Janicia

The SotH-affiliated prostitute isn’t the Harpy – Mereen is too hierarchical a society for the leader of an upper class resistance movement to be literally working as a low-end prostitute (she was working as a prostitute long enough to have that Unsullied as a regular customer, we see her entertaining a client again in the bazaar). The prostitute is a low-level supporter of the movement. Dario isn’t the Harpy. He doesn’t have the Mereenese connections to be organizing a resistance movement for them. But it is interesting that he seems to have set up an intelligence service for Dany. He might have contacts in the movement. My guess is that he will turn on Dany in seasons 5 or 6, but maybe not. Hizdahr might be the Harpy, but more likely is just a member of the movement / knows the right people. I think it makes for a better story if he’s just a decent guy trying to steer a sane path for his city in the face of chaos, than if he’s another Littlefinger. Since those are the only options, I doubt the show is going to introduce us to The Harpy – more likely it will always be a grassroots group that we don’t fully understand. So at the end of season 5, Dany loses control of Mereen and flies away, leaving Tyrion, Jorah, Dario, Missandei, Grey Worm, and Hizdahr. A member or two of Dany’s entourage might die or otherwise exit the story in the season finale. Any thoughts on how the dragons get out of the crypts without Quentyn? I guess Hizdahr or Dario could try to steal them, but after this week's episode, I doubt either would be so stupid. In season 6, the show could pick up with Dany pointed toward Westeros and we never go back to Mereen. Tyrion and whomever else survives from Mereen could get on those boats and Dany could join them. Or whatever. In that case, we definitely don’t need The Harpy. Alternatively, season 6 might open up with more Mereen presumably with Tyrion facing off against either Hizdahr or Dario. Maybe Missandei throws a wrench into things if she stops hero-worshipping Dany. In this case, presumably the Sons of the Harpy would continue to be a relevant faction in season 6.

I think that scene with Hizdahr was supposed to be uncomfortable. The show really dwelt on Hizdahr's fear, and hasn't yet given us a reason to want bad things to happen to him. My guess is that Hizdahr and Loras are intended as counterpoints to Sansa and other depictions of female victimization on the show. They don't want it to always be the women who are scared and helpless, threatened with rape, or shamed for their sexual choices. Margaery's virginity test would have been egregious so they're not going there. They also gave the High Septon a walk of shame to reduce the gendered nature of the punishment. And they put Dany and Margaery in much stronger positions in their marriages than they were in the books. The show gets a lot of flak for reveling too much in the victimization of women. So I think they're trying to make it more about people using power to victimize other people. I'm not saying every decision they're making is right. But I don't think we are supposed to be rooting for Dany's proposal technique.

In Brienne's defense, since candles are a common source of light, she needs a signal that will be distinct from regular day-to-day activity. All the easily accessible windows probably have candles in them all the time. And presumably Sansa could ask a servant to light that candle on a pretext rather than go herself.

I totally thought that Miranda was going to try to sic the dogs on her somehow. Never even occurred to me that it could be a corpse or a Theon. (I knew Sansa wasn't going to be mauled, but I thought Myranda would try and Ramsay or somebody would intervene.)

My interpretation was just that Missandei believes in Dany's goodness. Dany personally rescued Missandei, and has always treated her as a friend. Dany's advisors kept telling her to leave Slaver's Bay, and Dany kept insisting on freeing slaves and trying to establish a benign rule. So while Missandei has Dany up on a pedestal, I think Missandei also trusts the gut instincts of another young woman who hates slavery more than Missandei trusts the instincts of Westerosi knights, slavers, or mercenaries. There might be something fishy going on with book Missandei (she's insanely gifted especially for her age, her sense of hearing is weirdly powerful, and after Dany disappeared she started reading all the time). But I don't think the show has yet established that there is something fishy going on with show Missandei. You may be right, but there is a benign explanation so far.

