Game of Thrones Recap ‘Kill the Boy’: The Army of the Dead

In the latest Game of Thrones recap, Daenerys has to change direction to bring peace to Meereen, Jon makes a risky decision at The Wall while Jorah and Tyrion try to navigate the most cursed place in all the known world…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

It’s hard to fathom that after tonight’s episode of ‘Game of Thrones’ titled ‘Kill the Boy’, we are actually halfway through season 5 already. As depressing as that premise might be, tonight’s episode was certainly turning point in the series although without a lot of blood being spilled for once.

Think of tonight’s episode as a staging of sorts — the kind of set the table for everything that comes next in the final five weeks of season 5 as well as some hints as to where this series might be going as a whole.

Book readers were once again thrown for a loop, just like last week when Ser Barristan Selmy aka Barristan the Bold was murdered in the streets of Meereen while he is very much still alive in the pages of George R.R. Martin’s source material. There were several changes made again this week and a bit more history told, which is a very nice addition to this season of the show. There have always been bits and pieces of Westerosi history dabbled throughout many of the seasons, but this year it appears to be a primary focus for show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss.

They are looking to the past before building the future. A future that is set to wrap up in approximately 25 episodes from now. Where are they headed and who will still be alive when they get there? Let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Game of Thrones’ to see if we have any further sense of the direction we’re headed.

The Watchers on the Wall

It’s easy to forget while paying close attention to Daenerys Targaryen and her liberation of Slaver’s Bay to the East that in the far North of Westeros there is another dragon quietly lurking about Castle Black. Maester Aemon of the Night’s Watch was born Aemon Targaryen and at one time he was offered the chance to rule all of Westeros despite being the third born son of his father and ruler Maekar Targaryen. He’s so old and has been at the Night’s Watch for so long most of Westeros has long since forgotten that there is actually another living Targaryen besides the girl with three dragons living in Meereen.

It appears in his down time, Maester Aemon still gets information sent to him by way of raven with updates about his great-great niece who has no idea that he even exists. Despite his age and obvious loyalty to the Night’s Watch, it still hurts Aemon to know there is a lone Targaryen in the world, separated from the only family she could ever possibly know.

“A Targaryen alone in the world. It’s a terrible feeling.”

~ Maester Aemon

Before Maester Aemon has too much time to pass along feelings of dread to his new apprentice Samwell Tarly, Lord Commander Snow pays him a visit to ask for advice about his next course of action regarding the Wildlings that still mount outside the Wall despite being defeated by Stannis’ army. Maester Aemon doesn’t have a lot to offer Jon except a reminder that the Lord Commander’s job is a lonely one and his decisions are rarely going to be met with applause and acceptance.

But they are his decisions to make and that’s why he was voted Lord Commander in the first place.

“Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy and let the man be born”

~ Maester Aemon

It’s a similar lesson Daenerys has to learn as well, but we’ll get to her in a bit.

First, Jon decides on his next course of action — he’s going to invite the Wildlings join the realms of men because if they are left north of the Wall, they will either be killed or turned into White Walkers and at some point or another the army of the dead is going to march south. None of the men of the Night’s Watch are on board with the plan, not even his closest allies and he even disheartens his new steward Ollie because the Wildlings were the ones who killed his parents when they ransacked his village last season.

Misgivings aside, Jon has to do what he believes is right.

He offers freedom to Tormund Giantsbane under the guise that he will go to the free folk and convince them to come south of the Wall where they will be given lands and a chance to survive. Tormund seems about as much on board with this plan as the men in the Night’s Watch but he finally concedes — on one very large condition.

“You’re the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. They need to hear it from you. They need to know the ships they will be boarding won’t be torched in the middle of the sea. You come with me or I don’t go.”

~ Tormund Giantsbane

Jon agrees while still trying to sell the plan to his brothers. The Night’s Watch and the Wildlings have been at war for hundreds of years but it’s really become a battle similar to the Hatfields and the McCoys where the people who started the feud are long since dead and now everyone is still fighting just because it’s tradition to hate each other. Jon is trying to break this cycle of bloodshed while adding thousands of people to his garrison to hopefully stop the White Walkers from not only marching on the Wall, but also to prevent them from adding the Wildlings to their numbers.

“If we abandon them, we know what they become. We can learn to live with the Wildlings or we can add them to the army of the dead. Whatever they are now, they’re better than that.”

~ Jon Snow

Jon prepares to leave with Tormund to recruit the free folk while Stannis decides that now is the time he will march towards Winterfell to begin his war with the Boltons as he starts to officially stake his claim to the Iron Throne. Ser Davos attempts to slow Stannis down, but with winter coming and the Boltons surely aware of what’s coming for them, the one true King doesn’t see a reason to wait any longer. Stannis also takes the time to quiz Samwell about his encounter with the White Walkers while gathering knowledge about how to kill them — thankfully he rules Dragonstone where the largest supply of dragonglass exists.

