‘sons of the harpy’
Directed By: Mark Mylod / Written By: Dave Hill
Original Airdate: May 3, 2015
In King’s Landing, Cersei Lannister continues to spin her web by suggesting to the High Sparrow that the Faith Militant should be given more authority, which causes a direct conflict with the Tyrells and a powerless King Tommen Baratheon. Meanwhile, just as Jaime Lannister and Bronn arrive in Dorne, Ellaria Sand and Oberyn Martell's three daughters, known as the Sand Snakes, decide to take matters into their own hands. At Castle Black, Jon Snow has to resist temptation when Melisandre offers herself to him. Over in Meereen, the Sons of the Harpy take the fight to the Unsullied after the power struggle reaches its climax. Elsewhere in Essos, Jorah Mormont seeks redemption with Daenerys Targaryen and sails the captive Tyrion Lannister towards Meereen.
featuring
IAN McELHINNEY as BARRISTAN SELMY / JULIAN GLOVER as PYCELLE / FINN JONES as LORAS TYRELL / ANTON LESSER as QYBURN
JACOB ANDERSON as GREY WORM / BEN CROMPTON as EDDISON TOLLETT / KERRY INGRAM as SHIREEN BARATHEON
TARA FITZGERALD as SELYSE BARATHEON / JOEL FRY as HIZDAHR ZO LORAQ / EUGENE SIMON as LANCEL LANNISTER
KEISHA CASTLE-HUGHES as OBARA SAND / ROSABELL LAURENTI SELLERS as TYENE SAND / JESSICA HENWICK as NYMERIA SAND
IAN BEATTIE as MERYN TRANT / ROGER ASHTON-GRIFFITHS as MACE TYRELL / BRENOCK O’CONNOR as OLLY / WILL TUDOR as OLYVAR
JOSEPHINE GILLAN as MAREI and MEENA RAYANN as VALA
the summer sea
In Volantis, during the middle of the night, Ser Jorah Mormont knocks out a fisherman and steals his boat, leaving with his captive Tyrion Lannister. After morning breaks, as they sail along the Summer Sea, Tyrion pesters Jorah with muffled whining until he relents and removes Tyrion's gag. More taciturn than he usually is, Ser Jorah refuses to volunteer any information about himself to his prisoner, but from a few observations, such as the bear sigil on his armor, Tyrion quickly surmises that he must be Jorah Mormont. Tyrion then correctly points out that they are traveling east and not west towards his sister Cersei Lannister in King's Landing as Jorah then admits to Tyrion that the Queen he is taking him to is not Cersei but Daenerys Targaryen in Meereen. Tyrion recalls from small council meetings that Jorah was spying on Daenerys for Lord Varys. Given that he is half the world away from Daenerys, he also accurately deduces that she must have found out he was spying on her and had him exiled - and therefore, he kidnapped Tyrion in the hope that presenting him as a gift to Daenerys will get him back in her favor. Tyrion laughs aloud at his situation, informing Jorah that he was already heading to Meereen, so this is a waste of a kidnapping. Tyrion also points out that there is no guarantee this will assuage Daenerys, and it is just as likely she will remain angry at Jorah, and welcome himself as an ally. Jorah then smacks Tyrion across the face, shutting him up for now.
winterfell
At Winterfell, Sansa Stark visits her family's underground crypts. She comes to the tomb and statue of her aunt Lyanna Stark as Petyr Baelish arrives and says he thought he'd find her there. Sansa remarks that her father, Eddard Stark, never talked about his sister Lyanna, but she would at times find him down in the crypts lighting candles at her tomb. After telling Sansa of the time he once saw Lyanna at a tournament, he then explains that he is heading back to King's Landing, because Cersei sent a letter requesting his presence. Sansa will be alone with the Boltons but he explains his plan to her: King Stannis Baratheon will have to attack the Boltons soon if he is to beat the coming winter, and he bets that Stannis will probably win and then make Sansa the new ruler of the North, as the last (known) surviving Stark heir. Sansa then asks what will happen on the off chance that Stannis gets killed, and Littlefinger explains that marrying Ramsay Bolton now will at least leave Sansa in a position among the Boltons to destroy them from within. Either way, Sansa will be Littlefinger's powerful "ally" in the North. After bidding her a farewell, Littlefinger kisses Sansa on the lips, and then departs.
