.

Major Character Deaths: One

Boob Count: Just one pair

See you in two weeks!

Supernatural: Stairway to Heaven. Yep, Dean is totally insane.

I’m not going to call this a recap so much as a list of all the bad signs that were thrown our way in this episode.

Let me just start with Dean saying he’s not tired after just 2 hours of rest.  Does that sound familiar?  Say, when Sam was souless and didn’t sleep?  Or when he was being hounded by Lucifer ?(Am I the only one that misses Lucifer?  He was great. Well in the Joffery Lannister sense of the word, “great.”) All I’m saying is that sleeplessness has never boded well for these boys.

Second thing is Gadreel questioning Metatron’s actions.  This isn’t so much bad for the boys as much as just a sign that not all is great in Team Metatron. Now that we know that Metatron’s “plan” to influence the other angels was to blow up the leader of this other group and blame it on Castiel the exchange between him and Gadreel is obviously manipulative.

Thirdly I found it a bad sign that Dean and Sam made so much progress tracking down the angel that was the suspected mole. The angels are somewhat idiotic, but should know how to track someone down.  This just very publicly led to embarrassment for Cas which wasn’t so helpful for his cause. Planting seeds of doubt for Metatron’s later accusations (so are there even more angel’s in Cas’s army working for Metatron by undermining Cas’s authority?)

Now we’ve moved on to Dean’s anger.  I don’t think anyone believed that Dean walked off and left the First Blade in the bunker. Cas seems to know something a little more about the Mark and the First Blade then we do. We are getting longer and longer glimpses at the amount of power and anger that Dean has bottled up inside him these days and it ain’t pretty,

I think Tessa’s death/suicide shocked Dean a little bit though. Tessa reminded him of a time in his life that was both painful and special to him.  He met Tessa when he was dying (the first time) and when his family was finally moving in the right direction (until suddenly it wasn’t). I had hope for a minute that this would snap Dean out of it, but then. . . nope. The look on his face was disturbing right after he killed her.  He definitely got something out of it and it looks like we’ll learn more about that next week.

I really really liked Tessa’s character so I’m sad to see her killed off in this way.  Also Reapers weren’t straight up angels were they?  I can kinda buy that they were affected by the spell since Heaven is closed now, but I wish that they would have addressed this a little.

 

Now Cas is set up perfectly for his fall. Metatron tells enough of the truth to make all the lies about Cas seem legit, he’s asked to kill Dean (which we know would never happen), and he’s been framed for some really heinous acts. Brown headed angel seems super shady to me. She seems to support Cas throughout the episode, but she’s the first one to suggest killing someone to prove his innocence.  That just seems counter-intuitive. To the point that I think she was Metatron’s plant all along.

Which brings us to the most perfect moment of the show.  Yes Castiel. Yes, the three of you will be enough.  Of course they’ve had Bobby helping them in the past, but I’m sure they’ll figure it out this time around. The three of them are the only ones they can trust so that’s the safest bet anyway.

Oh yeah– about just the three of them.  So Dean is seriously having control issues when it comes to who he should try to kill or not.  Maybe Gadreel wasn’t who he needed to cut at that moment.  Of course he also saw Gadreel’s murder of Kevin as his own fault so he justifiably has anger issues concerning Gadreel. The anger and the craziness on Dean’s face here is intense.

A few loose ends:

Dean’s declaration that he is now running a dictatorship also doesn’t bode well for his storyline at the moment.  He needs to have a talk with Rick about how that works out.

Will Castiel be the one to save Dean after all?  I’ve thought it was going to be Sam this whole time, but maybe it will be Cas.

I’ve questioned the whole Mark of Cain thing and how it will affect Sam since the beginning.  We see in the previews Sam getting between Dean and someone he’s trying to kill which could potentially be bad news for Sam. I guess we’ll find out soon.

 

Well next week is it!  The season finale is quickly approaching which hopefully means we will get some answers then as well.

Game of Thrones: The Laws of Gods and Men. When Peter Dinklage Proved He Deserved Every Award Ever Made.

Let’s get started:

 

So much awesome happens in this episode, but we start out seeing Stannis and Davos meeting with the Iron Bank asking for financial assistance to defeat the Targaryens.  OK so even I found this whole exchange to be mostly boring and Stannis is an emotionless douche which doesn’t help at all.  So. . .

What the Watchlings Don’t Know:

Cersei at this time, or very shortly after this time, has stopped making payments to the Iron Bank.  Not paying the Iron Bank is like not paying Tony Soprano.  It’s not done if you want to stay alive.  So this scene sets up Stannis receiving backing from Braavos and why this would come about.

