History Recap / GameOfThronesS2E1TheNorthRememebers

The episode begins in '''King's Landing''' with the Hound in a fight - that ends very quickly, as he knocks his opponent over the edge of the battlement they're fighting on. The opponent doesn't land so much as splash on the courtyard below, and everyone claps.

It's Joffrey's name day tournament. Remember what Joffrey was like last season? Well, now he's having a man drowned in wine for arriving to fight late and slightly drunk, isn't that ''nice?'' Sansa, thinking quickly, gets the tipsy Ser Dontos off the hook with a little help from Sandor, but it's clear everyone is taking care not to offend Joffrey. Except for Tyrion, who shows up out of the blue and also shows up Joffrey completely.

Tyrion then proceeds to the meeting of the Small Council to show up Joffrey's mother as well. Tyrion is definitely not the brother Cersei would prefer to see right now, but she's stuck with him - he's filling in for Tywin as Hand of the King, after all. He suggests that Arya Stark would be a great bargaining chip in negotiations with Robb Stark, and is none too pleased when Cersei admits that she not only let Joffrey behead Ned Stark, she's lost his younger daughter as well. "We had ''three'' Starks to trade. You chopped one's head off and let another escape? Father would be furious. Must be odd for you, to be the disappointing child."

Meanwhile, back in '''Winterfell''', Bran is bored with being the Lord of a castle, but he's soon livened up by a wolf dream and a red comet. Osha has this to say: "The comet means one thing, boy. ''Dragons.''" Cut to...

...'''the Red Waste'''. Dany is currently minus a horse, since her Silver has just dropped dead, and being plus three (incredibly good CGI) dragons isn't as marvellous as you might expect, especially since she can't work out what to feed them. Or any of her khalasar, for that matter, as they're running low on supplies. In an attempt to find food or civilization somewhere, Dany sends out her bloodriders on a desperate search.

We follow the red comet to the '''Land Beyond the Wall''', where Jon, Mormont, Sam and their party have been travelling for some time, and are now arriving at Craster's Keep. The good news is: Craster has lots of daughters! The bad news is: the lads can't touch them. The ugly news is: they're Craster's ''wives'', too. Eeeesh. 'Your house, your rules' never sounded so nasty before. Jon is understandably as creeped out as we are, but Mormont, also understandably, tells him to keep his mouth shut. Also, where are all of Craster's sons?

Then to '''Dragonstone''', where Stannis Baratheon is having a nighttime bonfire on the beach. And by bonfire we mean he's burning the statues of the Seven at the urging of Melisandre, who has a thing for red and fire and who is seeking to convert Stannis to her religion. "For the night is dark, and full of terrors." Maester Cressen and Davos, Stannis's right hand man, aren't too happy about that. Cutting to inside the castle, Stannis dictates a very exact letter addressed to all the lords of the Seven Kingdoms, revealing that the Baratheon family tree wasn't exactly forking[[note]]Or at least not with legitimate roots[[/note]]. Neither was the Lannister one, for that matter. It turns out that Maester Cressen is ''so'' unhappy with Melisandre and the road she's planning to take Stannis down that he tries to poison her. ''Try'' being the word, because not only does he have to drink first to pretend the wine he offers is safe, but as she watches him die she takes a big draught without flinching, as the ruby at her throat flashes. "The night is dark and full of terrors, old man, but the fire burns them all away."

Stannis' ravens travel fast. Robb goes to confront Jaime Lannister, who he's been dragging around with him wherever his army goes on their campaign in '''the Riverlands'''. Jaime is as cocky as he can be in reply, which is pretty hard when you have a really ''big'' wolf standing beside your captor looking quite ready to tear your throat out. Brave man, that Kingslayer.

Back in '''King's Landing''', Tyrion and Shae have some time together where they discuss just how appalling the city smells, and Littlefinger tries to one up Cersei. "Knowledge is power." It really doesn't work, since she pulls on him what he pulled on Ned last year - the palace guards belong to her, for the moment, and Littlefinger will have to watch himself. "Power is power," she says, and smiles.