king’s landing
Meanwhile in King’s Landing, at a small council meeting, Lord Mace Tyrell brings bad news that the Iron Bank of Braavos is starting to call in its debts from Westeros. Mace offers that House Tyrell could front the money for the time being, but Cersei Lannister clearly does not want to give the Tyrells more power over the crown. Instead, she sends Lord Mace himself to Braavos, with Ser Meryn Trant of the Kingsguard along to "guard" him in order to negotiate more time. Cersei adds that sending such a high-ranking official will show the bank how seriously they take their large debts. Later on, Cersei meets with the High Sparrow, who by her influence, has been elected as the new High Septon of the Faith of the Seven. Cersei points out that before the Targaryens, the military order known as the Faith Militant dispensed the justice of the Seven and explains that, as part of the new alliance she hopes to build between the Crown and the Faith, she will tell her son to repeal the law and allow the Faith Militant to be re-established and re-armed. She then advises him that there is a great sinner in their midst who has been shielded by gold and power. The High Sparrow replies with a wish for ‘The Father’ to judge him justly.
Afterwards, the new Faith Militant storm the streets of the capital, attacking taverns, street vendors selling idols from other religions as well as Littlefinger's brothel. Inside the brothel, Olyvar is struck and ignored as they barge in and assault the patrons. While this occurs, Lancel Lannister leads a squad of the Faith Militant to then apprehend Ser Loras Tyrell while he is sparring in the practice yard. In her quarters, Queen Margaery Tyrell is furious at King Tommen Baratheon for her brother Loras’ arrest. Tommen then goes to his mother and demands that Loras be released at once, though Cersei calmly points out that she didn't arrest Loras so he should ask the High Sparrow to release him. Tommen naively thinks the High Sparrow will simply do as he requests, so he heads to the Great Sept of Baelor but the path to the Great Sept is blocked by the Faith Militant. The Kingsguard request that Tommen let them kill the Faith Militant to pass. Tommen is surprised at this and does not want to risk bloodshed escalating matters so realizing this is not going to end well, Tommen meekly withdraws back to the Red Keep. Margaery is even more upset at how ineffectual young Tommen is and states that she is going to bring her grandmother Olenna Tyrell back to the capital to deal with this.
dorne
Some weeks after sailing south, Ser Jaime Lannister and Bronn are on a Pentoshi merchant ship which is headed to Oldtown in the Reach. They sail past the island of Tarth, off the coast of the Stormlands, which Jaime mistakenly identifies as Estermont. The captain corrects him, stating that they are sailing through the Sapphire Isle, which fondly reminds him of Brienne. Below deck, Jaime explains to Bronn that he bribed the captain to let them take a small boat to shore as they pass Dorne, and they will land just outside of the capital of Sunspear. Bronn remarks on why Jaime must want to go and protect Myrcella Baratheon for himself: he's the one who let his brother Tyrion escape, and he hopes this will make up for that. Jaime curtly says that Varys did, though in fact, Jaime forced Varys to help him free Tyrion. Jaime angrily says that if he sees his brother again, he's going to split him in two for murdering their father, Tywin Lannister.
Once they reach the coast of Dorne, Bronn rows the pair ashore at dusk, though Jaime can't help row with his one hand. When they awake the next morning, Bronn kills a viper snake that was near Jaime's head and roasts it up for breakfast. Bronn is worried that the ship's captain will subsequently spread word that a Lannister is in Dorne; Jaime says he bribed him with a large bag of gold, but Bronn still worries. A mounted patrol soon comes by, however, and sees their tracks in the sand. Jaime and Bronn present themselves and try to pass off that they are simple travelers and their boat capsized in the night, but the ruse doesn't work, and the sentries demand that they drop their weapons so they can be taken prisoner and their identities confirmed. Bronn plants his sword in the sand - then quickly throws his dagger in the lead sentry's throat. Jaime and Bronn draw their swords and fight the rest. Jaime can't fight very well left-handed so Bronn kills one sentry's horse in order for Jaime to fight him on foot. Jaime is being overpowered but catches the sentry's sword with his metal hand at the last moment. He then uses the distraction to land a killing blow to the sentry with his left hand. Bronn, having finished off the other sentries, notes that they now have their horses: fine Dornish sand steeds, capable of running a day and a night without tiring. Jaime says the bodies need to be buried so they won't raise more questions. Bronn says it will take a lot of time to dig holes for them all, though Jaime again points out that he can't really do much digging with one hand. Annoyed, Bronn then drags off the bodies to bury.
