Let’s start with the titular arc: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken. Those are the words of House Martell. That’s because they’ve never bowed to any king, never bent their knees and their front line was never broken. Dorne was never conquered, they elected to join the seven Kingdom. We know these are House Martell’s words because the Sand Snakes told us so. Need a quick history lesson on Dorne and House Martell? Let the Sand Snakes lecture us with cheesy dialogues! Speaking of cheesy, the teen romance between Myrcella and Trystane Martell was almost gag inducing. Suddenly Jaime and Bronn, two northern looking dudes, waltz right out of nowhere. This is supposed to be the most important area in Dorne. Important dudes and their heirs do their garden walking here!
Out of nowhere, two men in blood-stained garbs waltz right in. They spent plenty of time burying the bodies of the dead soldiers they stole the clothes from but they didn’t have enough time to wash the bloodstain out of their clothes? Moments later the Sand Snakes show up, weapons drawn. We suffer through a poorly choreographed fight scene where the only memorable part was when Bronn was cut with a knife. There’s a likely chance Bronn is going to die a slow and painful death. Dornish weapons are known to be laced with poison. Finally, the guards show up. Areo Hotah gets to swing his axe but it never touches Jaime Lannister’s neck… on purpose. Wasn’t it a moment ago Areo promised he remembered how to use his axe? Where were they when Jaime, Bronn and the Sand Snakes were sneaking into the water garden?! Ultimately, the whole scene in Dorne was a huge letdown. Let’s hope this is not a sign of what we have in store for the future.
Elsewhere in the world, Arya Stark is finally making leeway with her lessons in Bravos. She attempts another Game of Faces with the waif and learns a little trick. In the game of face, you need to lie to be someone else. Using this knowledge, Arya lies to a sick girl, tricking her into drinking the poisoned water in the temple. Another body donation for the Many-Faced God. Ja’qen seeing that she is ready, leads her down the temple past the cleaning room. We finally learn what happens to the body after she finishes washing them. The room is cavernous with pillars as far as the eye can see and in each pillars are several faces embedded within, the faces of those who donated themselves to the Many-Face God. Here we learn how the Faceless men can carry so many identities.
To be honest, the chamber of masks was quite impressive and admittedly better than what the book had described. This leads one to think… is the temple keeper really Ja’qen H’ghar or just another faceless man using the same face Arya saw in Harrenhal? Arya is not yet ready to be someone, but she is ready to be someone else. Her first assassination mission will commence and apparently there’s a certain King’s Guard that’s visiting Braavos by the name of Meryn Trant but in order to do so, she must wear another face, which means a different actress. Is Maisie William’s role as Arya Stark soon over or will they cheese it with prosthetics?
In other parts of Essos, Tyrion and Jorah bonds for a moment. Jorah learns from Tyrion how his father died. We saw 2 seasons ago how the Night’s Watch betrayed Lord Commander Jeor Mormont at Craster’s Keep, using his skull as a wine cup. Jorah’s far removed from Westeros, but you can see Jorah was fighting back the tears. Tyrion looked genuinely sorry for his dad. Jorah’s reaction to Tyrion’s confession of killing his own father added some brevity to the scene. He just got up and didn’t really say anything. After a jog towards the shore, the two encounters slavers who were initially planning to use Tyrion for his cock and Jorah as a galley slave. Thanks to Tyrion’s silver tongue, they were convinced that Jorah’s a great fighter and opts to ship them to Meereen to fight in the pits. Chalk this one up as a blessing in disguise – moments ago they were about to die of starvation heading to Meereen, now they have a ship. Thanks, Tyrion.
In King’s Landing, Littlefinger discovers much has changed since he was last there. The faith militants now patrols the street, they’ve destroyed his brothel, and Brother Lancel is throwing out the grill at any sinner he sees, Petyr Baelish being no exception. We learn through his conversation with Cersei his intention to let Stannis and Roose battle it out while his army in the Vale scoops up the rest. In return, all he ask is that he be named Warden of the North. Cersei agrees purely out of her hate for Sansa Stark, unwittingly playing into his scheme.
If Stannis wins, Sansa will be named Wardeness of the North and he’d most likely ally with Stannis. If Roose wins, he will invade with the army of the Vale and names himself Warden of the North. It’s a win-win for Lord Baelish for sure. Cersei tries hard to imitate her father: busily writing while she takes audience, scheming to have Loras put on trial and Queen Maergary imprisoned for perjury. Except, unlike Tywin Lannister, she never looks at the bigger picture – each scheme alienates her further from her allies and soon she will have no friends.
Finally, we come to the saddest part of the episode. It’s an odd juxtaposition. In one scene, we see Sansa being strong and brave, telling Myranda to fuck off as she tries to scare her. Or was she simply warning Sansa about Ramsay’s predations and sick fetishes? Now at this time Sansa has no idea about Ramsay’s perversions, but she’s been through Joffrey. Who could possibly be worse than Joffrey? Aaaah, and that’s when we get to the wedding. A Game of Throne wedding wouldn’t be a wedding without murder or rape. Unfortunately for Sansa, it’s the latter. After marrying in the Godswood, Ramsay brings Sansa into the bed chamber and forces himself on Sansa. Theon is made to watch as Ramsay gets ready to deflower the girl he grew up with as a child.
Even though the viewer do not see the rape, the combination of Theon’s wretched face and Sansa’s scream leaves viewers with a dreaded sense of the worse. Emotion runs high with Alfie Allen who portrays an agonized wretch perfectly. Lily Allen’s little brother deserves an Emmy for his performance in this scene. Alas, it looks like Sansa's only hope at this point is Brienne. She must really regret going along with Littlefinger's plan now.
