S2·E6 — The Old Gods and the New
The hour retold
The old gods and the new both take a beating. Theon takes Winterfell with twenty men and a night ladder, and the price of playing prince comes due by breakfast: Ser Rodrik, the old master-at-arms who trained him, spits in his face, and ironborn pride demands a sentence Theon is not equipped to carry out. Four strokes to take a head — the man who taught him the sword watching him botch it. In King’s Landing the new gods’ city turns on its anointed: a bread riot nearly takes the king, the High Septon is torn to pieces by the faithful, and Sansa is dragged from her horse and saved from the mob by the Hound, who does not want thanking. Crowns, the hour observes, are hats; hunger does not salute.
The quieter betrayals matter more. Beyond the Wall, Jon is handed a captured wildling to execute and cannot do it — Ygritte talks, and keeps talking, and by nightfall the prisoner is the one setting the pace. Bran and Rickon vanish out of captured Winterfell with Osha and Hodor, into the dark with the direwolves. And in Qarth the season’s eastern plot finally bares its teeth: Dany’s dragons are stolen, her people murdered in the halls of her host, and her scream — where are my dragons — is the sound of the story reminding her that the only power she has ever really held has scales. The title’s gods, old and new, answer no prayers this week; everyone is on their own.
What happens
- Theon takes Winterfell with twenty men and beheads Ser Rodrik with four strokes.
- A bread riot nearly takes the king; the High Septon is torn apart; Sansa is saved by the Hound.
- Beyond the Wall, Jon is ordered to execute a wildling woman named Ygritte — and can't.
- Bran and Rickon vanish from Winterfell with Osha and Hodor.
- In Qarth, Dany's dragons are stolen and the Thirteen bleed for it.
The people of the episode
Theon Greyjoy — Took his home's home. It will cost him everything he had left.
Jon Snow — One prisoner, one sunset, and he's lost in wildling country.
Sansa Stark — The mob wanted the wolf girl. The Hound wanted otherwise.
Bran Stark — Gone into the dark with a giant and a wildling.
Daenerys Targaryen — "Where are my dragons?!"The fallen — spoilers
- Ser Rodrik Cassel — Master-at-arms of Winterfell, hacked apart by the boy he trained.
- Irri — Dany's handmaid, strangled in the theft of the dragons.
- The High Septon — Torn to pieces by the starving city he blessed.