As Stannis mounts his horse to leave Castle Black, he even brings his wife and daughter along as well as the Lady Melisandre, who will join him on the battlefield this time unlike the Battle at Blackwater Bay when his forces were decimated by wildfire.

War is coming and it’s heading south.

A Marriage of Convenience

At Winterfell, Sansa is still trying to find comfort in her former home — remember this is a girl who at one time hoped to never see these castles again after leaving with her father Eddard and being promised to be the future queen to Robert Baratheon’s oldest son, Joffrey. But here she is again — a wolf surrounded by jackals.

Brienne and Podrick are stationed at an inn nearby where they send a message back to Sansa while not exactly revealing they were the ones who sent it. The loyalists who still serve House Stark tell Sansa that if she ever gets in trouble or requires assistance, she’s to light a candle in the window at the Broken Tower (the place where Bran got tossed after catching Jamie buggering his sister Cersei back in season one).

Meanwhile, Ramsay is spending his afternoon in bed with his girlfriend Miranda — you know the psycho who helped him hunt down the other girl they bedded once upon a time and fed her to the hound dogs. She’s pissed because Ramsay is being forced to marry Sansa Stark after he already promised to marry her. Of course as he points out, when he planned to wed Miranda, she was a cattle man’s daughter and he was a bastard. Now that he’s been legitimized, Ramsay has to marry into royalty.

Miranda’s not quite ready to give up her claim on Ramsay just yet and when she meets Sansa in the courtyard, she offers Lady Stark a ‘present’. She sends Sansa to the end of the kennel where the dogs are kept before she disappears. Sansa reaches the end of the row of cages where she finds Theon Greyjoy, beaten and dirty, living in one of the cells. She’s shocked to see him — the man who betrayed her brother Robb and killed her brothers Bran and Rickon (or that’s what she thinks anyways).

When Ramsay gets word of this meeting, he chooses not to punish ‘Reek’ but instead forces him to apologize to Sansa at dinner for murdering her brothers. If that wasn’t awkward enough, Ramsay also declares that since Theon grew up in Winterfell with the Stark children that he’s really like a relative and since Sansa is short any living, breathing family members right now, it’s his servant who should give her away at their wedding. ‘Reek’ has no choice but to comply and Sansa plays along as well, obviously disgusted at the entire proposition.

Ramsay doesn’t get to have all the fun, however, after his father tells him that his new Frey wife is with child and they think it will be a boy. He’s clearly shocked by the news, especially considering a highborn child with Bolton and Frey blood will likely trump him in the pecking order, regardless of his last name being the same as his father’s.

Seeing his son twist and turn with this news, Roose decides to tell Ramsay about his mother. It seems Ramsay’s mother was a peasant girl who got married to a man without Lord Bolton’s knowledge and/or permission. So he hung the man, raped the girl and a year later she returned with Ramsay. He was going to snuff Ramsay out, too, but when he got a glimpse of him, Roose knew this was his son and he had to raise him. Bang up job, dad.

Roose then tells Ramsay that Stannis Baratheon is marching south towards King’s Landing and the Iron Throne, but first he’ll try to take back Winterfell and eliminate the usurpers currently sitting in a castle that belongs to the Starks.

“He means to take the North. But the North is our. It’s yours and mine. Will you help me defeat him?”

~ Roose Bolton

Ramsay agrees to help his father and it appears a battle is brewing in the North.

Fire, Blood and Compromise

Daenerys opens this episode mourning the loss of her friend and ally Barristan Selmy, who died in an alley after being overrun by members of the murderous troop known as the Sons of the Harpy. He was wise counsel to her, but more importantly Barristan Selmy was loyal and he crossed half a world to be by her side as she planned to take back the Iron Throne that was taken from her family nearly 20 years ago.

While Hizdahr lo Zoraq cowers and tries to reason with Daenerys, she’s ready for the masters of Meereen to see what she’s been hiding in the basement — why she’s called the Mother of Dragons.

She takes all of the heads of the great families of Meereen and explains to them the problems she’s having ruling this strange land while also figuring out the best way to parent her children. Long story short — one of the masters gets crispy fried by the dragons as he’s ripped apart and eaten as the rest of them stare on in horror. Just before it looks like another will be sacrificed, Dany decides that her children are probably full for the day and there’s no need to feed them too much in one sitting.

Back in the pyramid, Grey Worm wakes up and he’s not feeling great right now. Not only did all of his men get killed but Barristan Selmy sacrificed his own life to save Daernerys’ Unsullied general. Missandei sits by his side and listens as Grey Worm explains the reason he’s so ashamed right now — he felt fear.

But it wasn’t a fear of dying or a fear of the men trying to kill him.