The other thing you possibly don’t know is that Davos is an honorable and loyal man.  He sees Stannis as someone who not only saved him from death or a life on the wall, but also raised his family to a position of honor.  Because of this he will stick by Stannis no matter how big of a douche he is.

Cut to Asha or whatever they call her on the show (Yara?) trying to save Theon.  We have now exited the book world and have entered a world totally made up by the writers of the show.  Luckily we have shots of gratuitous sex interspersed within this section to distract us from this. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but Iwan Rheon (Ramsey Snow) is a phenomenal actor.  If you haven’t watched BBC’s Misfits you should just to see him in that as well.

What this show the Watchlings:

I really think this was just a set up to show how much damage has been done to Theon and how messed up The Bastard is.  Well mission accomplished.

Now we have to have our moment with Dany.  We see Drogon scaring a shepherd boy and burning and killing sheep which looks awesome.  Drogon has grown and is super scary now.  The Dragons are no longer cute little mascots.  We also see her trying to rule and we see that it sucks to have to do all this.  Now we understand why The Hand takes care of so much for the King in Westeros.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

A shepherd also comes to her claiming that Drogon killed his child and Dany is so horrified that this happened that she begins to take steps to cage her dragons. . .which goes as one would expect. The good news is that they are speeding up this story line a lot so maybe it won’t suck as much as it does in the books.

Ahhhh and now we are getting to the good stuff.  We get a little taste of Oberyn’s sharp tongue and get to see how stupid Cersei is. (Seriously. “baby dragons”?  Yeah things grow. . .sooo they are probably not going to always be baby dragons). Also I feel like Varys is pretty openly showing contempt for her (even though she doesn’t notice) and that Tywin also shows that he knows that his daughter is an idiot.  I think I love Oberyn more in the show than I do in the books.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s great in the books too, but Pedro Pascal really brings the character to life.  I find it interesting that Varys seems to dislike Oberyn.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

I’ve mentioned it before, but it bears saying again.  Oberyn is known as a formidable knight.  He’s in King’s Landing with the expressed interest of getting revenge for the murder of his sister and sister’s children.  And when I say murder I mean that his sister’s infant son had his brains bashed in then she was raped by Gregor Clegane while he still had bits of her son’s brain on his hands.  Then her and her daughter was just as brutally murdered as well.  So he’s got an ax to grind and is biding his time.

Finally we see the trial begin.  Jamie fetches Tyrion and is obviously upset that he is escorting his brother to this farce of a trial.  Jamie has followed what is best for his family all his life, but now he can’t do that without hurting someone who not only is family too, but whom he loves just as fiercely. We watch Tommen adorably step down from the trial and then Tyrion becomes the smartass that we know he is.  One by one people give witness to Tyrion’s motivation to kill Joffery and “proof” that Tyrion did it.  Obviously we know that Tyrion didn’t do it (and so does Margaery and her face is great to watch as all this unfolds). Almost everything that is told is the truth, but with a ridiculous spin on it leaving out all the parts that make them look bad. The final nail in the coffin is Shea’s testimony where she states that she knows that Sansa and Tyrion plotted the death of Joffery because she heard them planning.  She also makes it sound as if Tyrion took advantage of her and she wasn’t really just a whore.

Here’s where is gets really good.  Jamie has tried to fix it up so that Tyrion will live no matter what and he tells Tyrion to hold his tongue and ask to be sent to the wall when he is declared guilty.  So of course Tyrion responds to this with the most epic passion filled speech ever known.  Shea has just ripped his heart out so he lets everyone have it. And it is glorious.

He ended this rousing speech by asking for a trial by combat instead of continuing with this joke.  You can see Jamie wanting to throttle Tyrion for doing all this.  All I can say is that Peter Dinklage made it happen.  You can see the anger, the emotion, you want to cry for him, hug him, tell him that he is loved.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

You pretty much got it all here.  Just know that in two weeks (maybe three) Tyrion will make it happen once more and people will be cheering all across the lands.

The previews for next week promise a lot of action and perhaps some Dany/Daario sex. Maybe we’ll get to see if Emilia Clarke really did declare that she would do no more nude scenes.

Major Character Deaths: 0 (but it’s not looking good for Tyrion)

Boob Count: 3 pairs

Supernatural: King of the Damned, The one where Dean goes insane

Ahhhhh, it’s nice to be back to the real thing. I hope all the best for Bloodlnes, but I missed my Supernatural.  We started off this episode seeing Abaddon capture Crowley’s son and bring him the present time.  Now we saw Bobby do something similar a few years ago with laughable results so I had my doubts about Abaddon’s plan.  Now that he has an humanity issue evidently he loves his son again?  OK I’ll buy it, a little.  Best part of this exchange? His son trying to figure out what was going on.

