In this week's installment of Game of Thrones, Jaime Lannister gets some company in his prison cell, Theon Greyjoy goes hunting for Bran and Rickon, and Jon Snow tries not to have naughty thoughts about the pretty redhead he's keeping on a leash.
This episode, entitled "A Man Without Honor," strays pretty far from its source material (A Clash of Kings, the second book of the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire). Many of the HBO series' newly invented scenes just don't fit seamlessly into the merciless world created by novelist George R. R. Martin, but the terrific cast makes the show fun to watch nevertheless.
Each week, Wired breaks down the new episode in comparison to the books, and gauges whether the alterations to the story and characters constitute wise adaptation or pointless tampering. With that in mind, here are some of the most noteworthy changes in this week's show.
(Spoiler alert: Plot points follow.)
1) Jaime escapes from Robb's soldiers
In A Clash of Kings, Jaime is being held at Riverrun, the fortress home of Catelyn's family the Tullys, which is situated at the confluence of three rivers. This makes the stronghold near-impossible to besiege, as attacking armies must split their forces into three cohorts, each of which is cut off from the others. All in all, a pretty good place to hold a high-value captive. But in the show, Robb keeps Jaime in an open-air cage with one moron guarding him, so Jaime is able to escape.
There is actually an attempt to free Jaime in A Clash of Kings, when Tyrion sends a contingent of Lannister men to Riverrun under a flag of peace to deliver Eddard Stark's bones to the Tullys. Among these Lannister men are four agents with special talents -- a thief, a mummer, a poisoner and a murderer -- who blend in among the common soldiers and thereby gain access to the castle, where they almost succeed in freeing Jaime. (This plot only fails due to the fortuitous arrival of Catelyn's brother Edmure, as he's returning home from a local brothel.)
The escape attempt shown in the show is less believable. Jaime murders his relative Alton, then strangles the jailer who enters the cell to intervene, thereby gaining access to the man's keys. This is an escape plot that counts on Robb's men being really, really stupid. I mean, imagine you're the guard here, and you've just seen one of the most dangerous men in Westeros throttle his own relative. Wouldn't you be a bit leery about getting within strangling distance of this guy?
>Imagine how awkward this would make family reunions.
I suppose it's remotely possible that killing Alton might lead to Jaime's escape, but the odds are about 99 percent against it, and it's a little hard to imagine Jaime casually murdering a fellow Lannister as part of such a long-shot, hare-brained scheme. Imagine how awkward that would make family reunions. "Cousin Alton? Oh yeah, I saw him just last fall. We shared a prison cell. What? No, I strangled him to death. Yeah, I was hoping that would get the lone guard to come stick his head down by me so I could strangle him, too. I was thinking then maybe I'd sneak out past hundreds of armed men who all recognize me as the most wanted man in Westeros, but it didn't work. Yeah, the guard just started yelling for help, and then all these guys gathered around gawking while I was sitting there with this corpse. I felt pretty sheepish. Oh well, it was worth a shot. Sorry about your son, though."
2) Jon and Ygritte are captured by wildlings
He's a sulky bastard boy sworn to chastity. She's a spunky wildling into ballads, crotch-grabbing and long walks in the snow. But when they bump into each other on his first ranging, they just might discover that sometimes the one you need the most is the one you're already leashed to.
Or something. Seriously, this whole subplot is so ludicrous I don't even know where to start. None of this is in the books. Jon just looks like a complete blithering idiot here. On the upside, the actress playing Ygritte is quite good, albeit much prettier than the character in the books, and the conversations highlighting the cultural differences between the wildlings and the Night's Watch are interesting. And it's delightful to see Ygritte deliver her signature line. ("You know nothing, Jon Snow.")
I was assuming after last episode that the show's producers wanted more screen time and character development for Ygritte in Season 2, and this leashed-together interlude was a (contrived) way to make that happen, but that she would soon escape and the story would get back on course. But with Jon captured by wildlings in this week's episode, I don't know what the hell's going on. I have a really bad feeling about this, but I'm still holding out hope that somehow this is all going to work out.
3) Tywin and Cersei aren't so bad
In "A Man Without Honor," we get a breathtaking bird's-eye view of Harrenhal, a grim, cyclopean fortress scorched by dragon fire, which was definitely one of the highlights of the episode. That's followed by more back-and-forth between Tywin Lannister and Arya Stark. These actors are always terrifically engaging together, but the logic of the situation is even more strained this time around, and that's saying something. (None of this appears in the books, though some of it's adapted from Arya's interactions with Roose Bolton.)
