Game of Thrones - "The Rains of Castamere" - Review

 Spoilers Below:

They did it. They actually fucking did it.

Welcome to the god damn “Red Wedding”!

For readers of the books this one was the biggie; the one event we’d truly waited for since season three began (or really since the show began). But even as someone who knew this was coming, it still hurts like hell. 

Game of Thrones is not a show without its flaws, but when it needs to get something right man, oh, man does it ever succeed. “Rains of Castamere” is the finest hour of this season and the best episode of the show since last season’s “Blackwater”. Much like “Blackwater” it’s one of the most tightly constructed episodes of the show. There’s a precision-like focus as the series hones in on three locations, two of which have converging storylines that pay off handsomely.  

Honestly, the major flaw of this episode is that it doesn’t focus in even more. The episode should have probably been all about the wedding itself, but that would have been a dead giveaway that something was about to go down. 

The other stories also play like a counterpoint to Robb and Catelynn’s. Jon and Dany’s stories are action packed where big events that have been much more clearly built towards finally go down. The wedding storyline is purposely slow moving and meandering; it takes its sweet time and lulls us into a false sense of calm. Jon and Dany’s stories are also at moments of triumph which also adds to a false sense of promise. “Perhaps,” we think to ourselves, “may be this wedding will go off without a hitch as well.” But sadly no; nope, that’s just not the way this world works.

George RR Martin is a cruel, brutal writer that paints a world of harsh realities rather than pleasant, deceptive lies, and nowhere is that perhaps more clear than in this episode.  

And so here we stand at the penultimate episode “Rains of Castamere” witnessing one of the most disheartening and saddening (and also best) moments the show has yet to depict. 

The real genius of Game of Thrones, and the books that they’re based on, is that there’s plenty of little moments that are rather entertaining, exciting and unpredictable (Jaimie getting his hand cut off, Dany sacking Astapor, Sam stabbing the white walker), but they’re really just a trail of bread crumbs to get you to moments like this. Those other moments are entertaining for sure, but these other ones, well, they’re the ones where Martin makes you feel as if he’s not playing by the rules he set out before you. And it’s in those moments that Martin, and this show, find themselves operating at a whole other level of storytelling. There are lots of things this show does very well, but pulling off a startlingly memorable moment is its specialty.

This moment in particular works so well because we've been trained for so long to root strongly for the Starks and a Stark victory in spite of how impossible or unlikely it might seem. The Starks are the closest thing we have to protagonists at this point. Sure, Tyrion isn't a bad fellow and Dany is also sympathetic, but the Starks are and have been the lynchpin to the narrative since its inception. Their story at this point might not have been the most engaging but we still had residual empathy and connection to them. And so it comes as a visceral gut punch when they're taken down.  

The foreshadowing of the deaths of Catelynn, Robb and the Stark host is laid on thick throughout the hour. We first see a hesitant Robb seeking council from Catelynn, and it’s in that instance that you can see the writing is on the wall. Catelynn notes how even if he does get the armies from the Freys, he still will have an exceedingly improbable time taking Casterly Rock, seat of the Lannisters. 

The Lannisters are, of course, the unseen presence lingering over this episode. The infamous titular song “Rains of Castamere” refers to the time that Tywin destroyed the entire bloodline of a house that rose against him, and it's this song that plays mere moments before the episode pushes the big red button and unleashes a veritable shitstorm. When Roose Bolton, traitor that he is, sends the regards from the Lannisters before stabbing Robb, it’s one of the most quietly devastating moments in an episode filled with them throughout its last twenty minute stretch. 

The Freys go through the motions, giving hospitality and putting on as respectable a wedding as one might expect from a family that makes Crastor look like he might be a decent human being. Everyone settles in, convinced that things have been fixed; that the closest thing left to the “good guys” the show has will come out on top after all. But then a sinking feeling begins to creep in. There are some wonderfully captured shots by director David Nutter. This is true of the whole episode but it's best seen in the moment where it dawns on Catelynn that something just isn’t right; the camera closes in on a close up of Michelle Fairley and now we’re seeing things from her perspective: she’s starting to panic. This in turn leads us to panic a bit. Suddenly a dread hangs over the rest of the episode. It's an uneasy episode at the wedding prior to this but it really thickly clings to the air from this point on. This unnerving feeling doesn’t give up and carries into a pretty haunting silent roll of credits.

