Nerd School: Game of Thrones S1E7 “You Win or You Die”

by Joe on May 30, 2011

Game of Thrones S1E7 “You Win or You Die” ~ Joe’s rating “B+”

This season is rapidly coming to a close, and dominoes are falling faster and faster as we approach the finale. This week we once again see a battle of minds as opposed to the battle with swords we saw last week, and once again Ned has brought the proverbial knife to Cersei’s gun fight.What’s going on in Westeros?

Presumably somewhere near Casterly Rock we finaly meet Tywin Lannister, and he’s pretty much the most badass person in Westeros. He gets Ned’s summons from last week and ignores it while having his hands elbow deep in a deer carcass AND simultaneously telling Jaime to stop being a little bitch.

At the wall, Uncle Benjen’s horse returns sans rider. The boys graduate from night’s watch school, and everyone seems to get there desired job except poor ole’ Jon. However after throwing a hissy fit, ~~Samwise~~ Samwell convices him that he’s not going to be a maid, but be groomed for the next command post.

At Winterfell Theon gets all Rape-y with Tonks.

Meanwhile in Vaes Dothrak lil’ Jorah’s been a naughty boy and has seemingly betrayed his Khaleesi, but he has a change of heart and makes himself look like the good guy by unmasking the murder plot. Khal Drogo being Khal Drogo gets a little ticked and decides to run his Khalasar over the narrow sea and take the Iron Throne himself.

Once again this is a very King’s Landing heavy episode and more shit keeps hitting more fans. Ned finally confronts Cersei about her incestuous affair, and her children’s non-right to the throne. Ned’s looking pretty good until Robert comes back gored by a boar. As Robert dies Ned tries to take matters into his own hands and essentially stage a coup. However he wants to do it honorably. So when the shit’s about to go down, everyone Ned trusted to help him (Varys, Littlefinger, Renly) turns on him and he is arrested for treason.

The Good:

Holy fuck I do not want to mess with Tywin Lannister. That man has the steely gaze of death. I wish we could have seen him earlier.

Mark Addy, I’m sorry to see you go, you were a huge surprise, and I forgive you for Still Standing.

I love the concept of the trap being sprung. It’s just wonderful to see gears turn and machinations move. Anyone who has read the book knows that this was going to happen to Ned. However, it was so nice to see all the pieces fall into place. Ned looks to Renly, but Renly wants to be king, and Ned wants them to follow succession. Ned goes to Littlefiner, but Littlefinger wants to do some unsavorable things. Ned just fails utterly in one of the worst coup attempts ever. In fact the only man who shares Ned’s honor is Ser Barristan, but his honor won’t allow him to disobey the queen. It was just played so well.

Jason Momoa finally got to do some acting this week, and he really hammed it up gooood. His speech at the end was wonderful. The best way I can describe it is part gorilla/part linebacker posturing in front of his buddies and girlfriend.

Mormont’s not immune from the betrayal bug either, but leave it as a testament to Iain Glenn, that man can play the honorable knight, and the sleaze with equal footing.

The Bad:

Tywin was bad ass, but did he need to be gutting the deer, that’s not symbolism at that point, it shoving it in our face.

Jon Snow had his Sansa meeter running at 11 again. I didn’t like how he played it. You can be angry and upset, but you don’t need to be huffy that just turns viewers off.

Wiener has a place in television, but that place is not running.

No Tyrion = ass

IN fact a lot of people were missing this episode. (Sansa, Arya, Bran, Hodor, Catelyn)

The Weird:

I’m interested to know why the juxtaposed Littlefinger’s monologue with two women simulating sex. I know he says he wants to fuck everyone (not properly fuck, but y’know fuck ‘em), but it was just distracting. I either want to hear a monologue, or see two women having sex, I don’t need both, my mind can’t process that. I just think it was a script writing decision that seemed cool, but just flopped (like ole’ boys wiener while he was running AmIRight?).

Video of the week:

5 second films take on GoT