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

Original Airdate: June 15, 2014

Beyond the Wall, Jon Snow arrives at Mance Rayder's camp claiming to negotiate a truce but his true intention is interrupted by the arrival of a surprising new ally. In the Vale, Brienne of Tarth comes across the Hound and Arya Stark, which results in a brutal fight between two warriors. In Meereen, Daenerys Targaryen has to deal with her increasingly out of control dragons, now having caused the inadvertent death of a young girl. In King's Landing, Cersei Lannister wants her father Tywin to cancel her engagement to Loras Tyrell and threatens to reveal her incestuous secret if he doesn't agree. Meanwhile, Jaime Lannister and Lord Varys organise Tyrion’s escape from his cell, however, before he leaves the capital he makes a shocking discovery.

main cast

the wall

On the second day of the Battle of Castle Black, Jon Snow emerges from the outer gate of the Wall and reaches Mance Rayder's war camp. Upon arrival Mance notes that he is wearing the black of the Night's Watch again and questions his status as a traitor. Jon confesses that his time spent with the wildlings was all part of a plan orchestrated by Qhorin Halfhand. Mance then asks about Ygritte as a saddened Jon reveals that she died in battle, though not by his hands. Jon then proposes his terms to Mance: turn his army around and return home. Mance immediately counters that the Night's Watch is low on resources, but then changes his demeanor, revealing that his people have suffered enough bloodshed. His counteroffer to Jon is if the Night's Watch will allow the wildlings to pass through the Wall, no more harm will come to the Black Brothers. Mance then notices that Jon is eyeing a cooking knife and questions Jon if this is what the Night's Watch has sunk to: killing a man who let him into his own tent. Jon hesitates, but before anyone can make a move, war horns are heard from outside. Columns of heavy horse carrying hundreds of mounted cavalry charge into the wildling camp carrying the flaming stag banners of House Baratheon of Dragonstone, and are led by King Stannis Baratheon and his advisor, Ser Davos Seaworth. Taken by surprise, the wildlings are caught in their own camp, resting from the battle the previous night and only expecting attacks from the Wall, so their eastern flank is completely undefended. Quickly cutting the wildling forces down, Stannis, Davos and their forces ride up to Mance, who throws down his weapons in surrender. Davos introduces Stannis as the true king of the Seven Kingdoms, however, Mance refuses to kneel, actively displaying the culture of the Free Folk. Davos then asks what a man of the Night's Watch is doing in the camp, and Jon explains that he came to treaty with Mance and adds that he knows Stannis is the true king, as his own father died supporting his claim, revealing himself as the bastard son of Eddard Stark. This makes Stannis regard Jon more seriously. Stannis proclaims that Eddard was an honorable man, and asks Jon what Ned would have done with Mance. Jon tells Stannis that his father would have taken Mance prisoner and listened to what he had to say. Before they leave the wildling camp, Jon also urges Stannis to burn the dead before nightfall. 

Later on at Castle Black, a funeral is held for the slain members of the Watch, who have been arranged in a huge funeral pyre in the castle courtyard. Maester Aemon delivers a eulogy, saying that they died to protect the men, women, and children of the south who will never even know who they were, that it is the duty of the surviving Black Brothers to keep alive their memory. Aemon closes his speech with the customary line, "and now their watch has ended," which is repeated by the gathered men. Samwell Tarly then aids Aemon in setting the pyre alight, which is continued by Jon and other men carrying torches. Stannis and Davos look on, along with Queen Selyse and Princess Shireen Baratheon. Jon looks across the flames and catches the gaze of Melisandre, who is standing on the opposite side of the pyre. Melisandre seems intrigued, her piercing stare clearly making Jon uneasy. Afterwards, Jon enters the chamber of the castle where Tormund Giantsbane is being held. Tormund asks why Aemon patched up his arrow wounds, and Jon says that Aemon is sworn to heal all wounded men, friend or foe. Tormund then asks if Jon really loved Ygritte, telling Jon that Ygritte truly loved him, adding that because all she ever talked about was killing him he knew her love to be true. Saddened, Tormund implores Jon that Ygritte's final resting place should be in "the real north" Jon then takes Ygritte's corpse to the north side of the Wall and builds a funeral pyre for her near a heart tree. Jon looks at his lover one last time and lights her pyre, and weeps silently as he heads home.