I noticed that Hizdahr remained standing as well. But I think Dany decided to marry him because he's the one she knows the best and she believes him to be non-threatening. It also seems like they've established a fair amount of trust - he's petitioned her a number of times over things and sometimes she's listened to him, sometimes not. So I think she feels like she has a good grasp on his agenda. There is a definite possibility that the show will reveal Hizdahr to be another schemer-politician. He definitely could have been lying about his father's culpability with the crucifixion, and he could be strongly linked to the SotH. But it would almost be more interesting if he's just a fairly nice guy who decided to work with Dany to try to reduce Mereenese bloodshed.

Well, she's getting to know them better, and it becomes harder to fake nice.

Well, she's getting to know them better, and it becomes harder to fake nice.

Melissandre found out about Gendry's existence and location from her fires in the show. And then she just told him, point blank, and suddenly his life made a lot more sense to him. That seems like an obvious way for the show to tell Jon. But Bran and Bloodraven are another obvious way. I doubt it will come from the Reeds in the show - Howland Reed hasn't been introduced at all. It would feel very deux ex machina to introduce him at this point just to tell Jon about his mother.

I think you're jumping to major conclusions with Tyrion. For one thing, the show has never suggested that any of Joanna Lannister's children aren't Tywin's. There has been absolutely no talk of the Mad King being interested in Joanna, and the father/son theme has been hammered home over and over with Tywin and Tyrion. The show also hasn't emphasized Tyrion's dragon obsession. If Tyrion being a Targaryan was going to be a plot point, there should have been some set up. And with a big Jon reveal to come, a big Tyrion reveal would probably feel over the top. GRRM is flirting with too many secret Targaryans in the books. Further, Tyrion was at that moment making fun of the Red Priestess. The simple explanation for the stare was that she sensed that he was mocking her and she was not amused. Or she sensed that Tyrion was playing some kind of important role in the Dany saga, and that drew her attention. It is a long jump to go from "that guy is probably important in some way" to "that guy will ride a dragon". Anyway, red priests are interested in all sorts of people, presumably for all sorts of reasons. Melissandre has a huge interest in Stannis, and has been interested in Arya, Shireen, Davos, Selyse, Gendry, Beric, ect. Thoros was interested in Beric, Arya, Robert, Sandor. In the books, Moquorro is interested in Victarion. Finally, given that this is ASOIAF, I doubt that all three dragons make it out of Mereen. There are a lot of weapons in Mereen, and the dragons are a serious threat to the populace - surely somebody will shoot one down eventually. Anyway, I don't think GRRM wants to end this thing with another absolute monarchy backed by dragons. And not all of the prophecies in the story will be fulfilled - some will fail, or turn out to be misunderstandings.

There are just too many characters. If they were to start over, Barristan might have been cut from the series entirely in favor of spending more time with Renly in season 1 and Jorah & Dario in seasons 3-5. But the reason to kill him off now is presumably that Tyrion and Jorah are going to arrive in Mereen this season and need something to do. And Dany has to lose control of Mereen in both a profoundly personal and convincingly large-scale way. Losing her last Westerosi advisor, the one who knew her family intimately, is a way to get Dany to that point. My guess is that Barristan doesn't make it out of Mereen alive in the books, either. The eruption of chaos there probably will claim some character lives, and he's at the center of it, making enemies.

That's a good point, I forgot Bronn knew about that.

Since Melissandre had a conversation with Stannis about her important role in the war effort in the same episode, I think her attempt to seduce Jon must be related to the planned attack on Winterfell. And really, assassinating Roose would be a great help to Stannis. Ramsay would go beserk trying to find the killer but there would be wide-spread suspicion that Ramsay did it. Without Roose, the Boltons fall and Stannis is unopposed, especially because there isn't a huge Frey army up north in the show.

