Directed By: Daniel Minahan / Written By: Vanessa Taylor

Original Airdate: April 7, 2013

Journeying towards the Wall, Bran Stark has another dream of the raven and then meets a mysterious pair of siblings who share some commonalities. In the Riverlands, Brienne of Tarth and Jamie Lannister continue their journey to King's Landing but run into trouble. Meanwhile, Robb Stark learns of the fall of Winterfell as well as his grandfather’s death and leads his troops to Riverrun for the funeral as Arya Stark, Gendry and Hot Pie meet the Brotherhood Without Banners. In King’s Landing, Cersei Lannister tries to warn King Joffrey about Margaery Tyrell’s ambition but it falls on deaf ears as Shae warns Sansa Stark of Littlefinger’s own ambitions. At an undisclosed location, Theon Greyjoy is tortured following his kidnapping during the sack of Winterfell.

main cast

the north

Some time after escaping the ruins of Winterfell, Bran Stark dreams that he is walking and hunting in the woods; he sees the mysterious three-eyed raven again. As he aims his bow, he relives his memories of when he was practicing archery with his brothers Jon Snow and Robb Stark, and hears the voice of his father Eddard Stark. Bran shoots at the raven but misses. A young stranger appears. The boy tells Bran that he cannot shoot the raven, because he is the raven. Bran awakens suddenly, worrying Hodor for a moment but he says that he is fine. Osha  says they have enough problems without dark dreams. Bran, Rickon, Osha, Hodor and the  direwolves, Summer and Shaggydog, continue to head north towards the Wall. Later on, the same boy from Bran’s dream approaches their camp in the woods unarmed. Summer snarls at him initially but then sniffs his hand and turns away. Osha comes up behind the boy with a sharpened wooden spear, only for the boy's sister to surprise Osha and put a knife to her throat. The boy introduces himself as Jojen Reed, and his sister as Meera Reed, both crannogmen from the Neck. House Reed are loyal bannermen of House Stark, and they have been searching for Bran and Rickon so that they can protect them.

Later on, when they are on the move again, Bran discusses his wolf-dreams with Jojen Reed. Jojen explains that Bran himself is a ‘warg,’ who are people with the ability to enter the minds of animals and perceive the world through their senses, even controlling their actions. Jojen adds that it starts out as vivid dreams seeing through his wolf's eyes, but with practice Bran will be able to consciously enter the mind of his wolf. Bran then asks if prophetic dreams are part of being a warg, but Jojen explains that ‘the sight’ allows those who possess it to see events that haven't happened yet, or events that happened long before they were born, or events happening now but thousands of miles away. Jojen confirms that Bran's dream of his father Eddard the day he died was an example of the sight, and that Jojen himself had a similar dream the same day. He says that when he told his father, Howland Reed, he openly wept, for he correctly realized that his son's dream signified that his friend Eddard was dead. Jojen confirms that Bran wasn't simply experiencing a vision of Jojen in his earlier dream, but that he had reached out with his mind to contact Bran in his dream, and that he remembers seeing the three-eyed raven as well.

Meanwhile, some time after his capture during the Sack of Winterfell, Theon Greyjoy has been chained up in a dungeon in an undisclosed location somewhere in the North. Men come in, some wearing Ironborn clothing, and interrogate him. When Theon asks what they want, one of his captors says he wants to do "this" and starts prying his fingernails off with a knife. Later on, the men then use a foot press to torture Thron, while also slowly turning a screw into his foot until it is bleeding freely. They repeatedly ask him why he captured Winterfell, but apparently do not consider any answers Theon provides, as they continue to torture him regardless. Theon at first informs them of the simple truth in that he wanted to take and hold Winterfell while the North was vulnerable in order to impress his father Balon Greyjoy. He then begins lying when asserting his hatred for the Starks, calling them their enemy, desperately trying to figure out what his captors want to hear. When the guards then leave, they put a bag over his head. However, once alone, a servant boy enters the dungeon and unwinds the foot press, informing Theon that he has been sent by his sister Yara Greyjoy to rescue him. However, he must wait until nightfall when the castle is asleep, so he puts the bag back on and the desperate Theon is left alone crying for help.

