S4┬ÀE7 ÔÇö Mockingbird
The hour retold
An episode about champions ÔÇö who fights for whom, and what it costs to have someone in your corner. Cersei resolves the trialÔÇÖs arithmetic by naming Ser Gregor Clegane, and the show reintroduces the Mountain disemboweling prisoners for exercise. In his cell, Tyrion holds auditions: Jaime cannot fight with his left hand, and Bronn ÔÇö in the pairÔÇÖs bittersweet last scene of the season ÔÇö declines with the honesty that made him likable: he likes Tyrion, but he likes himself more. When has anyone risked everything for him, Bronn asks, and the answer walks in wearing Martell colors. Oberyn Martell volunteers to be TyrionÔÇÖs champion for reasons that have nothing to do with Tyrion: the Mountain killed his sister, and the Crown has finally arranged for the two of them to meet legally.
The titleÔÇÖs mockingbird is Littlefinger, and the Vale pays out his long game in the snow. Sansa, building Winterfell out of drifts in the EyrieÔÇÖs garden, gets a kiss she did not ask for; Lysa sees it, and the episode ends with the seasonÔÇÖs most vertiginous domestic scene ÔÇö Sansa held over the Moon Door by her own aunt, then Lysa held over it by her own husband. Only Cat, he tells her, and lets go. Elsewhere the Hound, bitten and refusing fire to cauterize it, tells Arya the true story of his burns ÔÇö a brother, a brazier, a fatherÔÇÖs lie ÔÇö and lets her clean the wound: trust, from a man who has none to spare. Champions everywhere; the trick, the hour suggests, is surviving yours.
What happens
- Cersei names her champion: Ser Gregor Clegane. The Mountain.
- Jaime can't fight, Bronn won't die for free ÔÇö and Oberyn Martell volunteers, for reasons carved in Elia's name.
- The Hound takes a bite for a dying farmer's mercy; Arya finishes it cleanly.
- Lysa sees a kiss in the snow and holds Sansa over the Moon Door; Littlefinger holds Lysa over it longer.
The people of the episode
Oberyn Martell ÔÇö "I will be your champion." The viper picks the fight he came for.
Tyrion Lannister ÔÇö Laughs in his cell: fate sent him a Dornishman.
Sansa Stark ÔÇö Six hundred feet of open air beneath her aunt's grip.
Petyr Baelish ÔÇö "Only Cat." And the Moon Door swallows a jealous heart.
Arya Stark ÔÇö Learns where the heart is, and uses the lesson within the hour.The fallen ÔÇö spoilers
- Lysa Arryn ÔÇö Sent through her own Moon Door by the man she killed her husband for.