This episode of Game of Thrones is brought to you by rotting flesh, the Lord of Light, sexual prowess, gay spies and verbal parental abuse.
(Spoiler Alert!)
“Kissed by Fire” begins with violent action, keeping up the momentum established by last week’s episode-concluding battle in Astapor. Beric Dondarrion squared off against Sandor Clegane, and lost his life…IN ALL OF 30 SECONDS, BECA– USE DID YOU FORGET WHICH SHOW YOU WERE WATCHING?
His second-in-command, Thoros of Myr – a red priest, who worships the Lord of Light like Stannis’s sorceress-consigliere, Melisandre – brings Beric back with little more than a few words. However, we learn later on that each resurrection has consequences. Hearing the Hound eschew all the complexity and inherent sorrow he’d shown in the previous episode after his victory – by telling Arya, “Suppose the Lord of Light loves me more than your butcher’s boy” – is more brutal than seeing Dondarrion cleaved apart from left shoulder to breastbone by the Hound’s blade.
The blessings and practices the men go through before the battle are fascinating and indicative of one of the episode’s motifs – ritualistic behaviors and expressions of faith. These practices range from the desperate prayers said by Stannis Baratheon’s very scary wife, Selyse, to the ceremonial manner in which the Unsullied present their leader, Grey Worm, to Daenerys Targaryen and how he explains his name to his queen and liberator.
The idea of loyalty and who serves who (or what), though, is what’s most prominent in the episode. Look at the ways in which Ser Barristan Selmy subtly questions and picks at Jorah Mormont in their scenes together, as they march the Unsullied on the road from Astapor. The audience knows Mormont was once an informer for Varys, reporting on Daenerys’s activities, and Dany does not.
We also know that he’s been loyal to her ever since, fighting for her and effectively saving her life in the first season when that wine seller attempted to poison her. We have to assume, though, that Barristan knows the function Mormont once served – he was Kingsguard to Robert Baratheon when the plot to kill Dany was hatched. It’s uncertain when or if he’ll act on that knowledge.
Loyalty is again brought up at Riverrun, where Robb Stark’s sense of honor and justice come into conflict with pragmatism. It’s satisfying as a viewer to see Robb deal with the treachery of Lord Rickard Karstark – who murdered two young Lannister boys Robb was keeping as hostages – by executing the man in a manner befitting his father, whom we miss as a character. However, this results in a massive detriment to Robb’s war effort, as Karstark’s men understandably desert the King, who killed their liege lord. We wonder if that sense of honor, which became Ned Stark’s undoing, will have the same effect on the man’s eldest son, particularly considering the deficiency of honor on display in most of Westeros.
Questions of honor and loyalty are also the engine behind Jaime’s scenes in this episode. Now in the custody of Roose Bolton, who is acting curiously hospitable to him and Brienne, when we see him enter the tub with her it seems as though we’re in for another wry verbal duel between these two.
Instead, after a brief quip that he shockingly apologizes for, we hear the explanation for his murder of “the Mad King” Aerys Targaryen, who Robert Baratheon unseated. That king had every intention of burning down King’s Landing and everyone in it, having had his pyromancer plant wildfire in tunnels all over the city. Jaime murdered king and pyromancer both, and was found by Ned Stark standing over the bodies. He ended up being mocked as “Kingslayer” ever since. When he shouts at Brienne, “By what right does the wolf judge the lion,” it isn’t out of any hatred of Ned or any Stark – he simply can’t understand why a noble act became perceived as dishonorable. This bafflement and his toxic family, Tyrion excepted, have filled him with bitterness and abrasive, pitch-black humor. (Also, we get to see Brienne cradle him tenderly when he collapses. Adorable. Less adorable: Seeing his rotting, gangrenous flesh being boiled away as part of the healing process. Possibly the grossest thing that this show, often full of gross things, has shown us.)
Among the other plot strands, the question of Jon Snow’s loyalty surfaced far in the North, on two fronts – his (feigned) loyalty to Mance Rayder and the wildlings, which is holding up, and his long-simmering desire to be, well, loyal to Ygritte, the wildling girl who vouched for his life and unwittingly helped solidify his undercover status. But you know, I mean he proved that loyalty in a cave, without clothes, with hot springs and cunnilingus. (Outstanding work for a first-timer, Snow.) And on Dragonstone, Stannis’s facially disfigured daughter Shireen proved that the truest loyalty is that which transcends rigid guidelines when it’s right to do so – sneaking down to keep the unjustly imprisoned Davos Seaworth company and teach him how to read, asserting “You’re still my friend” after Davos echoes Stannis’s judgment.
(Goddamn, this episode was fucking packed.)
For her part, Arya didn’t so much struggle with loyalty as with the idea of needing to belong – to anything or anyone. She knows she is no more than a pawn for ransom to the Brotherhood Without Banners, as kind as they are to her – they need the money that Catelyn Stark would undoubtedly pay to see her. And while Gendry has been her close companion through a deluge of horrific situations, how could he deny an offer to join the Brotherhood? He is well-suited to belong to them, and she is not; she can’t escape her identity, as a highborn Stark, and yet has no one to connect to.
The Lannister children, Tyrion and Cersei, wrapped up the episode, showing how loyalty of the filial variety is a struggle for them as well. Tyrion’s hatred for his father is no secret, and his reaction – of pure horror – to the prospect of an arranged marriage with Sansa Stark (seen briefly being sweet-talked by Littlefinger) is understandable and morally sound. Cersei, by contrast, is far more willing to walk in lockstep with Tywin Lannister – until he assigns her the same task, only with Ser Loras Tyrell. Her enraged reaction is overpowered so quickly by Tywin’s bellowing and insults that you can almost feel sympathy for her. Almost.
While this was a slower episode than the past two, it certainly wasn’t less good. The show’s continuous improvement is as mind-boggling, and awesome, as Podrick Payne’s bedroom skills.
Missing this episode: Bran Stark, Melisandre, Theon Greyjoy, Samwell Tarly and the remaining Night’s Watch dudes.
Best off: Daenerys and Jon Snow (tie).
Worst off: Jaime Lannister with a bullet, with Tyrion at a close second.
Liam Green can be reached at lgreen@thoughtpollution.com.