As the episode opens, Bran is following a three eyed raven through Winterfell. It lands and he approaches it… and awakes, it was a dream.
Theon comes in, announcing a visitor and bringing Robb’s instruction to Bran to attend him in the main hall. The guest turns out to be Tiryon. He brings a gift for Bran, a design for a saddle that will let him ride again. Robb is untrusting, and Tiryon leaves to stay outside the walls where they’ll both sleep easier.
At the Wall, a new recruit arrives. Samuel Tarley. He’s a self-confessed coward, overweight and weak… The other recruits ridicule him til Jon steps in. They make it a training fight, which Jon wins easily. They joke after, teasing each other and are dismissed.
Meanwhile, the Dothraki arrive at Vaes Dothrak. Viserys is dismissive of it as barbaric, while Daenerys on the other hand speaks to Mormont about whether they could win a war, and why he’s there at all. Later, bathing with one of the slavegirls. Viserys boasts a lot, and claims to have dragon’s blood. It’s all a bit playful and he names his ancestor’s favourite dragons. They have sex and Viserys turns nasty – as usual.
At King’s Landing, Sansa and Septa Mordane talk about the future, children and what it will be like, while Ned attends a council meeting about the upcoming tournament. They have problems with crowd control and Ned offers his personal guard to help. Afterwards, he talks to the Grand Maester about his predecessor, Jon Arryn. There is a book he’d read “The Lineage and Histories of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms”. Ned opens it and reads of some past lords.
Outside, Arya is standing at the stop of a stairwell, on one foot, a part of her “dance training”. Ned speaks to her. She wants to be a lord, but Ned tells her that as a girl, she’ll be a lady who’ll marry a lord. She answers “No, that’s not me”.
On the Wall, Jon Snow is on watch. Sam joins him as watch-partner. They sit and talk. Jon advises him that it won’t get easier.
In King’s Landing, Littlefinger gives Ned some advice, following which Jory visits Ser Hugh, a new knight who will not talk to him, forcing Ned to go himself. Ned goes first to see the blacksmith Jon Arryn had gone to see, and meets the apprentice Gendry, whom he recognises as King Robert’s bastard son. Later, Jory meets Jamie while taking a message to the king, who is indisposed. They talk and remember some battles of old. However, no love is lost between them.
Back on the Wall, Jon joins his friends in the canteen. They talk about Sam, among other things. One of the recruits threatens Sam, and that night, Jon and the wolf show up to put a scare on him. In the next days combat, he’s afraid to fight.
At Vaes Dothrak, Viserys is an arsehole. I’d go into more detail, but it gets a bit repetitive He threatens Daenerys, calling her a slut. She hits him for the first time, and tells him he’ll be sorry next time.
Sam and Jon are cleaning tables. They talk about women. Turns out they are both virgins, and they talk about that. Typical guys, one track minds! The trainer comes in, tells them how bad things can be north of the wall, some horror stories of the dark, the cold, having to survive by eating whatever they could.
Daenerys talks to Mormont about recent events. He disavows her of some of the stories she’s been told about home. Daenerys unlike her brother, is a fast learner.
The tournament begins at King’s Landing. The girls (Sansa and Arya) meet Littlefinger and Arya asks about the origin of his name. King Robert is drunk and bored. Ser Hugh is killed by Ser Gregor, the Hound’s brother. Littlefinger tells Sansa some history.
Ned and Cersei speak. There are unstated threats and a lot of manoeuvring.
Later at an inn on the road, Tiryon runs into Caitlyn. It gets awkward when she calls her bannermen to arrest him. The episode ends.
There was a lot of talk in this episode, so unless it was absolutely crucial to the plot, I’ve tended to skim over it. It does make for a shorter review, but there are two today anyway.