Although the Abaddon/Crowley storyline is probably supposed to be the main thing we, as viewers, are supposed to focus on, but I’m still trying to figure out the Castiel story.

He calls the boys in to finesse the truth out of one of Metatron’s soldiers and they do it artfully.  At first I thought Dean was going to go all Mark of Cain/Hell’s #1 torturer on him, but instead they did what they do best: they worked together. I do wonder if Dean was seriously wanting to torture Ezra and then just picked up on Sam’s lead and played the dude. I did find the interrogation Bugs Bunny ish, but if you remember back to when Castiel first showed up he was gullible and childlike.

We also saw Dean and Sam’s interactions with Castiel. Yep something still feels off here.  I still think that Metatron screwed with Cas’s head the last time they met and either he’s following Metatron’s orders unknowingly or Metatron is still at that typewriter controlling everything, Chuck style.  Either way Cas thinks he’s doing the right thing, and it appears that Gadreel is doubting the rightness of his actions now.

Dean also showed off his insanity where the First Blade is concerned.  He’s daydreaming about the First Blade, manipulating things with Sam to ensure that he gets to use the First Blade and willing to go through a lot to get the Blade back. We see Dean not giving up the Blade after his fight with Abaddon and his One Ring type obsession with the thing and I wonder what channeling all that power from the First Blade to get away from her control did to him.  Just holding it before brought on all those feelings and dreams what will fully harnessing it’s power do?

That’s some serious power.  Which usually means some serious consequences.  Think back to Sam killing Lilith. He also had “phenomenal cosmic power!”, but also was addicted to demon blood so there’s that.  The big question still hangs over all of this too.  Cain killed his brother.  Will Dean try to kill Sam?  Cause that would suck.

He kinda scared me with his super stabbing action:

I think the first 10 stabs did it by the way.

Here are a few loose ends:

1. I’m glad Crowley got to save his son, but think about what happened when the Titanic was saved. Of course the Doctor saves people all the time so maybe they’re all good.

2. We still have Metatron up to no good, but I think we’ll find out a lot more about that next week.  Maybe a trip to Heaven means a visit with Ash or Bobby?  Hey a girl can dream right?

3. Dean isn’t giving up the First Blade which doesn’t seem like good news to me.  Probably something messed up there.  However, can the First Blade kill Metatron?  Can he fight back against him now that he’s accessed the power of it?

4. Sam is still whining and crying.  How about stop complaining that Dean is always trying to save you and figure out that Dean needs some saving himself?

5. Why do they still want to kill Crowley?  Seriously he seems like the best option they have for the leader of Hell.

So we’ll see what messed up stuff is happening with the Angels next week which from the previews promises to be some messed up crap.

Game of Thrones: First of His Name, Where I write a review incredibly late

We start off the episode with Tommen’s coronation.  How cute is he?  There were a few smiles back and forth between Margaery and him that didn’t go unnoticed by Cersei.  Cersei approached Margaery acting as if she wants to become friends with her and Marge responded with this:

Seriously the look on Margaery’s face when she says all of this is how I feel when I’ve thought of an amazing put down and actually use it (as opposed to thinking of it hours after it was appropriate).

What the Watchlings don’t know:

In the books Cersei is seriously pissed off that Margaery is the new queen and she’s been pushed aside.  She still thinks of herself as a young, beautiful, desirable creature and doesn’t like to be reminded she is a widowed mother of three.  The sure fire way to make her mad is to bring up the fact that she’s not Queen anymore.  That makes this cutting remark that much more painful.  Also don’t feel sorry for Cersei.  Never feel sorry for Cersei.  I’ve admitted that I like Jamie even post pushing Bran out the window, but Cersei is a worthless c*$#.  Sorry, but she is and just gets worse.

Cut to Mereen and Dany’s council meeting.  Some are advising her to invade King’s Landing and others are not.  Just notice that Jorah seems to know a good bit about Westeros and that he’s acting weird.  This will be important later.

Jorah does deliver news that all the people she has freed are now slaves again and in worse situations then when they started.  She decides to stay in Mereen and rule.  And become a boring weak character for a while.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

Jorah was a spy for Westeros for a long time. (They talked about this in the early seasons, but you were probably still trying to figure out who everyone was). Anyway Barristan was on the small council meaning he knows this little factoid.  So yeah. . .stuff happens.