beyond the wall

Beyond the Wall, Jon Snow slowly marches south with the Free Folk army, led by the King-Beyond-the-Wall, Mance Rayder. As they walk Mance asks Jon if it was difficult to kill Qhorin Halfhand and Jon asserts that it was, as he was fond of the ranger. Mance informs Jon that while he likes him, that won’t stop him from killing Jon if he is being dishonest. Mance then explains that his army is a diverse force, formed of about ninety different clans of wildlings, who have numerous internal rivalries. However, he managed to unite them all by telling them the truth: that they will all die if they remain north of the Wall. Mance then brings Jon to one of his scouts named Orell, who is sitting silently with his head raised and his eyes rolled back as an eagle circles above him. Mance informs that he is a warg and Ygritte is surprised that Jon doesn't know what that is. Mance explains that a warg is a person who is capable of entering the mind of an animal, seeing what it sees and even controlling its actions. Orell controls his menagerie to scout miles ahead and survey the lands. Once Orell finishes warging, Mance asks him what he has seen, as Orell informs that he has seen the Fist of the First Men. He informs that there are many dead "crows," confirming to Jon that many of his brothers of the Night’s Watch have perished.

Meanwhile, following the slaughter at the Fist of the First Men, Lord Commander Jeor Mormont leads the few survivors remaining further south in hopes of reaching the Wall. An exhausted Samwell Tarly tires from the trek through the rough terrain and eventually collapses. When Grenn and Eddison Tollett try to pick him up, Samwell cries out to them that they left him in the blizzard during the arrival of the White Walkers and their army of the dead. In their defense, Eddison bluntly informs Samwell of the fact that, as he is fat and slow, they wanted to survive. An angry Rast then joins the trio and is annoyed that Samwell hid during the battle, asserting his opinion that the Watch should leave him because he's been slowing them all down. Though Sam is upset that Grenn and Eddison abandoned him at the start of the attack, they refuse to leave him now. Lord Commander Mormont then informs Samwell that he has to keep moving, and sternly forbids him to die. Mormont then orders Rast to keep Sam alive until they reach the Wall, adding that if Samwell doesn’t make it back than neither does he. As they carry on walking, an annoyed Rast tells Sam that they’re not dying for him and calls him “piggy”.

king’s landing

In the Red Keep, King Joffrey Baratheon is being fitted for new clothes in his chambers, in preparation for his upcoming wedding to Margaery Tyrell. His mother Cersei Lannister begins to criticize Margaery and questions her motivation, citing her previous marriage to the deceased Renly Baratheon. However, Joffrey barely tolerates his mother's chiding and dismissively tells her off stating that Margaery was doing what she was told to do, as all women should. Meanwhile, in the gardens, Sansa Stark walks with Loras Tyrell who brings her to meet with Margaery and their grandmother, Lady Olenna Tyrell, the head of House Tyrell, who has journeyed to the capital for the impending nuptials. Olenna insists that Sansa tell her the truth about what Joffrey is like, as he is to marry Margaery. Sansa is initially reluctant, but then angrily recounts how Joffrey ordered her father’s beheading in front of her and then showed her his head on a spike. Sansa eventually blurts out that Joffrey is "a monster". Olenna is unsurprised, given the rumors that have been circulating about Joffrey's outbursts. Sansa is worried that this means the Tyrells will cancel their proposed marriage alliance, meaning Sansa will be stuck with Joffrey again, but Olenna assures her that her son Mace is too intent on Margaery entering into a royal marriage to cancel it for anything.

Some time later, Shae sneaks into Tyrion Lannister's new chambers as he warns her that his father Lord Tywin Lannister threatened to kill her if he found her with Tyrion again, and that his father always follows through on such threats. Undeterred, Shae starts undressing Tyrion, and asks him for a favor: to protect Sansa Stark from Lord Petyr Baelish, who she was warned about by his employee Ros. Tyrion insists that he no longer has enough power or influence to attempt to do that, though Shae accuses him of being attracted to Sansa, which he cheerfully denies. It also comes out during their conversation that Tyrion had sex with Ros back in the North when the royal court traveled to Winterfell, though Tyrion points out that it was long before he met Shae. They playfully bicker about his history with the prostitue, as well as Sansa when he mentions her as a great beauty who will need their protection. The couple’s arguing subsides once she then starts to undress him.