In '''Robb's camp''', peace terms are under discussion between Robb and Alton Lannister. Robb basically wants his sisters, his father's bones and his father's sword back, and for the North to be recognized as an independent nation. Alton is amenable to the first three, not so much to the last one. And Robb reminds us, once again, that just about everyone now knows the Lannisters' dirty little secret, just before he dispatches Theon to the Iron Islands so as to drum up support from his family, and Catelyn to negotiate with Renly Baratheon.

Cut back to '''King's Landing''', as ironically enough it seems that the last person to learn the secret is Joffrey himself. Not that he's willing to doubt his own legitimacy; he's more concerned about the existance of Robert's bastard children, as he believes they would be an insult to his father's memory. (The irony, it hurts.) In the midst of redecorating the throne room he questions Cersei about it all, and is pretty darn rude. Cersei does what all of us having been longing to and gets the requisite Joffrey slap of the season in. Unfortunately it appears Joffrey isn't half so afraid of her as he is of Tyrion. "What you just did is punishable by death. You will never do it again. ''Never.''" Cersei's hold over her son is crumbling fast, and she knows it.

And she's powerless to stop what comes next, which happens to be a lot of Gold Cloaks bursting into Littlefinger's brothel, where Ros has apparently been promoted - by what means we shall not guess - and is coaching the girls with a rather familiar speech. Janos Slynt arrives, seizes Robert's infant daughter Barra and, as her mother screams, slits her throat. [[note]]How's ''that'' for outdoing the first episode of season 1? Bran's push suddenly looks mild by comparison.[[/note]]

The same thing is happening to black haired children all over the city. (How many bastard children did Joffrey think Robert ''had?'') But, though they're prepared to torture Tobho Mott for information, they've managed to let at least one bastard slip through their grip...

...because Gendry and Arya are long gone, riding through the Dark Hedges and '''on their way to the North'''.

----
!!Tropes:

* TheAlcoholic: Ser Dontos the Red.
* AFateWorseThanDeath: Sansa convinces Joffrey that executing Ser Dontos would be mercy and that being made a fool (jester) would be worse punishment.
* AdaptationalVillainy: Here it is Joffrey and not Cersei the one who orders the massacre of Robert's bastards.
** Likewise, Janos Slynt killing Barra. In the books it is one of his underlings, a goldcloak named Allar Deem.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: Melisandre, who claims to be doing her brutal deeds for the good of the world.
* AnyoneCanDie: Cressen. And Barra. And several others of King Robert's bastards.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Cressen is unable to answer when Davos asks him "What's the truth?".
* BadassBoast:
** A brief one by Cersei: after Littlefinger mocks the reveal of her {{Twincest}} and tells her "Knowledge is power," she demonstrates how the Lannister guards will instantly follow her every command, including killing him, and replies "Power is power."
** Melisandre, after deliberately drinking a poisoned cup: "The night is dark and full of terrors, old man. But the fire burns them all away."
** After Jaime Lannister again tries to rile him up, Robb gives him one of these about how he, "a boy," has done so well against the likes of the illustrious Kingslayer. He clinches it with an intimidating snap from his direwolf, to boot.
* BaldOfEvil: Janos Slynt.
* BlatantLies: When Tyrion not-too-subtly prods Joffrey about his contributions to the war effort, he clumsily replies that he's been busy with kingly matters. At a self-effacing tournament.
* BreakTheCutie: Poor Mhaegen.
* BrokenBird: Sansa.
* TheBrute: Both the Kingsguard and Lord Janos Slynt are evil strongmen.
* BullyingADragon:
** Littlefinger dangles his knowledge of Cersei's Twincest in front of her as his "power" over her. She promptly proves to him that she could have his throat slit whenever she pleases and all that knowledge would be useless.
** Jaime just ''cannot'' shut his mouth, even as he is held captive by angry Northmen that want his head (perhaps all too that they CantKillYouStillNeedYou). His smug facade breaks when he comes face-to-face with Grey Wind.
* CanisMajor: Grey Wind. Boy those direwolves sure grow fast.
* CanonForeigner: Kovarro, one of Daenerys' three bloodriders. Alton Lannister, based on Ser Cleos Frey. Daisy the prostitute.
* CrossingTheDesert
* DarkReprise: Of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZdhSqMRRGI "The King's Arrival"]] as Robert's bastards are killed.
* DeadpanSnarker: Robb, of all people.
* DeathByAdaptation: Daenerys' silver mare. In the books she's still alive.
* DirtyOldMan: Craster.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Joffrey, for wanting Dontos killed for being drunk and late to a tournament.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Oh, [[TheEeyore Dolorous Edd]]. "I was born in a place like this. Later I fell on hard times."
* {{Foreshadowing}}: That tune Tyrion is whistling as he walks into the Small Council meeting? [[spoiler: "The Rains of Castamere," which appears in full later in ''Blackwater''.]] It's also the musical cue that plays when Cersei outmaneuvers Littlefinger in this episode. For the rest of the series, it's going to be a background motif whenever the Lannisters do something particularly awesome and/or evil.
* EvilRedhead: Melisandre is AmbiguouslyEvil and has very red hair.
* GetOut: A furious Cersei orders the Small Council remove themselves after Tryion reveals he's Hand of the King.
* HeroicSacrifice: Attempted by Maester Cressen, unfortunately Melisandre is protected from his poison and he isn't.
* HomoeroticSubtext
** Craster re Jon Snow. "You're prettier than half my daughters."
** Jaime re Robb. "Have you grown fond of me, Stark; is that it? I've never seen you with a girl."
* ImpliedDeathThreat: Joffrey reminds Cersei that slapping him is punishable by death and she should avoid doing it again.
* InfantImmortality: Not so much averted as utterly and thoroughly annihilated.
* InternalReveal: Tyrion learns that unlike both the Stark and Lanister armies believe, Arya escaped prior to Ned's execution and Sansa is the only hostage they have.
* IronicEcho:
** Ros chastises a prostitute for overdoing her performance with precisely the same words Littlefinger used on her when she did the same thing, shortly after getting employed at his brothel.
** In "Baelor", Robb said that one victory doesn't make them conquerors. Here Jaime says that three victories doesn't make Robb a conqueror. Well his tally is rising, at least.
* JustAKid: Cersei invokes this in her conversation with Tyrion.
-->'''Cersei''': Robb Stark is a child.
-->'''Tyrion''': ''[as if talking to a child]'' Who's won every battle he's fought! Do you understand we're ''losing'' the war?
** And in Robb Stark's camp, we get the other half of that conversation:
-->'''Jaime:''' Smart boy. (Off Robb's look). What? Don't like being called a boy? Insulted?
-->'''Robb:''' [[InsultBackfire You insult yourself]], Kingslayer. You've been defeated by a boy. You're held captive by a boy. Perhaps you'll be killed by a boy.
* JustJokingJustification: Cersei cancels Littlefinger's death at the last moment by saying this.
* KnightTemplar: Stannis will not make peace with Renly as long as he keeps declaring himself King. The same goes with Robb for declaring the North and the Riverlands an independent kingdom. This is despite both of them being potential allies, something he sorely needs if he's serious about taking the throne.
* MeaningfulLook: Tyrion looks at Littlefinger while listing his recent misfortunes. "So many adventures. So much to be grateful for."
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** One of the Gold Cloaks is horrified over their killings of Robert's bastard children.