Let’s start with the titular arc: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken. Those are the words of House Martell. That’s because they’ve never bowed to any king, never bent their knees and their front line was never broken. Dorne was never conquered, they elected to join the seven Kingdom. We know these are House Martell’s words because the Sand Snakes told us so. Need a quick history lesson on Dorne and House Martell? Let the Sand Snakes lecture us with cheesy dialogues! Speaking of cheesy, the teen romance between Myrcella and Trystane Martell was almost gag inducing. Suddenly Jaime and Bronn, two northern looking dudes, waltz right out of nowhere. This is supposed to be the most important area in Dorne. Important dudes and their heirs do their garden walking here!
Out of nowhere, two men in blood-stained garbs waltz right in. They spent plenty of time burying the bodies of the dead soldiers they stole the clothes from but they didn’t have enough time to wash the bloodstain out of their clothes? Moments later the Sand Snakes show up, weapons drawn. We suffer through a poorly choreographed fight scene where the only memorable part was when Bronn was cut with a knife. There’s a likely chance Bronn is going to die a slow and painful death. Dornish weapons are known to be laced with poison. Finally, the guards show up. Areo Hotah gets to swing his axe but it never touches Jaime Lannister’s neck… on purpose. Wasn’t it a moment ago Areo promised he remembered how to use his axe? Where were they when Jaime, Bronn and the Sand Snakes were sneaking into the water garden?! Ultimately, the whole scene in Dorne was a huge letdown. Let’s hope this is not a sign of what we have in store for the future.
Elsewhere in the world, Arya Stark is finally making leeway with her lessons in Bravos. She attempts another Game of Faces with the waif and learns a little trick. In the game of face, you need to lie to be someone else. Using this knowledge, Arya lies to a sick girl, tricking her into drinking the poisoned water in the temple. Another body donation for the Many-Faced God. Ja’qen seeing that she is ready, leads her down the temple past the cleaning room. We finally learn what happens to the body after she finishes washing them. The room is cavernous with pillars as far as the eye can see and in each pillars are several faces embedded within, the faces of those who donated themselves to the Many-Face God. Here we learn how the Faceless men can carry so many identities.
To be honest, the chamber of masks was quite impressive and admittedly better than what the book had described. This leads one to think… is the temple keeper really Ja’qen H’ghar or just another faceless man using the same face Arya saw in Harrenhal? Arya is not yet ready to be someone, but she is ready to be someone else. Her first assassination mission will commence and apparently there’s a certain King’s Guard that’s visiting Braavos by the name of Meryn Trant but in order to do so, she must wear another face, which means a different actress. Is Maisie William’s role as Arya Stark soon over or will they cheese it with prosthetics?
In other parts of Essos, Tyrion and Jorah bonds for a moment. Jorah learns from Tyrion how his father died. We saw 2 seasons ago how the Night’s Watch betrayed Lord Commander Jeor Mormont at Craster’s Keep, using his skull as a wine cup. Jorah’s far removed from Westeros, but you can see Jorah was fighting back the tears. Tyrion looked genuinely sorry for his dad. Jorah’s reaction to Tyrion’s confession of killing his own father added some brevity to the scene. He just got up and didn’t really say anything. After a jog towards the shore, the two encounters slavers who were initially planning to use Tyrion for his cock and Jorah as a galley slave. Thanks to Tyrion’s silver tongue, they were convinced that Jorah’s a great fighter and opts to ship them to Meereen to fight in the pits. Chalk this one up as a blessing in disguise – moments ago they were about to die of starvation heading to Meereen, now they have a ship. Thanks, Tyrion.
In King’s Landing, Littlefinger discovers much has changed since he was last there. The faith militants now patrols the street, they’ve destroyed his brothel, and Brother Lancel is throwing out the grill at any sinner he sees, Petyr Baelish being no exception. We learn through his conversation with Cersei his intention to let Stannis and Roose battle it out while his army in the Vale scoops up the rest. In return, all he ask is that he be named Warden of the North. Cersei agrees purely out of her hate for Sansa Stark, unwittingly playing into his scheme.
If Stannis wins, Sansa will be named Wardeness of the North and he’d most likely ally with Stannis. If Roose wins, he will invade with the army of the Vale and names himself Warden of the North. It’s a win-win for Lord Baelish for sure. Cersei tries hard to imitate her father: busily writing while she takes audience, scheming to have Loras put on trial and Queen Maergary imprisoned for perjury. Except, unlike Tywin Lannister, she never looks at the bigger picture – each scheme alienates her further from her allies and soon she will have no friends.
Finally, we come to the saddest part of the episode. It’s an odd juxtaposition. In one scene, we see Sansa being strong and brave, telling Myranda to fuck off as she tries to scare her. Or was she simply warning Sansa about Ramsay’s predations and sick fetishes? Now at this time Sansa has no idea about Ramsay’s perversions, but she’s been through Joffrey. Who could possibly be worse than Joffrey? Aaaah, and that’s when we get to the wedding. A Game of Throne wedding wouldn’t be a wedding without murder or rape. Unfortunately for Sansa, it’s the latter. After marrying in the Godswood, Ramsay brings Sansa into the bed chamber and forces himself on Sansa. Theon is made to watch as Ramsay gets ready to deflower the girl he grew up with as a child.
Even though the viewer do not see the rape, the combination of Theon’s wretched face and Sansa’s scream leaves viewers with a dreaded sense of the worse. Emotion runs high with Alfie Allen who portrays an agonized wretch perfectly. Lily Allen’s little brother deserves an Emmy for his performance in this scene. Alas, it looks like Sansa's only hope at this point is Brienne. She must really regret going along with Littlefinger's plan now.