Elsewhere along the coast of Dorne, Ellaria Sand meets with the Sand Snakes, three of her deceased lover Oberyn Martell's bastard daughters, Obara Sand, Nymeria Sand and Ellaria’s own daughter Tyene Sand. She informs them that Prince Doran Martell will not raise Dorne's armies to avenge his brother's death. Ellaria tells them to start a war, all they need to do is kill Cersei's daughter Myrcella, currently in Doran's possession. Obara then points out that they may have a problem as the Pentoshi ship captain informed her of Jaime's arrival in Dorne. The Sand Snakes, however, were insulted that he wanted to be paid for such vital information instead of offering it freely, so they took him prisoner. Nymeria uses her whip to knock a bucket over to reveal the ship captain neck-deep in the sand covered in scorpions. They realize that they are now in a race against time to see who can take Myrcella from Doran first. Ellaria asks if the three girls are with her, knowing this will bring Dorne into war. Obara then recites something Oberyn once told her, "We all must choose our battles and the gods let us choose our weapons". She then throws her spear to impale the ship captain's head. With this, Ellaria’s revenge is further set in motion.
castle black
At Castle Black, Jon Snow trains recruits in the practice yard as Stannis Baratheon and his wife Selyse Baratheon watch, along with their daughter Princess Shireen. Selyse is worried that Stannis wishes Jon was his son, because she gave him only stillbirths and weakness, but he insists that wasn't her fault. Melisandre then joins them and appears to firmly take Stannis' side, declaring that the Lord of Light doesn't care about Shireen's greyscale disfigurement, and this doesn't change the fact that she has her father's blood. When Selyse departs, Melisandre discusses the coming battle to take Winterfell from the Boltons. She asks if Stannis intends to leave her behind as he did during the Battle of Blackwater, but Stannis assures her he won't this time. Afterwards, as the new Lord Commander, Jon goes over paperwork with Samwell Tarly, letters they have received from minor Houses offering up a handful of new recruits. Jon balks when Samwell hands him a request letter for Roose Bolton, saying he killed his brother Robb Stark. Samwell reminds Jon that the Night's Watch has sworn an oath of political neutrality. With disgust, Jon reluctantly signs the letter to the Boltons. As Sam departs, Melisandre then enters. She entreats Jon to assist Stannis in retaking Winterfell and acknowledges that there is a greater war at stake. She asks Jon if he is on the side of life or death, undoing her dress and straddling him as she does so. Although clearly tempted, Jon refuses, citing his vows to the Watch. When Melisandre points out that he broke his vows once before, Jon acknowledges that he still loves his now-deceased lover Ygritte. Melisandre adjusts her dress and leaves, but not before uttering the words Ygritte had always told Jon: "You know nothing, Jon Snow".
Some time later, Stannis is in his chambers as his daughter Shireen enters. Stannis begins to apologize for dragging her along on campaign with him, as Castle Black is hardly a place for a child, but Shireen cuts him off. She tells him she is happy to have come and expected to be left at Dragonstone, as Selyse had wanted. Shireen then asks her father if he is ashamed of her because of her deformity. Stannis explains the origins of her affliction and informs her that everyone claimed she would die of it sooner or later. He notes to Shireen that people would advise him to send her to the ruins of Valyria to live out her days with the Stone Men before the disease infected the rest of the castle. Nevertheless, Stannis informs Shireen that he told them all to go to hell and summoned every healer he could to save her, adding that Shireen is his daughter and he would not send her away because she belongs with her family. Shireen, overjoyed at her father's declaration, runs over and gives him a hug which, after an awkward pause, Stannis returns.
meereen
In Meereen, Daenerys Targaryen is looking down on the streets below from her royal apartments in the Great Pyramid, as Ser Barristan Selmy joins her on the balcony. Barristan then mentions her brother Rhaegar Targaryen, saying the city's inhabitants always seem happy from such a distance, but Rhaegar liked to leave the Red Keep and mingle with the common people on the streets. Barristan accompanied him often and says that Rhaegar liked to sing to people. Daenerys is surprised by this because her other brother Viserys Targaryen had only told her that Rhaegar was a great killer. Barristan scoffs that Rhaegar was a great warrior but never enjoyed killing, as he was a gentle man. Daario Naharis then arrives to inform the day's supplicants are waiting in the throne room, chief among them Hizdahr zo Loraq. Aware of his dislike of politics, Daenerys gives Ser Barristan the day off, cheerfully telling him to make some music in the city below.