Last week, Amory Lorch dropped dead outside Tywin's door, felled by an assassin's dart. Now Tywin has executed 20 random suspects, but apparently still hasn't interrogated his unbelievably suspicious cupbearer or any of her friends, which would soon reveal that he's holding an extremely valuable prisoner, the sister of his enemy Robb Stark. However much Tywin may enjoy her company, or enjoy playing some sort of cat-and-mouse game with her, there's simply no logical reason for him to keep someone around who for all he knows is planning to stab him in the neck with a dinner knife the moment he turns his back. (It also seems a bit strange that Arya is contemplating knifing Tywin when she still holds one death wish coupon from Jaqen H'ghar. Even if she wants to save the wish for someone else, it's hard to imagine that she could murder Tywin without being instantly slaughtered by his men.)
And again in this episode, Tywin seems much more likable than he does in the books -- as does Cersei. In fact, Cersei actually engages in a heart-to-heart talk with Tyrion about her out-of-control son, Joffrey. This seems a far cry from the character in the novels, whose level of denial about her son's true nature is pathological.
4) Bran and Rickon's escape attempt goes a bit differently
In A Clash of Kings, Bran and Rickon know that Theon will pursue them with hounds and horses, so they contrive an elaborate plan in order to escape. In this episode, there's no evidence that they attempted any such scheme.
Other than that, this sequence plays out more or less as it did in the book, and so it's -- not uncoincidentally -- probably the most effective part of the episode. Theon's fraying nerves are effectively portrayed, and the conflict between him and Maester Luwin is tense and exciting. (Another small change is that Theon's lieutenant Dagmer steps in to occupy the role played by Reek in the novel.) The climax of the episode, in which Maester Luwin screams in anguish as he beholds the two charred bodies, is also very effective.
Though this episode did shuffle the chronology a bit, as in the novel, Catelyn has already been informed that Bran and Rickon are dead when she confronts Jaime Lannister. That fact is central to her motivation in that scene, and it's not clear why that chronology couldn't have been preserved. The upside here, again, is the actors. Catelyn speaks with utter authority ("Your orders are what I just gave you") and Jaime's apathetic quips are both pitiable and hilarious.
5) Xaro Xhoan Daxos plots with Pyat Pree
If you've read the books, it was pretty obvious after last episode that the dragons of Daenerys Targaryen had been kidnapped by the Warlocks of Qarth, who had taken them to the House of the Undying Ones. This is different from the books (in which Dany's dragons aren't kidnapped by anybody), but whatever -- anything to get her to the House of the Undying, which is one of the highlights of A Clash of Kings, and probably the one scene from the books I'm most looking forward to in Season 2. Unfortunately, we didn't get to the warlocks' gloomy palace in this episode. Instead, we got some totally not-from-the-books subplot about Xaro Xhoan Daxos plotting with the Warlocks to assassinate the Thirteen and blah blah blah.
>That's why you don't go around yelling empty threats at everyone.
I don't get why so much random crap is being added to Dany's storyline. Jaime spends all of A Clash of Kings as a prisoner of Robb Stark, and the show wisely chooses to just ignore him for most of the season, rather than making up pointless things for him to do. Game of Thrones should have done the same thing with Dany, whose time in Qarth just isn't that eventful.
I was at least gratified that someone shouted at Dany, "Last time we saw you, you threatened us. Now you want our help?" Yes. Thank you, random council dude. See, that's why you don't go around yelling empty threats at everyone, which, as I've noted, is a lesson that many of the characters on this show could stand to learn. Which brings us to ...
6) Shae holds a knife on Sansa's handmaid
In this episode, Sansa gets her first period, which comes as a portent of doom, as it means she's now old enough to start having Joffrey's babies -- a prospect which no longer seems quite as appealing to her, given that whole chopping off her dog's head/chopping off her father's head/tearing off her clothes in public business. In A Clash of Kings, Sansa attempts to burn her bloodstained sheets in the hearth, but only succeeds in making a mess, and is soon discovered.
In the show Shae pops in and attempts to help Sansa flip over her mattress, but they're spotted by another handmaid, who attempts to flee. Shae then chases down this handmaid, holds her at knifepoint, and threatens to kill her unless she keeps quiet. Again, this is incredibly foolhardy. Lying to the queen is treason, punishable by death. What does Shae honestly expect the handmaid to do? Agree to a treasonous pact with a crazy knife-wielding servant? The show is apparently making big changes to the character of Shae, who in the books has no particular bond with Sansa, but even granting this friendship, it seems unlikely that Shae would risk her life for Sansa, or would think that threatening the queen's servants is a smart move.
"A Man Without Honor" also features one of the rare exchanges between Sansa and Sandor Clegane, aka the Hound, that's actually from the books, in which she tries to thank him for saving her from the mob and he shrugs off her overtures.
It's nice to see some of the Hound from the book finally coming through, though Sansa's plaintive "Why are you always so hateful?" seems a bit out of place, since the Hound on the show has always seemed more bored than hateful. With any luck, he'll start seeming a lot more hateful soon, since he's one of the coolest characters in the books.
What's Your Take on Season 2 of Game of Thrones?
Give us your spin on Sunday's episode of Game of Thrones, and/or your take on the HBO series so far, in the comments below.