Switch to the Vale and we get to see Lysa Arryn be a super weirdo.  She evidently never learned that you shouldn’t act like a needy smothering girlfriend to keep a relationship healthy.  We also learned that she killed her husband, not the Lannisters, that she lost her virginity to Petyr a long time ago, that she’s an idiot, she’s super paranoid and jealous and that she likes loud sex.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

Lysa treats her son in a very creepy manner.  Yes, you’ve seen the breastfeeding and that he likes to throw things/people out the Moon Door, but you don’t know that he needs someone to sleep with every night and since his mother is not otherwise occupied this duty will fall to Sansa and it’ll be more creepy then you can imagine.  Lysa got pregnant by Petyr all those years ago and her dad gave her tea that would make her lose the baby.  Oh and gave her that tea without her knowing what was going on.  Then made her marry a man that, although he was nice, was old enough to be her grandfather.  She definitely got the short end of the stick.

Lastly, Petyr is even a bigger creeper towards Sansa than we’ve seen on screen.  He is always touching her, moving her hair and trying to be alone with her.  So, yay weird pedo sexual tension.

Back to King’s Landing Cersei and Tywin have a heart to heart where they discuss up coming marriages and how they are evidently broke.  Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember this from the books.  Granted the kingdom is broke, but I don’t remember Casterly Rock being destitute.  Anyway this was mostly just a set up for later. Best laid plans and all that you know.

Also we learned The Iron Bank ain’t nothin’ to f^$# with.  They aren’t.  Way more hard core than the Wu Tang Klan.

Oh, and Cersei wants Tyrion to die, but that’s pretty obvious.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

No, you pretty much got this.

 

We have a few couples roaming around the Kingsroad and The Hound and Arya are the most badass.  Arya who has her list of people she plans to kill and The Hound who just desperately wants to protect someone.  He tried helping Sansa, but she was too stupid to realize it and Arya has accepted the help, but has so many trust issues she still thinks he has an ulterior motive.

The Hound hates all knights and what they represent, yet he’s been the most knightly in actions towards the Stark girls.  Well that is unless you remember him splitting Arya’s friend Mycah in half because of Joffery’s lies.  When trying to put together the type of character that would cut a small boy in half and a character that is gentle and protective of girls all I can think is that he’s trying to do better. (Let’s go into my complete made up thoughts for a minute).  Being always with the Lannisters and trying to avoid his insane brother he turned off his emotions and just did what was ordered.  However. then he saw how Ned Stark acted and how his family was treated.  Ned who truly was a knight and lord in every sense of the word.  I would like to think he’s trying to protect the girls in Ned’s place, he just doesn’t know how to not come across as an ass.

OK so that’s all just theory to me, but I also love that he pointed out that the first sword of Braavos wouldn’t have been killed by Meryn Trant.  So maybe I am right about my other theory.

They argue, Arya  tries to stab him with her sword and it doesn’t pierce his armor.

What the Watchlings don’t know:

Ahh there’s not a lot that you don’t know except what’s about to happen next. So just keep watching.  Their plot line definitely is progressing unlike other strong female characters I know.

Poor Pod and his attempts to take care of Brienne.  This scene I think was mainly to show the two bonding and to prove to Brienne that Pod really is trying to do the best he can.  I love these scenes, but wonder what the watchlings think of them.  Are they boring?  Funny?  Really they are great, but more to see the book character’s come to life than anything.

What the Watchlings Don’t Know:

Big things are coming up for this pair as well.  The only other thing that you don’t know is that both characters are broken, unloved people that got a taste of happiness only to get put on the road again.  Pod was mistreated all his life until he met Tyrion and Brienne was mocked and scorned her whole life until she met Catelyn and Jamie.

Cersei shows back up trying to make everyone feel sorry for her again.  Here’s the thing she seems to have forgotten though: Her dad ordered his sister and sister’s kids killed.  Then they were sliced in half, head bashed in, or raped.  Yeah that’s not something you’re going to get over with a slightly weepy talk about missing your daughter.  Plus it’s probably going to backfire on you. Just sayin’

What the Watchlings Don’t Know:

Cersei is insane.  Like certifiable. Plus she conveniently forgets about all the horrible things her family has done to others.  Never feel sorry for Cersei.

Finally we get to see what’s going on in Craster’s Keep.  Ferb Jojen still looks like he has a really bad case of the flu, plus that fire can’t be good for his hand.  Oh wait.

The traitor that Bolton sent to the Wall leads an attack on the Keep sneaking off to kidnap Bran.  Jon and his men make short work of the traitors with some graphic violence and it looks bad for Bran and the others.  Then when all looks lost Bran wargs into Hodor.  Yeah, why didn’t he do that before?