Meanwhile, Margaery Tyrell is summoned to King Joffrey's chambers to see if she needs anything before he leaves on a hunting trip in the Kingswood. While Joffrey has previously been easy for Margaery to manipulate, Cersei was apparently able to plant one seed of doubt in his mind; the fact that Margaery was married to his uncle Renly and thus, already had sex with another man, whom Cersei described as a "traitor and known degenerate". When questioned, Lady Margaery insists that she was ordered to marry a traitor as her family duty. Joffrey, however, implies that this still means he must have had sex with her. The king then angrily questions Margaery about the relationship, but she delicately placates him by feigning demure shyness and painting herself as a dutiful, but frustrated, bride. Margaery then uses the rumors about Renly's sexuality to redirect Joffrey's anger, stating that Renly always found excuses to avoid sex, but in one instance, drunkenly suggested "something that sounded very painful and could not possibly result in children," which draws her new fiance's sympathy. Margaery eventually manages to divert attention to the new custom crossbow and it quickly becomes apparent that Joffrey is excited by violence and sadism, so she flirts with him by musing about killing something herself with the bow. Easily played, Joffrey offers to take her with him to share in the excitement of killing something.

the riverlands

In the Riverlands, King Robb Stark settles into the council chamber at Harrenhal with his wife Queen Talisa Maegyr. Lord Roose Bolton interrupts the pair with two messenger-raven missives, each of which brings bad news. Firstly, Robb's maternal grandfather, Lord Hoster Tully, has finally passed inside his castle of Riverrun after battling a long illness. Secondly, Roose delivers a letter that was sent from his bastard son Ramsay Snow, stating that the Ironborn men torched Winterfell and put all of its inhabitants to the sword, and then fled before his forces arrived there. There has been no sighting of Bran or Rickon Stark, and though Robb hopes that they are still alive, there is a strong possibility that they are dead. Moreover, there has been no word of Theon Greyjoy, and if he took the boys captive the Greyjoys haven't sent out any demands. This double-blow reduces Catelyn Stark to tears and she laments that she had not seen her father in years. She is horrified at the thought that Bran and Rickon were in danger while she was away and could not protect them, and are now likely dead.

Later on, King Robb leaves Roose Bolton in command of Harrenhal with a detachment of the Northern army, while Robb himself leads his main host back across the Riverlands to Riverrun. Lord Rickard Karstark angrily asserts that this is a waste of time, though Robb points out that his uncle and Lady Catelyn's brother, Edmure Tully, is now lord of Riverrun and his levies will reinforce their army. Robb then asks if Lord Karstark has lost faith in their cause. Rickard insists that he still believes in revenge, adding that he believes Robb lost the war the day he married Talisa, a political nobody, thus breaking his promise to enter into a marriage-alliance with  House Frey. Meanwhile, Talisa notices that Catelyn is making a prayer wheel from the Faith of the Seven. Catelyn explains that they are made by praying mothers over the welfare of their children. She then reveals that she has only made them twice before, one of which was when she was praying for Bran to wake from his coma and the other for her husband’s bastard Jon Snow. A grieving Catelyn informs Talisa that she had stayed up all night with the young Jon and promised him that she would urge her husband Eddard to have him legitimized as a Stark. She also declared that she would raise him as her own son. Jon eventually recovered, however, Catelyn did not keep her promise. She then informs Talisa that the gods are now punishing her misconduct with the current war.