I don't think Jaime would actually try to murder Tyrion. He's venting his anger rather than stating an actual plan. But it is reasonable for Jaime to be furious with Tyrion. Tywin was holding Westeros together-ish with the Lannister family on top by shear force of will. Already the Boltons, Littlefinger, and the Iron Bank are openly moving against the Lannisters as a result of Tywin's death. Tywin's death emboldens the Tyrells and Martells and gives Stannis momentum. Tommen, Cersei, and Jaime are by definition at the center of the Lannister family collapse - Tywin's untimely death points directly toward those three heads going up on spikes sooner rather than later. Tyrion basically signed a death warrant for Jaime's family, right after Jaime saved his life. And Tyrion separated Jaime from the woman he loves.

I wonder if Varys is going to be mia for the rest of the season and then pop up in the finale. I’m pretty sure Cersei told Meryn Trant to make sure Mace has an accident in Bravos, and Arya is going to interrupt that. Which makes a certain amount of sense – Trant is going to have to get away from the rest of the escort in order to make his move on Mace; which in turn will make Trant vulnerable to Arya. I’m very curious if the show is committed to the repercussions of political assassination causing diplomatic fiasco in Bravos and will slot that into the story going forward, or if it will be downplayed. I had assumed Sansa would talk to Theon in the crypts, but I enjoyed that Sansa / Littlefinger scene. Still really looking forward to Sansa interacting with Theon. Both Littlefinger and Jaime were tasked with expository dialogue to explain the logic of their deviations from their book story arcs. I’m becoming more convinced that Bronn is probably toast. Shame! Sand snakes didn’t really work for me. But it is hasty to judge them on one scene. I wondered if Melissandre was responsible for saving Shireen, as others speculated upthread. But if so, you’d think Melissandre might have mentioned that during her season 4 heart-to-heart with Shireen. Or Stannis might have said that in his scene this episode to explain to Shireen why he believes in Melissandre. And Selyse would probably like Shireen more if Shireen was an example of the Lord of Light’s miraculous power. So… probably not. It was nice to see Tyrion being both clever and well-informed. Seemed like Melissandre wanted to make a shadow baby, probably to kill Roose. And she definitely has thoughts on what to do with Shireen’s blood. :( I like the speculation upthread that Sam and Gilly abscond with Shireen. I hope they do! That would actually be a callback to Gilly’s plea to Sam and Jon in season 2, and again it would be Sam who focuses on rescuing the damsel while Jon is more focused on the bigger picture.

I think Cersei is gathering allies to make a move against Margaery. Clearly that was her intention with the High Sparrow, but I think that's also what she wants Littlefinger for. From Cersei's perspective, Littlefinger has a pretty good track record. He was clearly competent with the realm's finances. He orchestrated her power move against Ned in season 1. He brokered the Tyrell alliance that saved her from Stannis in season 2. He ferreted out and revealed the Tyrell plot to steal Sansa in season 3. He helped keep Lysa and the Vale in the Lannister fold during the war. Littlefinger was generally aligned with Cersei and Joffrey against Tyrion in season 2, while Varys was aligned with Tyrion. Littlefinger had Tywin's stamp of approval (Tywin rewarded him with Harrenhal and approval for the Lysa marriage). So Cersei thinks of Littlefinger as a long-term henchman / ally, who has been well vetted and amply rewarded for his services. And Cersei working with Littlefinger makes a lot of sense for the show, instead of bringing in the various tertiary characters from this point in the books that Cersei makes the mistake of trusting. It is ironic that Cersei has been throwing away the one actual Lannister henchman with brains that she inherited from Tywin: Pycelle. I'm looking forward to the final Pycelle / Cersei falling out that the show has clearly been moving toward.

