History Recap / GameOfThronesS3E7TheBearAndTheMaidenFair

* PuttingAHandOverHerMouth: Arya flees the Brotherhood, but the Hound is still around.

* DragonInChief: As if it wasn't already clear enough, the scene with Tywin and Joffrey emphasizes who is really in charge.

* GenreSavvy: Theon realizes very quickly that the pretty girls seducing him are part of "The Boy's" mind fucks.

* BodyHorror: We are given a couple of close-ups of Jaime's stump, with the stitch-ups clearly visible. Made worse by the fact that Jaime (sincerely,) compliments Qyburn on doing a ''good'' job with it, leaving us to wonder what a bad job would look like. (Though, to be fair, clearly whatever planet Westeros is located on hasn't invented hospitals yet.)

* SanityBall: Stunningly, for the first and probably only time, Joffrey is holding it this episode when he alone seems aware of the dire consequences for himself and the kingdom should Dany and her Dragons come to Westeros. Whether Tywin dismisses the danger entirely or simply knows that there are more pressing issues at hand remains unclear.

* SmartBall: Stunningly, for the first and probably only time, Joffrey is holding it this episode when he alone seems aware of the dire consequences for himself and the kingdom should Dany and her Dragons come to Westeros. Whether Tywin dismisses the danger entirely or simply knows that there are more pressing issues at hand remains unclear.

* BatmanGambit: Jaime jumps into the bear pit to distract the bear from Brienne, counting on the Bolton man charged with escorting him to King's Landing to not just stand there and let him die, or risk Roose Bolton or Tywin's fury.

* BigBad: This episode finally ends a long debate on whether Tywin Lannister or Joffrey Baratheon is the current Big Bad: Tywin, given that Tywin is completely unafraid of Joffrey, but Joffrey is visibly ''scared'' of Tywin.

** A Baratheon king appreciates the danger Danys presents while the pragmatic Lannisters downplay the threat.

* DeadpanSnarker: King Joffrey complains that he'd have to climb all those steps in the Tower of the Hand to attend Twyin's Small Council meetings.
-->'''Tywin:''' We could arrange to have you carried.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: Jaime, Brienne, and the bear would be the literal meaning, but the episode is all focused on duos and/or couples.

** Jon warns the Wildlings that they will lose because they have no discipline. Unbeknownst to him, the Night's Watch have been decimated by first the White Walkers and then the mutiny at Craster's Keep and the Northern army is collapsing over internal disputes.

* {{Fainting}}: Spoofed when Jon Snow tries to explain to his ActionGirlfriend what "swooning" is ... only for Ygritte to demonstrate that she knows exactly what it means.

* FirstNameBasis: Brienne not only calls Jaime by his name, she also calls him [[{{Honorifics}} Ser Jaime]] (and does so without any mockery or irony,) after he pledges his word to return the Stark girls to Catelyn. It's clear from his reaction how much this affects him.
* ForTheEvulz: Locke explicitly states that Jaime's mutilation makes him happier than all his gold ever could, and that feeding Brienne to a bear means more to him than any ransom he could get.

* FunnyForeigner: Lampshaded when Shae in SarcasmMode dubs herself "Shae the Funny Whore".

* OhCrap:

** Very subtle, but Tywin has a moment when he realizes that Joffrey is not as ignorant of the goings on in the Small Council as he thought, including being aware of the existence of Dany and her dragons, a fact that previous episodes have implied to be a closely guarded secret in King's Landing.

* SayingTooMuch: Jon saying "you" instead of "us" re the wildlings.

* SoundtrackDissonance: "The Bear and the Maiden Fair," with the same sound as a drinking song, while Brienne is in the bear pit.

* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: Dany's [[TheMagnificent magnificence]] keeps growing and growing.

