Game of Thrones - Mockingbird

I have to admit that Mockingbird was very much the least of the fourth season episodes to me, not necessarily a complaint or negative reaction as it seemed to move stories along somewhat without featuring any content that knocks your socks off.

Daenerys and Daario have sex after they flirt a bit and she tells him to take off his clothes. She later discusses with Jorah the potential fate of masters in Yunkai, how he believes she should not just massacre them all but set an example by showing the slaves there could be mercy spared if they stop what they are doing. If they don’t after fair warning, then punishment would be doled out. Jorah tries to advise against just acting as all other rulers or masters and be someone more admirable and preferable. She listens to him and considers his point about being spared when he was also a slave trader…what if he had been crucified similarly for his past mistakes?

Tyrion once again is disappointed in the loss of a supposed friend and ally, former sellsword, Bronn, treated to a marriage where a castle and land could very well be his thanks to Cersei. Bronn is always honest with Tyrion, a quality Tyrion appreciates, even if it hurts with its truth. To face Cersei’s selected fighter for the trial by combat, The Mountain, is not something Bronn considers profitable to him at all. However, Oberyn still owes The Mountain for the rape and murder of his sister, mentioning to Tyrion when he visits him in his cell a past meeting when Tyrion was but a baby. Cersei has hated Tyrion since the very moment he killed their mother through childbirth. How she introduced the monster, the freak, to Oberyn and his sister when they were kids and he didn’t see any red eye or tail between this supposed creature’s legs. As Oberyn tells Tyrion this, I couldn’t help but be captivated by Dinklage’s work. The look of ache and gradually increasing anger with how his sister appears to always ridicule and enjoy his suffering, the blame that has hung over his life, the shame that he was ever even born; Dinklage shows all of that pain. Who deserves to be constantly reminded of his mother’s death, being the cause of it, and always made to feel as if he should be dead? But Oberyn wanting justice and assuring Tyrion he would stand as his fighter during the trial by combat…it would at least give Tyrion some semblance of hope. The Mountain is shown just butchering poor tiny, begging men for the hell of it as Cersei visits him. His mighty sword and how he can lift bodies off the ground on it. This is what Oberyn is up against. Jaime, his good hand gone, scolds Tyrion for blowing the chance to escape execution…Tyrion admits it felt good to deny Tywin the chance to send him off to Castle Black, while the “golden son” was made heir at Casterly Rock. Mockingbird does indeed give us plenty of Tyrion in his prison, visited by three potential fighters, two of the three either not willing or unable to be his champion. Each is a well-calculated conversation, of what could have been, of what no longer is, and what might be if all the stars align. But as Tyrion tells Oberyn, Cersei always does seem to get what she wants. How Dinklage says those words, the acceptance that this horrible woman has always wanted to see his head removed from his neck and more than likely will get that finally, is heartbreaking. You can see how Tyrion sits in a cell, after each conversation and that damned trial, with too much time in his own head, disappointed by each and every development that leads him closer to doom.

The episode (the mockingbird a symbol for Littlefinger Baelish’s “house”, a pin on his lapel as well) also focuses on Littlefinger’s true intentions—he kisses Sansa after she has a row with Robin, Lysa’s spoiled brat son—and eventual moves to rid himself of a nuisance (the jealous sister of deceased Lady Catelyn, Lysa Arryn) he’s wed to. Lysa introduces the moon door to Sansa and threatens to throw her through the giant hole to the rocks below as she describes what victims look like when this happens. Robin loves the moon door and the idea that he could build one at Winterfell for Sansa when they marry (ha!) for her to punish those that make her mad. Lysa is not long for the show, at the very end being told by Littlefinger that he only loved her sister…and as he pushes her through the moon door, she departs as the credits emerge from the fade to black. Allowed in through the Bloody Gate to the castle, Lysa had conveniently invited her conqueror, duped by the wolf, herself a sheep to the slaughter. Sansa can only watch as Littlefinger, without hesitation, once he lets down the deceit to reveal he didn’t love her at all, sends Lysa to her end. And another one bites the dust.

Also featured in the episode is Brienne and Podrick stopping off at an inn, meeting Hot Pie who is more than a bit chatty, always loving to talk about meals. He offers them info on Arya when Brienne admits to him that she’s looking for the Stark girls. Podrick reveals his learning from Tyrion who encouraged him to remember all houses, sigils, and families, reasoning that the Eryie might be where she would be taken; Jon Snow tries to talk sense into those on the Night’s Watch council about closing the tunnels so that Mance and his wilding army wouldn’t use it as passage, shut down by the likes of Alliser Thorne who always look for ways to disregard anything he says; Melisandre (we get plenty of naked Carice van Houten) in her bath preparing to leave Dragonstone as Stannis’ wife remains nearby awkwardly, not fond of the idea that her daughter would coming with them, assuring her that the Lord of Light wants it; Arya and The Hound discuss the burn (just like a roasted mutton chop) on Clegane’s face thanks to his brother because of a toy, encountering two bounty hunters looking to kill The Hound because of the silver offered for his death and a dying farmer bleeding from a deep stab wound to the stomach (The Hound stabs him in the heart as charity to spare him a long, painful demise).

Those looking for flesh will get a lot of Carice, who removes herself from the bath, speaking to the uncomfortable missus who tries to engage in religious talk as Melisandre discusses the use of potions to trick others, seemingly methods to kill. Carice is a very seductive presence, alluring and dangerous. Hell of a character, her Melisandre. Those wanting their beefcake get Michiel Huisman sheding his wardrobe for an obviously approving Daenerys. Aiden Gillen remains unsettling as the scheming Littlefinger, always up to no good, proving once again that he disposes of those no longer of use to him, as is the case with Lysa. Sansa, still so young, could very well be putty for the devious Littlefinger to mold as he sees fit. And the build towards Tyrion’s fate is sculpted into further form. But the gem that is Arya and The Hound’s unique relationship—often tense and raw but always honest—continues to evolve with unexpected wrinkles such as Arya’s wanting to sew up and cleans a bite wound on The Hound’s neck.