Directed By: David Nutter / Written By: David Benioff & D.B. Weiss

Original Airdate: June 9, 2013

In the Riverlands, Arya Stark flees from the Red Wedding massacre at The Twins with Sandor Clegane as her protector but not before she sees what they've done to Robb Stark’s body. She later exacts a modicum of revenge. When the news of the massacre reaches King's Landing, Tywin Lannister calls a meeting of the small council as King Joffrey Baratheon rejoices at the news. Meanwhile, Ygritte violently catches up with Jon Snow but he survives the encounter and arrives at Castle Black, as does Samwell Tarly and Gilly. After a long journey, Bran Stark and his group pass through the Wall and into lands unknown. At Yunkai, Daenerys Targaryen and her advisors await the reaction of the thousands of slaves who have been set free.

main cast

the twins

At the Twins, the carnage at the Red Wedding continues to unfold while House Frey soldiers ambush the Stark army in their own camp. What follows is not a battle but a one-sided massacre, as the Northern army is taken by surprise due to the betrayal of their supposed allies. Frey men wildly mutilate the dead and dying. From one of the twin towers, Lord Roose Bolton watches the massacre. Meanwhile, Sandor Clegane attempts to slip away amidst the carnage, along with an unconscious Arya Stark, by casually riding away while carrying a House Frey banner. Before they can leave, Arya regains consciousness - as she and the Hound then witness a group of Frey men shouting as they march through the main gate. The Freys have horrifically desecrated Robb Stark's corpse by decapitating him, then crudely attaching the severed head of his direwolf Grey Wind on top of Robb’s body. Drunk in their victory, Frey soldiers gleefully parade the mutilated body around the castle on a horse while mockingly chanting "King in the North! Here he comes, the King in the North!," which is met with by cheers and peals of laughter from the Frey soldiers. Sandor is horrified by the gruesome spectacle, while he holds Arya, who looks on with a dead stare. The Hound rides away with her, undisturbed thanks to the Frey banner in his hand.

The following morning, in the main hall, Walder Frey and Roose Bolton gloat over their shared victory. Lord Frey reveals that Edmure Tully has been imprisoned in the dungeons and that he himself will now become Lord of Riverrun, with his house replacing House Tully as the Lannisters' vassals in the Riverlands. Lord Bolton has been appointed as the new Warden of the North, though Lord Tywin Lannister intends to eventually give the position to a future Lannister heir produced by Tyrion Lannister and Sansa Stark. Bolton expresses his concern that the deceased Catelyn Stark’s brother, Brynden Tully, escaped the massacre but Walder points out that the Blackfish is alone and outnumbered. Walder then questions Roose if he intends to rule the North from Winterfell, who informs that he may move his ruling seat there at some point, once it is rebuilt. This leads Walder to ask how Winterfell ended up a ruin. Roose explains that his bastard son Ramsay Snow offered Robb Stark's terms that the Ironborn occupiers would be shown mercy if they handed over Theon Greyjoy. Once they did, they learned that Ramsay, in his father's words, "has his own way of doing things."

the dreadfort

Now revealed as Theon Greyjoy’s captor and tortmentor, Roose Bolton’s bastard son, Ramsay Snow, sits in Theon’s dungeon inside the Dreadfort, the seat of House Bolton. As Ramsay eats his breakfast he comments on Theon’s castrated appendage and taunts him by saying that girls that tried seducing Theon weren’t lying as he does have “a good size cock." As a mutilated and disturbed Theon witnesses Ramsay ingesting phallically-shaped food a laughing, Ramsay teasingly assures him that he is eating pork sausage. Ramsay then ponders if humans experience having a “phantom cock.” An exasperated Theon then begs for death as a release from the nightmare he’s endured for weeks on end. Ramsay informs Theon that this is not possible as he is more valuable alive than dead. Ramsay then notes that Theon reeks, and decides that this shall be his new name: Reek. Theon refuses to acknowledge the name, twice insisting that he is Theon Greyjoy, but after Ramsay beats him, he finally breaks down and says his name is Reek, avoiding further torture for the time being.

the iron islands

Meanwhile, at Pyke in the Iron Islands, Balon Greyjoy reads a message from Ramsay Snow while his daughter Yara Greyjoy cautiously opens a box crudely carved with the Greyjoy kraken sigil. As Ramsay's letter explains the box contains "Theon's favorite toy.” The message bluntly says that the Ironborn have until the full moon to withdraw from the North or receive more bits and pieces of Theon. It was in fact Ramsay Snow and his soldiers from House Bolton who burned Winterfell to the ground: he simply sent false reports for his father Roose to deliver to Robb Stark which claimed that the Ironborn were responsible, as the Boltons were preparing to betray the Starks months before the Red Wedding. Balon acts indifferent to Theon's situation since he defied Balon's orders and Yara's common sense. Furthermore, he cannot further the Greyjoy line as the contents of the box prove. However, Yara does not share her father's attitude toward her last living brother. She announces her intention to take her fastest ship with her fifty best men, sail around Westeros, besiege the Dreadfort, and liberate Theon from his captivity.