* HeelFaceTurn: It remains to be seen how long this holds (this is ''Game of Thrones'', after all), but Jaime's rescue of Brienne, coupled with his stated belief that his actions - as described in the earlier bathtub confession - saved a half million people in King's Landing, firmly shifts him into hero territory, at least for now.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Margaery goes as far as saying that Tyrion is rather handsome and that his scar [[GoodScarsEvilScars is kind of cool]]. In the novels, Tyrion is deformed as well as a dward, and half of his nose was lost when he received his grisly scar.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Margaery points out to Sansa that despite being a dwarf Tyrion is still handsome, and [[GoodScarsEvilScars his scar only enhances this]]. In the novels Tyrion is rather ugly even before he gets his nose hacked off.

* BullyingADragon: The too dumb to live emissary from Yunkai. Daenerys has dragons right in front of him, she has whacked Astapor, and he threatens her? She promised him safe conduct, but even then acting hostile towards her in front of her pets is a stupid idea. She all but says so.
* BuyThemOff: Tyrion tells Shae he will provide her with a BigFancyHouse and provide for any offspring they might have as [[TheMistress his mistress]]. Shae is not impressed, pointing out their bastard children are likely to be murdered if their grandfather found out about them, and Tyrion will tire of her anyway as she gets older.

* ExactWords: When Theon begs for mercy, The Boy says he considers not killing someone to be mercy.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Joffrey is right. If Dany has dragons, they are all buggered, especially if she is as insane as her predecessor (the jury remains out on that one; see Honor Before Reason). Taking it lightly is not a good idea and thinking that they will be small is even worse. He even points out to Tywin that the skull of the largest one was the size of a carriage.

* MyGodYouAreSerious: Margaery has an unspoken moment of this when Sansa asks her if her knowledge of sex comes from being taught by her mother. Margaery spends a while trying to read Sansa and see if she's joking, before she realizes that Sansa ''really is'' that naive.

* MythologyGag: Jaime asks if Qyburn lost his chain for "fondl[ing] one boy too many." This may be an allusion to Septon Utt, a pedophile who, in the book series, is Qyburn's fellow member of the Brave Companions.

* RedHerring: The letter Talisa writes to her mother had some fans, especially those who had read the books, theorizing that Talisa was a HoneyTrap for Robb because, in the books, Jeyne Westerling's mother was acting in league with the Lannisters to bring down Robb.

* RetiredMonster: Qyburn mentions that he used to experiment on living sick people to work out how to cure diseases.

* TitleDrop: Locke and his men sing "The Bear and the Maiden Fair".

* [[WoodenKatanasAreEvenBetter Wooden Swords Are Even Better]]: Completely defied. One proves to be quite useless against an angry bear.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: "The Rains of Castamere" plays as Jaime finally proves his mettle beyond any doubt, taking his place amongst the great Lannisters in one stroke.

* WorkingTitle: Martin's original title was "Autumn Rains," as every scene was written with drenching downpours. When this turned out to be beyond the budget, he switched to "Chains," as both a metaphor for several characters' situations plus literally referring to the gold chain Tyrion gives Shae. Finally, when some scenes were switched around between episodes and the one with the bear ended up in this one, "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" became the obvious choice.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: Jamie, Brienne, and the bear would be the literal meaning, but the episode is all focused on duos and/or couples.

** Jamie reiterates that he will fulfill his promise of returning Sansa and Arya to Winterfell, being unaware that Winterfell has fallen, Arya has escaped King's Landing and Sansa is now committed to remain in the capital for the foreseeable future.

* HeelFaceTurn: It remains to be seen how long this holds (this is ''Game of Thrones'', after all), but Jamie's rescue of Brienne, coupled with his stated belief that his actions - as described in the earlier bathtub confession - saved a half million people in King's Landing, firmly shifts him into hero territory, at least for now.

** Brienne shows this when she realizes that Jamie truly does intend to free Arya and Sansa if he gets back to King's Landing.

* BodyHorror: We are given a couple of close-ups of Jaime's stump, with the stitch-ups clearly visible. Made worse by the fact that Jaime (sincerely,) compliments Qyburn on doing a ''good'' job with it, leaving us to wonder what a bad job would look like.
* BullyingADragon: The too dumb to live emissary from Yunkai. Daenerys has dragons right in front of him, she has whacked Astapor, and he threatens her? She promised him safe conduct, but even then acting hostile towards her in front of her pets is a stupid idea.