meereen

In Meereen, Queen Daenerys Targaryen sits in her throne room where she is receiving the day's supplicants. An old man named Fennesz approaches, explaining that he was not one of the slaves who toiled away at manual labor, but a well-educated servant to Master Mighdal, who employed him as a teacher for his own children. He requests to be sold back to his master. Daenerys is crestfallen, and says she did not liberate the slaves of Meereen only to preside over the very injustice she sought to destroy. She relents, however, and admits that freedom means making one's own choices. She allows Fennesz to enter into a labor contract with Mighdal but lasting no more than one year. The next supplicant then enters, a goatherd carrying a bundle in his arms, similarly to the herdsman who came to show the bones of their livestock which Daenerys' dragons burned in order to be reimbursed. He approaches and states that he is unable to speak in the common tongue and requires Missandei to translate. The distraught goatherd cries to Daenerys that the "winged shadow" came, as he then places the bundle on the ground and opens it to reveal charred bones of the man's three-year-old daughter Zalla. Daenerys' largest dragon Drogon - “the black one” - has burned the child until this is all that was left of her.

Afterwards, a horrified Daenerys meets with Missandei and Grey Worm in her council room to discuss how to deal with the growing threat her dragons are posing to the people of Meereen. Grey Worm reports that Drogon was last seen flying over the Black Cliffs three days ago, but he can no longer be found. Realizing that she can no longer control her dragons, Daenerys then commands Grey Worm to head with her to the catacombs underneath the Great Pyramid. Upon her arrival to the catacombs, Daenerys leads her remaining two dragons, Rhaegal and Viserion, inside where they are distracted by sheep carcasses. As they are feeding, Daenerys personally locks huge iron collars around their necks, which are secured by heavy chains. She weeps as she does so, as it is symbolically reducing her remaining children to wearing chains. A grief-stricken Daenerys then wordlessly departs, closing the huge stone door to the catacombs behind her. Rhaegal and Viserion grow distressed by her exit, and the pair cry out to her when they attempt to follow and realize they are chained in place. Before the rolling door fully closes, Daenerys cries while looking back at her anguished dragons.

far beyond the wall

Meanwhile, far beyond the Wall, and the furthest north they’ve traveled thus far, Bran Stark, Summer, Hodor and the Reed siblings continue their journey to find the Three-Eyed Raven.  Jojen Reed has grown sick and he is barely able to stand, eventually collapsing into the snow. As his sister Meera Reed begs Jojen to gather what little strength he can muster to continue forward, Bran calls out to them, revealing that they have finally found the massive heart tree that Bran has seen in his visions. As they approach, however, wights suddenly burst up from the snow, grabbing Jojen's ankles and attempting to drag him under the ice. Meera attempts to defend Jojen from the wights, but they begin to swarm over Hodor, who is too scared to fight back. Bran wargs into Hodor's mind and begins fighting off the wights with the aid of Summer, but are quickly overwhelmed. Suddenly, the wights burst into fireballs, and Bran hears a young girl's voice calling to him from a cave entrance. Amidst the chaos, Jojen is repeatedly stabbed by a wight before Meera can fight it off. The mysterious female of non-human descent calls to Meera and says that Jojen is lost and she must leave him if she wants to live. Meera hesitates, but Jojen urges her to save herself. Crying, Meera slits her brother's throat to grant him the mercy of a quick death. They run into the cave, leaving the dying Jojen behind, and are further pursued by the undead wights, who instantly shatter upon crossing the threshold of the cave. The elf-like creature named Leaf explains that the power which animates the dead corpses is powerless inside the cave. Bran realizes that she is one of the last surviving members of the Children of the Forest, the original inhabitants of Westeros he’s heard stories of from Old Nan and Maester Luwin back at Winterfell. The child leads them deeper into the cave and they arrive at a large central chamber where an old man is seated in the middle of weirwood roots. Bran crawls towards the old man, asking if he is the raven who appeared in his visions. The old man admits that he is indeed the Three-Eyed Raven, having taken several forms in the past, but his true form is before them now. The humanized raven informs them that he has been watching all of them throughout their entire lives "with a thousand eyes, and one". He continues by stating that Jojen died so that Bran could come here and regain what he has lost. A bemused Bran asks if he means he will regain the use of his legs. The Three-Eyed Raven replies that Bran will never walk again, however, then states: "but you will fly.”