the riverlands

After escaping the Twins, Arya and Sandor come across a group of four Frey soldiers by a campfire. They are mocking the death of Arya's mother Catelyn, while one of the soldiers describes the process of sewing the wolf’s head onto Robb's dead body. Arya then dismounts from Sandor's horse and slowly walks up behind the soldier. He asks her what she wants, as Arya states she’d like to keep warm and is hungry. The soldiers rudely dismiss her, however, Arya declares that she has money and shows them the Braavosi coin given to her by Jaqen H'ghar. She purposely drops the coin, and when the soldier bends down to pick it up, she repeatedly stabs him with a knife. The other three men draw their weapons, but Sandor appears and kills all three with ease. Sandor asks Arya how she got a knife, and she says she took it from him. Sandor asks if that the first man she has ever killed, and Arya confirms, "the first man," not counting the stableboy in King's Landing during her escape years ago. As Sandor helps himself to the soldiers' dinner, Arya picks up the coin with her bloodied fingers and whispers, "valar morghulis."

king’s landing

In King's Landing, Tyrion Lannister, Sansa Stark and Shae walk through the gardens as a pair of gentlemen snigger at Tyrion as they walk past, either for his dwarf status or due to rumors he has not consummated his marriage. Sansa assures Tyrion to pay them no mind, as he then reminds her that he's used to it, as he's always been a dwarf. He also states that as he's not King Joffrey Baratheon, Tyrion would rather bide his time and humiliate them. Sansa playfully follows his line of thinking, and suggests "sheep-shifting"- secretly hiding sheep's dung deep within a mattress (as her sister Arya used to do to her), so that the target always wakes up smelling of dung. Tyrion is amused but is confused by the term, though he realizes belatedly that Sansa has misheard the word "shit". He is rescued from having to explain his wife's mistake by his squire Podrick Payne, who calls him to an urgent meeting of the small council.

In Lord Tywin's chambers, Grand Maester Pycelle gives Tyrion a message from Walder Frey informing that Robb and Catelyn Stark are both dead. Joffrey gleefully states that he intends to serve Robb's severed head to Sansa at his wedding feast, as a deeply embarrassed Cersei Lannister insists that Joffrey was only joking. Tyrion tells Joffrey that Sansa isn't his to torment anymore, though Joffrey angrily proclaims that he is the king, and everyone is his to torment. Tywin counters that any man who has to remind his subjects that he is king, is no true king. Joffrey then attempts to fight his grandfather, deriding Tywin as a coward who hid under Casterly Rock while his "father" King Robert Baratheon won the real war that overthrew the Targaryens. Tywin declares that the king is tired and advises Cersei to see him to bed. Tywin then dismisses the council, save Tyrion, who confronts Tywin about his part in the Red Wedding, and deducing that Lord Frey was not brave enough to have carried it out on his own. Tyrion then shows his distaste for the choice of a wedding as a place to inflict the slaughter, but Tywin asks why killing thousands of soldiers in battle is nobler than killing a dozen guests at a wedding. Tywin then informs that Roose Bolton is Warden of the North until he impregnates Sansa, but Tyrion assures him that he won't do it, demanding to know when Tywin ever put the family's interests above his own. Tywin retorts that he did exactly that on the day that Tyrion was born: he wanted to throw his dwarf newborn into the sea, but instead he spared him because he is a Lannister. Immediately after leaving, Tyrion returns to Sansa, who simply regards him with a forlorn, tear-streaked face confirming that she has been informed of her family’s massacre.

Elsewhere in the Red Keep and following the small council meeting, Lord Varys meets with Shae in the gardens. He informs her that he knows she is genuinely in love with Tyrion - and that is why she should take the diamonds he is offering her and leave immediately for Essos to build a new, lavish life for herself. Varys is convinced that Tyrion is the last hope for the Seven Kingdoms' current regime, therefore Shae is a weakness that Tyrion, and thus the realm, cannot afford. He asserts that her presence is “a complication” for Tyrion’s progression. Shae confirms that she is in love with Tyrion and that she cares deeply for Sansa as well, but in spite of her pain at seeing them together and the danger she poses by staying in the capital, Shae will not leave until or unless Tyrion asks her to. She throws the diamonds to the ground before walking away.