** Yunkai's attempt to get rid of Danys with chests of gold and ships to take her army to Westeros also fails, because Danys balks at the thought of leaving thousands of slaves in bondage.

** Tywin, understandably, dismisses Joffrey's concerns about the Queen across the Narrow Sea and her dragons as rumours and exaggeration. But the point remains that, yes, ''Joffrey'' is the one appreciating the damage an army led by Dany could do.

* {{Fainting}}: Spoofed when Jon Snow tries to explain to his ActionGirlfriend what "swooning" is.

* HonorBeforeReason: After her experience in Astapor, Daenerys seems to have decided to free ''every slave in Essos'' before resuming her campaign to take back the Iron Throne, despite Jorah's warnings and Yunkai's offer of gold and ships.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Joffrey is right. If Dany has dragons, they are all buggered. Taking it lightly is not a good idea and thinking that they will be small is even worse. He even points out to Tywin that the skull of the largest one was the size of a carriage.
* KickingAssInAllHerFinery: Deconstructed. Brienne is forced to fight a bear in just a dress, which offers no protection from its claws. She's also only armed with a wooden sword, which is useless apart from to delay the bear.

** Locke's speech to Jaime
* RedHerring: The letter Talisa writes to her mother had some fans, specially those who had read the books theorizing that Talisa was a HoneyTrap for Robb because, in the books, Jeyne Westerling's mother was acting in league with the Starks to bring down Robb.
* TheResenter: Locke, who

-->'''Locke:''' All you lords and ladies, you still think that the only thing that matters is gold. Well this (grabs Jaime's stump) makes me happier than all your gold ever could, and that (points at Brienee facing off with the bear) makes me happier than all her sapphires. So go buy yourself a golden hand, and ''fuck yourself with it!''"

* TheResenter: Locke

Elsewhere, Osha is jealous of how Jojen always has Bran's attention. Hodor isn't much for conversation, so she marches up to them and demands to know what they're talking about. Her mood doesn't improve when she learns that Bran no longer wants to go to Castle Black. He wants to catch the Three-Eyed Raven, and is going North Of The Wall to do it. Osha insults the idea that he may have fallen from the tower for a reason, saying that the Gods couldn't care less about any of them. She goes into her backstory, about how her lover was turned into a zombie, and how she's not going back beyond the wall for any reason. She promised to take him to the wall, and that's as far as she goes.

In the '''Riverlands''', Arya is sulking. As far as she is concerned, they're all traitors, in spite of what Beric tells her about the Lord of Light. Arya has no love for that god, and declares that the only god [[CreepyChild she worships is Death]]. A messenger comes in to announce that a Lannister party has been spotted to the south. When Beric announces that the Brotherhood will attack them, Arya starts spazzing out, given that they would be moving away from Riverrun. Beric's promises that they'll get her there eventually, that they keep her safe, and that she'll understand when she's older mean less than nothing to her, and she flees into the woods, only to be captured by the Hound.

In the Throne Room, Tywin has been summoned by Joffrey. The King wants reports on the Small Council meetings, despite never showing up to them due to [[BlatantLies being very busy]]. Tywin, no doubt drawing on his long experience of not strangling Aerys II, doesn't strangle Joffrey but rather handles him politely until Joffrey gets to the main point, Daenerys Targaryen. In what must be the finest, most farsighted moment of his life, Joffrey wants to know what is being done about her. As he realizes, if the rumors are true, and if she has three dragons, then once they grow up, the "Baratheon" dynasty is fucked. Tywin completely downplays the threat as being both improbable and far off in the future. The King is rendered speechless...and so is the audience as they realize that they agree with Joffrey.

* TheDreaded: Joffrey summons Tywin to the Throne Room to request an update from the Small Council. Joffrey remains seated on the Iron Throne, states his questions...and proceeds to squirm and stutter like nobody's business as Tywin dominates the entire conversation. Just to visually emphasize who's the dominant party here, Tywin walks up to the throne halfway through and physically towers over Joffrey as his grandson remains seated.