Meanwhile, as they continue their long journey through the Riverlands, Arya Stark, Gendry and Hot Pie are heading north from Harrenhal, planning to eventually reach the Red Fork of the Trident River and then follow it west to her grandfather's castle-seat at Riverrun, unaware of his passing. Arya previously explained to the boys how Jaqen H'ghar helped them escape because he offered that he would kill any three people she named. During their trek, however, Gendry loudly criticizes Arya, in disbelief that she used up two of the names on minor Lannister guards when she could have said someone like "King Joffrey" or "Tywin Lannister" and ended the entire war, at which Arya gets quite defensive. However, as they advance in the forest, they run into a scouting party of the Brotherhood Without Banners, a group of outlaws who work against the Lannisters. Their leader Thoros of Myr is heard ironically singing "The Rains of Castamere" as they approach, an infamous song in Westeros dedicated to House Lannister. The trio, who attempt to hide from the outlaws, recognize the Brotherhood as the group the Lannister torturers were asking about at Harrenhal. An arrow is shot straight through the hole Arya is peaking out of as she dodges it with rapid reflex. As Thoros enquires what is lurking behind the wall Arya comes out of hiding with Needle drawn but Thoros calmly informs her of his knowledge of Gendry and Hot Pie, who are still in hiding. Despite a threatening introduction, Thoros seems a friendly sort, and they make the trio come with them.

Afterwards, the Brotherhood Without Banners bring Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie to the Crossroads Inn, along the Kingsroad, for some food and drink. Arya previously had visited to the inn with her father Lord Eddard on their way down to the capital. This is also where she last saw her direwolf Nymeria, who attacked Joffrey and was forced to run away. Inside the inn, Gendry informs Thoros of Myr that he used to work as a smith in King's Landing for Tobho Mott, whom Thoros recognizes. Thoros then admits that Tobho charged double what the other smiths were charging. Gendry defensively counters that this was due to the fact that it was double the quality. Arya insists that she knows how to use a sword, despite Thoros' disbelief, but when she tries to mock-fence with him he quickly disarms her. Other members of the Brotherhood Without Banners then return to the inn with a captive: Sandor "The Hound" Clegane, who Arya has last seen at her father’s execution in King’s Landing. As Thoros trades insults with the Hound, Arya hides her face and tries to leave, but Sandor stops her in astonishment and asks what in seven hells are they doing with "the Stark bitch," revealing her identity to them all.

Elsewhere, Ser Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth are slowly making their way across the Riverlands, heading to King's Landing intending to make the prisoner exchange for the Stark girls, unaware of Arya’s disappearance from the capital. Jaime continues to mock Brienne along the way. Jaime deduces that Brienne isn't from the North because he would have noticed her at Winterfell when he visited, so as she is from House Tarth she must be a Baratheon supporter. She angrily denies supporting Stannis, thus confirming that she served Renly. Jaime accurately deduces that she fancied Renly, but points out that Renly wasn't attracted to women so much as he was to Loras Tyrell, adding that his sexuality was actually "the worst kept secret at court" if she thinks he's lying. He continues to casually mock Renly which makes Brienne grab him, but he relents and says he doesn't particularly care that Renly loved Loras, as he feels people aren't free to choose the ones they love, which he understands better than most with his devotion to his sister Cersei. They then come across a farmer with a heavily laden mule, who notices that they're cutting cross-country and avoiding the major roads, and suspects that they're avoiding soldiers. Jaime tells Brienne that he suspects the man is a scout meant to intercept them, and even if he isn't he can still spread word he saw them. He urges her to kill the man, but she refuses.

A short time later, the pair have to cross a deep river, which means they can either attempt a dangerous fording or take the bridge that is likely being watched. Brienne takes the safer route of the bridge, but Ser Jaime manages to distract her long enough to steal a spare sword from her in order to cut off his bonds. Brienne and Jaime enter into an extended sword fight on the bridge. Jaime, one of the most skilled swordsmen in all of the Seven Kingdoms, nearly overcomes Brienne several times. However, Jaime's mobility is reduced because his hands are still manacled, and he is malnourished after having spent the past full year chained up in a cell. Jaime begins to tire, and Brienne wears him down further by making simple body-blows with kicks and punches. After a protracted fight Jaime finally slumps to the ground in exhaustion. Just then, riders from  House Bolton arrive, led by a man named Locke. Jaime asks if they want to negotiate, but Locke says they'll have his head if he doesn't bring the “Kingslayer” back to the King in the North, Robb Stark, so there's not much Jaime can do to dissuade the Bolton men from taking them both as prisoner.

*Episode descriptions from GOT Wiki