The Longest Night —Game of Thrones: ‘The Wolf and the Lion (1x05)’
“This is no longer a game for two players.”
Writer(s): David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Director: Brian Kirk
Plot: Ned Stark continues his investigations into the death of Jon Arryn and gets dangerously close to the truth; Tyrion Lannister is arrested by Catelyn Stark and escorted to the Vale but saves her life when their travelling entourage is attacked by hill tribes; the many families and factions battling for power in King’s Landing are revealed.
THREE-EYED-RAVEN’S WARNING: DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ALL SEVEN SEASONS OF HBO’S GAME OF THRONES.
Across Game of Thrones’ sixty-seven episodes, there are only three in which both Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen are completely absent. There’s the penultimate episode of season two, ‘Blackwater,’ which remains in one location as Stannis Baratheon attacks King’s Landing; there’s ‘The Lion and the Rose,’ which features Joffrey Baratheon’s fateful wedding to Margaery Tyrell; and then there’s ‘The Wolf and the Lion,’ an episode which makes the calculated decision to excise the show’s two fantastical strands to focus on the families and factions engaging in the unspoken political conflicts at this preliminary stage. Unspoken political conflicts which are beginning to boil over, as it happens, with the first major flashpoint bringing this propulsive episode to its climax.
We cut to black this week on Ned Stark bleeding out in a King’s Landing street following his duel with Jaime Lannister. His chief bodyguard Jory Cassel is dead, Ned himself has been impaled by a spear, and all because his wife Catelyn has wrongfully arrested Jaime’s brother Tyrion. Leaving out the trip to Essos means we go an hour without Viserys’ violent swings between his prancing prince act and his true nature as a volatile prick, and not visiting the Wall means the beautiful relationship developing between the boys at Castle Black is held off for the time being. But the decision is a necessary one as long dormant tensions, which have simmered behind a peaceful public face for seventeen years, begin to consume every character we have been introduced to thus far.
Having settled into its foundations, this episode takes the opportunity to expand the world once more, with many unfamiliar faces, names and houses appearing for the very first time. We’re taken on our first trip to the Vale and, in the process, we have our first meeting with Lysa Arryn (née Tully), Catelyn’s sister and Jon Arryn’s widow, as well as her son Robin. Lysa is an incredibly unwell woman — she’s withdrawn, jealous of her sister, paranoid of threats from all around, and her son Robin still openly breastfeeds at the age of six, stopping only to shout maniacal orders through the halls of the Eyrie. Their vulnerabilities are eventually capitalised upon by Petyr Baelish, who murders Lysa to seize control of the Vale in season four, and then manipulates Robin’s infantile nature to acquire the Knights of the Vale in season six.
At this point in the story, however, we barely known Littlefinger. He sent Catelyn off on a wild goose chase to arrest Tyrion Lannister in ‘Lord Snow,’ he’s a member of the Small Council, and Ned Stark mistakenly threatened him. Beyond that, his portrayal by Aiden Gillen has revealed nothing more than the odd sinister motive, which doesn’t exactly separate him from the crowd in King’s Landing. It’s in ‘The Wolf and the Lion,’ however, that his mannerisms, identity, and rich understanding of this world are finally given the exposure they deserve. At this stage, both he and Varys are slippery, duplicitous people (“What are you two conspiring about?”) who represent the underbelly of the game of thrones, where allegiances move like wind vanes in a gust. The evidence is there for us all to see: trusting anybody in this city is a grave, and often fateful, mistake, and Baelish is there to exploit those who fail to understand.
Good old Ned Stark just happens to be one of those people, sailing into shark-infested waters on a ship of good nature. He’s still preoccupied with the murder of Jon Arryn, but distracted by Robert’s obsession with Daenerys Targaryen’s actions across the Narrow Sea. Robert wishes to kill Daenerys, Ned will have no part in it. In a well-meaning but disastrous move, he steps down as Hand of the King, and prepares to leave the capital. It’s the first time since he began his investigation into his predecessor’s death that he’s woken up and smelt the coffee, taking the initiative to get out of the spider’s web before he can be gobbled up, instead of just blindly following Jon Arryn’s fateful footsteps verbatim. But it’s already too late, and without that golden badge, he’s now left wide open. His enemies are closing in around him, but they’re so elusive and treacherous, and far too clever for him, and every plan they hatch against him happens way out of his sight.
“That’s all the realm is now,” Robert says to Cersei, during their superb, show-stealing scene together, “back-stabbing and scheming and arse-licking and money-grubbing.” Corruption and deviousness rule this land, and they rule this episode, and while Robert might understand the true nature of the realm, he’s driven too much by his own heart to be adept enough to play the game. As Littlefinger leads Sansa Stark away from King’s Landing following his involvement in the assassination of Joffrey Baratheon, he turns to her and says, “A man with no motive is a man no one suspects.” Powerful people might have the right family names, and kings might lead armies into battle, but ‘The Wolf and the Lion’ shows us, perhaps clearer than any other episode in Game of Thrones’ entire run, that true power comes with the ability to deceive your enemies, to misdirect their intentions, and to patiently lead them to their own fates.
8.5
Lost ravens:
— Varys and Baelish are one hell of a double act. Their scene in the throne room during this episode is where it pulls back the curtain on its intentions. Baelish’s line, “Since you last saw me or since I last saw you?” is humorous, but it opens a huge door to the spying networks, betrayals and brown envelopes which pass through the corridors of King’s Landing on a daily basis.
— Another standout performance, and perhaps his best of the lot, from Mark Addy, whose portrayal of Robert Baratheon is one of the most memorable in the show. He’s in a total of seven episodes, and yet his dialogue and principal scenes are so well acted by Addy that they’ve become some of the most fondly remembered in the show’s entire history. “Go find the breastplate stretcher, now!” / “Your mother was a dumb whore with a fat arse. Did you know that?” / “You think it’s honour that’s keeping the peace? It’s fear! Fear and blood!” / “Careful, Ned! Careful now!” / “The whoooore is pregnant.” / “Only a fool would meet the Dothraki in an open field.” / “Which is the bigger number — five or one?” A proper tribute to Addy will be in the recap for episode seven, look out for it.
— There’s a bloody Cleganebowl warm-up in this episode that I’d completely forgotten about!
— Maester Luwin might be teaching Bran about the various houses, sigils and mottos, but there’s a knowing nod to the audience throughout the entire scene. Maester Luwin is teaching us! House Martell, House Tully and House Hornwood are all namedropped, whilst we’re corrected on the common misconception that the Lannister motto is “A Lannister always pays his debts.”