king’s landing

In King's Landing, Cersei Lannister and Qyburn join Grand Maester Pycelle in his laboratory as they stand over Ser Gregor Clegane, who lies immobilized on a flat wooden table and suffers from a massive wound centered around his right side. Pycelle informs Cersei that the late Prince Oberyn Martell had coated his spear with manticore venom during the trial by combat. Pycelle declares that Gregor is beyond any hope of recovery, but Qyburn insists to Cersei that he can save him using more unorthodox methods. Pycelle chafes at his suggestion, stating that he is not even a maester. However, a determined Cersei orders Qyburn to do whatever is necessary, infuriating Pycelle, who angrily shuffles out of the laboratory. She asks Qyburn if his treatment will work, and Qyburn claims that if his past work is any indicator, he stands a chance at saving Gregor. Qyburn states that the process will "change" him, although Cersei seems only concerned with whether it will weaken him, to which Qyburn replies that it will not. Cersei leaves, and Qyburn begins siphoning out Gregor's tainted blood.

Cersei later approaches her father Tywin Lannister and insists that she will not submit to a forced marriage with Loras Tyrell. He dismisses the subject by stating that the matter is closed, but she persists saying that when she is at Highgarden both he and Margaery Tyrell will attempt to get their claws into her son King Tommen Baratheon. Tywin refuses to budge, so Cersei plays her trump card: she threatens to destroy House Lannister by telling everyone the truth. With growing realization, she assesses that even the brilliant Tywin Lannister never noticed what was going on between his own children. Tywin is still apparently confused, so with a merciless grin Cersei reveals that all of the rumors about her and her brother Jaime Lannister as well as their children are true – she will tell everyone and destroy Tywin's vaunted family legacy. Tywin shakes with barely constrained rage, but in denial, he accuses that Cersei is simply lying to anger him. Cersei says she doubts he truly thinks that and leaves him standing in his chamber alone. Cersei then finds Jaime in the White Sword Tower, and he expresses disgust at her blatant attempts to have Tyrion Lannister killed and insists that he is her family, whether she chooses to accept it or not. She rebukes his claim, saying Tyrion is not her family and that they all have a choice, and that she chooses Jaime. She then reveals that she has spilled their secret to Tywin. He is stunned and concerned by her actions but Cersei states that she does not want to discuss their father. She begins to seduce him, saying she chooses her brother over everyone else in the world, no longer concerned with whether anyone else knows their secret. He yields to her advances, kissing her passionately and throwing her on the table where they begin to have sex.

In the middle of the night, Tyrion is awoken in his cell by the sound of his cell door being opened by Jaime, who reveals that he has orchestrated an escape plan for Tyrion with the assistance of Lord Varys, who has secured a galley in the harbor so he can flee to the Free Cities. He leads Tyrion to a stairway leading up to a locked door where he can summon Varys, who will then lead him to the ship. Before they part ways, Tyrion and Jaime share a tender embrace and say their goodbyes, unsure if either will ever see each other again. Before Tyrion escapes, however, he decides to infiltrate his father's chambers, only to find a woman lying in Tywin's bed. As he draws closer he sees that the woman is Shae, who thinks it is Tywin and calls out for him, calling him "my lion" as she had once done to Tyrion. When she turns over and sees that it is Tyrion, looking utterly betrayed, she grabs a knife to defend herself, fearing for an outburst. Tyrion then rushes forward onto the bed to wrestle the knife from her grasp. Tyrion eventually manages to knock the knife from her hands and grabs the necklace around her throat that he had given her and starts to strangle her with it in a fit of rage. Tyrion continues to strangle her long after she has stopped resisting as he then sinks to the floor and sits next to Shae's lifeless body, weeping, and tells her that he's sorry. He stares at the wall across the room and sees the late Joffrey Baratheon's old crossbow, and his expression quickly darkens. Tyrion takes the crossbow and heads down the hall to the privy, to find his father seated upon the toilet. Tywin seems surprised to see Tyrion, but quickly regains composure and asks Tyrion to lower the weapon while attempting to defuse the situation. Tywin insists that he was never going to have Tyrion killed. Tyrion then admits that he just murdered Shae, but Tywin scoffs that it doesn't matter as she was nothing more than a whore. Tyrion threatens that if his father says the word "whore" one more time he will kill him. Tywin balks that Tyrion won't kill his own father in the privy, however, the moment Tywin utters the word "whore" again, Tyrion loosens his crossbow bolt, hitting Tywin in the belly. Tywin is incredulous that Tyrion actually had the courage to fight back against him. As Tyrion reloads the crossbow, Tywin angrily declares that Tyrion is no son of his. "I am your son," Tyrion replies quietly, "I have always been your son". He then fires a second bolt into Tywin's heart, killing him. Tyrion discards the crossbow and leaves to find Varys, who immediately realizes that Tyrion has done something terrible. Nonetheless, Varys leads Tyrion out of the castle to the docks where he is stowed away inconspicuously in a crate aboard the ship. Realizing that returning to the Red Keep is likely unsafe, Varys turns around and heads back for the ship, sitting next to Tyrion's crate, as they both cast off into the Narrow Sea.