** Cersei is now really getting a sense of how out of her control Joffrey is.
* NiceJobBreakingItHerod: Joffrey's orders to the Gold Cloaks to kill all the black-haired bastard children in the city. Subverted in that Joffrey is only partly worried about some illegitimate claimant causing problems and mostly wants rid of his "father's" bastards as he sees them as a personal insult. Also, no such claimant exists, as almost all the victims are genuinely ignorant of their parentage and there are no shortage of other relations farther up the line of succession.
* OhCrap: Check out Cersei's face when Joffrey threatens to kill her if she slaps him again. Pure "I think I've created a monster."
** Jaime keeps his SmugSnake persona...until Grey Wind makes an appearance.
* OneDegreeOfSeparation: The final scene. Gendry, the one Baratheon bastard who managed to get out of Kings Landing, is naturally with Arya, the Stark on the run from the Lannisters. You have to admire Arya - of all the boys in the Nights Watch recruits she could befriend she chooses the son of her Dad's best friend.
* OutOfOrder: Jon's subplot is taken from much later in the book.
* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Littlefinger tries the same verbal dueling he did with Varys in the previous season, but Cersei is not impressed.
* ParentalIncest: Craster and his daughter-wives.
* PragmaticAdaptation: The show creates a new Lannister, Ser Alton, to take the place of Ser Cleos Frey, so the episode can make better use of the time that would have gone toward explaining why Cleos is fighting for the Lannisters, when we saw the Freys become allied with Robb.
* ThePurge: Joffrey's slaughter of many black-haired commoner boys suspected of being Robert's bastards.
* RailingKill: Sandor defeats his opponent in Joffrey's tournament and throws him off the castle wall in one move.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Osha talks about the comet rather than Old Nan, due to Margaret John's death.
* RefugeInAudacity:
** Tyrion, from the moment he arrives in King's Landing, he struts around like he owns the place and gets away with it.
** Littlefinger tries to taunt Cersei and in the process show off how untouchable he is because of his valuable services to House Lannister. It backfires on him when Cersei demonstrates that she's just crazy enough to kill him regardless of the ramifications.
* RememberTheNewGuy: Dolorous Edd is suddenly part of Lord Commander Mormont's group, without the scene from the book where he meets up with them.
* SelfPoisoningGambit: Cressen attempts this on Melisandre, drinking poisoned wine first to "prove" it's safe and then offering her some. Unfortunately for him, she is protected by her magic and he dies.
* ShoulderSizedDragon: Dany is seen wearing a spaulder so one of her dragons can comfortably sit on her shoulder.
* ShoutOut: The two brothers killed by the goldcloaks. In the books there's a mention of Robert fathering twin bastards on a servingwoman at Casterly Rock who were killed under Cersei's orders.
** Also, Cersei's lesson to Littlefinger about how "Power is power" seems to have been taken from one of the lich Xykon's most famous moments in ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick.''
--->'''Xykon:''' I used to think spells equaled power too, back when I was alive. I've learned a lot since then. You know what ''does'' equal power? Power. Power equals power.
* ShutUpHannibal:
-->'''Jaime:''' Three victories doesn't make you a conqueror.
-->'''Robb:''' [beat] It's still better than three defeats.
* SinisterSurveillance: After being humiliated by Cersei's demonstration of power, Littlefinger notices that a boy scrubbing the cobblestones has witnessed the entire scene. The boy looks a lot like one of the Spider's "little birds".
* SmugSmiler: Tyrion can barely conceal his glee at Cersei's fury and discomfort during their first meeting.
* SparedByAdaptation: Doreah, who in the books dies in the Red Waste. Also Mhaegen, who dies, trying - unsuccessfully - to protect Barra.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Robb gives one to the Kingslayer even as he is doing his damn-est to stay smug despite his current situation.
** Tyrion also delivers one to Cersei about how her and Joffrey's screw-ups have made the Lannister war effort even more difficult and that in Tywin's eyes, she's now TheUnfavorite.
-->'''Tyrion''': We had three Starks to trade. You chopped one’s head off, and let another escape. Father would be furious. Must be hard for you, to be the disappointing child.
* TranquilFury:
** Robb indulges in this as Jaime's value as a hostage is the one thing stopping him from beating the helpless Kingslayer with his bare hands.
** Joffrey also has a moment when he very calmly tells Cersei he will execute her if she slaps him again.
* TortureAlwaysWorks: The Gold Cloaks interrogate (torture) Tobho Mott about Gendry's whereabouts. He tells them everything.
* TheTourney: Joffrey hosts one.
* TheUglyGuysHotDaughter: Gilly, of course.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Craster and his daughter-wives, particularly Gilly.
* VillainBall: Joffrey seems to be doing everything he can to avoid PragmaticVillainy, showing such wanton cruelty (and in public!) that it can only undermine his reputation. His slaughter of the black-haired bastards likewise falls under this, and is likely to elicit horror and fury even from those members of his Small Council who don't have moral objections.
* WhatAnIdiot: Tyrion expresses this view (and asserts that Tywin shares the same) of Cersei and Joffrey, pointing out that they had three Stark hostages to trade for Jaime, and then Cersei let Joffrey execute Eddard and Arya slip through her fingers.
* WouldHurtAChild: The Gold Cloaks have no problem with massacring children on their King's orders, though at least a few of them seemed to draw the line at infants (unlike their commander, Slynt).
----