Later that evening, Tyrion and Cersei drink in his chambers as she taunts him on his marriage to which he defends Sansa and asserts how she does not deserve what has happened to her family. Cersei then advises Tyrion to impregnate Sansa so she can have some happiness in her life. Tyrion asks candidly how happy is Cersei herself who has born and raised three children. Slightly wounded by the question she replies saying ‘not very’ but argues without her children she would have already thrown herself off the Red Keep. In a moment of peculiar catharsis Cersei emotionally carries on to discuss how sweet and happy Joffrey when he was a baby and that despite how he may be now that time in her life can never be taken away from her. She painfully admits to that feeling of having someone of your own. Tyrion, still speaking of Joffrey, tells Cersei that every time they deal with an enemy two more are created and asks her how long this will go on for. Cersei responds by saying she supposes this will go on for quite a long time.

The following morning, Ser Jaime Lannister, Brienne of Tarth, and former maester Qyburn  finally arrive in the capital. The city folk do not even recognize the disheveled Jaime after his long absence. Jaime and Brienne share a parting glance before he heads towards the Red Keep. Jaime immediately then finds his sister and lover Cersei in her chambers with her back towards the door’s entrance. As Cersei smiles down on a seashell she is holding, nodding to times past at her ancestral home of Casterly Rock, Jaime calls out her name to grab her attention. She swings her head around in utter disbelief and stares at him, as if in a daze, attempting to register Jaime’s long-awaited return, as well noticing the stump where his hand used to be.

the wall

Meanwhile, after months of traveling through the North, Bran Stark has finally reached the Wall and arrives at the abandoned Nightfort castle, the oldest fortress along the Wall that was formerly manned by the Night's Watch before their numbers dwindled. Meera Reed tells Bran, Hodor and her brother Jojen that the castle is safe to enter. While around the fire Bran tells the story of the Rat Cook, a Night's Watch member who once killed a guest under his roof, a sin that the gods cannot forgive. Later that evening, Bran is awoken by a sound, and wakes his companions in time to see something large climbing out of the castle well. Meera quickly attacks and overpowers the intruder, who is revealed to be Samwell Tarly, accompanied by Gilly and her newborn son. Samwell instantly deduces Bran's identity by recognizing Bran's direwolf Summer, as well as Hodor himself. Bran then asks Samwell to take him and his group north of the Wall, though Sam protests the idea, given the threat of the White Walkers and the undead horde they command approaching, who Osha had recently warned Bran about. Sam eventually relents and takes them through the passage that exits into the treacherous territories beyond the Wall. Before they separate Sam gives the group the rest of his dragonglass supply and tells them that it has the power to kill White Walkers. The groups then head in different directions as Bran and his party begin their trek towards the dangers of what lies beyond.

Elsewhere, near the Wall, Jon Snow stops to rest by a pond and tends to his injuries after fleeing the wildlings from his fight against the warg Orell at the Gift. As he tries washing the cuts on his face with the pond water, Jon hears the sound of a bow string being pulled back and when he turns around, he suddenly finds himself confronted by a furious Ygritte, who has an arrow ready and aimed at him, prepared to shoot. Jon tries talking to Ygritte by asserting that she always knew who he was, and insisting that although he loves her, she should have known his loyalty to the Night’s Watch was never gone. He informs the devastated Ygritte that he now must go home to Castle Black and that she won’t hurt him. Ygritte then retorts by saying: “you know nothing, Jon Snow.” Though her feelings for him are clearly reciprocated, Ygritte is still angered by his betrayal and shoots Jon three times with her bow, as he then narrowly flees from her on horseback. As he speeds away, Ygritte watches him ride away with tears in her eyes.

The following morning, after seeing Bran and his party depart from the Wall, Samwell and Gilly arrive at Castle Black and meet with Maester Aemon, and Gilly affectionately introduces her newborn as Sam, much to Samwell’s delight. Aemon, however, is furious at the prospect of Sam having violated his vows by bringing the wildling Gilly with him. Samwell defends himself by reciting the Night's Watch oath to protect the realms of men, whichever side of the Wall they are on. He repeats to the maester the late Lord Commander Jeor Mormont's assertion that the Wall was not built to keep out barbarians. Maester Aemon's demeanor then softens upon learning that Gilly was one of Craster's daughter-wives, and acknowledges that she is now a refugee and should be safely sheltered at Castle Black. Gilly shows her gratitude to Aemon by insisting that she can be of good use around the castle. Aemon then orders Samwell to grab a quill and begin writing letters immediately. Sam is also to ensure that all forty-four of Castle Black's ravens are well-fed, as every one of them is to fly that night to make a grave announcement: the White Walkers have returned and the Seven Kingdoms must be warned of their impending attack.

