Ben Adams, Peter Fenzel, and Matthew Wrather recap Game of Thrones Season 5 Episode 7, “The Gift.”
[audio:http://podone.noxsolutions.com/launchpod/overthinkingitrecap/mp3/oti-recap-got-s05e07.mp3]Subscribe for The Latest Recaps
Subscribe to the TV Recap Podcast:
Subscribe on iTunes
Subscribe via RSS
What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below.
Oops: according to the Internet, the sand snake involved in the pointless strip-tease is Tyene, not Nimeria.
For guys who make it a mission to “overthink”, you let the whole ‘striptease in order to stimulate arousal and speed up the circulation of poison’ go completely over your heads.
Which makes me thing she wants to use Bronn for something in the future, and wants to have him in her debt.
Daario did say that everyone has a choice, even slaves. They can choose to die. Bron had the same choice, but chose to say that [interchangeable named] sand-snake is the most beautiful.
On the High Septon’s garb, I interpret it in light of something Wrather said on the TFT podcast: All authenticity is performed. I think Ben is right, he could easily have better, less conspicuous clothes, but he is earnestly committed to maintaining his authenticity for the benefit of his constituency.
What scares me about him is the time he spends personally cleaning the Sept of Balor, even though it is not in use. It makes me wonder if he is fixated on the idea of clean and dirty, calling back to what Pete said a few recaps ago about ritual cleanness. The idea of being clean has a literal dimension and also a figurative moral dimension, and the mind tends to conflate the two. I wonder if the time spent personally cleaning the Sept and rooting out all of the sexual misconduct in King’s Landing don’t stem from the same visceral reaction to things being dirty.
Episode 9 is called the dance of dragons, so it might be set in the fighting pits, although my money is on the Bolton/Stannis battle happening then too.
Was anyone else surprised at how quickly Sam shrugged off his vows? I mean, I know no one else on the wall seems to take them seriously, but I thought Sam would have more of an issue. Or maybe that will come later.
Well actually, Sam was the one last season asking if their vows forbid sex. He found some wiggle room in the father no children line.
He has no issue being a surrogate father to little Sam though, or basically starting a family with Gilly. I guess he’s very good at finding convenient loopholes, as so many of these characters do.
Oh give poor Sam a break. He was taken by surprise.
Something my wife and I noticed in the “gifts” theme was the actions of Jorah Mormont at the fighting pits. When he saw that Dany was uncomfortable and about to leave, it’s clear that he needed to attract her attention. But, being aware of her distaste for the pit fighting, he defeated all his opponents in a non-lethal way, giving her a bloodless end to the fighting.
One thing I noticed in the episode that I thought for sure you would comment on: Jorah and Tyrion are not technically slaves. They both get paid – a single coin, likely of low worth. Recall that Danerys only allowed the fighting pits to be opened to non-slaves. The fact that slaves are still being used for fighting, via a wage slavery loophole, suggests to me that Danerys still has lots of problems to solve in Mereen.
I like that idea of GoT giving a bunch of examples but then showing a big difference. One example: during the Danerys and Daario pillow talk, he says something to the effect of everybody in Mereen being free except her; that rulers are “slaves” to their responsibilities. But the show ends with Dany in that iridescent dress, while all the other well styled women of the show (Margary, Circe and Sansa) are shown in rags or beaten and bloodied in their own prisons. 4 women/rulers trapped in dangerous circumstances, but one being presented in a very different way.