* BaldOfEvil: Janos Slynt

* DirtyOldMan: Craster

* KnightTemplar: Stannis will not make peace with Renly as long as he keeps declaring himself King. The same goes with Robb for declaring the North and the Riverlands an independent kingdom.

* ThePurge: Joffrey's slaughter of Robert's bastards.

** Tyrion, from the moment he arrives in King's Landing.

* TranquilFury: Robb indulges in this as Jaime's value as a hostage is the one thing stopping him from beating the helpless Kingslayer with his bare hands.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartWarming: The little conversation between Daenerys and Rakharo.

* AutomatonHorses: Averted, Dany's mare, Drogo's wedding gift, dies of exhaustion.

* OneDegreeOfSeparation: The final scene. Gendry, the one Baratheon bastard who managed to get out of Kings Landing, is naturally with Arya, the Stark on the run from the Lannisters. You have to admire Arya's abilities in that of all the boys in the Nights Watch recruits to befriend she chooses the son of her Dad's best friend.

* IronicEcho: Ros chastises a prostitute for overdoing her performance with precisely the same words Littlefinger used on her when she did the same thing, shortly after getting employed at his brothel.

* MeaningfulEcho: In "Baelor", Robb said that one victory doesn't make them conquerors. Here Jaime says that three victories doesn't make Robb a conqueror. Well his tally is rising, at least.

-->'''Robb:''' You insult yourself, Kingslayer. You've been defeated by a boy. You're held captive by a boy. Perhaps you'll be killed by a boy.

* OneDegreeOfSeperation: The final scene. Gendry, the one Baratheon bastard who managed to get out of Kings Landing, is naturally with Arya, the Stark on the run from the Lannisters. You have to admire Arya's abilities in that of all the boys in the Nights Watch recruits to befriend she chooses the son of her Dad's best friend.

* GenreSavvy: Stannis makes sure he doesn't repeat Ned Stark's mistake, sending ravens with news of Jaimie and Cersei's incest to all corners of the realm.

In '''Robb's camp''', peace terms are under discussion between Robb and Alton Lannister. Robb basically wants his sisters, his father's bones and his father's sword back, and for the North to be left alone from now on. Alton is amenable to the first three, not so much to the last one. And Robb reminds us, once again, that just about everyone now knows the Lannisters' dirty little secret, just before he dispatches Theon to the Iron Islands so as to drum up support from his family, and Catelyn to negotiate with Renly Baratheon.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: That tune Tyrion is whistling as he walks into the Small Council meeting? [[spoiler: "The Rains of Castamere," which appears in full later in ''Blackwater''.]] It's also the musical cue that plays when Cersei outmaneuvers Littlefinger in this episode. For the rest of the season, it's going to be a background motif whenever the Lannisters do something particularly awesome and/or evil.

We follow the red comet to the '''Land Beyond the Wall''', where Jon, Mormont, Sam and their party have been travelling for some time, and are now arriving at Craster's Keep. The good news is: Craster has lots of unmarried daughters! The bad news is: the lads can't touch them. The ugly news is: they're Craster's wives, too. ''Eeeesh.'' 'Your house, your rules' never sounded so nasty before. Jon is understandably as creeped out as we are, but Mormont, also understandably, tells him to keep his mouth shut. Also, where are all of Craster's sons?

* GetOut

* BigBadassWolf: Grey Wind. Boy those direwolves sure grow fast.

* TheBrute: Both the Kingsguard and specially Lord Janos Slynt

* BlatantLies: Tyrion boasting that he fought alongside the hilltribes, when he spent the entire battle unconscious after being accidentally knocked out by one of their war hammers.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartWarming: The little conversation between Daenerys and Rakharo

* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Littlefinger tries the same subtle verbal dueling he did with Varys in the previous season, but Cersei is not impressed.