‘Game Of Thrones’ Recap: Jamie Saves Brienne From A Bear Fight

Game of Thrones returned Sunday with its seventh episode of season three, titled “The Bear and the Maiden Fair.” Striking a balance between the anticipation of war and the drama of romantic entanglements, it set the stage for action to come.

“The Bear and the Maiden Fair” opened with Robb Stark (Richard Madden) and his wife, Talisa (Oona Chaplin), naked in their lavish tent. “How am I supposed to sit here planning a war while you’re over there looking like that?” Robb asks his queen. His queen then informs him that she’s carrying his child, and therefore his heir. Overjoyed at this news, and filled with love for his wife, the soldier takes a day off.

Meanwhile, Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) is throwing himself into his job as ruler. Approaching the precocious and petulant Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), Tywin informs him that small council meetings would be held in the Tower of the Hand. When Joffrey voices his distaste for the trying task of scaling the stairs up to the tower, Tywin scathingly retorts, “We could arrange to have you carried.” The emasculated grandson remains silence.

Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), who Tywin sees no sense in fearing, is charting her way through the East. When she arrives at the city of Yunkai, she attempts to strike a deal with the city’s emissary. When he offers her gold and as many ships as she wants to go back from whence she came, Daenerys turns him down. She then offers him his life in return for Yunkai’s 200,000 slaves. When the emissary threatens to have Dany enslaved, her dragons snarl at him, leading him to whine that she had promised not to endanger him. “I did, but my dragons made no promises. And you threatened their mother,” she seethed in reply.

At Harrenhal, Jamie (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) tells Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) that he owes her one, and she replies by asking him to return the Stark girls to their mother. Jamie says goodbye and sets out for King’s Landing, but urges his escorts to return to Harrenhal when he realizes that Brienne won’t be returned to Tarth. When he arrives back, he sees that she has become the entertainment – fighting a bear with nothing but a wooden sword to defend herself. Without the power of persuasion or his right arm, Jamie leaps into the ring and saves the bloodied Brienne from a morbid fate.

North of the Wall, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Ygritte (Rose Leslie) argue charmingly about the chance of success crossing back over The Wall. Exposing herself as the unworldly Wildling that she is, Ygritte mistakes a windmill for a castle and reveals she doesn’t know what swooning means, before insisting that King Beyond the Wall would have success against the Seven Kingdoms. Jon, tired of being treated like a dunce, informs her that her king has failed six out of six times in his efforts. “If we die we die. But first, we’ll live,” she rejoins.

What else happened this episode? Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) is seduced into a threesome before his torturer intercedes with the promise of castration. Margaery (Natalie Dormer) attempts to warm Sansa (Sophie Turner) to the idea of marrying Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), as Brann tries to warm Tyrion to the union, as he faces an uphill battle convincing Shae that it will all work out. And Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) runs away from the Brotherhood Without Banners, only to run into the arms of the Hound (Rory McCann).

Game of Thrones airs Sundays on HBO at 9/8c.

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