Episode 3: “What is Dead May Never Die”

Jon won’t be pretty much longer at this rate.

It’s been a while but I’m back with episode 3 of Game of Thrones season 2. This episode picks up right where the last one left off with Jon receiving a stern lesson in the difference between what is right and what is expedient, and how they are seldom the same thing in Westeros. The Old Bear knows Craster is up to no good, but the man is a necessary evil while the Watch focuses on much worse shit. Including the shit Craster pays tribute to. White Walker shit. Shit.

This is all part of Jon’s education not only in leadership but also on the role of heroics in a world like his. Jon’s a romantic at heart but it’s being slowly worn out of him by all he’s experienced since leaving Winterfell. The show makes his story feel a lot more clearly one about “coming of age” than the books did. I’m sure I’ll talk more about it, but it’s one of the key reasons I think Jon is a more immediately likable character in the show. I didn’t really get into Jon until even after the Qhorin Halfhand stuff (later in Season 2, you’ll see!) where most people, especially young men, like him right away because he represents something of ourselves. I never got that with the books so much. Jon always felt like the vanilla protagonist that usually centers fantasy stories, even my own. I always thought that was boring for A Song of Ice and Fire but Martin always meant for us to see Jon grow up into the man he’ll eventually become.

Episode 2: “The Night Lands”

Manners. They matter.

Episode 2 of season 2 of Game of Thrones is slightly more focused than the first one. This is because the important work of rallying the narrative forces and propelling them forward into the new cycle of the story is largely done. With more room to get into what this season is going to focus on, individual scenes are longer and have more room to breathe which means that there are a few less of them in this episode than in the previous one. That said, this is another episode written by Weiss and Benioff which means it’s more than adequate at juggling all the disparate characters and subplots that make up the ugly, beautiful web of Game of Thrones. Dany only gets one scene this time while Robb, Catelyn, Joffrey/Sansa and Bran/Winterfell are left out altogether. When the show is able to shuffle things around in order to focus, it is truly at its best. Even reducing or removing a couple of threads temporarily makes for a less breezy, more substantial episode.

Episode 1: “The North Remembers”

These Westerosi knights need to learn to stop fucking dueling in places they can fall off.

The episode opens with Joffrey’s nameday tournament. Rather than trying to do another outdoors, traditional joust scene, they opted for a large physical set that shows off the show’s increased budget and ramped up sense of scale. That the tourney scene from season 1 was arguably the most nitpicked in the whole show by both the viewers who’d read the books and those who hadn’t is precisely why this is the opening scene of the second season. It’s a statement, one that will ring through the entirety of the season and potentially the rest of the show as it seems HBO will continue to increase budgets as long as Game of Thrones continues to be a huge fucking success.