‘Game of Thrones‘ is officially underway, and as usual, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss managed to make a lot happen in the latest 50 minute-long episode of the hit HBO series.
***Warning: spoilers ahead***
“You’ll never wed the prince, you’ll wed the king,” the messy-haired sorceress tells Cersei after commanding her to prick her finger. “You’ll be queen, for a time,” she ominously continues. “In comes another, younger, more beautiful, to cast you down and take all you hold dear. The king will have twenty children, and you will have three. Gold will be their crowns, gold their shrouds.”
In one short scene, Cersei learns much of what we know about her adult life. From Margaery Tyrell‘s marriage to Tommen, to Robert Baratheon‘s bastard sons and her incestual relationship with Jaime Lannister.
Thus is the genius of ‘Game of Thrones.’ After the Cersei flashback, the witch’s prophecy of Margaery’s queenship unfolds before our eyes. We also briefly see the queen’s daughter, Myrcella, since she was shipped off to Dorne in a storyline involving Oberyn Martell‘s lover, Ellaria Sand, Jaime and Tyrion’s former bodyguard, Bronn.
As for the death of Tywin Lannister, his least-favorite son, Tyrion Lannister, is away from King’s Landing, but not safely (watch and see). Varys‘ attempt to convince Tyrion to side with Daenerys Targaryen contains one of the show’s few precious comic relief-providing moments.
“I killed my lover with my bare hands,” Tyrion says. “I shot my own father with a crossbow…”
“I never said you were perfect,” Varys replies.
As for Daenerys, the Mother of Dragons is dealing with some very angry children. Meanwhile, Lancel Lannister shaved his head, Sansa is looking more and more like Catelyn Stark with striking dyed brown hair and Jon Snow is disobeying Stannis Baratheon by taking pity on Mance Rayder. It’s also possible that we may see an army of wildlings overthrowing the Lannisters in one major “war to come” later in the season.
‘Game of Thrones’ season five, episode two airs Sunday Apr. 19. Lucky for you (and unlucky for HBO), the first four episodes leaked to all major torrent sites over the weekend.