Game of Thrones - "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" - Review

Myles McNutt said something recently about “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” that really stuck with me as I thought about the episode: ‘”Well, not much happened this week.’ And then I proceed to write 2000 words about it.” Because I suspect this episode potentially rubbed a lot of you the wrong way, and it’s largely due to the series seeming to stall just a little teensy bit longer than seems necessary. “The Climb” all but telegraphed bigger events to come and at times “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” feels like it’s killing some more time before bigger things take place. While much of this is still entertaining, it feels like an episode from the second season which is to say it feels like we pop in on every character possible for five minutes even when at times that doesn’t seem necessary. The show had largely avoided that sense of aimlessness in recent episodes, forming a cohesion that was a welcome sight.

Part of the problem is how much of this feels like a re-hash of things we’ve already come across before. This is particularly true of Theon’s story, which, even though I understand the intention of it and see where it’s going, can’t help but feel needlessly excruciating and pointless. Even stories that actually go somewhere (such as Arya’s and Robb’s) have a sense of hey lets stop in with this character. I could watch Maisie Williams play angsty til the cows come home, but until the Hound snatches her up her plot came off as a major re-tread of what we’ve already seen from this storyline. Robb’s storyline suffers from the fact that Game of Thrones has never been particularly good at depicting sex scenes, even one with a sensible purpose, such as the reveal that Talisa is pregnant (heirs man! That’s intriguing … right? …).

This desire to stop in on a lot of characters would feel fine if each scene felt like it were absolutely necessary in order to properly tell the story, which you would hope would make the scenes of an episode feel like pieces of a whole. As is “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” felt very piecemeal.

Now not all of this felt needless. Even a less than crucial scene such as that between Melisandre and Gendry is filled with such a sense of atmosphere (the aftermath of Blackwater is hauntingly beautiful) and also provides a nice little character moment for Gendry as he discovers his true lineage. Similarly, the scene between Tywin and Joffrey (perhaps the episode’s best scene) isn’t a particularly significant scene but it reminds us of where two characters are at (Tywin is always in control and Joffrey is a frightened little boy playing at being a man) and pairs together two characters that have all but been destined to meet up in an entertaining fashion.   

The place where stuff actually happens is in the titular story. Jaimie leaves Harrenhal only to be so guilt stricken over the fate of Brienne that he bargains his way towards a return to the castle. This is a really great pay off of story to the growing relationship between Brienne and Jaimie. The series has nailed the evolution of this relationship, and the moment feels like a fitting expansion upon that relationship. Plus there was an effing bear in a pit! 

I know I didn’t get around to a lot of other elements to this episode, but I simply didn’t have time for a longer review and I wanted to get this up before Sunday rolled around again. I’ve largely really liked this season, but I think much of what will shape our opinion of this season is how the show deals with the forthcoming stretch of episodes which thus far have not stacked up with expectations. So until then, chew over your thoughts for “The Bear and Maiden Fair”.