In the show at least, Brienne swears her sword to Catelyn on the condition that Catelyn will release her to go after Stannis when the time comes. Brienne's oath to Catelyn was always secondary to her duties as Renly's kingsguard - she's just put the Renly / Stannis stuff on the backburner because she didn't have an opening to do anything about it. And clearly Renly wasn't just "some guy Brienne met twice". She went to war for him by her own choice. He took her seriously as a knight and put her on the kingsguard. Apparently he was kind to her in the past at an important moment. He was murdered on her watch, and everything has gone to shit since. Brienne has Renly on a high pedestal. Further, why should Brienne serve Catelyn's memory the rest of her life? Catelyn got her out of Renly's camp. That is a big thing, but it is just one thing, and Brienne has been through a hell of at lot trying to serve Catelyn since then. Anyway, just because one character wants to kill another character doesn't mean that's how they'll die. Characters almost never get to actually achieve their goals. GRRM must have a pretty spectacular end in store for Stannis, and it isn't very likely to involve Brienne. So maybe the show deviates, but they tend to try to hit GRRM's crescendos.

I took it to mean that she knew Tyrion was making fun of her, and also probably knew way too much about Tyrion and Varys. Just a kind of "don't mess with the red priestesses because they're powerful and scary" moment.

Arya and Sansa both desperately want revenge for Ned's death from 4 seasons ago, and a bunch of people still reference Ned and mourn for him. Renly was an important person - a great lord, brother to the king, pretender to the throne, and he was basically a good person. He should be mourned and remembered. And he died in front of Brienne while she was supposed to be protecting him. Brienne is never going to "get over" Renly's death, especially not while Stannis still lives. Anyway, Brienne is going to have trouble going forward, since she is going to fundamentally hate both the Stannis and Bolton factions. Will make her movements tricky.

The show has to set up that Cersei makes a lot of mistakes, but they have to do it efficiently - no time for side-plots. Cersei was looking for allies against Margery, so she brings in LF and the High Sparrow. We already know that LF is a dangerous ally. But this set-up lets us know that the High Sparrow is also a dangerous ally for Cersei and she should have known better than to empower him.

Isn't she about to have the High Septon murdered? But TWoS isn't supposed to be a fist pump moment, or an example of justice served.

It isn't that the show forgets about this guy - they went to the effort of including him in the script, casting him, costuming him, including him in the shot. But the show isn't particularly interested in how the institution of the Kings Guard works. Further, the show is juggling more than 100 named characters per season. It is absurd to expect the shot to also check in with the unnamed characters that had 5 seconds of screen time. Conceivably, his purpose was to escort Myrcella to Dorne, and he returned to Kings Landing ages ago. Or he's offscreen in Dorne somewhere throughout season 5. The Kingsguard are not the best knights in the kingdom anymore; he might be living the easy life in Dorne rather than following Myrcella around everywhere. Or maybe he died somehow in the years since Myrcella traveled to Dorne. Or maybe he has a terrible flu during the week of Jaime's visit.

I think Varys could hire an assassin and we would see the murders during a Varys voice over, similar to LF's ladder speech. But maybe Kevan just hunkers down in Casterly Rock offscreen for the rest of the season and somebody poisons Pycelle or executes him for treason during the KL power struggle.

I don't think it matters much. Ned is dead. Whichever Stark kids Dany eventually meets will have their own resumes for Dany to judge them by. And while Ned disapproved of the sack of KL and the assassination attempt on Dany; he and Dany were enemies. Ned went to war to remove her father from power and he would have gone to war again to fight against Dany's invasion. If Dany allies herself with any Starks in the future, it won't be on account of Ned's honor, it will be a result of the political situation Dany finds herself in and the personal connection she might have with the individual Stark. And if Dany and Starks fight against each other in the future, there will be a lot of reasons for that, not just the attempted assassination.

Even if Tyrion is a secret Targaryan in the books, he probably won't be one in the show. The show hasn't established that only Targaryans can ride dragons so it does't need Tyrion to have Targaryan blood. And it is far from guaranteed that Tyrion will be a dragon rider in either medium. Those dragons are probably going to start dying soon. Anyway, it would be cheap to undercut the Tyrion / Tywin relationship by pulling a "oops you weren't Tywin's son after all" plot development.