Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Writers: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss
Original Air Date: June 2, 2013
What’s It About: The Red Wedding.
Okay, it’s only partially about The Red Wedding.
Robb (Richard Madden) and Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) want to hit the Lannisters where it hurts: Casterly Rock. The problem? They need Walder Frey (Filch from the Harry Potter movies) on their side. The bigger problem? Walder Frey is pissed off that Robb married the beautiful Talisa (Oona Chaplin) instead of one of his ugly daughters per their agreement in Season One. Catelyn’s disappointment of a brother, Edmure Tully (Tobias Menzies), agrees to marry a Frey girl, and so the whole Stark camp goes to the Twins to hopefully convince Walder Frey to join their cause and to see Edmure get married. After the wedding, though, comes the betrayal. The Starks and their allies are locked in the Freys’ hall and brutally murdered. Walder Frey gets his revenge, Twyin Lannister wins and Robb and Catelyn are both killed.
Meanwhile, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) dispatches her men to take the slave city of Yunkai through a back entrance, Arya (Maisie Williams) and the Hound (Rory McCann) dig into each other on the road to the Twins and multiple story lines intersect up north. Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) discovers he can “warg” into Hodor (Kristian Nairn) and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) is forced to reveal to the Wildlings that he is still loyal to the Night’s Watch.
Why It’s So Good: The Red Wedding.
Game of Thrones will kill off anybody. We know this. We’ve known it since the first season when that sword sliced through Ned Stark’s neck. And yet, it’s as if people didn’t really believe this rule until the Red Wedding happened in Season Three. The show had always been great, and done well in the ratings, but “The Rains Of Castamere” made the show a pop cultural titan. By the time Season Four rolled around, Game of Thrones was no longer HBO’s niche fantasy show; it was the most popular show in the channel’s history.
One of the greatest challenges that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have faced in adapting George R. R. Martin’s vast epic for the small screen is figuring out how to pace each and every one of the many complex story lines. “The Rains of Castamere” is an absolute triumph for them. Not only do they juggle a myriad of stories, but they manner in which they are told lulls the audience into a false sense of security. The episode begins with Robb and Catelyn reconciling with one another and declaring that they will bring the fight to the Lannisters. Things not only go smoothly for the Starks at the Twins, but Edmure is delighted to discover that his bride is actually quite beautiful. In the meantime, we see Bran learn to warg at will, Sam and Gilly have a sweet moment, and Daenerys nets a strategic victory. Even more, Arya is so incredibly close to rejoining her family. For the first time since the pilot, the Stark family gets to eat, drink and be merry at a feast. Finally, the good guys will win. They have to win! Right?
Wrong!
The Red Wedding was already an infamous scene amongst fans who had read the books, but it came as a particularly brutal shock for the audience who hadn’t read the books because of how jarring the event was.
The Best Moment: The Red Wedding.
Game of Thrones literally didn’t pull any punches when it came to adapting this horrific scene from A Storm of Swords. In fact, they made it worse. Talisa Stark’s literary doppelgänger, Jeyne Stark, wasn’t killed and she certainly wasn’t murdered with multiple stab words to her pregnant belly. The action in the books happens a lot more quickly and Catelyn goes down with less fight. So, it’s not quite as emotionally devastating. Finally, you can read about the band switching up their jaunty jingles for the ominous Lannister anthem, “The Rains of Castamere,” but it isn’t until you hear it creeping into the soundtrack in that haunting minor key that you really get chills up your spine.
“The Rains of Castamere” is simply epic television.