Although badly injured, Jon Snow’s horse manages to carry him the rest of the way to Castle Black, as he hovers in and out of consciousness. Having reached safety outside the fortress, Jon is then brought inside the castle by the guards, where he encounters a shocked Samwell and Pypar, who are overjoyed to see him. They then insist that Jon’s injuries are to be taken care of immediately, as some of the Night’s Watch carry his limp body inside.

dragonstone

In the dungeons of Dragonstone, Ser Davos Seaworth finds Gendry Baratheon in his cell and attempts to comfort him by saying that the ritual that Melisandre performed was only a little blood. Gendry scolds himself, stating he should have known better as any time a highborn asks him his name it results in trouble. Davos insists that he himself is no highborn and was also born in Fleabottom, the slums of King’s Landing, just as Gendry was. He notes that Gendry lived in the “fancy part of town” in comparison to his upbringing. After discussing his history, Davos asks Gendry why he trusted the Red Priestess. Gendry aptly responds with the simplified answer that it was an obvious temptation being a virgin and meeting a Red Priestess with big words and no clothes. When Gendry rhetorically asks what Davos would have done in his shoes, Davos admits that Melisandre does know her way around a man’s head. When Gendry then asks how he became a lord, Davos recalls assisting King Stannis Baratheon with a “difficult situation” that led to a lordship, yet some missing fingers. Davos admits that he didn’t seek a lordship, but wanted his son Matthos Seaworth to have a better life away from Fleabottom. He then admits to Gendry, however, that following Davos is what killed his son.

Later on, Ser Davos tests his new-found literacy on King Stannis’ correspondence while he sits with Stannis’ daughter Princess Shireen Baratheon in her chambers, declining her invitation to read aloud more tales of Aegon I Targaryen. He expresses dissatisfaction about the spelling of the word "night” when Shireen declares that her history books are better than Stannis’ scrolls, citing the infamous dragon “Balerion the Dread”. Davos becomes distracted when reading a scroll from the Night’s Watch alerting Stannis of the grave news regarding the White Walkers. Davos and Shireen then overhear the horns that signal Melisandre's intents to sacrifice Gendry. When arriving to the meeting room, Davos argues with Stannis again about sacrificing the boy with Baratheon blood, but Stannis is convinced by Melisandre that using Gendry as part of her blood magic will give him the power to destroy his enemies and claim the Iron Throne. Upon Davos’ suggestion, Melisandre insists that she doesn’t take any credit for the ritual, which Stannis believes resulted in Robb Stark’s death, as he hoped it would. Melisandre insists that she has faith, which has been rewarded by the Lord of Light. Stannis remains firm, however, asking “what is the life of one bastard boy against a kingdom?” Davos responds by saying “everything”.

When he doesn't get through to his liege, Davos takes matters into his own hands and frees the boy from the dungeons. He then escorts Gendry to a cove at Dragonstone and gives him a rowboat with directions to King's Landing. When Gendry asks him why he is risking his life to save him, Davos urges that it is the right thing to do. After some parting words, Davos watches Genry row away from the castle towards a long voyage south on the Narrow Sea. As result of Davos’ release of Gendry, a furious Stannis sentences Davos to death, but the “Onion Knight” produces the letter they just received from the Night's Watch informing them of the threat of the White Walkers. Davos insists that it is Stannis' duty to assist the Black Brothers, and that he will need his assistance in rallying troops and mercenaries. Melisandre burns the letter when placing it into the brazier and gazes into the flames. After a few moments, Melisandre quickly acknowledges the truth: the War of the Five Kings has now become irrelevant. She asserts that the true war lies to the North, as “death marches on the Wall.” She also agrees that Davos has an important role to play in the events to come. Stannis sarcastically laughs at R’hllor’s sense of humor, noting that the god Davos likes to mock has chosen him for a higher purpose.

yunkai

Following the battle of Yunkai, Daenerys Targaryen and her advisors, Ser Jorah Mormont, Ser Barristan Selmy and the mercenary Daario Naharis, wait outside the city walls for the slaves to appear. Daenerys frets that the Yunkish slaves, who were better treated than Astapor's slaves might have grown to like their chains and will not welcome freedom. Finally, the gates open and the freed men pour out. Daenerys’ aide Missandei begins translating to the former slaves that “Daenerys the Unburnt” has freed them, however, Daenerys interrupts Missandei and says that it is the slaves' own choice to reach for their freedom. After a moment, one of the freed men stretches his hand towards Daenerys and calls out "mhysa". After a moment, another follows suit, then another and another until the entire crowd is chanting "mhysa". Bewildered, Daenerys turns to Missandei, who reveals that the word means "mother" in the Old Ghiscari language. When the slaves advance on Daenerys the Unsullied step into formation but their queen tells them to stand down. Telling her three dragons Drogon, Viserion and Rhaegal to fly away, Daenerys then steps out of the protection of the Unsullied soldiers and into the crowd, who carry on their chanting. Daenerys is rejoicefully embraced by the former slaves, offering a glimmer of hope in an increasingly darker and hopeless world.

*Episode descriptions from GOT Wiki