Game of Thrones “Sons of the Harpy” ended with a pair of potentially influential deaths, while Jon Snow and Sansa Stark start to own their new roles in the North.

Game of Thrones Recap

On the coast of Volantis, Ser Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) commandeers a small boat with which to take Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) to “the Queen.” Tyrion, bound and gagged, makes grating, unintelligible noises until Jorah allows him to speak. Tyrion points out that Jorah is heading east, which is the wrong way if he means to bring him to Cersei in Westeros. It is then that Jorah reveals that he’s bringing him to the only Queen he recognizes, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke).

Tyrion, in desperate want of wine, soon makes another discovery: his captor is Jorah Mormont, a Westerosi knight. He is also aware, despite being drunk at most of the Small Council meetings, that Jorah had been acting as a spy on Dany’s movements before turning loyal to her. Tyrion then deduces that he must have fallen out of her graces and is bringing Tyrion to her to win back her trust – which Tyrion said could just as easily result in Jorah’s death as his own. For his words of warning, he receives a smack.

Dorne

Jamie (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Bronn (Jermoe Flynn) are on their way to Dorne to rescue Princess Myrcella aboard a merchant ship. After Bronn reveals to Jamie that all the people in Dorne are crazy and that all they want to do is “f–k and fight,” he wonders aloud why one-handed Jamie would send himself on the mission instead of an army. Bronn seems well aware that Jamie is going for his daughter, not his neice, and also comes to realizes that Jamie set Tyrion free, which likely earned him more than a scolding from his sister/lover Cersei.

When Bronn and Jamie finally arrive on the Dornish shore in their dinghy, they try to catch some sleep before the morning. Over a breakfast of snake, they discuss how they’d like to die. While Bronn desires a simple death with children hungry for his fortune, Jamie confides he wants to die in the arms of the woman he loves before abruptly ending the conversation.

Before the two men get more than 100 yards from the shore, they spot four Dornish men on horseback, who are presumably looking for them. As Bronn had predicted, the merchant had told the Dornes that he’d transported Jamie Lannister. Bronn takes out three of the men and Jamie battles it out with the fourth, saving himself from certain death by grabbing the blade of his sword with his golden right hand while plunging his sword into his opponent with his left.

Elsewhere on the island, Ellaria (Indiria Varma) and the sand snakes, aware that Jamie has arrived to get Myrcella, prepare for war with the Lannisters.

King’s Landing

At a Small Council meeting, Cersei (Lena Headey) continues her plotting and scheming, manipulating Mace Tyrell (Roger Ashton-Griffiths) into feeling honored to go to the Iron Bank for her in Braavos. She even convinces him that it’s an honor to have her trusty soldier Ser Meryn Trant (Ian Beattie) escorting him to the far off city. Cersei’s work then takes her to a meeting with the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce), with whom she forms an alliance, helping him to militarize the Sparrows.

Tearing through the city, the newly branded Sparrows smash ale barrels, upend vendor tables and raid the brothels. The final act of their rampage is seizing Ser Loras Tyrell (Finn Jones) for “breaking the laws of gods and men,” by which they mean the open secret that he’s gay. Margaery (Natalie Dormer), alerted to her brother’s imprisonment, urges Tommen (Dean-Charles Chapman) to do something. Tommen then goes to his mother, who instructs him to go to the High Sparrow to sort it out. When Tommen returns defeated, Margaery, full of thinly-veiled disgust, leaves to go contact her grandmother, Olenna (Diana Rigg).

Castle Black

At Castle Black, Stannis (Maxwell Laird) watches Jon (Kit Harrington) spar as Selyse (Tara Fitzgerald) seethes that she’s given him nothing but “weakness and deformity,” referring to their daughter Shireen (Kerry Ingram). Shireen later tells her father that Selyse had wanted to leave her behind at Dragonstone, which Stannis said she never should have told her. Shireen then asks if he’s ashamed of her, leading him to explain to her that there is nothing further from the truth. When she came down with grayscale, he was told to send her off to die. Instead, he sought every doctor and remedy imaginable because she is his daughter and the Princess Shireen of House Baratheon.

Desperate for more troops, Jon has Sam (John Bradley) sending letters out to recruit men from around Westeros. When Sam passes a letter addressed to Ramsay Snow, the Warden of the North, Jon recoils, but Sam explains that the letter must be sent. Later, Melisandre (Carice van Houten) visits Jon to persuade him to go south with them to Winterfell. In an effort to seduce him, she opens up her dress, telling him, “There’s power in you and you resist it. Embrace it,” adding, “In our joining. There’s power. Power to make life. Power to make light. Power to cast shadows.” Despite her forwardness, Jon resists her, citing his vow and his ongoing love for Ygritte. Turning to leave, Melisandre says, “You know nothing, Jon Snow.”

Winterfell

At Winterfell, Sansa (Sophie Turner) is in the sept lighting candles for the late members of the Stark family, including her late aunt, Lyanna. Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen) tells the tale of Rhaegar Targaryen riding passed his wife to lay roses at Lyanna’s feet, sparking a war. He then goes on to tell Sansa that he is heading to King’s Landing because Cersei sent for him and he needs to keep up appearances. Trying to ease Sansa’s worry, he explains that Stannis will soon take Winterfell, save her from the Boltons and name her Wardeness of the North.

Mereen

In Mereen, Ser Barristan Selmy (Ian McElhinney), like Littlefinger, is sharing memories of Rhaegar. He tells, Dany that her brother loved to sing and would sing in the streets to see how much money who could get doing so. Hearing this story, Dany glows with pride for her late brother. After dismissing Selmy, she takes an audience with Hizdahr zo Loraq (Joel Fry), who pleads again with her to open the fighting pits. While Loraq argues with Dany, the Sons of the Harpy go on an organized slaughter, killing Second Sons and the Unsullied. When Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) is cornered in an alley, Selmy shows up and takes down several men. Together, Grey Worm and Selmy take out the last of the Sons of the Harpy, but not before suffering fatal wounds themselves.

GOT star Michiel Huisman explains why nudity is central to the show:

 

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