The real kicker here is that Arya is heading to the Twins so that the Hound can return her for money. It should be a moment of relief, but instead, it becomes a way for the show to raise the stakes of the situation. The show cuts away from the chaos inside the Twins where Catelynn and Robb are dying to the Hound trying to gain entrance to the castle. Our minds are still on Catelynn and Robb, but now we find ourselves wondering if the show might just pile onto our already significant displeasure and anger. These scenes turn into another lesson to Arya as her fairy tale escape turns into another desperate and violent struggle to stay alive.

This is an episode filled with little tragedies though beyond the wedding itself (although that is the breadwinner here). Jon breaks away from the wildlings finally, with the help of Bran warging into a wolf to aid him. But in the process, Jon damages his always doomed relationship with Ygritte, whose heartbreak is written all over her face. Jorah helps take Yunkai for Dany, but Dany still only has eyes for ridiculously good looking Daario.

The really interesting thing though is how this episode is primarily the story of the Starks, in a way the show hasn't been in a long time. The two major storylines are Jon’s and Robb’s, two men who broke oaths. However, Jon did it to save lives and Robb did it for “love” (though don’t go telling that around Walder Frey). Their stories are contrasted here. Jon is in the more obviously dire set of circumstances and yet he survives, while Robb presumes he’s safe, never realizing the dangers surrounding him. We also see Bran setting out on his own, sending off Rickon with Osha to safety with the Umbers (though after the wedding who knows if that’s still a safe bet). Arya similarly breaks away but finds herself in the midst of what borders on being a battle and only barely survives. The Starks, to put it lightly, are at an all-time low. Jon has to own up for breaking his vows once he gets back to Castle Black, and even if he can get past that there’s wildlings after him. Arya has nowhere she can go any longer to be safe. And Catelynn and Robb are dead, betrayed by their own bannermen. That’s not even accounting for Sansa (who doesn’t appear this episode) whose a political prisoner in a political marriage with no hope for escape from either.    

This was just an excellent, but also deeply depressing, episode. Kleenex anyone?

Stray Thoughts:

-Sam’s storyline feels entirely unnecessary even though I rather enjoy the relationship of Sam and Gilly. They’re both child-like in their own ways.

-Catelynn discovering Roose Bolton’s chainmail and then slapping him is just a perfect moment. And then pretty much every moment from there on in was gloriously thrilling, maddening, wonderful and awful. Talisa getting stabbed repeatedly, the desperate pleas from Catelynn, Arya hiding from the soldiers and witnessing the wolf getting killed. Lots of well-handled moments.

-Orell finally gets what’s coming to him as Jon gets to kill him.

-Jorah telling Ser Barristan that you’ve got to do your duty even if you don’t want to is pretty much the theme of this episode wrapped up in a nice little bow.  

-My heart goes out to Ygritte. We knew it was coming, but still: very heartbreaking.

-Rickon gets lines, and isn’t totally useless! Who would have guessed?
-I short shrifted discussing Jon's story (for obvious reasons) but the fighting here is a lot of fun and the cutaways to Bran make it really intense.
-The show is smart enough not to cut to King's Landing whatsoever.
-Whatever you may have against Catelynn as a character, in those final moments I imagine we were all rooting for her like our own lives depended on it. Some of Michelle Fairley's finest acting of her time on this show is in this episode.
-David Bradley is wonderful as Walder Frey; crotchety, despicable, spot-on.
-Arya's scenes with the Hound remain marvelous. Choose your pick of which was the best one, but they're great for how the Hound challenges Arya's sense of honor. 
-Grey Worm is kind of a badass fighter.
-The reason the event is so tragic though is because the Game of Thrones universe does seem to exist in a universe where there is such a thing as good and evil. We're supposed to rightfully root for the Starks but also absolutely understand that there's no practical, logical way for them to win out.   

Grade: A