I don’t care who you are you have to feel sorry for Hodor when he wakes up and realizes that he’s a murderer. Such a gross thing to wake up to. Seriously he should have warged sooner and avoided some of the death and destruction.

Both the wolves are reunited with their masters and the Night’s Watch burn down Craster’s Keep and all the dead.  The wives/daughters/granddaughters of Craster go their own way.

What the Watchlings don’t Know

OK none of this crap is in the books.  Bran does warg into Hodor some, but just be able to walk again or to be able to see what’s going on in a place that he can’t reach.  Summer does get a little hurt at one point, but Summer and Ghost aren’t captured because they are f-ing direwolves that would rip their captor’s throats out.  Once again– just sayin’.

There was a lot of set up in this episode so just wait until everything comes to fruition.  Lots of drama/violence/surprises. And lets get real, probably lots of sex too.

Major Character Deaths: 0

Boob Count: 0

Jaqen H’ghar: A Man Must Have a Backstory

Jaqen H’ghar

The Man:

Jaqen shows up for the first time in the group of recruits taken from Kings Landing to go serve on the Wall.  He was one of three that were taken from the “black cells” in the dungeon– where only the worst criminals were kept.  He and the other two are kept in a cage during the time they were traveling with Yoren and the others.

Of Jaqen’s crimes we know nothing.  He appears as a criminal and obviously a bad one.  The other two, although they look more ferocious, appear to be scared of Jaqen (maybe the . After helping Arya get away from Harrenhall he changes his appearance magically, gives Arya that coin that gets her to Braavos and then disappears. It seems that he went to Oldtown and kills a Citadel novice named Pate and takes his place.

Catch phrase:  A man [knows, needs a name, needs a face, must die]

Theories: Ok there are a few big ones here, but my favorite is that Jaqen and Syrio Forel are one in the same.  Syrio is from Braavos and Jaqen sends Arya on the road to Braavos so that she can become one of the Faceless too (or at least have the opportunity to train as one).  It never states that Syrio was killed by Meryn Trant only that he slowed Arya’s would be captors down long enough for her to get away.  Therefore if he wasn’t killed, but just captured, he would have been placed in the Black Cells .  The Black Cells are reserved for only the most dangerous criminals which  Syrio definitely would have been classified as if he had been able to kill all those guards and continue to fight a member of the Kingsguard without a sword.

So say that Syrio was placed in the Black Cells, then changed his appearance once he got there (or once he realized he had a way out with Yoren) then became Jaqen H’ghar.  Jaqen definitely shows a good bit of interest in Arya even when she was disguised as a boy.  Arya says that Jaqen was like Syrio, but different so maybe she even saw it even though she didn’t know what she was seeing.

Now why would a faceless man be working as a dancing master for the Starks?  Perhaps he was just in the area and thought it would be advantageous to take the offered job.  Or maybe he was in King’s Landing to assassinate someone and a position in the Hand of the King’s household helped him gain access.  Or perhaps Varys placed him in the Stark household for his own reasons. Whichever way, I feel that Syrio/Jaqen would see it as his duty to protect Arya when the Lannisters came to seize her.

Continuing on with this theory, if they are the same person then Syrio has already once freed Arya which left her on her own and vulnerable so I could see why he wouldn’t want to try to free her from the relative safety of Harrenhall.  True she was beaten and mistreated, but she was fed and clothed.  Life on the Kingsroad was fraught with more peril than that.

It is established in both Bran’s storyline and Jon Snow’s storyline that wargs can sense each other once they know what to look for so perhaps Syrio felt this power in the Starks which increased his desire to assist Arya survive. Even if the theory is complete bunk Jaqen would have seen it in Arya and maybe his assassination of Weese via dog was an attempt to have her reveal her power to him.

After Arya tricked him into freeing her Jaqen may have felt his debt/responsibility to her house was finished which would explain his giving her the coin and then leaving her instead of helping her safely to her family.

There is one more theory about Jaqen that I feel is worth a mention.  Some think that he is Daario Naharis. I see some possibility to this theory, he appears after Arya is freed from Harrenhall, but I also see a lot of issues.  He is the commander of the Stormcrows and yes he could have worked his way up the ladder with well placed killings, but this seems like it would have been a lengthy process.  So if he is Daario I see no way he could also be the man appearing as Pate in Oldtown.  I feel like it would be a one or the other situation and don’t feel so confident with all of Daario’s actions as to think he is the same person as the cunning Jaqen or the talented Syrio.

What do you think?  Total crap or plausible? Do you have other theories about Jaqen?