Afterwards, in the throne room, Hizdahr again beseeches Daenerys to reopen the fighting pits of Meereen, because today is the traditional beginning of the fighting season. Daenerys again refuses, but Hizdahr rationally argues that the fighting pits provide a great spectacle that has always been enjoyed by both the slave-masters and slaves alike, and is one of the few things that can bring the city together. Meanwhile, during Daenerys’ meeting with Hizdahr, the rebellious insurgency group, the Sons of the Harpy, mount a series of large-scale attacks in the streets and brutally slaughter some of the outnumbered Second Son mercenaries. The Unsullied soldiers give chase, only to be surrounded by a much larger number of Harpies. Brutal fighting rages throughout the streets of Meereen as Grey Worm is among the ambushed Unsullied. He kills many of the attackers and, although he loses his helmet and is stabbed in his side, he keeps fighting until he is the last standing. Just then, Ser Barristan Selmy arrives and saves Grey Worm from certain death as he takes on eight Harpies, killing seven of them. However, the eighth Harpy stabs Barristan in the stomach. He falls to his knees, but before the attacker can cut his throat, Grey Worm thrusts his spear into his back, killing him. Grey Worm staggers over to the unconscious Barristan before collapsing from his wounds.
*Episode descriptions from GOT Wiki
“He murdered my father. If I ever see him I’ll split him in two. And then I’ll give him your regards”
“The Dornish are crazy. All they wanna do is fight and fuck, fuck and fight”
“You must choose. Doran’s way and peace, or my way and war”
“All sinners are equal before the Gods”
“I know. But I still love her”
“A highborn knight from the north of Westeros down on his luck in Essos. Dragon epaulets, bear sigil breastplate. You’re Jorah Mormont”
episode four music
inside the episode
did you know?
The episode title is a reference to the Sons of the Harpy, an underground resistance movement opposed to Daenerys Targaryen's rule over Meereen and seeking to restore the Great Masters. The Harpy is the heraldic symbol of the slave-masters in Slaver's Bay, a symbol of the old Ghiscari Empire which originally colonized the region thousands of years ago.
This episode marks the on-screen introduction of the Sand Snakes, Oberyn Martell's daughters. They are called the "Sand Snakes" because "Sand" is the special bastard surname used in Dorne, and "Snakes" for their father's nickname, "the Red Viper". Several of them are the daughters of other women Oberyn encountered in his life, though the younger ones are by Ellaria: even so, because Ellaria Sand was herself a bastard Oberyn couldn’t marry her, but instead he simply lived with Ellaria as his paramour and treated her as his wife in all but name.
The manuscript that George R.R. Martin originally wrote for the fourth novel grew so long that he had to split it into two novels - but whose events occur simultaneously. The fourth novel, A Feast for Crows, focuses on events within the Seven Kingdoms themselves (particularly King's Landing). The fifth novel, A Dance with Dragons, then backs up and covers all of the events set in the same time period, but occurring outside of the "Seven Kingdoms" proper: the Wall, the North, Daenerys in Meereen, and also Arya and Tyrion in the Free Cities. Martin pointed out that he meant to intercut Cersei chapters in King's Landing with Daenerys chapters in Meereen, contrasting how each queen is challenged to hold their rule together. The TV series intercut this material, however, as it was originally conceived. Therefore, in this episode the rise of radical movements in both regions are presented in parallel.
Ser Barristan Selmy does not die in the novels, and in fact lives to become a POV narrator of his own chapters by the end of the fifth novel and at least in the beginning of in the upcoming sixth novel. He is slated to participate in a large battle at the beginning of the sixth novel, and it is unclear if he will survive, so Barristan dying in this episode might be a very loose condensation of the novels. It was said that there was a lot of discussion about whether to kill off Barristan like this, but they decided to kill him off so Daenerys would feel increasingly isolated as the season went on.
Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm) revealed that a lot of thought went into Grey Worm's reaction of pain/anger when he was wounded in the fight. This was an unusual reaction for Grey Worm, because it has been emphasized that the Unsullied have been brutally trained to ignore pain and fear (in the novels, they are even given a special tonic to drink which over many years of continued usage physically dulls their sense of pain). Despite this, Anderson states “as Grey Worm is going along, he's becoming more and more human. So I thought about that when I got stabbed and there was a discussion on the day of that whether I would respond to that.”
