The North Remembers **

Looking back as Cersei struck her son when he raises her temperature with his usual off-putting remarks (speaking of Jaime and those “foul rumors”), the use of “power is power” as a reason to put Littlefinger (…oh, he prefers Lord Baelish, that’s right…) in his place as his sigil of the Mockingbird (whores and coin are what he deals in as is “knowledge is power”, although he should continue to choose his words wisely in conversation with Cersei), and dodging the minefield of incest (and blond babies…) with her brother, it still astonishes me that seasons later (well, it really doesn’t because she often eventually gets what she wants) that she’s still in power. Robb, here in “The North Remembers” a “his Grace” in his own right (or as Cat, mother he is about to send off to Renly in the hopes of a unified front against the Lannisters, tells him that there are Kings all over now that Robert and Ned are dead), trying to get his sisters back, Winterfell a separate and independent kingdom out from under Joffrey and their enemies, later to be “dispatched” but not before winning a few battles (Jaime mocks him, about being a boy despite his victories over his father) and trying to secure a real army in order to surge ahead and overtake King’s Landing. Stannis Baratheon, Melisandre (Caris van Houten; the “red witch”), and his right hand, Davos (Liam Cunningham) look to take King’s Landing, sending out message to all that he would not make the same mistake as Ned and not “spread the word” (“get the word out”, however you like) about how Joffrey is not the rightful heir to the throne, a bastard of incest between brother and sister Lannisters. Melisandre’s god different from the gods normally served, Maester Cressen (Oliver Ford Davies) trying to restore their faith and oppose such change in belief which seals his own demise. Although Davos doesn’t like Stannis’ decision to follow Melisandre’s “wayward practices”, his loyalty to the brother of Robert (not a brotherly love was found, Stannis points out when preparing the message / decree to be sent out across Westeros) will not waver despite Cressen’s efforts. As Cressen lies dead after a poison from wine leaves him in a heap, Melisandre’s “enchantment” of Stannis is all too well realized.

Joffrey “redesigning” the throne room, acknowledging to mother Cersei that at least the Targaryens had that right while occupying the throne has an irony all its own: one might consider how Joffrey would fit right in with the Mad King considering soldiers march into the streets to find any potential bastard offspring of Robert that might still exist.

Theon orchestrating a coup between his father Lord Greyjoy (200 ships he has) and the remaining Starks Robb considers while Cat throws shade on it because she knows (and later Theon will when he returns home to a not-so-welcome and dismissive father) this is not about to happen despite what it could have meant in the grand scheme of things. Holding Jaime hostage while Sansa (denouncing her father, trying to protect a drunkard from being drowned in a barrel of wine poured down his gullet through the use of a funnel as Joffrey enjoys his folly of men fighting with swords in combat for his own amusement) remains at King’s Landing to be the bride of the king, Robb has some leverage, using his direwolf to prove that mocking him might not be wise; there is this back and forth of who has more of a foothold as Westeros seems to never be more thrown off its orbit, while sides form and Stannis proclaims that either you fall in line with him or perish.