the vale of arryn

Meanwhile, in the Vale of Arryn, Brienne of Tarth and her squire Podrick Payne are heading towards the Bloody Gate when they happen upon Arya Stark practicing her water dancing sword technique, while Sandor "the Hound" Clegane is off relieving himself. Arya and Sandor are returning from the Eyrie after receiving word of Lady Lysa Arryn's death. Brienne and Arya converse for a moment, both showing respect for one another as they are both women who have fought against what has been expected of them their entire lives. They are interrupted by the return of the Hound, who is immediately recognized by Podrick, causing Brienne to realize that the girl is who she has been searching for. Brienne tells Arya of her sacred vow to protect her mother Lady Catelyn Stark, although she failed to do so because she was sent by her mother to return Ser Jaime Lannister to King’s Landing and wasn’t able to fight for them at the Red Wedding, where Arya’s mother and brother Robb Stark had perished. The Hound immediately accuses Brienne of working for the Lannisters, noticing her Valyrian steel sword named Oathkeeper, which Brienne admits was given to her by Jaime, frightening Arya into thinking that Brienne is working for the Lannisters. Brienne then implores Arya to come with her to safety, causing the Hound to mock Brienne, pointing out that there is no safety for Arya anymore. He informs Brienne of Lysa’s passing and reminds her that Arya’s father, mother and older brother are also dead, while the Stark armies are scattered and Winterfell is a smoking ruin. Both understanding the inevitabitlity the Hound and Brienne draw swords and begin fighting, both eventually disarming each other and resorting to brutally fighting each other in an evenly-matched hand-to-hand combat. Ultimately, Brienne gains the upper hand by biting off a chunk of Sandor's ear and knocks him down a cliffside. Brienne goes to search for Arya, who slipped away during the melee and has hidden herself amongst the rock formations. As Brienne and Podrick search the surrounding area for Arya in vain, Arya makes her way down the cliffside to find the Hound  badly wounded. He tells her that unless there is a maester  miraculously on hand to tend to his wounds, he's finished. Sandor tells her to kill him and scratch another name off her list, but she just sits and stares at him silently. To goad Arya into killing him, an angry Sandor begins recounting how he ran down the butcher's boy Mycah when they first met. He then adds how he should have raped her sister Sansa Stark in King's Landing, however, Arya remains silent. Sandor finally begs her to kill him and put him out of his misery, but she refuses and takes his money purse. As Arya walks away from Sandor, forcing him to die a slow death, he continues to scream at her to kill him.

the RIVERLANDS

Some time later, Arya rides on horseback to the coastal village of Saltpans, located in the Riverlands. She approaches a captain named Ternesio Terys and asks if she can pay for travel to the North, but he says that they won't go there because these days the North is full of war, cold, and pirates. Instead, the ship is going "home": to the Free City of Braavos. Arya remembers the special coin that Jaqen H'ghar gave her, and instructed her to present to any man from Braavos if she needed aid. She does so now, and the captain is utterly surprised at how she obtained it, but she says only "Valar morghulis," as Jaqen instructed, to which the captain gives the traditional response, "Valar dohaeris". He warmly welcomes her aboard the ship, and insists that she will have her own cabin. Later, as the ship casts off, Arya stands aboard and watches as the shore of Westeros shrink further and further away. She then moves to the prow of the ship, looking forward out into the Narrow Sea and in the direction of Braavos, towards a new life and adventure in lieu of the home and family she once had.

*Episode descriptions from GOT Wiki