The conversation between Cersei and the High Sparrow in the novel goes the other way around: the High Sparrow is the one who brings up the subject of restoring the Faith Militant. He tells Cersei about how much the smallfolk and members of the Faith have suffered during the war. In the TV version, apparently Cersei accurately surmised that the attacks on clergy in the chaos of the war are something that the High Sparrow would be worried about - she doesn't care, she's bringing it up to manipulate him, hoping to gain new allies in the Faith.
Eugene Simon grew his nails long and then actually broke them on-camera, intentionally, when Lancel is gripping his chair as his forehead is being carved.
As explained, the fact that Tommen's chambers have all the windows shuttered and the doors closed (until Margaery enters) are intended to convey that he is being protected, but also caged like a bird and isolated from what is really going on.
This is the first mention of Oldtown in the series, when Jaime says the trade ship they are on is heading there. Oldtown is actually the second largest city in Westeros, nearly as large as King's Landing, and thousands of years older. It is ruled by House Hightower - Alerie Tyrell, wife of Mace and mother of Loras and Margaery, was herself born Alerie Hightower.
The novels have not given any significant backstory for Bronn, though sellswords do travel long distances searching for employment. In the series, Bronn previously said in Season 1 that he had been north of the Wall, and now in this episode, he remarks that he has been to Dorne before - meaning he has been to the northern and southern extremes of Westeros.
Jaime catching a sword with his golden hand might be a nod to a separate moment in the novels: Jaime doesn't go to Dorne, but to the Riverlands, to manage the Freys as they besiege the Tullys at Riverrun. At one point Jaime punches out an obstinate Frey - with his gold hand, severely injuring him, and discovering that the metal hand makes a fairly useful melee weapon.
The Dornish beach that Jaime and Bronn land on was filmed at Porstewart, Northern Ireland. Staging a fight scene on a sandy beach presents specific continuity difficulties: after each take, the whole area had to be painstakingly raked and the proper continuity footprints replaced.
The Dorne subplot was actually a relatively late addition to Season 5. Originally, the showrunners didn't intend for any scenes from Dorne to appear at all, due to the fact that no previously established major characters appear in it. Bryan Cogman, however, then got the idea that if they changed it to send established characters Jaime and Bronn, that would make it possible to depict the Dorne subplot on-screen
The scorpions crawling the head of the Pentoshi captain that the Sand Snakes buried neck-deep in the sand are not CGI creations, but in fact, live scorpions that had to be brought in by a special handler. The MakingGameOfThrones.com production blog even included a short video in which writers Benioff and Weiss take turns nervously holding one of the scorpions.
The dusty feather that Sansa Stark finds on the tomb of her aunt Lyanna Stark was actually left there by Robert Baratheon in the very first episode of Season 1. The idea the writers had was that when Robert was courting Lyanna he'd bring her little tokens like feathers from tropical birds (which they don't have in the North), so when he visited her tomb he left one there for her. No one came into the tombs often, particularly after the castle was burned out, so logically, it simply stayed there for four years.
Littlefinger tells Sansa he thinks Stannis will defeat the Boltons because he's one of the best military commanders in Westeros, and he has the larger army. The latter point contradicts both the books and TV series: the novels stress that Stannis is initially outnumbered around five to one, given how small his remaining army he took to the Wall was. And earlier in season 5, Stannis himself has been complaining that he doesn't have enough men to take Winterfell, to the point that he initially tried to force the wildlings to fight for him. This can be easily reconciled, however, if what Littlefinger means is that he assumes the rest of the North will rise up to join Stannis's initial army.
Stannis mentions that "Stone Men" severely afflicted by the greyscale plague are pushed out to live at the fringes of civilization in the ruins of Old Valyria. In the novels, a large area around the ruins of Chroyane, on the river north of Volantis, is used as essentially a leper-colony for people suffering from greyscale. There are also vague rumors of men living in the shattered remains of the Valyrian Peninsula, in the ruins of Oros, Tyria, and Old Valyria itself - who might, similarly, be Stone Men pushed to live on the abandoned fringes of civilization - but these rumors are unconfirmed in the novels.
Samwell Tarly presents Jon Snow with some paperwork, requests for recruits from obscure minor Houses with only a handful of men to send them. Of the ones he lists, only House Ashford and House Smallwood are actually from the novels, while the other three were invented by the series: House Caulfield, House Mazin, and House Wibberley. A joke about this is made in the episode itself when Jon remarks that he's "never even heard of these people". The surnames are referencing crew members and/or people associated with the showrunners.