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[WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones, “Oathkeeper”]
Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) is officially three-for-three in freeing slave cities.
The Mother of Dragons took Meereen with little ado, thanks to Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) smuggling weapons into the city and giving its slaves some words of wisdom: “No one can give you your freedom, brothers. You must take it.”
The Khaleesi answered “injustice with justice,” crucifying the city’s masters, just as they had done to 163 children along the road to Meereen. But Ser Barristan (Ian McElhinney) was not sure it was the right call — and he’s got a point.
PHOTOS: Daenerys’ 10 Fiercest Moments
Bryan Cogman, who wrote the episode, says Ser Barristan has personally witnessed the policies of the Mad King, so he is aware that cruelty can be a dangerous path to go down. (Read THR‘s full conversation with Cogman here.)
After a week of waiting, we finally learned Lady Olenna (Diana Rigg) was Littlefinger’s (Aidan Gillen) co-conspirator in Joffrey’s assassination.
Littlefinger confirmed Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) is innocent and revealed that Sansa (Sophie Turner) could potentially be linked to the crime via the necklace Ser Dontos gave her.
At King’s Landing, Olenna divulged to Margaery (Natalie Dormer) that she was once engaged to a man she didn’t want to marry — and stole the man her sister was eyeing by slipping into his bedchamber one night. She advised Margaery to do the same with Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman), urging her to win the young king over before Cersei could poison him against her.
Also at King’s Landing, Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) was pulled in multiple directions. His imprisoned brother Tyrion asked for his help – but both Jaime’s impaired fighting skills and his responsibilities as lord commander of the King’s Guard made this impossible.
PHOTOS: Joffrey’s 10 Most Evil Moments
Meanwhile, he and Cersei (Lena Headey) reunited after last week’s controversial rape scene. They were not on good terms, with Cersei accusing him of being loyal to Catelyn Stark and asking if he would bring her Sansa’s head if she commanded it.
So Jaime had a decision to make – and in the end decided to keep his oath to the late Stark matriarch, charging Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) with finding the missing girls and giving her his Valyrian steel sword to help. In a sweet moment, she named the sword Oathkeeper.
PHOTOS: ‘Game of Thrones’: 20 Best Quotes
We also learned Locke (Noah Taylor) has made his way to the Wall under orders of Roose Bolton. And that wasn’t the only danger Jon (Kit Harington) faced within his own ranks. Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale) doesn’t like Jon one bit, and only approved his mission to Craster’s Keep in hopes our young hero would die in the process.
Speaking of Craster’s Keep, the show unveiled terrible horrors in a series of scenes showing the aftermath of the mutiny there. Craster’s daughters were being tormented day and night, with Karl (Burn Gorman) in charge, drinking wine from Jeor Mormont’s skull and terrorizing the women and men alike.
Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright), Jojen (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Hodor (Kristian Nairn), Meera (Ellie Kendrick) – and even poor Summer ended up in the custody of the mutineers by the episode’s end. This should make for an interesting show next week, assuming that’s when Jon will arrive to take on the mutineers.
Thrones is known for throwing us a curveball at the end of an episode. This week’s big ending gave us something totally out of left field: the revelation that White Walkers have been using Craster’s sacrificed sons to turn them into baby White Walkers (or something).
Writer Bryan Cogman declined to comment on what it all means, but what are your theories? Let us know in the comments, and stay tuned to THR.com/GOT for everything Game of Thrones.
Email: Aaron.Couch@THR.com
Twitter: @AaronCouch
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