“I fear I never again see Missandei from the island of Naath”

~ Grey Worm

Missandei sheds a tear and she pulls Grey Worm close where the two finally kiss and embrace. A relationship built on love instead of requirement. Nice change of pace.

That’s not the case for Daenerys and her future in Meereen. She visits Hizdahr zo Loraq and decides that she’s had enough of the fighting going on in her adopted city. She will re-open the fighting pits per his request under the rules that only free men are allowed to compete. She will also take a husband to hopefully quiet the old families who live there that see her as nothing more than an outsider trying to conquer their lands.

“I will re-open the fighting pits to free men only. Slavery will never return to Meereen. Not while I live. And in order to form a lasting bond with the Meereenese people, I will marry the leader of an ancient family. Thankfully a suitor is already on his knees.”

~ Daenerys Targaryen

Hizdahr zo Loraq not only stays alive but he hits the freaking Meereen lottery in the process because now he will become the ‘king’ to Daenerys’ queen. The fighting pits will re-open, the Sons of the Harpy eliminate a faithful servant to the queen, and now she’s marrying into a royal family of Meereen. Is it possible Hizdahr zo Loraq is getting exactly what he’s always wanted?

The Doom of Valyria

Jorah and Tyrion are still on a boat headed for Meereen, but the journey there won’t be easy and as it turns out it definitely won’t be safe.

Jorah decides to navigate through the ancient city known as Valyria — it’s a place where the Targaryen’s were born and dragons once ruled. It’s the source of the mythical ‘Valyrian steel’ that makes up a few different swords still roaming around the Seven Kingdoms. It’s also a place that is cursed after an event known as ‘The Doom of Valyria’ destroyed the kingdom and most of the people that lived there.

There’s never been any clear explanation for the Doom of Valyria — think of it as Pompeii meets Atlantis. Before the city was destroyed, the Targaryens had the good sense to get out and they eventually settled into Westeros, where they ruled for hundreds of years. Valyria now is looked upon as a cursed land to avoid because of all the bad ‘spirits’ that still haunt the ancient city.

To mark the occasion, for the first time in his life and for the first time in more than a hundred years, Tyrion sees a dragon decorate the sky as if Drogon was visiting the place of his birth where so many other creatures were born in Valyria.

Tyrion and Jorah even share a poem about ‘The Doom of Valyria’ while sailing down the Smoking Sea.

“They held each other close then turned their backs upon the end

The hills that split asunder and the black that ate the skies

With flames that shot so high and hot that even dragons burned

Would never be the final sites that fell upon their eyes

A fly upon a wall, the waves, the sea wind, that whipped and churned

The city of a thousand years and all that men had learned

The Doom consumed it all alike and neither of them turned.”

(I’ll have more explanation on the Doom of Valyria in the next edition of my ‘Game of Thrones’ column called ‘Send the Ravens’ where I explain a bit more history of this land beyond what we see in the episodes.)

As Jorah and Tyrion are making their way through the city, a loud splash is heard behind them and then a few moments later, a creature comes crashing down into the boat. Jorah recognizes immediately that the man has been infected with greyscale and this is one of the Stone Men.

Remember last week during Stannis’ speech to his daughter Shireen where he tells her about the time she was infected with greyscale and all his advisors said that he should send her to Old Valyria to live out the rest of her short and miserable live with the rest of the Stone Men? When greyscale advances it not only covers the skin of those infected, but it also turns them mad and essentially transforms them into animals. Well here they are!

The Stone Men attack and Jorah warns Tyrion not to touch any of them or risk being infected with greyscale. Jorah fights them off, but before he can get to Tyrion, he has to fall overboard to avoid one of the attackers and in the water, he finds himself being dragged down by another of the Stone Men.

Fade to black and it appears Tyrion’s fate will be unknown but a few seconds later he awakens to Jorah standing over him as they make their way to a beach. Jorah was able to fight off the Stone Men and rescue Tyrion. He finally concedes to cut Tyrion free as they begin a long walk to hopefully find a fishing village that will allow them passage to Meereen.

Before they begin the walk towards finding Daenerys, Jorah lifts up his shirt and shows off the smallest spot on his wrist — infected by greyscale.

All Jorah wanted to do was to bring Tyrion back to his queen and beg for her forgiveness. Instead he’s now rescued the imp while quietly signing his own death sentence. It’s the way of the world in this day and age. Nobility is rarely rewarded and instead of earning a lifetime of thanks for saving Tyrion’s life, Jorah will likely meet years of misery as he wastes away and turns to grey.

Tune into the next episode of ‘Game of Thrones’ on Sunday night at 9pm ET as Arya returns to the forefront as well as the return of Lady Olenna, who arrives in King’s Landing to see about her grandson Loras Tyrell after his capture by the Faith Militant.