One good thing about living in America is that a nation divided by political acrimony and a grinding culture war can unite around a show that features mass murder, rape, incest, and political double-dealing. So, what happened this week on “Game of Thrones?” Spoilers follow:
Daenerys offers a truce to Cersei
After executing the last Lannister holdouts among her prisoners by dragon fire, Daenerys finally followed the pleadings of Jon Snow and her advisors to focus on the real enemy beyond the wall, the White Walkers. Tyrion holds a secret meeting with Jamie, the most awkward of family reunions, to offer the proposition for a truce with Cersei.
Of course their sister, although vicious, is no fool and accepts the deal. After all, she has another incestuous baby on the way. The problem is that a prophecy once stated that Cersei would only have three children, now all dead. The baby she is now pregnant with is child number four.
Jon Snow's marauders head north of the wall
Part of the task of convincing Cersei that it’s time to let bygones be bygones is to grab a white walker from north of the wall and to bring it back for her edification. Jon Snow is leading an eclectic group of heroes that include the Hound, Jorah, newly cured of greyscale, Gendry, the natural son of dead King Robert, and several others on that mission. One suspects that things are not going to run very smoothly.
Guess who else has a claim to the throne of Westeros?
Meanwhile, while she and Sam (who is now the last of the House Tarly) are reading dusty old books, Gilly discovers that Prince Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark were legitimately married when the latter birthed Jon Snow. That makes Jon the rightful heir of the House Targaryen and Daenerys’ blood relative.
This bit of news is awkward on a number of levels since the two are starting to warm to one another.
Littlefinger makes his move
Finally, Littlefinger allows Arya to discover a note that Sansa had written to Robb back in season one urging him to surrender to the Lannisters and denouncing their father as a traitor. To be sure, Sansa was under the power of the Lannisters and was weaker and sillier than she is currently.
However, this bit of news might cause Arya to add her sister to that particular list she has been keeping. The two sisters have already clashed about Sansa’s leadership style. Sansa likes to keep a light hand on her brother’s vassals. Arya wants to start cutting off heads to keep order. No doubt Littlefinger has some sort of long game in mind, and it will be fascinating to see how it plays out.
